QUESTION:
Is there any evidence suggesting that fibromyalgia can be caused by exposure to environmental toxins including moulds, asbestos, fibreglass and other airborne toxins?
ANSWER:
With fibromyalgia, a syndrome that combines pain, fatigue, anxiety, and depression, you have to separate “cause” from “trigger”. New research suggests that this syndrome is caused by imbalances of chemicals and hormones in the nervous system that amplify sensation, making even a slight touch feel painful.
In a recent study, Daniel Clauw MD, a rheumatologist at the University of Michigan, used MRIs to show what happens in the brains of fibromyalgia patients in response to minimal pressure to their left thumbs. He showed that to receive the same brain response from healthy people you have to apply twice the pressure, showing that fibromyalgia patients are extremely sensitive to touch.
In other studies it has been shown that nerve interference such as Vertebral Subluxations cause nerves to be extremely sensitive and alter the chemicals and hormones within the nervous system. The subluxation itself is something that the person in incapable of feeling.
Some type of trauma early in life will create the existence of Subluxations (which are not felt), and later in life a person is exposed to some type of “trigger”. The trigger can be something that is chemical in nature like moulds or other airborne toxins, it can be an emotional stress, or it can be a physical stress that sets off the negative health effects of the Subluxations.
It has been known for a long time that Chiropractic adjustments reduce the sensitivity found in fibromyalgia patients and allow them to live a better quality of life with less pain and increased function. This is one explanation to help people understand why Chiropractic continually helps people who suffer from fibromyalgia.