Fibromyalgia Resource

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Three years ago, Jeanne Langlais couldn't pick up a brush to fulfill her favorite pastime. "I couldn't paint anymore. I couldn't lift my arms up. My thighs ached when you stood up, my arms ached, my neck ached. I couldn't understand why," Langlais said.

Langlais also could not exercise. The chronic muscle pain forced her into early retirement. After two years of tests, she finally got the diagnosis of fibromyalgia. But finding a treatment was another story.

"Anti-inflammatories, pain killers, anti-depressants, and none of them worked for me," Langlais said.

So Langlais sought an alternative treatment called intravenous micronutrient therapy, or IVMT. IVMT is a cocktail of highly concentrated vitamins injected into the vein.

"About the 5th treatment I started to feel better, and by the 6th treatment I had no pain. I was clicking my heels," she said.

Dr. David Katz, a Yale-trained physician, is one of a few doctors using IVMT. He has treated more than 60 patients so far. About 80 percent of them have had good results.

"If I'm able to help patients who for years have suffered and couldn't find help -- it doesn't get any better than that," Katz said.

Katz is conducting a clinical trial on IVMT sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. He said the treatment has few side effects, but a major drawback is cost. It's not covered by insurance.

"If we prove that this is a cost-effective therapy for fibromyalgia, it then becomes a reimbursable commodity," Katz said.

For Langlais, the $55 weekly injections are a hardship, but she said she will continue them.

For more information on the trial, visit http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct/show/NCT00067405?order=1

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