National Pain Awareness Month - September

The American Pain Foundation is sponoring National Pain Awareness Month for September. Along with that they have a pain awareness "virtual march" on Washington DC you can participate in. There are many ways t help out in this critical area of much needed research, funding, awareness, clinical trials, and much more.

If you are a pain patient, a caretaker, friend, neighbor, family member, or someone who just wants to help joint the fight against chronic pain, and be a positive voice please visit the American Pain Foundations Website. I have enclosed their URL.

Chronic Pain is a life altering illness that effect millions of us every year, and that rate continues to grow. There is still so much that is a mystery when it comes to many chronic illnesses and chronic pain. We lose many hours from work, we suffer horribly, we sometimes lose our jobs, families suffer, spouses suffer, and life itself has many limitation due to chronic pain. I hope you will join me in advocacy, awareness, and doing what you can to help solve the mystery of chronic pain.

http://www.painfoundation.org/take-action/action-network/virtual-march-2010.html

Invisible Illness Week Outreach Described on Video By Founder

http://invisibleillnessweek.com/2010/08/10/invisible-illness-week-outreach-described-on-video-by-founder/

This is just an incredible idea! Being a chronic Illness and pain patient, I know how difficult it is when someone that just does not under says things like "but you don't look sick". The majority of us suffering from things like Chronic Pain, Migraines, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and so many others may not "appear" to look ill all of the time, not like we do when we have a bad cold, the flu, pneumonia, or other acute types of illness, but that surely does not mean we don't feel it. People with chronic Illnesses learn coping methods, so we may have our hair looking good, nails painted, makeup on, and be dressed when we go to the market, or shopping, but that does not mean we are not in pain, or that we feel great. We just get tired of looking sick and tired, plus for some, getting dressed, doing your pain, putting on makeup, getting your nails done, and so forth makes us feel a little better. I realize that people from afar, strangers, may not get it. And for me, it got to the place, that sometimes I go out, looking like heck, because I don't want to deal with the comments, that I look fine. Thus, you don't put makeup on, etc. Those days are usually when I am feeling like death warmed over, thus I probably look it.

I found out we will have this National Awareness week about Invisible Illnesses. What a wonderful idea, and one we can share with others so they may understand better, what being chronically ill or in pain means for us. It can happen to anyone, anytime. You may have not had a headache, body ache, joint issue, all your life, and one day you wake up to horrible pain, severe fatigue, bad headaches, and many other symptoms. No one is immune from chronic Illness and/or chronic pain. I would not wish Lupus, and my other health issues on anyone. But, I would like to help educate others about just how life altering Chronic Invisible Illness and Pain is to all of the people it encompasses... from those who have it, to family, friends, spouses, and caretakers....

Incredible News about the Lupus Medication Benlysta! FDA makes priority review

Human Genome Sciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: HGSI) and GlaxoSmithKline PLC (GSK) today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted a priority review designation to BENLYSTA® (belimumab) as a potential treatment for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). A priority review designation is granted to drugs that, if approved, offer major advances in treatment or provide a treatment where no adequate therapy exists. The FDA has assigned belimumab a Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) target date of December 9, 2010.


http://www.hgsi.com/latest/human-genome-sciences-and-glaxosmithkline-announce-fda-priority-review-designation-for-benlysta-belimumab-as-a-potential-treatment-for-systemic-lupus-erythema.html


I will be first in line as soon as the FDA gives the thumbs up! I have been awaiting this now for well over 2 years, watching all of the clinical trials, and the positive results. I am so elated.... Rhia

Visit Owning Pink's Pink Posse

Four Possible Causes of Migraines and some Natural Remedies

https://www.qualityhealth.com/featuredArticleSegmentSubmit

By Jeanne Faulkner
Reviewed by QualityHealth's Medical Advisory Board

What can you do to relieve your headache besides hit the medicine bottle? Here, four natural headache remedies that will knock out your headaches right now and help prevent them in the future.
There are many different types of headaches and treatment sometimes depends on knowing what's causing them. Frequently however, the exact cause is unknown.  Common culprits are fatigue, hunger, dehydration and stress.  So, rather than treating just the symptoms, why not treat the root causes naturally?

Great article, and very helpful

MOre great news in the realms of Lupus Research, Genetics and the Enviorment

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-08/nioa-nle081110.php

NIH launches effort to define markers of human immune responses

Recovery Act enables research that could help improve vaccines and therapeutics

A new nationwide research initiative has been launched to define changes in the human immune system, using human and not animal studies, in response to infection or to vaccination. Six U. S.-based Human Immune Phenotyping Centers will receive a total of $100 million over five years to conduct this research.
Funding for the centers is provided by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. Support for the first year of this initiative will come from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
"Recognizing the differences in immune system activity before, during and after exposure to an infectious agent or vaccine will help in the development of safer, more effective therapeutics and vaccines," says NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. "This research effort also will contribute to the ongoing evolution in our ability to study the immune system."
Investigators will analyze samples from well-characterized groups, including children, the elderly and people with autoimmune diseases such as lupus. These groups represent diverse populations with respect to age, genetics, gender and ethnicity. The research teams will examine immune system elements of these populations before and after exposure to naturally acquired infections or to vaccines or vaccine components. The profile that will emerge of the body's response to vaccination will be based on the most sophisticated and comprehensive assays currently available. This will enable new approaches to examining vaccine safety, not just of individual vaccines but of the processes of immunization in general.
Their studies will focus on immune responses to vaccines against specific viruses and bacteria, such as influenza and pneumococcus, as well as to infection with West Nile virus. The investigators will take advantage of technological developments and advances in creating databases and developing mathematical models to identify and analyze the complex changes in immune profiles.
Each awardee will contribute to the establishment of a centralized infrastructure to collect, characterize and store human samples and analyze the large data sets that will be generated. Eventually, the centers will gather the information from this effort into a centralized Web-based database they will make available to the scientific community to promote and support human immunology research.
"This research effort represents a major expansion of efforts to define the principles of human immune regulation, instead of relying on findings from animal models that have limitations and cannot always be extrapolated to people," says Daniel Rotrosen, M.D., director of the Division of Allergy, Immunology and Transplantation at NIAID. "The knowledge gained also will improve our understanding of the range of vaccine responses in particular subpopulations, including newborns, young children, the elderly, patients taking immunosuppressive medications and those with underlying diseases of the immune system, such as allergy and autoimmune diseases."
The following six core institutions and principal investigators will participate in the inaugural program:

• Baylor Research Institute, Dallas – Jacques Banchereau, Ph.D.
• Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston – Ellis Reinherz, M.D.
• Emory University, Atlanta – Bali Pulendran, Ph.D.
• Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. – Gregory Poland, M.D.
• Stanford University, Calif. – Mark Davis, Ph.D.
• Yale University, New Haven, Conn. – David Hafler, M.D., and Erol Fikrig, M.D.

A portion of the funding for the centers will be dedicated to support smaller studies proposed by investigators outside the program, including pilot projects, the development of research resources and clinical studies.

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The activities described in this release are being funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
More information about NIH's Recovery Act grant funding opportunities can be found at http://grants.nih.gov/recovery/. To track the progress of HHS activities funded through the Recovery Act, visit http://www.hhs.gov/recovery. To track all federal funds provided through the Recovery Act, visit http://www.recovery.gov.
NIAID conducts and supports research—at NIH, throughout the United States, and worldwide—to study the causes of infectious and immune-mediated diseases, and to develop better means of preventing, diagnosing and treating these illnesses. News releases, fact sheets and other NIAID-related materials are available on the NIAID Web site at http://www.niaid.nih.gov.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH)—The Nation's Medical Research Agency—includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov.