Pain Severity in FM Correlates to Blood Flow to Brain's Pain Intensity Discrimination Area

I realized that many of the pieces most read in the forums here at Lumigrate related to fibromyalgia are pieces where I cover things I see and review and feel are worthy of posting: I strive to make Lumigrate's information be valid, include the progressive/CAM approaches (as they frequently are getting at the underlying causes and yield dramatic results for less money overall, typically), which streamlines people's searching online by having a source that brings a lot of GRATE providers and topics together in one place.  AND we throw in some FUN stuff too in order to make the process more enjoyable.  

I found this link to a piece on ABC's website from the fall of 2011 very 'sound'.  My personal experience, which I like to include when appropriate as it serves as a good example for other 'normal people out there who have struggled with fibromyalgia', was that in 1995 my journey trying to figure out 'what was going on' started when I called the doctor's office from my first cell phone with a big exacerbation of pain while driving in a snowstorm back home to Fort Collins from my level one internship in Denver when in occupational therapy school at Colorado State University and having to do a lot of shifting of the transmission in my 4x4 vehicle.  Since it was an urgent matter, they put me with a new physician who said 'your symptoms seem like MS to me'.  I admitted it had gone through my head as well.  

He ordered an MRI of my head and neck and that ended up being four scans as the first set showed 'something' which required 'lighting up' with contrast.  I will tell you that the time for the IV team to come and then do the second set of scans was the slowest of my life.  I had to lie perfectly still to be in the same position, which hurts on a hard surface for starters.  The technologist and my significant other, who was an electrical engineer and was fascinated by what was being shown on the computer monitor, were having a grand time talking.  And I literally did what I had learned people do in times of extreme stress: I bargained with God. I hadn't yet really realized I was no longer an atheist at the time; my health has been the greatest 'change agent' related to spirituality.  "Please let this not be MS -- I'll do whatever I need to if it's not." was what went through my mind.

When I got to see my neurologist for the results two weeks later (yes, it felt like an eternity but that's how the results/schuduling thing worked for them), she shared the results that there were some "punctate lesions" which looked like what MS looks like, but they weren't where MS usually makes lesions.  So we scheduled for her to do a lumbar puncture at the hospital.  Another wait, another eternity it seemed to get those results back.  In the mean time, we studied MS in my applied neurology OT course, and I told my one best friend in the program what was going on with me.  They showed us black and white movies of people who had advanced MS: I was terrified but at another level I thought "I'll just have to meet that challenge if it comes."  

It turned out there was no myelin in the spinal fluid so the neurologist literally had 'no ideas' what was causing my symptoms though somewhere I learned that untreated migraine headaches could cause such lesions, so I started taking medication that zonked me out for the rest of the day at that point.  Thankfully, other medications came out in the late 1990s which allowed me to continue working -- it was odd, the head pain was gone but all the other 'aura' or numbness symptoms remained, and I'd still feel exhausted the next day despite not having pain to 'fight'.  

I asked the neurologist if it could be food allergies causing my weakness, tremor and headaches and she said that food allergies do contribute to headache.  So I pursued finding testing for that (via IgG as IgE came back negative; I had insurance and had already done IgE testing with nothing coming back positive.  

By eliminating the foods suggested by the progressive-thinking MD in a nearby town based on the IgG test results, I made remarkable progress, truly being symptom-free within a year or so; in my case dairy, wheat, eggs.  I also did a yeast cleanse the summer I had graduated and was starting my final/big internships at the Denver VA.  I love fruit and watermellon in particular so it was kind of a bummer summer in that regard but I did feel GREAT!  

Unfortunately, there might have been more to the punctate lesions being a symptom of something 'more' that wasn't being addressed; I understand from education put on Facebook by Dr Spurlock, who contributes content on FM here at Lumigrate, that virus' can cause those types of lesions.  Since I have only been bitten by ticks in the state of Colorado, MANY of them in one year in the mid 1960s when it must have been very wet, Lyme disease was not on my radar screen or of my Colorado-based medical providers.  But I wonder, so hope to get that checked out in the future. 

I have had another round of cervical/neck MRIs for a consult by a famous orthopedic clinic in Vail, and my neck warranted more PT and short-term injections but not yet surgery, but I have not had more MRIs. I perceive there to be quite a few changes and I almost don't want to know what an MRI would show! (Is there anything LEFT?  Kidding, but those with FM likely will understand what I'm saying, and keeping a sense of humor about it helps me.)   I continue to work with a DO (osteopath), a DDS (dentist, a holistic one working on the cranial field), and a DC (chiropractor) related to my neck and what's above and below it, among other things.  I had a great deal of relief from of all things, a yoga instructor turned movement therapist named Analii Cunningham who has developed a way of looking at how we 'use' our core/gut/pelvic area to hold tensions and how to release the fascia there and above and below. At our 1:1 session, she saw that my body/brain was blocked at that same level where the most awry cervical disk is and it's relationship to my brain/mind.    

So the following information does NOT surprise me. Six or seven years ago I found another good study about FM and people with disk problems in the cervical versus lumbar area: those with cervical were over 10x more likely to have FM than those with lumbar disk herniations.  That was leading people to believe the disks were interfering with something flowing -- blood, brain/spinal fluid, 'energy'.  I, however, wondered if those disk injuries came with an injury to the brain, potentially around the pituitary since so much with FM has to do with the hormone cascade going awry.  So, much to think about and wonder about, as always. 

I am sharing the link here but will include some of the article's content (and remove some), so you can get an idea of what it's about and follow over and read it if you find it worthy of your time and energy resources.  abcnews.go.com/Health/Healthday/story

For me, until I have the resources (money/insurance, time, energy) to investigate, do testing and have time consulting 1:1 with Dr Spurlock or someone who is as knowledgeable as he is related to FM, CFS and environmental illness issues, I presume the best thing I can do is do my best with the information I already have and do as I said I would do when I was held captive in the MRI for 'eternity' and do my best with the approaches I already know about.  I hope this is of interest to you and helps in your search for information.  

Live and Learn.  Learn and Live Better! ~~ Mardy

From Nov 4 2011, link provided above: please follow out to read the entire piece 

MONDAY, Nov. 3 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers have detected abnormalities in the brains of people with fibromyalgia, a complex, chronic condition characterized by muscle pain and fatigue.

"We showed in our study that the functional abnormalities observed were mainly related to disability," and not to anxiety and depression status, said Dr. Eric Guedj, the study's lead author and a researcher at Centre Hospitalier-Universitaire de la Timone in France.

While some researchers have suggested that the pain reported by fibromyalgia patients was the result of depression, the new study suggests otherwise. The abnormalities found on brain scans done by the study authors were independent of the women's anxiety and depression levels, Guedj said.

The French researchers evaluated 20 women diagnosed with fibromyalgia and 10 healthy women without the condition who served as a control group. They asked all the women to respond to questionnaires to determine levels of pain, disability, anxiety and depression.

Then, the researchers performed brain imaging called single photon emission computed tomography, or SPECT.

The imaging showed that women with the syndrome had "brain perfusion" -- or blood flow abnormalities -- compared to the healthy women. The researchers then found that these abnormalities were directly correlated with the severity of disease symptoms.

An increase in blood flow was found in the brain region known to discriminate pain intensity, the researchers found.

The findings were published in the November issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine. .......  In previous research, Guedj and his team had found functional abnormalities in areas of the brain of fibromyalgia patients. The latest study goes a step further, demonstrating that the brain abnormalities are correlated with disease severity, he said. ...................... 

.......... indicates where I removed information to condense this piece; again, I encourage following to abcnews.go.com/Health/Healthday/story for the complete piece.