I have been a medical
journalist for many, many years and because of this I read lots of medical
journals. I am also an extreme fibro sufferer that has recovered in the past –
and now back worse than ever.
If you have read all the
latest fibro research they ALL state it is a central nervous condition. Whether
you attribute it to substance P or other causations there is no questions it is
a CNS aberration.
Then they state it is a
hyperactive pain response. The neurotransmitter (NT) that controls the major
stimuli in the brain is GABA. Now the researchers tell us that fibro people
have too much glutamate in the brain...a major arousal neurotransmitter. When
glutamate goes up GABA goes down so now you have too much stimulating NT and no
GABA brakes.
In neurophysiology it is
proven beyond a doubt that a mother who is producing stress hormones while the
child is in utero will have an altered glutamate/GABA system for life. This
also happens with adverse childhood experiences and it need not be outright
abuse.
For a sensitive child it can be as little as
going to day care or parents arguing. When a child is exposed to stress the
rapidly developing brain takes that as a “Set Point” and uses it for life.
So what happens when you
alter the GABA/glutamate balance – a deregulated central nervous system. The
hundreds of known NT’s all work in concert....alter one and you alter them all.
What are some of the
outcomes of having too much glutamate and too little GABA and its effect on the
other NT’s: panic – anxiety – OCD – irritable bowel, TMJ, chemical sensitivity,
body tension, fibromyalgia and fatigue......plus much more.
Google Allostatic Load
(AS) so this part is better understood. AS starts before you are born and we
each have threshold that once we go over we have stress disorder symptoms. This
is why some fibro people have an event that starts fibro: injury, divorce,
illness etc – these are huge stressors and when we were at the gates of fibro
these put the AS over the threshold.
But haven't they found
fibro runs in families. There are no genetic test links that show this.
However.....families pass down dysfunctional coping strategies, family dynamic
stress and behavioral/cognitive patterns that cause internal stress.....and
chances are you wont know it because ..IT IS ALL YOU HAVE KNOWN ...much like
asking a fish to know about water.
I believe fibro is
maintained because we have inadequate coping skills once we are into allostatic
load breakdown....we can muddle through life unless the big one hits then we
don’t have means to support and heal a really damaged nervous system. In fact
when you look at anxiety disorders adverse, learned coping process is what
keeps people stuck.
Once you hurt a knee
joint you have to be very careful in allowing it to heal. If you run on it
every day it wont ever heal. I believe that fibro and all these other mind/body
disorders are perpetuated by internal states we don’t even recognize and do
everyday(remember fish in water).
Add to that low self
esteem, poor self-care, behaviors that are not helpful, current stressors,
cognitive exacerbations, false diagnostic beliefs and many other contributing
factors and there is the recipe for keeping the CNS sick.
Then add
pain/stress/depression medications that they have discovered can cause
“neuronal amnesia” or simply that once you drug the brain it cannot remember
where normal is.
Whoa...are you saying
this is all in my head....yesssss! All the research has shown that there is
absolutely nothing wrong with the muscle or soft tissue. Nerve conduction tests
are normal as are circulation studies.
Every credible research report that has been
published in the past few years says it is brain/nervous system driven and the
identified NT’s are ones that are stress altered and it need not be huge
stress.
The drip-drip-drip or
death by a thousand paper cuts is the most destructive and these stressors can
be 100% internal and you may not know they are happening (fish in water again).
So many of us were
probably born with sensitive nervous systems, had adverse childhood experiences
the made us more sensitive to stress, were never trained in high level life
coping skills, developed adverse behaviors and cognitive processes and maybe
had a trauma...minor or major and Hello fibro!!
More on this
later.......