Many people living with fibromyalgia can trace their symptoms back to a traumatic event.

Understanding the link with trauma may help bring some relief.

Joylynn Nelson Of Logan,Utah ,traces her symptoms back to the snowy night of December 23 years ago when she and her was quickly finishing the Christmas events, and collided head on with a train. They both survived, but it took 2 years for Nelson to understand the link of her fibromyalgia pain with this traumatic event. She is not alone facing this; many people suffering from fibromyalgia can trace their fibromyalgia pain back to some traumatic event. The current is that even you are genetically predisposed individual, and then head and neck trauma may initiate the onset of fibromyalgia, explains Kim Jones, PHD, an associate professor at Oregon Health and Science University, in Portland. She explains people whose fibromyalgia symptoms begin with trauma might have developed the condition later on, or may have a family history of chronic pain.

Even many experts have linked the fibromyalgia symptoms to injury that affects the head and neck, the traumatic events of fibromyalgia may b much more frequent. Any type of trauma or any stressful event like surgery or war, certain type of infections all lead to fibromyalgia, most of these are not linked to any trauma to spine, this is clarified by rheumatologist Daniel Clauw, MD, a professor of medicine and director of the Chronic Pain and Fatigue research centre in the anesthesiology department at the University of Michigan in Ann arbor.

Traumatic experiences that are related with fibromyalgia include:

<< Accident

<< Emotional Trauma

<< Certain viruses such as hepatitis C and HIV

<< A childhood separation from your mother and it lasted more than 6 months.

<< Living through a war.

Linking Trauma to Relief

When some people understand about the traumatic trigger it’s a relief for them and a ray of hope. “We just didn’t hear the train and didn’t see it, and we collided, Nelson, now 56, recalls. Her bruises were gone after 10 years, but she realized that the continuous pain and pervasive quality of her pain was unusual.

I had a pain and I feel like it was coming out from my forearms and femurs. I keep on telling my doctor that the pain was radiating from by bones, but she and even doctor was unable to explain the relation between her pain and train accident. A year and half after accident she finally got her diagnosis of fibromyalgia. She was a very active personality, Nelson said she said she just powered through many of the fibromyalgia symptoms when they hit her and she found some relief after receiving the fibromyalgia treatment.

One day, decade later, she responded to add from a Logan area chiropractor, Cory Kingston, DC, he was looking for people who were going through a chronic pain to participate in pilot relief program. Kingston argues that a whiplash event like car wrecked event can cause the head to accelerate faster than the cervical spine and then snap back. Although people think that their posture is in normal position, the event locks the head and neck in forward position, resetting the body’s trauma response in some people so that their central nervous system continues to act on daily basis, as though it is under threat. The trauma also affects the cervical spine, creating continuous stress on the body.

Kingston has developed the extensive program of exercises, including traction, he intend to correct that response. His program also included dietary changes like giving up something like carbonated soda. Nelson went through this program and she reported that she had reported that she has improved a lot, and she felt worse when she doesn’t follow the program. She and her husband recently finished building their house by their own hands, and she says that she would not able to do it without Kingston help.

Unluckily not everyone whose fibromyalgia is triggered by trauma will find relief in the same way, Kingston advised everyone to be careful to believe the false and quick claims of trauma related chronic pain relief. He also advises to ask for some evidence like clinical studies and before and after x rays, which can support their claim.

Kingston has noticed that even experts are very well aware about the connection trauma and fibromyalgia, but many doctors are not. But if you believe that some traumatic event has triggered your fibromyalgia, you should go for further investigations.

– Dr. M Rana, MD MBBS, FUMDC

For support and Discussions join the support group “Living with Fibromyalgia and Chronic illness”