Fibromyalgia is a legitimate, common entity. It is a cyclic and progressive disease which affects millions of patients, primarily women, regardless of race. Manifested by multiple symptoms that may initially last only a few days, it eventually progresses to affect multiple areas and bodily systems until patients simply cycle from bad to worse. At present, there are no diagnostic laboratory tests for fibromyalgia. Our recent research paper reported several abnormal cytokines that change during the course of our treatment.1

Patients are often referred from one doctor to another, and told that they have chronic fatigue, systemic candidiasis, myofascial pain, irritable bowel or vulvar pain syndrome. Too often, physician and patient focus on symptoms and fail to perceive the much larger problem. These dead-end diagnoses result in the treatment of symptoms which is only partially effective and at the same time ignores the underlying cause and the disease that continues to worsen over time.

The American College of Rheumatology recommends searching for tender points at eighteen predetermined sites on the body to establish a diagnosis of fibromyalgia. However some patients simply have higher pain thresholds so while they complain of body aches or stiffness, they focus mainly on fatigue and cognitive impairments. These so-called Chronic Fatigue Syndrome patients suffer from the same metabolic abnormality. Since pain perception varies greatly, we urge physicians to seek objective evidence instead of the purely subjective response to variably tender points. The confirmation of fibromyalgia is far more secure when using our method of palpation that we call mapping (see below).

Fibromyalgia has no set symptoms and many combinations from the following list are interwoven:

Central Nervous System: Fatigue, irritability, nervousness, depression, apathy, listlessness, impaired memory and concentration, anxieties and suicidal thoughts. Insomnia and frequent awakening due to pain result in non restorative sleep.

Musculoskeletal: Pain and generalized morning stiffness could arise from muscles, tendons, ligaments and fascia of the shoulders, neck, entire back, hips, thighs, knees, ankles, feet, inner and outer elbows, wrists, fingers, and chest. Injured or old operative sites are commonly affected. Though fibromyalgia is described as a “non-articular” disease many know better: Joint pains with or without swelling, redness and heat are frequent. The litany includes foot or calf cramps, numbness and tingling of the face or extremities.

Irritable Bowel: (Often called leaky gut, spastic colon or mucous colitis). Symptoms include nausea (often brief, repetitive waves), indigestion, gas, bloating, pain, cramps, constipation alternating with diarrhea and sometimes mucous stools.

Genitourinary: Common are pungent urine, frequent urination, bladder spasms, burning urination (dysuria) with or without repeated bladder infections and interstitial cystitis. Vulvodynia (vulvar pain syndrome) includes vaginal spasms, irritation of the vaginal lips (vulvitis) or opening (vestibulitis) and painful intercourse (dyspareunia). It typically mimics a yeast infection but without the cottage-cheese discharge. Intense PMS and uterine cramping are common. Symptoms of fibromyalgia are worse premenstrual.

Dermatological: Various rashes may appear with or without itching: Hives, red blotches, itchy bumps or blisters, eczema, seborrheic or neurodermatitis, and rosacea. Nails are often brittle and of poor quality and hair falls out prematurely. Strange sensations are common such as cold, heat (especially palms, soles and thighs), crawling, electric vibrations, prickling, super-sensitivity to touch, and flushing that is sometimes accompanied by sweating.

Head, Eye, Ear, Nose, and Throat: Headaches (migraines), dizziness, vertigo (spinning) or imbalance; dry eyes as well as itching and burning with or without sticky or crusty discharge upon awakening; blurred vision; nasal congestion and post-nasal drip; painful, burning tongue, mouth and abnormal tastes (scalded, bad or metallic); ringing in the ears (tinnitus) or lower-pitched sounds; ear and eyeball pain; sensitivity to light, sounds and odors.

Miscellaneous Symptoms: Weight gain; low grade fever; lowered immunity to infections; morning eyelid and hand swelling from fluid retention that gravitates to the lower extremities by evening where it stretches tissues causing the restless leg syndrome.

Hypoglycemia Syndrome: This is a separate entity. Thirty percent of female and twenty percent of male fibromyalgics suffer both conditions (fibroglycemia). Symptoms greatly overlap those of fibromyalgia, but sugar craving accompanied by tremors, sweating, anxiety, panic attacks, heart pounding, faintness, and frontal headaches, especially if hunger induced, are solid clues to the diagnosis. Hypoglycemics must follow a prescribed diet or recovery will not be complete even with the reversal of fibromyalgia. (See Hypoglycemia for more information.)

Trauma, infection or stress can aggravate or tip susceptible individuals into fibromyalgia but are not the basic causes. It is generally accepted now as an inherited disease and preliminary results from our research team at City of Hope support this belief. We have treated family members that spanned three generations including four two-year-olds as well as patients who became symptomatic only in their seventies. This age spread strongly suggests a multi-genetic disease in various combinations. Boys and girls suffer equally before puberty but females predominate (85% to 15%) thereafter. Forty percent of our patients recall "growing pains" in childhood that disappeared during the true growth spurt of puberty. Untreated fibromyalgia ultimately leads to a "tartar of joints" that we recognize as osteoarthritis.

Call to set up a nutritional consultation so that tests can be performed and a comprehensive strategy of lifestyle, dietary modification and nutrient supplementation can be implemented to aid you in reversing this debilitating disorder and begin to live again.

For an appointment with Dr. Rispoli, contact our office at: 818 707-3126 and visit our web site www.completehealthinstitute.com go to lab tests and click on appropriate test for more information about these Functional Laboratory Tests.