Patients are taking more control over their health care than ever before, and in doing so they are turning to both Western medicine and alternative treatments. Nowhere is this approach more true than in the search for relief from fibromyalgia.Fibromyalgia is a puzzling, frustrating, and often debilitating condition consisting of a group of symptoms that leads to overall chronic fatigue and pain that makes sufferers feel more exhausted when they wake up in the morning than when they went to bed the night before. It affects millions of Americans, mostly women, and traditional approaches have not proven significantly effective.Not only do fibromyalgia patients need conventional diagnosis and traditional drug therapy, but they benefit greatly from nutritional advice, acupuncture, and exercise to help them return to some level of comfort.Statistics show that at least one in five patients is mixing pharmaceutical prescriptions with complementary treatments. Dr. Milton Hammerly advocates that patients should be fully informed so that they can work effectively with their doctor to get the best treatment possible.