We have a La-z-Boy rocker and a 2 recliner sofa (also La-z-Boy).
I use a steel frame, mesh lumbar support with it and am very comfy.
No issues when I fall asleep for hours in it.

You can see 5 docs and get 5 diagnoses. I agree with Mere. POTS, CFS, Fibro, dysautonomia, Sjogren's and many other 'diagnoses' could be variants of an undiscovered small fiber neuropathy, likely with autonomic and sensory components.

Then the question is, why do SOOOOO many people have small fiber neuropathy? Was it always this common?

Rest may be indicated in CFS, whatever the criteria for that diagnosis is, I don't really know....however, REST, can be a boondoggle in Neuropathy and autoimmune disease. If you get deconditioned, woe to you....it is nothing short of hell to get back into workable shape. PACE is more of the course to follow for PN.

BTW, I have a horrible time with pressure neuropathies of any area...from the feet to the hands to the butt. If it is in a position too long, it goes numb. I would not be surprised if I had HNPP. It is awful. Night time is a nightmare with this issue....so is sitting and working on the computer. I am exhausted from moving continuously to keep from feeling overwhelming discomfort.....what a way to live. UGH. This is why I have all my little 'hobbies'....to keep distracted while I keep moving. No rest for me!

No I don't think it was this common. I've been licensed for 40yrs and rarely did we have PNers, and they were mostly diabetics.

But drugs commonly used today, well, they cause neuropathies.
Even Lasix will. (depletes thiamine).
Fluroquinolones and statins, just about everyone has had these at one time or another!

Also there are alarming reports coming out about air pollution and nano particles:

http://sciencenews.org/view/feature/...tination_brain
I hope this article is open for non-members... It is very disturbing.

Here is another...
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18217626

I believe these poisons can act anywhere in the body. Time will show this, I think.
Just Google nanoparticles and pollution for more.

The first one would not open for me (maybe you can copy and paste and still cite the web address?)....but the second one did, and it is darn depressing. When you think of what 'progress' has brought about....I dunno....maybe wonder cures for diseases we brought about??

Seems like we are cr@pping in our own nests.

Well, I am going to watch the Dow drop some more and then go pull weeds...and wince in pain due to my dumb thumbs....anudder one of doz days.

Possible reasons that rates of chronic diseases are increasing:

*Lower quality food. We are eating far less whole foods than our ancestors, that is unprocessed whole grains, vegetables, fruits. To make foods more palatable (creamy, sweet, etc.) and have a longer shelf life, most of the nutrients are removed and what is left is often refined carbohydrate with high glycemic index that raises blood sugar producing an insulin response, contributing to disease. We are missing sufficient quantities of the hundreds (maybe 1000s) of nutrients found in plants. Plus all the bad fats being added. And we love our hamburgers, french fries, ketchup, & Coke.

*Life is more fast paced than before. We want it all and we want it now. This leads to eating more low-quality foods, that is eating out or eating something instant or microwaveable at home. The quick pace also means less relaxation, less time to exercise, less down time. Also leads to less sleep and so less time for our bodies to heal.

*Most Americans are overweight, probably for a variety of reasons, leading to all sorts of problems.

* Toxins in our air, food, & water. Thousands of substances from plastics to metals. Is our world getting more toxic lately? I don't know. Maybe someone has some evidence on this. It's certainly more toxic than it was 1000 years ago.

Notice that we have control over all of these factors. Maybe we should work on changing all this, huh?

My 2c
Electron

yet life expectancy age continues to increase. Im sure the things around us definitely affect our well being but to what extent or what does what i have no idea nor do i think anyone else has a firm handle on this at the present time.

All of the issues noted in this thread as causative factors in these evasive diseases are in fact true, but I do also wonder about things that we may have been exposed to in the past. I wonder about some of the vaccinations I was given as a child (at a Naval hospital), or in a line-up in the auditorium of my grade school in the 1960's.

It may sound paranoid, but can we really know for certain what we have been exposed to? Remember the MK-ULTRA program? One experiment in 1966 subjected masses of people in the New York Subway system... This is but one of a slew of biological experiments that used the general population unknowingly and without consent. Some have been unclassified, such as the NYC subway experiment, though I wonder how many other classified experiments there are right now. Agent orange exposure or Gulf War Syndrome create terrible illness. GWS has a symptom profile much like FMS/CFS and SFN...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_MKULTRA

Just a slightly different angle on things..

Mere

--there is beginning to be evidence in the developed world that given the still-stubborn rates of cancer (many of which I'm sure are linked to environmental toxins) and the obesity induced conditions such as Type II diabetes, kidney disease, and stroke, lifespan may have actually stopped increasing, and in some places may actually be DROPPING a bit . . .the biggest drop has come in Russia and other areas of the former Societ Union, in which there seem to be NO regulations on things anymore . . .

Lifespans are still rising in the developing world, except in places with high concentrations of HIV patients, but as those areas develop and degrade their own water, land and air, one wonders how long it will last . . .

I've heard it said recently that the lifespan is dropping here in the US starting with the generation of children who are in grade school now. That's why we hear of the emphasis on improving school lunches and trying to get kids to go outside and play more, etc.

a fair bit of the volatility of that statistic is the decrease in early childhood death rate....