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Fibromyalgia Pains - new research into Sensory Processing!!
Fibromyalgia, M.E./CFS illnesses could be called "sensory processing disorders of the muscles". This research backs up that idea.
Date: 9/23/2009 5:32:03 PM ( 15 y ) ... viewed 2754 times I have posted here before about the theory called "Sensory Processing Pain Disorder", which is about Fibromyalgia ["Fibro"] [and M.E./CFS] pains. It was only a matter of time until research found more clues... and now Dr. Light has done just that.
It is all a bit too scientific for me, but I will attempt to spell it out in layman's terms here anyhow. Dr. Light, please forgive me, but I am going to quote liberally, and sometimes in my own words, from your research articles.
Also, I am substituting the term "Fibro" for the other names used for this disease, and to keep it simple I am limiting this to the PAIN, and omitting the parts about FATIGUE, although they are both big factors in my illness and life with Fibro.
Okay, here we go:
For starters, keep in mind that pain and cramps are the way the body protects us from damage... without pain we would not live long because we would just not avoid certain things, and without cramps we would just keep going and going until our muscles are all torn up.
It is not difficult to understand that our muscles use sensory neurons to monitor the muscle's status, so that we don't overuse them and damage them. It appears that those neurons, or at least some of them, are actually in the white blood cells that circulate around the body.
Here are some "almost exact" quotes from Dr. Light's research:
"Those sensory neurons are measuring, in the muscles being used, the amount of lactate, purines, and low pH in which allways occur during ATP production which has to do with how our muscles get energy from the body."
"These sensory neurons relay pain signals from the muscles to the brain, via receptors that perceive signs of muscle injury. Once these receptors come across a substance which suggests muscle injury they presumably trigger those neurons to send a signal to the brain. The brain then sends out pain and fatigue messages in an effort to stop us from using those muscles."
"These sensors should react this way only if they were getting constantly triggered by high levels of lactate or acid or purines in the blood, but for ME/CFS patients the receptors themselves seem to exist in a state of hypersensitivity - that the smallest amount of lactate, for instance, sends them into a tizzy and they stay that way for a long time.
"the receptors appear to be overreacting in Fibro patients; they also appeared to be responding surprisingly quickly."
"Fibro patients have many times the normal level of these receptors on their white blood cells."
- end quotes -
Okay, I hope that gives you an idea of what he was working on, and finding out. For those of you that want more of the science, read the articles found at the links at the bottom. I think the above quotes should suffice to explain that something is going on in the muscles that causes us Fibros to have too much pain, muscle cramps, and fatigue, from just a little activity.... and, that it has to do with "sensory processing" that triggers the protective pains and cramps.
Personally, I am sure that my Fibro pains have something to do with "sensory processing"... everything in my own experience points that way, and this is not the first research to point that direction either.
Questions remaining to be answered include:
WHY are people afflicted with this "overly protective" condition? Answers range from theorys such as it could be a reaction to the polio vaccines of the 1950's, '60's, and '70's, as evidenced by the fact that polio attacks the muscles and brain. Or, the toxic soup we live in, especially the neurotoxins that are in pesticides, or heavy metals [dental mercury, for eg.]. The reason "why only some of us are affected while everyone lives in the same conditions" is as complex as the reasons why only some people ever get severely ill from polio, or flu, or toxic exposures... heck, it could be as simple as the status of our microflora - the gut bacteria - at the time of exposure.
The other obvious question is: What do we do about it, what is the cure? Well, now that we have more insight into the processes involved, we are closer than ever to knowing what to do about it, and what not to do about it. Drugs that dampen the CNS pathways are probably not appropriate, since the problem is in the sensory systems of the muscles themselves [although those drugs may help us cope, it is a very indirect way of going about it!] It should be possible to affect a cure, now that we know what is going on - find a way to dampen the sensory neurons, or something like that [but just enough that we don't start to damage ourselves!!].
Okay, I will stop here. I have done my job to report on this, and hopefully you, dear readers, will spread the word and maybe more researchers will hear of this work and find ways to help us. Dr. Light cannot be expected to do it all by himself, but this is good progress.
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Links:
1] Report on the Conferance where Dr. Light spoke on this topic:
http://aboutmecfs.org/Conf/IACFS09Surprise.aspx
PDF File of Dr. Light's research:
http://www.co-cure.org/Light.pdf
PDF File #2:
http://www.co-cure.org/Gow.pdf
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