It's one of the most frustrating and baffling disorders in America. It probably affects two to three per cent of the population, causing a lot of generalized pain and aching.
Sufferers have trouble sleeping and are tender to touch.
Yet modern medicine doesn't understand it and can't cure it. It's called fibromyalgia. It's really a collection of symptoms, with no clear underlying disease. Put simply, doctors don't know what causes it, but the pain and suffering are real, driving many people to alternative cures and therapies. There are all sorts of other folk remedies, Chinese herbal remedies, some of which may have relatives of non-steroidal drugs or Valium relatives or other potentially addictive or dangerous things that people have tried.