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Iraq War Vets and Fibromyalgia patients - "Chronic Pain Brains"
Iraq war vets and Fibromyalgia chronic pain conditions are very similar, and the evidence points to changes in the brain.
Date: 9/27/2008 1:49:50 PM ( 16 y ) ... viewed 3995 times Iraq war vets and Fibros - "Chronic Pain Brains"
The researchers are now able to show that there are changes in the brains of some groups of patients with otherwise unexplained chronic pains. Interesting new insights are being gained from the Iraq war vets who are coming home not only traumatised emotionally, but MRIs are showing the physical changes in their brains. Most commonly, those are vets who were subjected to blasts from roadside bombs and from the forced entry technique where walls and doors are blown apart with explosives.
Interestingly, those soldiers are coming home with similar symptoms to civilian chronic pain patients like me - chronic pain without tissue damage or compressed nerves to explain the pain ; memory problems, concentration lapses, and various cognitive difficulties.
These conditions now appear to be from changes in the brain. The brain damage typical to both these groups is now identifyable with the fMRI diagnostics, and I am quite certain that if I could have a basic fMRI workup done on my brain that these types of typical, identifyable, abnormalities would be seen. ["fMRI" refers to a "functional" brain scan that can be done as the patient is awake and doing certain tasks so that activity in the brain can be seen].
Interestingly, the soldiers who have wounds other than from percussive ones ["bomb blasts"] are perhaps showing similiar emotional problems but NOT the chronic pain symptoms. This means that there is something unique about the brains of the percussive wounds.
The reason these percussive wounds are showing up so much in the Iraq vets is that soldiers in previous wars who were wounded in this manned did not survive. 95% of Iraq vets who are injured are surviving, partly because of body armour and partly because of evacuation and medical care improvements in the battlefield. Also, there is the theory that the kevlar helmets do not protect against the EM [electro-magnetic] blasts in the same good way that the old fashioned metal helmets of previous wars did. This is also a good clue as the the nature of the injury - it is not only percussive but a special KIND of percussion.
Why would I have a brain injury that is like an EM blast injury? The answer to that requires an understanding of the brain's tissues. The same kind of damage is caused by an EM blast as by concussion because of the type of tissues and the way they carry nerve impulses. The shock comes indirectly, due to the protective hard shell of the skull. An EM blast is carried along blood vessels and other tissues into the brain, and concussions result in a concussive shock - they both result in the same kind of injury to the brain's tissues.
This all fits nicely with the theory of "Sensory Processing Pain Disorder" and the "Amplified Pain" theory of Dr. Pelligrino and the May clinic. In those theories, chronic pain is said to be due to changes in the nervous system and brain. As is seen on MRIs and from other studies, there are changes and damage patterns to the brains and in the nerve pathways of chronic pain patients.
The spectrum of symptoms is quite wide - besides the steady pains and muscle cramps, headaches, digestive tract disorders, insomnia, hearing problems [obviously, in the soldiers, from bomb blasts but also there are changes to the way 'hearing' is processed in the brain] ; they are sensitive to bright lights and loud noises and odours ["chemical sensitivities"]; they are easily disturbed by crowds or even by having more than one person in the room [they prefer to be alone because there is less chance of "overloading" of the senses], and other social difficulties, plus there are changes affecting cognitive processes such as reading and writing as well as concentration and memory.
Many of these symptoms relates to a case of "overloading", where nerve pathways are easily overloaded. This happens both because of the excessive strength of the original nerve signals, and because very little stimulation is needed in order to overload the various systems and functions of the brain and body.
With handwriting, for example, the information that passes between the eyes and the hands and the cognition in the brain becomes jumbled up... there is an "overload" in the brain parts that process this information, and the truth unfolds when it is seen that these patients prefer printing to cursive writing ; Dr. Doidge, author of "The Brain that Changes Itself", explains that the small breaks between letters in printing is enough to allow the brain to 'catch up' whereas with cursive writing there is simply too much constant information to process and the writing soon deteriorates. The evidence is seen in that the cursive writing can be fairly tidy for about 10 seconds, and then it drops off, whereas printing will often remain consistant throughout the task.
And, with muscle cramps, the system of protecting the body in a process known as "gaurding" where the brain causes certain muscles to cramp up in order that they not be damaged by overwork. This too can be seen to be a case of "overloading" where the part of the brain that sends the signals for cramps to occur is easily triggered - a process known as "gating".
Allmost all of these relate to "overloading". This is the hallmark of the Sensory Processing problem, and that is about all we really need to know to understand these patients on a basic level, and to explain why they have certain characteristics that may seem somewhat hysterical [hence the accusations of faking, or not having real problems].
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Referance - the Popular Science magazine had an article [that won't google up now] about the Iraq War Vets and how IED blasts had changed their brains. I will add the link if it ever shows up again.
Meanwhile, here is an excellant read on chronic pain -
"Dr. Pelligrino's essay on Amplified Pain"
http://www.immunesupport.com/library/showarticle.cfm?id=8892
[note - that article is a summary of a Mayo Clinic article which goes into much more detail]
And here are two others:
http://moaablogs.org/message/2008/08/popular-science-examines-a-possible-caus...
http://www.newser.com/story/35796/troop-brain-injuries-often-overlooked.html
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