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Life Beyond Pain™
A Newsletter of Angler Biomedical Technologies, LLC
Fibromyalgia: New Discoveries – New Hope
Our Seminar in Austin, Texas
It was a hot, but productive, summer for Angler
Biomedical Technologies here in Austin, Texas. In
August, we hosted our first ever
seminar, “Fibromyalgia: New Discoveries, New Hope”.
We were fortunate enough to have Dr. Patrick B.
Wood share his latest research findings. Dr. Wood
also shared his thoughts and opinions on the best
treatment and management strategies for those
living with fibromyalgia making this a very helpful
seminar for our participants.
During his two hour presentation, Dr. Wood explained
his recommended treatment regime including
compounded medicines as well as over the counter
supplements.
Here are a few comments we received through the
evaluation of the attendees:
“Dr. Wood did an excellent job explaining a
complex disorder.”
“Thank you for your vision, your enthusiasm, and for
the presentation.”
“Have another, would like spouse to attend.”
We hope to plan a seminar near you in the future.
Fibromyalgia – one or many?
A Message from our Chief Medical Advisor, Patrick B. Wood, MD
I had the opportunity to attend a number of
interesting meetings in September, including a trip to
Istanbul, Turkey, to present some of the data from
my work in Montreal. I wanted to share some of the
impressions I came away with as a result of
attending these meetings. In particular, the National
Fibromyalgia Research Association (NFRA) held their
biannual conference in Salem, OR, this year. It was
a chance to rub shoulders with some of the brightest
minds working in fibromyalgia and share ideas. One
of the things I came with is the growing sense that
what we call ‘fibromyalgia’ is actually a diverse set of
problems that have as their common feature the
patient’s experience of chronic widespread pain and
tenderness. Those of you who are familiar with my
work know that I believe that a majority of
fibromyalgia patients suffer from dysfunction of the
brain limbic system that involves the brain chemical
dopamine. My thinking is based in part on what
animal research has told us about the brain dopamine
system and the impact of chronic stress on its
function. My own work with neuroimaging has also
shown that fibromyalgia patients do indeed have a
demonstrable problem with making and using
dopamine, which goes a long way towards explaining
the chronic pain and other symptoms that patients
suffer from.
On the other hand, there are other models that have
been published that offer other reasonable
explanations for symptoms. For example, it has been
shown that compromising the function of that part of
the spinal cord that pain-killing signals from brain
travel down may also result in the development of
enhanced pain perception. There are a number of
anatomical problems that might cause such a
problem, the most common of which is
called ‘intermittent cord compression’, in which the
cervical (neck) portion of the spinal canal is too
narrow and ‘pinches’ the spinal cord causing
irritation. (For those of you who have seen the
video “Fibromyalgia: Show me where it hurts”, you
know that we demonstrate how you can check for
this using a simple procedure.) A number of
researchers believe strongly that what we
call ‘fibromyalgia’ is actually a form of cervical
myelopathy, meaning a set of bodily symptoms that
result from dysfunction of the cervical spinal cord.
In reality, their argument is pretty convincing. A
number of questions come to mind, though. For
example, could a problem in the neck cause the
dopamine system to malfunction? If that were so, it
might explain why some people with no history of
severe stress in their lives develop pain after a single
car accident.
So, is there one thing called ‘fibromyalgia’ or are
there two, or more? A number of other intriguing
possibilities have also been suggested. My thinking
is that there is probably at least two, which in my
mind I have begun to refer to as ‘Fibromyalgia, Type-
1: Limbic Fibromyalgia’ (the one that involves
dopamine) and ‘Fibromyalgia, Type-2: Cervical
Fibromyalgia’ (the one related to cervical
myelopathy). There are likely others: Fibromyalgia
NOS (not otherwise specified). From a patient
perspective, this may seem discouraging. They might
think, “How am I (or, how is my doctor) supposed to
know the difference between all these different
problems so I can receive symptom relief?” As I
shared with the folks who attended the Fibromyalgia
Association of Houston’s excellent patient conference
at the end of September, the good news is that once
we become aware that a variety of different
problems may result in the experience of chronic
widespread pain, we can look for the tell-tale clues
that point us in the right direction, and then
formulate rational plans of care based on these
insights. That is precisely what we at Angler
Biomedical are striving towards.
-PBW.
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