Are there blood test that can tell u have Fibro

There is no blood test for fibromyalgia so that's why you have to have other illnesses ruled out. Plus fibro isn't considered a inflammatory illness according to the American College of Rheumatology and other good organizations. We have members with fibro and all the pain that goes with it but show absolutely no inflammation in their blood work.

I have a lot of inflammation in my blood work but that's because I have other illnesses that are inflammatory. You said in your other post that you got disability and you have arthritis and disc problems. Arthritis is an inflammatory illness and I think the disc problems can cause inflammation so that's probably why you are showing inflammation.

Sherrine

There are inflammatory markers found in fibromyalgia patients, for instance.inflammatory cytokines & chemokines, but as of now I don't believe any of them could exclude other conditions as a diagnosis. Possibly you misunderstood? (Or the doctor has misunderstood the clinical research?)

More commonly a doctor would include in a blood panel CRP /c-reactive protein or ESR/erythrocyte sedimentation rate (also referred to sometimes as SED or sedimentatlon rate), and some fibro-only patients will have one of these elevated. But I have to repeat that is not how fibro is diagnosed...there would also be a physical exam, and I would.hope that many doctors will want to go further and rule out other conditions that mimic fibro symptoms. We're just not to the stage where a compilation of markers differentiates fibro

But these blood findings do turn up in fibromyalgia patients, and some research by a team led by Xiao even subsequently turned up genetic pollymorphisms also for them ...tho the snp for each (pronounced snip) was also associated with a higher BMI (body mass index) in conjuction with the higher blood levels of either CRP or ESR in Xiao's studies. Earlier this study said inflammatory markers in fibro are independent of Body Mass Index.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2891797/

There are other inflammatory markers found in numerous studies, but since right now other conditions are still not yet excluded by these findings, I think there is a misunderstanding. It's possible you can leave a voice mail with your doctor's nurse and maybe a call-back to you could straighten out any confusion?

It's still sort of "luck of the draw" to manage to have either (or both) a knowledgeable fibro doctor and nurse. I'll find a thread I have posted here about some inflammatory findings in fibro.

There is a learning curve to this medical jargon, but its not long...more repetitive.with my memory problems. Someone here may care to catch up on this area that began to be researched as long ago as 2001 (Wallace).

I read another study in recent weeks, this one really more about BDNF/brain derived neurotropic factor and S100B, (publ. in Molecular Pain July 2014)& it mentioned inflammatory findings also, just very briefly tho. It's not mentiones in the study but its my recollection that S100B is known to upregulate at least 2 inflammatory cytokines (TNF-alpha and IL-1b, & both possibly involved in fibro and CFS). That sounds potentially problematic.

Post edit

A thread about inflammation studies is here. Over 30 up to 2015 found some evidence. I added a study from March 2017 to demonstrate that the findings continue.
/www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=24&m=2756942&g=2756942#m2756942

Post Edited (Rockon) : 12/26/2017 1:00:07 AM (GMT-7)

Once again I will quote that site which Sherrine hss linked:

"...Therefore, several NIH-supported researchers are focusing on ways the body processes pain to better understand why people with fibromyalgia have increased pain sensitivity. These studies include:

The establishment of a tissue bank of brain and spinal cord tissue to study fibromyalgia and to determine the extent to which chronic pain in fibromyalgia patients is associated with the activation of cells in the nervous system and the production of chemical messengers, called cytokines, that promote inflammation."

Many of my linked studies are from the NIH library.

I believe the Mayo clinic removed online statements refuting inflammation as a possibility in fibro.

Post Edited (Rockon) : 8/12/2014 11:51:12 AM (GMT-6)

I have had fibro for many years now and I can tell you two things. I have had a great deal of inflammation in my body with randomly swollen areas on my body and I have no other illness that caused it.

While I don't believe that you can or should diagnose fibro by inflammatory markers I think that we should be understanding that not all fibro patients have the same symptoms. There are still times to this day when I will randomly get inflammation in my back muscles or in my jaw and I know it's caused by the fibro flaring up.

Again, I don't think that the diagnosis should be made just because of the inflammation however if every other condition has been ruled out then the inflammation could be a symptom of your fibro as it is me. I have never taken anti-inflammatories for it however I do eat an anti-inflammatory diet now and also consume a lot of ginger and turmeric both being anti-inflammatory. It has definitely made a difference in the symptoms.

I mean no disrespect with this post but just because big medicine says that inflammation isn't part of our symptoms doesn't mean it's necessarily true...how many doctors have you seen that tell you that fibro isn't even real...