Fibromyalgia and Stress: Catch 22 !

Fibromyalgia is triggered by stress (trauma, infection, divorce etc..). Fibromyalgia is expressed with diffuse pains, fatigue, sleep disturbances and many other symptoms!
All those symptoms are stressful.

See the catch 22 situation!

The more stress, the more triggered the fibromyalgia!

In the treatment, this aspect must be integrated. Treating the pain or any other symptom isn't enough. We must also decrease the stress and teach techniques to control it. But anti-stress techniques on their own are not enough either.

A proper understanding of the fibromyalgia disease at the cellular level is of prime importance.
This is the first step towards success. I will soon be announcing great news but a good start is to read this book.
http://www.fibromyalgia-information-relief.com/fibromyalgia-books.html

Philippe

Fibromyalgia And Sexual Abuse

Sexual abuse is, unhappily, a common history in fibromyalgia sufferers. This is a typical ongoing stress. We now know that the perceived stress is the most important factor as a fibromyalgia trigger. Sexual abuse is an ongoing stress that slowly takes its mark on the person suffering from it. It is not the "ok, it did happen in the past, now get over it" but it carries on undermining the health. In a person with the fibromyalgia genetic disease it will easily act as the trigger for more suffering. Psychological help is important in this situation to help alleviate the ongoing stress.

Free Fibromyalgia Test

For a free fibromyalgia test on line:

http://www.fibromyalgia-information-relief.com/fibromyalgia-test.html

Fibromyalgia and Craving Chocolate?

A number of fibromyalgia sufferers are craving chocolate. There's a good reason for that. Cacao contains a high amount of magnesium! People, like in fibromyalgia, who lack magnesium are craving for chocolate.
In fact, chocolate craving is often a sign of magnesium deficiency. They don't teach that in med schools and your doctor most probably doesn't know about it but it's a fact!
The risk is the huge intake of sugar and calories explaining why we are a society of malnourished and obese people.
So, you're not at fault! You're just trying to compensate for your lack of magnesium.

Sodium Oxybate: Another Threat to Fibromyalgia Sufferers

Sodium Oxybate is now in phase III trial. A result on fibromyalgia over 14 weeks (seems to be the magic number for a life long disease!) has just been presented. About 50% of patients had a decrease of 30% or more of their pain.

Is That All?

Will such a small result justify to expose so many patients to GHB. Because that's what sodium oxybate is! A recreational drug that expose its users to addiction, withdrawal symptoms, seizures etc... The list is really long and you can have a look at it on

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bookshelf/br.fcgi?book=meds&log$=drug_bottom_one&part=a605032

Here is a dangerous drug whose mode of action is on the NMDA receptors (and their trigger, the AMPA receptors). We already had ketamine (analogue to LSD or big K for the junkies) that is acting on the NMDA receptors. Now they add this one!
Magnesium is not dangerous and acts on the NMDA receptors. But for sure, it does not represent a multi-billions market!

Let's hope this one does not pass the board. We don't need to add more misery to fibromyalgia.

Say goodbye to tender points!

The title of this article did attract me. "Say goodbye to tender points" seems the right way to go for diagnosis. But then, the test is done on tender points as felt by the patient. And worse, it requires a subjective evaluation and a minimum score of Fatigue.

In the article, the author already says that Fatigue is almost always present. So if you have fibromyalgia and no fatigue you are left undiagnosed.

In the free test that we offer, about 6% do not complain of Fatigue but all had a probability of suffering from fibromyalgia that was more than 50%. In fact, all of those but one did complain of poor sleep.

So they have poor sleep but do not complain of fatigue. Perhaps they do not relate fatigue to their subjective evaluation of their status when others with the same status would complain of fatigue. Perhaps their personality or their stress activity does not allow fatigue to be taken in account as such. Perhaps they do not understand the word. Perhaps they forgot to tick it. No one has the same reaction when confronted with the same problems. Some people put everything inside and they by pass some feelings that others would complain about.

There was a famous study in Sweden that was looking for headaches after a procedure. Whilst the rest of the world had an incidence of 50-60%, that study showed an incidence of 93%! The way the questionnaire was done would have given a headache even without the procedure!

The same error is made again in diagnosing fibromyalgia: without objective tests, it will remain a probability diagnosis. A probability above 50% needs consideration. A probability below that needs to be followed up because it may indicate a symptomatically starting condition.

New developments in the diagnosis of fibromyalgia syndrome: say goodbye to tender points? Wilke WS. Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine. 2009 Jun;76(6):345-52

"Fibromyalgia is not life-threatening and does not reduce life expectancy"? Rubbish!

Have a look at http://www.fibromyalgia-information-relief.com/fibromyalgia-news-page3.html and you'll see why life expectancy is probably reduced and why those stupid statements go against the human rights of fibromyalgia sufferers.

IBS and Fibromyalgia

http://www.fibromyalgia-information-relief.com/fibromyalgia-news-page3.html

Soft Tissue Rheumatism

Fibromyalgia has also been known as Soft Tissue Rheumatism or Muscle Rheumatism (Muscular Rheumatism). Rheumatism indicates an inflammation of the joints and their appendages (the tissues that participates in the joint function such as the tendons, the capsule, the ligaments and the muscles around).

So it was a good appellation to call it Soft Tissue or Muscle Rheumatism because it is a muscle disease. It indicated also that as much as the joints can be painful, there is no joint destruction as we can see in rheumatoid arthritis.

Fibro-myalgia is a contraction of soft tissue (fibro), muscle (my for myo) and algia (pain). A good choice. Let's not change it!

Stress Triggers But Stress Is Not Fibromyalgia!

Stress triggers fibromyalgia. There is no doubt about it. Be it physical stress like trauma or psychological stress like moving house. In fact, we should not separate stress into psychological or physical. It's the same!

Stress is what the body goes through when put under pressure. Physiological changes happen from an accelerated heart rate to muscle tension. Huge hormonal changes occur.

The main problem is that what is stress to someone is not to someone else. Or what is very stressful to someone is not so much to another. For example, if a loud noise occurs whilst you're asleep you will be extremely stressed, but if the same bang occurs whilst you're enjoying watching fireworks you will not be afraid.

The health status also plays an important role. If you are healthy, the same event will not be as stressful than if you're sick! For a fibromyalgia sufferer, walking 100 meters can be as stressful as climbing the Everest!

But is stress the same as fibromyalgia?

If I start my car with a key, does it mean it's the only function of a key? Obviously not! I can use a key to open a door, to open a lock, to use as jewelry, or even as a symbol like receiving the keys of a town!

So, let's not do it again. Stress is not fibromyalgia! It's not because fibromyalgia patients are extremely sensitive to stress or even to what should not be stressful in healthy people that we can say "stress = fibromyalgia". It's not because fibromyalgia has many symptoms and signs that we can relate them all to stress!

Avoiding stress and using relaxation techniques are important.

Yes, stress triggers fibromyalgia but stress is not fibromyalgia!