Fibromyalgia Support Group
You're not alone in your pain. Fibromyalgia is a condition that can be difficult to diagnose and manage. If you're trying to cope with pain throughout your body, sleep problems, general fatigue, or other common fibromyalgia symptoms, you're in the right place. The community is here for you to talk about therapies and share your challenges.
Neuropathic pain
According to the most widely accepted definition, neuropathic pain is "initiated or caused by a primary lesion or dysfunction in the nervous system. As much as 3% of the population is affected.
Neuropathic pain may result from disorders of the peripheral nervous system or the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord). Thus, neuropathic pain may be divided into peripheral neuropathic pain, central neuropathic pain or mixed (peripheral and central) neuropathic pain.
Central neuropathic pain is found in spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, and some strokes. Fibromyalgia, a disorder of chronic widespread pain, is potentially a central pain disorder and is responsive to medications effective for neuropathic pain.
Aside from diabetes (see Diabetic neuropathy) and other metabolic conditions, the common causes of painful peripheral neuropathies are herpes zoster infection, HIV-related neuropathies, nutritional deficiencies, toxins, remote manifestations of malignancies, genetic and immune mediated disorders.
Neuropathic pain is common in cancer as a direct result of cancer on peripheral nerves (e.g., compression by a tumor), as a side effect of some chemotherapy drugs, and as a result of radiation injury.
Symptoms
Neuropathy often results in numbness, abnormal sensations called dysesthesias and allodynias that occur either spontaneously or in reaction to external stimuli, and a characteristic form of pain, called neuropathic pain or neuralgia, that is qualitatively different from the ordinary nociceptive pain one might experience from stubbing a toe.
Neuropathic pain may have continuous and/or episodic (paroxysmal) components. The latter are likened to an electric shock. Common qualities of the pain include burning or coldness, "pins and needles" sensations, numbness and itching. "Ordinary" pain results from exclusive stimulation of pain fibers, while neuropathic pain often results from the firing of both pain and non-pain (touch, warm, cool) sensory nerve fibers serving the same area. The result is signals that the spinal cord and brain do not normally receive.
http://www.rebuildermedical.com/neuropathy.php
This is the website I found the info on. It's about mid page. There's a lot more info.
According to the most widely accepted definition, neuropathic pain is "initiated or caused by a primary lesion or dysfunction in the nervous system. As much as 3% of the population is affected.
Neuropathic pain may result from disorders of the peripheral nervous system or the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord). Thus, neuropathic pain may be divided into peripheral neuropathic pain, central neuropathic pain or mixed (peripheral and central) neuropathic pain.
Central neuropathic pain is found in spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, and some strokes. Fibromyalgia, a disorder of chronic widespread pain, is potentially a central pain disorder and is responsive to medications effective for neuropathic pain.
Aside from diabetes (see Diabetic neuropathy) and other metabolic conditions, the common causes of painful peripheral neuropathies are herpes zoster infection, HIV-related neuropathies, nutritional deficiencies, toxins, remote manifestations of malignancies, genetic and immune mediated disorders.
Neuropathic pain is common in cancer as a direct result of cancer on peripheral nerves (e.g., compression by a tumor), as a side effect of some chemotherapy drugs, and as a result of radiation injury.
Symptoms
Neuropathy often results in numbness, abnormal sensations called dysesthesias and allodynias that occur either spontaneously or in reaction to external stimuli, and a characteristic form of pain, called neuropathic pain or neuralgia, that is qualitatively different from the ordinary nociceptive pain one might experience from stubbing a toe.
Neuropathic pain may have continuous and/or episodic (paroxysmal) components. The latter are likened to an electric shock. Common qualities of the pain include burning or coldness, "pins and needles" sensations, numbness and itching. "Ordinary" pain results from exclusive stimulation of pain fibers, while neuropathic pain often results from the firing of both pain and non-pain (touch, warm, cool) sensory nerve fibers serving the same area. The result is signals that the spinal cord and brain do not normally receive.
http://www.rebuildermedical.com/neuropathy.php
This is the website I found the info on. It's about mid page. There's a lot more info.
-
My 6mo twin DD's are EBF and just started rice cereal on the first. Everything has been going fine except this morning one of them had a diaper rash (lots of redness around her anus). I read this as one of the signs of an allergy. BUT I did just buy a different brand diaper yesterday (which they have used randomly before w/no issues). Do you think its the cereal or the diaper? Im ready to start...
Fibromyalgia Nerve Damage
Journal Of Rheumatology
Fibromyalgia Is a Neuropathic Pain Syndrome
The International Association for the Study of Pain defines neuropathic pain as "pain initiated or caused by a primary lesion or dysfunction of the nervous system". FM is a stimulus-independent pain state because there is no underlying structural damage, and inflammatory signs are conspicuously absent.
Most patients with FM have paresthesias, as demonstrated in the original study that led to the American College of Rheumatology criteria showing that more than 80% of patients with FM had such sensory alteration7.
A more restrictive definition has been proposed that suggests neuropathic pain should be diagnosed only when there is evidence of nervous system damage11. Nevertheless, the clinical importance of neuropathic pain resides, not in the nerve lesion itself, but in the resulting nerve dysfunction.
http://www.jrheum.com/subscribers/...
What Causes fibromyalgia?
Most researchers agree that FM is a disorder of central processing with neuroendocrine/neurotransmitter dysregulation. The FM patient experiences pain amplification due to abnormal sensory processing in the central nervous system.
Recent studies show that genetic factors may predispose individuals to a genetic susceptibility to FM. For some, the onset of FM is slow; however, in a large percentage of patients the onset is triggered by an illness or injury that causes trauma to the body. These events may act to incite an undetected physiological problem already present.
Exciting new research has also begun in the areas of brain imaging and neurosurgery. Ongoing research will test the hypothesis that FM is caused by an interpretative defect in the central nervous system that brings about abnormal pain perception. Medical researchers have just begun to untangle the truths about this life-altering disease.
National Fibromyalgia Association ?? for more information click on this link.
http://www.fmaware.org/site/PageSe...
What is Fibromyalgia?
Fibromyalgia is not a new condition
At a basic level, most people with fibromyalgia are suffering from diffuse muscle and tendon shortening, driven in part by multiple nerve compressions throughout the spine and limbs. Spinal origins from the neck, mid back and low back figure prominently in it??s source of pain.
Fibromyalgia is very much a chicken and egg story. Which came first- the muscle problems or the nerve problems.
http://www.drlamb.com/curefibromya...
How Fibroymalgia Happens
It is believed that there is a faulty regulation of two neurochemicals of the central nervous system, namely substance P and serotonin. Substance P is a chemical that is responsible for amplifying pain signals in the body. Research has shown that some people with fibromyalgia have up to three times the normal level of substance P compared to someone who does not have fibromyalgia. This may lead to errors in pain processing. An example is when something that should not be painful, such as a hug or pat on the back, is perceived by your body as being painful. It??s not that you cannot tolerate pain, but rather that your body is sensing more pain than it actually should be.
Autonomic Nervous System Stress Response (HPA axis)
The autonomic nervous system is that mechanism in the body that helps regulate all the ??automatic functions,?? such as heart rate, breathing, blood pressure and digestion. The autonomic nervous system also is responsible for controlling the stress response, often referred to as our ??fight or flight?? response. This ongoing stress can lead to changes in the brain that alter the way pain signals are processed, leading to increased sensitivity. Symptoms from stress can exaggerate the fibromyalgia symptoms. That is why stress management is a very important key in managing fibromyalgia symptoms.
http://fibrofighters.wordpress.com...
Preliminary Evidence for Small-Fiber Autonomic neuropathy in Fibromyalgia Patients
Peripheral tissue abnormalities may contribute to the increased pain sensitivity of fibromyalgia (FM) patients. These findings were associated with ballooning of Schwann cells, diminished folding of Schwann cell sheaths and smaller axonal size. Myelinated nerve fibers were unremarkable. The EM findings of this study show that the cutaneous nerve endings of FM patients possess unusual architecture, as well as ballooning of their associated Schwann cells. Similar changes were not detectable in skin biopsies of healthy pain-free controls.
http://www.futuremedicine.com/doi/...
For keeping this topic alive.... and referring everybody over to where they belong... the neuropathy group!
It's hard for newbys to find the group, so keep it going and keep it alive by adding our link...
http://dailystrength.org/groups/neuropathy
Come join us everybody!
All of you are awesome!