Curing Fibromyalgia?
Can curing Fibromyalgia be possible? We are told by experts that Fibromyalgia is incurable, including the NHS. I cannot accept that.
The word Fibromyalgia comes from a mix of Latin and Greek words - Fibro (Latin) means fibrous tissues, Myo (Greek) translates as muscle and Algia (Greek) means pains. Thus Fibromylagia in literal terms means muscle and fibrous connective tissue pain.
I wanted to investigate just why people with Fibromyalgia have unexplained pain in their muscles and connective tissues. I wanted to know if curing Fibromyalgia could be possible.
Muscle fibres
Our muscles are made up of two types of fibres. Slow twitch muscle fibres that contract slowly, but keep going for a long time and fast twitch muscle fibres that contract quickly and powerfully but rapidly get tired. Most muscles contain both slow and fast twitch muscle fibres.
Muscles that contain a lot of slow twitch fibres are red in colour as they contain lots of blood vessels. They are reliant on a rich supply of oxygenated blood as they use oxygen to produce energy for muscle contraction. Slow twitch muscle fibres are good for endurance activities like running a marathon as they can function for long periods of time without getting tired.
Fast twitch muscle fibres do not require a rich blood supply as they don't use oxygen to make energy. They do use lots of energy however, and contract quickly and tire faster. Fast twitch muscle fibres are good for powerful bursts of rapid movements like sprinting the 100 meter dash.
It is thought that people with Fibromyalgia overuse fast twitch muscle fibres. I believe this is because they cannot handle and release stress effectively. Could this be the key to curing Fibromyalgia?
Is understanding stress the key to curing Fibromyalgia?
Fundamentally the trigger for the
onset of Fibromyalgia is stress. This can be due to a physical event
like experiencing an accident, injury or trauma. Natural events such as
pregnancy, giving birth or the onset of the menopause can cause stress
and trigger Fibromyalgia. Other stressful events such as bereavement,
divorce or abusive relationships can also trigger Fibromyalgia. Most of
these stressful events cause sleep disruption or sleep deprivation.
Without good restorative sleep the body cannot repair and heal itself.
Whatever the initial stressor that triggers Fibromyalgia is, the reaction and handling of further stress seems to become dysfunctional.
When experiencing extreme stressful events the body's sympathetic nervous system is activated due to the sudden release of hormones such as adrenalin and cortisol.
The release of these hormones speed up the heart rate, slow down digestion and move blood flow to the major muscle groups.
In this way the body is given a burst of energy and strength to either fight whatever is attacking us or run away at speed. This is known as the fight or flight response. This fight or flight response is our protection against extreme threats such as being held at knifepoint. Once the perceived threat has passed our hormone levels should return to normal.
But for people with Fibromyalgia it seems this fight or flight response is activated inappropriately, disproportionately and far too often even when experiencing very mild forms of stress.
For example I jump out of my skin when I hear an unexpected noise like the doorbell ringing. My husband hears the same doorbell but does not over-react. My over-reaction triggers my fight or flight response. I am startled, fearful and jumpy.
Imagine being followed by a stranger in the dark of night, you can hear footsteps behind you, you begin to speed up. The hairs on the back of your neck go up, your heart is beating faster, you are sweating, muscles tense, your hands shake and your body tenses. This is an appropriate fight or flight response to a perceived threat.
Unfortunately for people with Fibromyalgia this fight of flight response is continually activated. Understanding this is key to curing Fibromyalgia.
This over-reaction to noise, to light, to changes in temperature occurs again and again throughout the day in people with Fibromyalgia. This leads to the continual release of stress hormones that stay in the body for prolonged periods. This in turn reduces serotonin and dopamine amongst other neurotransmitters in the brain. With reduced serotonin you may feel anxious and depressed, have low energy, have sleep problems and have muscle pain. With reduced dopamine you may experience aches, pains and stiffness in the muscles, mood swings, lack of motivation, disturbed sleep, low energy, low libido, brain fog and fatigue.
Enduring these many dysfunctional symptoms leads to even more stress and a vicious circle ensues.
Limiting activity
People with Fibromyalgia tend to limit their activity because of the widespread pain and fatigue they feel. They cannot take part in endurance activities like running a marathon. In fact, at my worst, just walking around a supermarket would exhaust me so much I felt I had run 2 marathons back to back.
Add to this the stress of a constant fight or flight mode that Fibromyalgia sufferers endure daily and you have the perfect storm for muscle and connective tissue or fascia pain. Limited mobility and being under continual never ending stress forces our bodies to overuse our fast twitch muscle fibres. And remember that fast twitch muscle fibres tire very quickly. This leads to fascia pain and fatigue.
Having Fibromyalgia is rather like asking your body to run a marathon at the same pace as a 100 meter sprint. No wonder we feel exhausted!
Fascia pain
Fascia looks a bit like cling film and it does a similar job. It envelops every muscle, organ, bone and nerve fibre throughout our entire bodies.
If you look at raw meat, you can see an almost transparent layer of fascia surrounding a chicken breast for example. It isn’t fat, it isn’t muscle, it isn’t bone – it is one form of connective tissue.
It is the stretchy glue that clings to and wraps around all those things.
Unfortunately for people with Fibromyalgia there seems to be a build up of this type of connective tissue.
It becomes stiff, knotted, tightened, taut and more importantly very painful. When fascia becomes compromised in this way it leads to a shortening of the muscles. This in turn causes reduced blood circulation and decreased mobility in the joints.
So if we can smooth out this stiff, knotted, tightened and taut fascia then we can rid ourselves of pain, relieve our over worked fast twitch muscle fibres, increase blood circulation and increase our mobility and flexibility. I believe smoothing or releasing restrictive fascia is a key point in curing Fibromylagia.
Smoothing out restrictive fascia can be done by a variety of methods. I’ve written more about fascia and Myofascial Release