Thursday, January 9, 2014

Fibromyalgia causes inflammation

If you watch TV or scour the internet for fibromyalgia info you probably have heard of the term 'central sensitiztion'. This is the term given to fibromyalgia (FMS) by the "researchers" who mostly promoted pharmaceutical drugs for the syndrome. The reason I use quotations around researchers is because 'central sensitization' is NOT the cause of fibromyalgia. Dr. Alex Vasquez, in his numerous books on the topic, has clearly discounted 'central sensitization' as the cause.

A research group from Spain has proven that inflammation has a real link to fibromyalgia. They did a study with women using diagnosed FMS patients and healthy, age-matched controls and confirmed the IL-8 is elevated in all of the FMS patients. They also found CRP, an inflammatory marker, to be elevated significantly in FMS patients as well.

This was the first study of its kind to show CRP elevated in FMS. We know FMS is partly caused by excessive inflammation. Cytokines lead to increases pain and sensitivity to pain. IL-8 specifically increases sympathetic pain when elevated, which can be problematic in a pain syndrome like FMS. Science has already shown that increases in inflammation lead to increased pain. This makes logical sense that inflammation leads to pain, and would be elevated in a pain condition like FMS.

FMS is a complex, multi-faceted syndrome or disease that affects a lot of people in the United States and the world. Understanding the causes is of utmost importance, and the US is last in the pack of understanding. Researchers create causes in order to sell drugs. 'Central sensitization' fits perfectly with the 3 drugs approved for FMS, which incidentally, all have black box warnings. Black box warnings mean they can increase your risk of dying, usually by suicide. Sounds appealling right?

Spanish researchers have shown now, inflammation is a cause of the pain in FMS. This makes sense because there is diagnosable muscle damage with FMS, and muscle damage is a pretty good cause of inflammation, among other things.

Sources:
Neuroimmunomodulation. 2012;19(6):343-51. doi: 10.1159/000341664. Epub 2012 Sep 12. PMID: 22986514