Childhood Abuse and Fibromyalgia in Women

Here is a study showing evidence of permanent brain changes in women who received abuse in childhood, brain changes that directly impact the stress response in the body (H-P-A activity noted below). Every client I have seen with fibromyalgia has experienced childhood abuse or has been in a major physical trauma such as an automobile accident.

It's like the switches in the brain that respond to stress get stuck on, then turn the volume up from a normal stress response to telling the body every little stressor is a five alarm fire. Too many five alarm fires and the nervous & immune systems begin to wear out, leaving the body itself on fire, unable to repair the daily wear and tear damages in soft tissues, and joints.

"In women with chronic pain, self-reported childhood maltreatment was associated with higher diurnal cortisol levels. These results add to the evidence that abuse in childhood can induce long-term changes in hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical activity. They further underscore the importance of evaluating childhood maltreatment in fibromyalgia and other chronic pain conditions." Psychosomatic Medicine Journal article, May 13, 2010

The good news is there are many cutting edge therapies that can soften or reduce the highly reactive stress response. Meditation has been proven in studies to change brain responses to stress; any body treatment that releases endorphins such as massage or Reiki will also change brain patterns with repeated use.

In order to change we must give the brain a replacement behavior pattern and practice it to create new neuron pathways that over-ride exacerbated stress responses. Some therapies such as Meridian Tapping Techniques (EFT, TFT, Energy Psychology) can unravel the switches at the source. Anti-depressants are used with fibromyalgia patients with fairly good results, but this is a chemical correction in the brain. These drugs may be helpful to get other healing activated, and provide quick relief, but there are many downsides and side-effects from AD's which often lose their effectiveness over a period of time and must be monitored and adjusted carefully.

Short Bursts of Activity Ease Fibromyalgia

Walking More, Gardening, Taking the Stairs Help Fibromyalgia Patients Feel and Function Better, Study Finds

By Denise Mann
WebMD Health News

Reviewed by Laura J. Martin, MD

March 29, 2010 -- Exercise may be the last thing you feel like doing if you are among the 10 million Americans living with the chronic pain disorder fibromyalgia. Yet a new study shows that incorporating short bursts of physical activity into the day makes fibromyalgia patients feel and function better. The findings appear in Arthritis Research & Therapy.

"Just trying to accumulate a little more physical activity throughout the normal course of the day, as opposed to engaging in traditional exercise, can improve self-reported measures of functioning and pain among people with fibromyalgia," lead researcher Kevin Fontaine, PhD, an assistant professor of rheumatology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, tells WebMD in an email. "You don't necessarily have to do traditional exercise to reap some benefits, [and] this may motivate people with fibromyalgia who find it difficult to stick with traditional exercise to simply try to get a little more active during the day."

In the 12-week study of 84 people with fibromyalgia, people who incorporated 30 minutes' worth of lifestyle physical activity into their days five to seven days a week took 54% more steps per day than their counterparts who participated in a fibromyalgia education program, which discussed the importance of physical activity in the treatment of this disease, but did not provide any specific recommendations. The lifestyle physical activity group also reported fewer perceived deficits in their physical function and less pain than people in the disease education group, the study showed.

What Is Lifestyle Physical Activity?

Lifestyle physical activity refers to finding ways to accumulate short bursts of physical activity into the day. This can be walking more, gardening, taking the stairs, or really anything that gets you moving more. The current school of thought suggests that such small bursts of exercise throughout the day can be as effective as exercising for 30 consecutive minutes.

"There is probably no single good or best exercise or lifestyle physical activity prescription for people with fibromyalgia because there is such variability in symptoms between people," he says. "For many, walking is helpful, but some may prefer water exercise or cycling."

The bottom line? "The best exercise or lifestyle physical activity is the one that a person can stick with and one that doesn't significantly worsen their symptoms," Fontaine says. "The main thing is for people with fibromyalgia to try to do something physical just about every day."

© 2010 WebMD, LLC. All rights reserved.

Fibromyalgia and Traumatic Stress connections

Is There a Connection Between Fibromyalgia and Traumatic Stress? Question: I'd like to ask Belleruth about the seeming correlation between trauma and fibromyalgia in women. Has there been any research into this? Answer: Mary, I write about this in Invisible Heroes. At the time of publication there were only 2 studies published, showing the link between fibromyalgia and traumatic stress – for men or women, although either condition hits more women than men. Now there are too many studies to count, but you can start with a recent article by some Italian researchers, Stisi et al, titled Etiopathogenetic mechanisms of fibromyalgia syndrome. Robert Scaer was on to this years ago, and wrote about it in The Body Bears the Burden. But the short answer is YES, there is a big, fat correlation. Here is an explanatory (or at least I hope so) excerpt of the relevant material from my book (and for those of you who have the book, it’s in Chapter 5, The Physical Effects of Trauma, pages 78-80. Chronic Pain Conditions This constant activation of the alarm state leads to an accumulation of metabolic waste products in the muscle fibers, and the release of kinins and other chemical pain generators in the tissue, resulting in myofascial pain and the appearance of those seemingly intractable chronic conditions such as fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, irritable bowel syndrome, chronic headache, TMJ and more. And because these conditions are generated in the brain stem and the motor reflex centers in the spinal column, and routed through a perturbed, automatic, arousal circuitry, peripheral forms of treatment provide only temporary relief. Constantly activated by everyday sensory cues, normal muscle movement and spontaneous memories, symptoms grow and become more and more entrenched over time. In other words, this is one nasty gift from the kindled feedback loop that, if not interrupted, will just keep on giving. Our epidemiology research has already shown us an astounding percentage of people with baffling chronic pain conditions and “functional” diseases that have no obvious causes, who have been found to have prior histories of severe trauma. Probably if we could tease out the subset of traumatized people who experienced substantial dissociation during their trauma, and a truncated freeze response in the midst of it, we might find closer to one hundred percent suffering from posttraumatic stress. Unfortunately for them, they are often assumed to be malingering or engaged in attention-seeking behavior for neurotic reasons, instead of suffering from a very serious, self perpetuating condition with a potentially worsening trajectory. Included in this group of maligned and misunderstood patients would be scores of people suffering from pelvic and low back pain, orofacial and myofascial pain, genito-urinary and abdominal pain; interstitial cystitis; and the previously mentioned headache, fibromyalgia (FM), chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), and reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD); irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), inflammatory bowel disorder (IBD), multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) and migraine. Thanks for asking. Too many people still don’t know about this connection. All best, Belleruth Naparstek http://belleruthnaparstek.com/ask-belleruth/is-there-a-connection-between-fibromyalgia-and-traumatic-stress.html

Fibromyalgia a ‘Real Disease,’ Study Shows

Researchers Say People With Fibromyalgia Have Abnormalities of Blood Flow in the Brain

By Caroline Wilbert
WebMD Health News

Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

Nov. 3, 2008 -- A new brain scan study concludes that fibromyalgia is related to abnormalities of blood flow in the brain.

"Fibromyalgia may be related to a global dysfunction of cerebral pain-processing," study author Eric Guedj, MD, of Centre Hospitalo-Universitaire de la Timone, in Marseille, France, says in a news release. "This study demonstrates that these patients exhibit modifications of brain perfusion not found in healthy subjects and reinforces the idea that fibromyalgia is a 'real disease/disorder.'"

Fibromyalgia is a chronic disorder characterized by widespread muscle pain and fatigue. It affects 2%-4% of people, mostly women. It has been called the "invisible syndrome" because it can't be diagnosed based on a lab test or X-ray.

For this study, researchers took brain scans on 20 women with fibromyalgia and 10 women without the condition. Participants also answered questions to assess measures of pain, disability, anxiety, and depression.

The brain imaging technique, called single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), is able to detect functional abnormalities in the brain.

Past imaging studies of patients with fibromyalgia had shown abnormalities in cerebral blood flow, also called brain perfusion. In some areas of the brain, blood flow was below normal, and in some areas, it was above normal. In this study, by using whole-brain scans on the participants, researchers were able to analyze how perfusion in each area of the brain related to measures of pain, disability, anxiety, and depression.

Researchers confirmed that patients with fibromyalgia exhibited brain perfusion abnormalities in comparison to the healthy participants. These abnormalities corresponded with the severity of the disease. An increase in blood flow was found in areas of the brain involved in sensing pain and a decrease was found within an area thought to be involved in emotional responses to pain.

There seemed to be no relationship between these abnormalities and presence of depression or anxiety. "We found that these functional abnormalities were independent of anxiety and depression status," Guedj says in a news release.

View Article Sources

SOURCES:

Guedj, E. Journal of Nuclear Medicine, 2008; vol 49: pp 1798-1803.

News release, Society of Nuclear Medicine.

American College of Rheumatology web site.

© 2008 WebMD, LLC. All rights reserved.
http://www.webmd.com/fibromyalgia/news/20081103/fibromyalgia-a-real-disease-study-shows?src=RSS_PUBLIC