Fibromyalgia Syndrome is a medical disorder characterized by widespread musculoskeletal pain, mood issues, sleep problems, fatigue, and memory issues. Research has shown that individuals with fibromyalgia have more sensitive pain circuits than those without fibromyalgia. People with fibromyalgia experience more intense pressure, pain, or discomfort. Other abnormalities may explain this, as discussed below.
Approximately ten million American adults are affected by fibromyalgia; however, researchers believe that the exact number of people with this condition is much higher. Although 75 to 90 percent of people with fibromyalgia are women, it also occurs in men as well as children.
Central Sensitization Explained
Central nervous system refers to the nerves in the spinal cord and brain. The central nervous system regulates how the brain responds to signals in different body areas.
Sensitization is the gradual increase of nerve sensitivity in response to certain substances or stimuli. Continuous stimulation in the central nervous system can cause the central nervous system to stay on alert at all times.
Central sensitization is believed to be one of the key mechanisms behind fibromyalgia. It can impact the way your body and brain amplify pain signals. The pain pathways throughout the body can be “turned up” like a stereo amplifier, causing you to feel more intense pain. Unfortunately, mainstream medicine states that fibromyalgia is caused by central sensitization, which does not address the underlying causes.
What Causes Central Sensitization?
Several underlying biological imbalances, including a systemic immune imbalance, changes in the microbiome, hormonal imbalances, autonomic imbalances, mitochondrial dysfunction, and nutritional deficiencies, may cause central sensitization. These imbalances can be connected, creating a vicious cycle. Let’s examine each imbalance and how functional medicine may help you correct it and find the necessary fibromyalgia relief.
- Systemic Immune Imbalances
Systemic immune imbalances, including inflammation of the central and peripheral nervous systems, including the spinal cord, the brain, and the nerves outside the central nervous system cause central sensitization. When the nervous system is inflamed, pro-inflammatory substances are released, which can cause central sensitization and widespread pain throughout the body.
Inflammation can also stimulate pain in the actual tissues. You have nerves in most tissues, including the skin, joints, muscles, and visceral organs. Inflammation can cause these tissues to become irritated and can sensitize the nerves in these tissues. The result is increasing pain levels. Inflammation also causes changes in the vascular system, which prevents life-giving blood and oxygen from reaching nerve endings, resulting in fibromyalgia symptoms, including increased pain levels.
- Changes in the Microbiome
The microbiome comprises trillions of microbes, such as bacteria, fungi, viruses, and protozoa that live on and in the body. Most of the microbiome is located in the gastrointestinal tract, which helps you digest food, absorb nutrients, and influence many biological processes.
Your microbiome must have a diverse population of healthy bacteria for optimal health. Unfortunately, many individuals have unhealthy gut bacteria, which is called dysbiosis. Environmental toxins, food additives, processed foods, medications, overconsuming alcoholic beverages, eating too much sugar, herbicides, and pesticides in food, and tap water can alter gut bacteria, causing dysbiosis and many health problems.
It is known that people with fibromyalgia syndrome are more likely to have alterations in their gut microbiome. This may worsen pain, mood, and energy directly because of the substances that the bacteria produce, which alter brain function. It may indirectly worsen pain, mood, and energy by driving systemic inflammation.
Hormones are chemical messengers that help to keep the body in balance. More than 50 hormones in the human body regulate almost all of your biological processes. There is an intimate connection between your different hormones. For instance, the hormones and neurological activity of your pituitary gland, hypothalamus, thyroid gland, adrenal glands, and sex hormones are intimately connected. Various kinds of illnesses, lifestyle choices, and emotional or physical trauma can result in loss of regulation of these hormonal systems.
Many people with fibromyalgia and fatigue have a loss of regulation of the adrenal, thyroid, and sex hormones. These hormonal imbalances can contribute to increased pain, fatigue, anxiety, depression, loss of sleep, loss of sexual drive, and other symptoms.
With appropriate guidance, several things can bring the hormonal system back into balance. These include reducing inflammation, improving sleep, proper exercise, nutritional supplementation, stress reduction, and healing emotional trauma.
- Autonomic Imbalances
The autonomic nervous system controls involuntary actions in all the organs of your body. It has two branches, often called the “stress response” and “relaxation response.” These two branches have opposite effects on all your functions, like blood pressure, heartbeat, digestion, immune function, muscle function, thoughts and emotions, and breathing. In difficult times, many people walk around with an overactive stress response. This is even more true for people who have chronic pain or chronic illness. Autonomic nervous disorders have been associated with complex regional pain syndrome, Parkinson’s disease, and fibromyalgia.
Studies have shown that people living with fibromyalgia have a higher heart rate, increased muscle sympathetic nerve activity, and decreased sleep efficiency. When the autonomic nervous system is not functioning properly, individuals may experience exaggerated pain sensitivity.
- Mitochondrial Dysfunction
Millions of mitochondria are found in all your body’s cells and are necessary for your survival. Mitochondria produce the energy that the cells need for function. In addition, mitochondria store calcium in cells until needed, help produce heat in the body, and determine when old or damaged cells should be destroyed and removed.
Mitochondrial function can be impaired by toxins, chronic inflammation, biochemical stress, overactive hormones, infections, and mental/emotional stress. When mitochondria stop functioning correctly, energy is not provided to cells. Mitochondrial dysfunction is found in many chronic pain conditions, including migraine, fibromyalgia, depression, autoimmune illness, Parkinson’s disease, and Alzheimer’s disease. Mechanisms of mitochondrial dysfunction can contribute to central sensitization and widespread pain, as well as fatigue, brain fog, and other cognitive problems.
Nutritional deficiencies have been associated with increased pain levels. When the body does not receive the nutrients it needs for optimal health, bodily functions, and processes can be altered. Some processes affected include nerve signaling, enzyme functions, metabolism, and digestion. Certain nutritional deficiencies, including vitamin D, calcium, B12, potassium, and magnesium, have been associated with disease.
Calcium—A calcium deficiency can cause numbness and tingling in the extremities and abnormal heart rhythms. Calcium is needed for nerve function and muscle health.
Vitamin D—A vitamin D deficiency can cause muscle aches, weakness, fatigue, and mood changes.
Potassium—When your body does not receive enough potassium, your nerves, heart, and muscles do not work correctly, and the body cannot remove toxins from the body.
Vitamin B12—Vitamin B12 deficiencies have been associated with fatigue, weakness, neuropathy, numbness, and tingling in the extremities. In addition, systemic inflammation can occur.
Magnesium—Magnesium is essential to energy production and healthy bones. If you have a magnesium deficiency, you may experience fatigue, weakness, muscle cramps, irregular heart rhythm, and numbness and tingling in the extremities.
Functional Medicine Can Help With Fibromyalgia
Functional medicine is designed to determine the root cause of an illness and correct the problem rather than just treating the symptoms of fibromyalgia. Our functional medicine doctors work to identify biological imbalances and seek to fix them. Once these imbalances have been addressed and remedied, the symptoms of fibromyalgia will be minimized or relieved.
- Diagnosing Nutritional Deficiencies
Our practitioners use various blood tests, discuss your diet, and thoroughly examine your overall health. These exams and tests will help the doctor determine if a nutritional deficiency may be exacerbating your fibromyalgia symptoms.
Our nutritional intervention protocols will identify key nutrients you need, advise dietary changes, and recommend nutritional supplements to improve your health and reduce fibromyalgia symptoms.
- Toxins
Our world is filled with toxins. They are found in the air, soil, and water, and many foods we eat contain pesticides and herbicides. Toxins can build up in the body and cause a plethora of symptoms. Toxic overload can lead to fatigue, systemic inflammation, and increased pain levels.
Functional medicine addresses toxic overload and uses proven detoxification processes to eliminate toxins from the body while restoring health naturally through dietary modifications, daily exercise, and stress relief techniques.
- Heal Dysbiosis and Leaky Gut
As harmful bacteria overwhelm the beneficial bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract, the tight junctions in your GI tract may allow undigested food particles to leak into the bloodstream, causing various medical complaints. As these food particles enter the bloodstream, inflammation and nutritional deficiencies can occur.
Our doctors will use the leading protocols to help correct these imbalances. Recommendations may include a detoxification program, eliminating processed foods, replacing them with whole foods, and taking probiotic and prebiotic supplements.
As your gastrointestinal tract begins healing, your nutrient absorption will improve. Our team of doctors will also explain how vitamins and minerals interact. For example, specific vitamins are fat soluble, requiring a small amount of fat to dissolve and be absorbed by the body. Others are water-soluble. Once you understand how vitamins and minerals interact with food and one another, you will know which vitamins should be taken together.
Finally, antioxidant supplementation is key to a healthy body, decreased inflammation, decreased pain, and reduced free radical damage. Some of the top antioxidants in your supplementation regimen include vitamin C, vitamin E, and powerful polyphenols found in colorful fruits and vegetables.
- Reduce Inflammatory Issues
Inflammation is one of the key factors in fibromyalgia and central sensitization issues. Several things, including food sensitivities, toxin exposure, stress, lack of sleep, and processed foods, can cause systemic inflammation.
Functional medicine discovers the root cause of your inflammation. It offers proven therapies and techniques to reduce inflammation and its effects on the body, including correcting autonomic imbalances and improving mitochondrial function. As function is restored to the mitochondria, fibromyalgia symptoms will dissipate.
Lifestyle Measures and Mind Body Care Help Balance the Nervous System and Improve Well-Being
Some of the most common stress relief techniques we recommend include:
- Deep Breathing Exercises—Focusing on breathing for a few minutes can instantly calm your body and brain. Inhale deeply through your nose, purse your lips, and blow gently through your lips, feeling the stress leave your body as you exhale.
- Meditation is an Eastern practice that helps relieve stress. There are many different types of meditation, including mantra chanting and mindfulness meditation. Meditation is designed for internal focus, which enables one to release tension.
- Yoga—Yoga is a type of exercise that incorporates gentle stretches with breath control. This stress-relieving exercise reduces stress, calms the nervous system, helps relieve muscle tension, and reduces painful fibromyalgia flare-ups.
- Progressive Muscle Relaxation—This technique focuses on releasing tension in each muscle group. Begin at the top of your head, breathe deeply, and relax the muscles in your forehead, cheeks, and jaws. Continue working down through each muscle group until you reach your toes.
Our team of functional and integrative medicine doctors uses a variety of tests to determine any underlying issues that may be contributing to your fibromyalgia. Once these issues have been resolved, we will develop a health protocol that may include a healthy diet, a supplementation program, a detoxification program, an exercise regimen, and stress relief techniques. You can take control of your health, reduce systemic inflammation, calm your nervous system, and relieve the many symptoms of fibromyalgia.
