If you feel tired, have muscle pain, suffer from numbness or cramps in your legs; if you have trouble falling asleep or your sleep is not restful; if you have concentration and memory problems and even intestinal problems, you may be suffering from fibromyalgia. It is a little-known disease, but more common than people think, since, according to various studies, between 2% and 4% of the Spanish population suffers from it, or in other words, nearly two million people, 85% of whom are women.
In order to raise global awareness about this condition and highlight the difficulties faced by those who suffer from it, World Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Day is celebrated every year on May 12 . The date was chosen to commemorate the birth of Florence Nightingale, founder of the first modern nursing school, who is believed to have suffered from this condition.
Fibromyalgia is a biopsychosocial condition or syndrome that has many varied symptoms and signs, but combines three factors: moderate to severe pain in the muscles and joints, along with sleep disturbances and profound fatigue. Although it is not a life-threatening condition, it can be very limiting . In addition, this condition is often misdiagnosed or unrecognized and is complicated by mood and anxiety disorders.
The causes of the disease are still unknown. It has often been attributed to psychological causes. However, some recent studies indicate that fibromyalgia may be caused by a nervous disorder.
This is highlighted by Marco Loggia, from Harvard Medical School, when he states that the intense pain sensations caused by fibromyalgia may be due to an alteration in the brain's reward system. Patients with this disease have weaker nerve impulses in response to pain, which would also explain why analgesics and opioids have less effect on them.
According to another recent discovery, resulting from research conducted by Nurcan Uceyler and her colleagues at the University of Würzburg, the number of small nerve fibers in patients with fibromyalgia is lower, although it has not been proven that this is due to the disease or simply a symptom of another process. There are also studies indicating that the disease could be due to an inflammatory process, as genetic variants linked to inflammatory cytokines have been discovered.
Biological medicine, on the other hand, focuses on finding the cause or triggering factors of the disease and making a diagnosis based on the patient's symptoms. In this type of medicine, fibromyalgia is always accompanied by viral or bacterial infections, such as Lyme disease, or heavy metal poisoning, acidic pH, oxidative stress, etc.
At Biosalud, we have been treating fibromyalgia for a long time. The first thing we do is study the causes. Among these, the most common cause, underlying 80% of cases, is Lyme disease. It is not fibromyalgia as such, but rather the manifestation of an ailment caused by a mosquito or tick bite, which infects the person with the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi.
Lyme disease is a great imitator of other diseases, andits symptoms are very similar to those of fibromyalgia (extreme fatigue, rheumatic and neurological symptoms, among others). This similarity between the two often causes them to be confused. Therefore, when treating a patient with these symptoms, we analyze whether it is Lyme disease. If so, symptomatic treatment will not solve the problem. What's more, long-term antibiotic treatment can cause serious side effects and do nothing to alleviate the symptoms of fibromyalgia.
To rule out Lyme disease, at Biosalud we offer the Lyme test, Lymecheck. We also require Immunocheck, lymphocyte and protein profiles, Canditest and/or Koprocheck to study the intestine, measurement of cellular oxidation (FORT) and antioxidant capacity (FORD), urinary pH, heavy metals (Heavymetalscheck), mineral composition, biocatalysts, and even a bioenergetic study (RAH Analysis or even Biocheck Scanner).
Once we have established the diagnosis and ruled out other diseases, we will apply a personalized treatment that corrects the biological deviations that the person has. We will regulate everything that is malfunctioning and eliminate the causes of fibromyalgia. The result is much more effective and will allow us to cure the symptoms of fibromyalgia.
