Fibromyalgia Cause Finally Discovered! It Is NOT In Your HEAD!

(I didn't find this anywhere yet...)


This is HUGE news for Fibromyalgia sufferers. I myself have never been diagnosed with this, but my sister has been and I suffer many of the symptoms. Like many others though, I never wanted to be labeled with something seen as a psychiatric illness.

Well, now all those 'professionals' who dismissed their suffering patients as crazy and threw psychiatric drugs at them can eat dirt. Here it is finally. An answer to all those suffering....

Fibromyalgia Mystery Finally Solved!

Researchers Find Main Source of Pain in Blood Vessels



In a nutshell, they have discovered an excess type of nerve fiber called arteriole-venule (AV) shunts in the hands of those suffering from the symptoms of fibromyalgia. They linked these nerve fibers to the excessive, wide-spread pain felt by people who have fibromyalgia.

Up until this point scientists had thought that these fibers were only responsible for regulating blood flow, and did not play any role in pain sensation, but now they’ve discovered that there is a direct link between these nerves and the widespread body pain that Fibromyalgia sufferers feel.

The breakthrough also could solve the lingering question of why many sufferers have extremely painful hands as well as other “tender points” throughout the body, and why cold weather seems to aggravate the symptoms. In addition to feeling widespread deep tissue pain, many Fibromyalgia patients also suffer from debilitating fatigue.

These are digital images of what the arteriole-venule shunts look like in a tiny biopsy of human palmar skin as seen under the microscope. All of the nerve fibers that surround the shunts are white. A shunt in a woman without fibromyalgia is shown to the left and a shunt from a woman with fibromyalgia is shown to the right. The woman with fibromyalgia has an excessive quantity of nerve fibers around her shunt. Credit: Frank L. Rice, PhD, Integrated Tissue Dynamics LLC

source

This really is big news. I know a coupe of people who are in so much constant pain that they can not function. Imagine if that were you, and instead of sympathy and support, you get labeled as crazy and your pain dismissed. This has the potential of restoring the lives of millions!!!



ETA: In light of the below post regarding the OP source, I have done some research. Thankfully, it seems that this is legit. Here are some more articles, more scientific in nature from what I hope are more reliable sources!

Fibromyalgia is not all in your head, new research confirms

Fibromyalgia, a painful condition affecting approximately 10 million people in the U.S., is not imaginary after all, as some doctors have believed. A discovery, published this month in Pain Medicine/i> (the journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine), clearly now demonstrates that fibromyalgia may have a rational biological basis located in the skin.

....

Now, a breakthrough discovery by scientists at Integrated Tissue Dynamics LLC (Intidyn), as part of a fibromyalgia study based at Albany Medical College, has provided a biological rationale for this enigmatic disease. The small biotechnology research company, founded by neuroscientists Dr. Frank L. Rice and Dr. Phillip J. Albrecht, reports on a unique peripheral neurovascular pathology consistently present in the skin of female fibromyalgia patients which may be a driving source of the reported symptoms.

AND:

Fibromyalgia Is Not All In The Head, It's In Skin, Paper Concludes

The Guardian is well known as one of the largest purveyors of junk-science, woo medicine in the world. I would dearly love to see the raw data upon whichthis story is based. Remenber, the Guardian was one of the now disgraced Andrew Wakefield's unabashed supporters, at least until his overt fraud was discovered.

reply to post by westcoast


This is very interesting to hear about. My wife suffers chronic pain and has as many diagnosis (some conflicting) as she's had years suffering it. One has even suggested it's in her head with the last being basically 'you're diabetic, get used to it'. I wonder.......? Thanks for something to look into here!

reply to post by F4guy


Thanks for the heads up, I am not familiar with the site.

I am looking into this further now to try and back it up. Crossing my fingers.


ETA: Happy to say that I found more reliable sources and also the original scientific report. Please see OP for updated info and links. Thank you!

This is great news, my wife has been diagnosed with fibromyalgia. She was told that it was all in her head too and was questioned about mental traumas of wich she had none apart from being married to me.

In their heads BS.That is a nasty very painful neurological disorder.I've never heard mental problem.And FM is a qualifying illness for medical marijuana in my state for PAIN MANAGEMENT NOT FOR MENTAL ISSUES and I under stand that it helps stop a lot of the pain.

I read a little about that. The problem is why are the nerves getting a pain signal mistakenly. Either something in the diet has been changed or something that shields the nerve pain is not there. There have been so many changes in foods nowadays it is hard to know. The food is lacking proper nutrients sometimes, nutrients that need to form properly. This information does not do anything to solve the problem and I doubt if they will fix the problem at a society level, only treat the disease after it happens. Fibromyalgia was rare years ago, it wasn't like carpotunnel that has always been around. Now there are quite a few people that have it that I know, and they are in some terrible pain.

Stop consuming aspartame.
Next

reply to post by rickymouse


I have fibromyalgia, and it's not something "new", it just went undiagnosed before the constellation of symptoms was finally organized into a diagnosis. Before, it went by chronic fatigue syndrome, arthritis, migraines, even depression.

Finally!

It is hard to live with, and I get really sick of people implying because there is no known test for FM then it must not be that bad. I have crippling pain some days, migraines almost every single day, chronic fatigue, and there is not really anything I have found for relief outside of Vicoden, which only takes the edge off, but doesn't take away the pain completely. The worse is the allodynia, pain usually associated with shingles, where just the slightest touch from clothes can set off a burning ache; when this goes on for days, I take Percoset to be able to sleep. I do not work outside my home, and some days daily life is the only thing I can accomplish.

I'll have to keep this on the radar, hope research finds some help...heck, I'll even be a part of a drug trial, if it helps me and others feel better.

As FM has been discussed here at ATS before, complete with all the accusations of malingering, thanks for posting this!

HI
Could only give you one star and one flag......but i thank you for the post?
This is really really big news..................... i can give ya lots of bumps

This is indeed awesome news, I was diagnosed with it and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in 1997. I just had to go back on disability after working 10 years - not too happy about that, maybe now they can come up with something to help!

I would like to print out that study report and shove it into the face of every doctor who told me something totally assinine or implied I was "depressed", but I will behave

S&F Thanks for posting, you made my day!

The only reason that Fibromyalgia is now officially a disease and more findings are filling the news media is because now big pharma can keep producing antidepressants that are the base of most fibromyalgia medications so the medical community keep prescribing people useless remedies.

Fibromyalgia is a modern day disease cause by environmental factors, that were not around us poisoning us decades ago.

I feel sad for people that are taken by this debilitating disease, but big pharma is just catching out on more antidepressants prescribed for life.

I am a 44 yo male that has been suffering from Lupus and what my doc told me was FM. I can control the Lupus with Methotrexate and Humira, but still every other week I will wake up either with swollen joints (it can be anywhere) or more seriously my Kidneys like to shut down whenever they feel like it. Only three times in the last three years. But what was killing me was the constant muscle pain, fatigue and even my hair hurt. My Doctor tried me on a medication called Savella. It is chemically an anti-depressent, but it is not aproved by the FDA for depression. But for some reason he said it works on FM pain. I started it, and in two weeks, no pain. No fatigue. No more daily fevers of 100.7. It truly has been a game changer for me. I can work everyday and my overall quality of life has improved. I am not saying that it is the majic bullet for everyone, but for me it is.

i think what they have discovered is a portion of the physiological processes when there are other causitive factors impressing on the musculo-skeletal system.
environment for one.
diet for another.-----------i have just reversed my skin cancer on the forehead by removing sugar from my diet. something the MD either did not know or did not care, probably the former. he merely wrote out a letter of referral to a skin specialist. and the slowest to heal is the site of the biopsy.

i'd like to know if their subjects were examined closely by an expert for any muscular tension adjacent to the brachial nerve pathways. tension in the muscles controlling the hand and contained in the forearm will inflame the surrounding tissues and move down the tendon sheaths to the carpal tunnel and other areas. para-vertebral musculature of the cervicals will definitely be involved also due to reflex action, even if not the genesis of the malady.

glad you found something that helped...this story is good news for those with fm... I don't have it but hoope something good comes from this understanding of the cause.

reply to post by orangutang


Here is a link to an abstract from a study from PubMed.gov.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov...
to much medical lingo for me but you may understand it all

Fibromyalgia is caused by whatever the chemicals are the government keep flying over dumping on us

mine all started after witnessing planes spraying and a film developing on everything outside afterwards

It's odd, I have fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, no thyroid, liver disease (non alcholic, odd how you have to add that as there is always a stigma, but i don't drink), osteo arthritis, and gout.

No doctor ever said it was in my head, instead they treated it as a cluster of things that may be related whether from the thryoid quitting or not But then why did it quit altogether as if non existent? But if your thyroid goes out it affects adrenal and liver, and your whole system is thrown out of balance.

S&F Thanks for sharing!

A friend of mine suffers from fibro and I have seen the pain and discomfort it brings him, Im going to send him the link.