There are lots of theories on the internet related to causes of fibromyalgia. All of the theories have some rationale behind and seems true to lots of audience. So here we have compiled the list of few of more acceptable theories of causes of fibromyalgia. We leave it up to you, you decide which one seems more true to you.

Blood Vessels Theory:

Researchers Find Main Source of Pain in Blood Vessels.

Researchers came to believe that the root cause of pain in fibromyalgia does not stem from the brain. This finding contradicts the old beliefs and myths that were said about fibromyalgia. It was once thought that this was just an imaginary disease and it had no relation with reality. People and doctors considered it a psychological or self-imagined disease.

But now some information about this disease has been revealed after a lot of studies and it is said that the pain may originate from areas having excess  blood vessels like hands, legs, and feet. These studies open a new world of treatment and even complete cure for about 5 million Americans who have this disease. In order to solve this mystery, researchers zeroed in on the hand of a person who had lost sensory sensations and had reduced reaction to pain.

They took samples from the patient’s hand and surprisingly found that there was excessive amount of nerve fibers called “arteriole-venule shunts”. Up till now it was thought that arteriole-venule fibers were responsible for regulating the blood flow and they had nothing to do with the pain sensation, but now it is thought that they have a direct link with pain experienced in fibromyalgia. This research has answered many questions like why fibromyalgia patients have extreme pain in their hands and feet, as well as deep tissue pain. They have many “tender points” throughout the body.

Debilitating fatigue was also one of the main symptoms of this disease. Neuroscientist  Dr. Deloph L. Mike explained: It was previously thought that these nerve fibres were only involved in regulating the blood flow at the subconscious level, but now it has been proven that blood vessel endings play a role in our conscious sensation of touch and even pain.  Rice said that this mismanaged blood flow can cause extreme muscle camps, achiness and feelings of fatigue. It was once thought that this was due to lactic acid accumulation and mild inflammation in fibromyalgia patients.

This can also lead to brain hyperactivity. Treatments that have been used for this disease have not been completely effective in relieving the  extreme pain that patients suffer. Treatments include; narcotic pain relievers, anti-depressants and anti-seizure drugs. Patients are advised to sleep more and exercise regularly. Now that a possible cause is highlighted,  patients are hopeful for a complete cure, others are frustrated for the pain they have already suffered.

One commenter said; “When are they going to figure out that this was never all in your head.”  He also said, “when they don’t figure out the root cause of certain diseases, they consider that the patients are crazy and out of their minds. Before it’s invention people have suffered alot.

The only solution to an unknown problem is not to prescribe SSRIs or lobotomy or hysterectomy. This announcement is the ray of hope for the patients that they are going to hopeful find a cure for this painful disease and better treatment options are available now.

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Researchers have discovered a Brain Signature that Identifies & Treat Fibromyalgia

Patients with fibromyalgia showed improved ability to show repulsiveness to factors causing great physical and mental pain and also to the non-painful sensations joined by different neural reactions. These neural changes have diagnostic characters involving their specificity and sensitivity to FM but it is not clearly understood. 

We have found a brain mark that explains the pathophysiology Of FM at a neural level. They used machine based technology to find out this brain based Fibromyalgia signature. When the patients with FM were given a painful stimuli, they showed worse neurological pain signature.

Related Article: Letter To the Husband Whose Wife has Fibromyalgia 

According to a study published in the newest edition of the journal PAIN, scientists have found the cerebral mark that recognizes the condition with 93% accuracy. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) assessed the performance and concluded that every years there are 10 million sufferers in the U.S, women being more affected than men. Fibromyalgia is not currently curable due to unknown pathology and side effects due to other illness.

A specialist at the University of Colorado, Boulder used an MRI to check the brain function. He gathered 370 fibromyalgia patients and 135 control patients that were exposed to collection of non-painful visual and sound related material signals in addition to painful pressure. This multi sensory testing allowed the scientists to identify the development of the 3 sub markers, or neurological signs, that are related to the mental suffering that those suffering from fibromyalgia experience.

Marina Lopez-Sola, a post-doctoral analyst in CU Boulder’s Cognitive and Effective Control Laboratory said, The strange thing about this review was, it provides potential-based apparatuses that can be used to provide information about certain degrees of pathology related to the brain that was the cause of their agony symptoms.  

She was the lead creator of the review. The arrangement of apparatuses can be used to identify the firm subtypes, which may be important for improving treatment. Tor Wager who is executive of the Cognitive and Affective Control Laboratory said, contrary to the fact that many high authorities have worked on clinical methods to identify fibromyalgia, they do not know the root cause of patients pain and what’s going on neurologically in patients suffering from fibromyalgia.

These mental measurements are potentially helpful in showing us what’s happens in the cerebrum and what variations it shows that become the cause of patient’s pain. They can help us to actually understand what fibromyalgia is and the disturbance of the focal sensory system and the ability to treat it in a better way.

In the long run, it can lead to better information about cerebrum action that can lead to a conclusion and it may be helpful in treating fibromyalgia. Lopez Sola said this work is very helpful in the understanding of Fibromyalgia and it is a decisive step in predicting fibromyalgia as a cerebrum issue.

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Doctor Feedbacks on this Research : Dr. Michael Curley : He said he had heard about this finding and it made total sense to him. That is why our pain can be everywhere. We are not crazy and this is one of the most debilitating diseases a person can get. Now they know where the pain is coming from, maybe they can find a way to heal us or stop the pain. That would be wonderful if we could get our lives back.

Central Nervous System Theory:

Fibromyalgia Pain is linked with Central Nervous System Disorder

Fibromyalgia is the second most common rheumatic disorder behind osteoarthritis and, though still widely misunderstood, now considered to be a lifelong central nervous system disorder, which is responsible for amplified pain that shoots through the body in those who suffer from it.

Daniel Clauw, M.D, professor of anesthesiology, University of Michigan, analyzed the neurological basis for fibromyalgia in a plenary session address today at the American Pain Society Annual Scientific Meeting. Fibromyalgia can be thought of both as a discrete disease and also a final common pathway of pain centralization and chronification.

Most people with this condition have lifelong histories of chronic pain throughout their bodies, said Clauw. The condition can be hard to diagnose if one is not familiar with classic symptoms because there is not a single cause and no outward signs. Clauw explained that fibromyalgia pain comes more from the brain and spinal cord than from areas of the body in which someone may experience peripheral pain.

The condition is believed to be associated with disturbances in how the brain processes pain and other sensory information. He said physicians should suspect fibromyalgia in patients with multifocal (mostly musculo skeletal) pain that is not fully explained by injury or inflammation. Because pain pathways throughout the body are amplified in fibromyalgia patients, pain can occur anywhere, so chronic headaches, visceral pain, and sensory hyper-responsiveness are common in people with this painful condition, said Clauw.

This does not imply that peripheral nociceptive input does not contribute to pain experienced by fibromyalgia patients, but they do feel more pain than normally would be expected from the degree of peripheral input. Persons with fibromyalgia and other pain states characterized by sensitization will experience pain from what those without the condition would describe as touch, Clauw added.

Due to central nervous system origins of fibromyalgia pain, Clauw said treatments with opioids or other narcotic analgesics usually are not effective because they do not reduce the activity of neurotransmitters in the brain. These drugs have never been shown to be effective in fibromyalgia patients, and there is evidence that opioids might even worsen fibromyalgia and other centralized pain states, he said.

Clauw advises clinicians to integrate pharmacological treatments, such as gabapentinoids, trycyclics and serotonin reuptake inhibitors, with nonpharmacological approaches like cognitive behavioral therapy, exercise and stress reduction. Sometimes the magnitude of treatment response for simple and in-expensive non-drug therapies exceeds that for pharmaceuticals, said Clauw.

The greatest benefit is improved function, which should be the main treatment goal for any chronic pain condition. The majority of patients with fibromyalgia can see improvement in their symptoms and lead normal lives with the right medications and extensive use of non-drug therapies. Dr clauw and his group have been instrumental in establishing that the systemic conditions noted above, and regional pain syndromes such as interstitial cystitis, low back pain, and irritable bowel syndrome all have common pathogenic and clinical features.

One of the primary areas of interest of his group has been in studying sensory processing in these conditions and in demonstrating that many patients with these have a widespread disturbance in pain processing. Current work is establishing the nature of the central pain processing abnormality in these conditions, using a variety of approaches, including functional MRI.

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Also Read: Trauma Causes Fibromyalgia

References: 

• Fibromyalgia is linked with Central Nervous system disorder by MG Rana,MD via FibromyalgiaResources.com
• Fibromyalgia mystery finally solved. Research find main source of pain by M H Shahid via Fibromyalgia Resources
• Fibromyalgia pain linked to spinal cord dys-function via Fibromyalgia Resources