The Women Warriors

[MessiahMews]

WHITCOMB METHOD Upper Cervical Spinal Stenosis and Fibromyalgia
From Dr. Whitcomb's site:
http://www.stopfibro.com

There's the C1 vertabrae thing again.

What is Fibromyalgia?

The name is today a misnomer. Originally it was thought to be fibrous deposits in the muscles causing pain. The only truth to this is that some patients have muscle spasms so badly they become fibrous and add to the problem, but this has nothing to do with the cause (etiology) of the fibromyalgia syndrome.

Years ago fibromyalgia syndrome patients were called hypochondriacs and were, many times, referred to Psychiatrists, often institutionalized. Only recently has fibromyalgia gained respect as an entity that deserves attention. And hopefully fibromyalgia patients are getting more respect as well, believed when they say they have a problem instead of having their symptoms written off. Still, today I have patients regularly reporting being told they are drug addicts, need to be institutionalized, or have some other sinister motive when they claim fibromyalgia as a diagnosis, when all they really need is some one to believe them and get them help.

It is believed that 3.7 million Americans have fibromyalgia, still a very poorly understood disorder characterized by widespread pain and tenderness, but also often associated with nervousness, fatigue, depression and insomnia. In addition, many will suffer from chemical sensitivities, allergies, irritable leg syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome, trigeminal neuralgia and a host of other symptoms. Women are far more likely to be diagnosed with the condition than men.

Fibromyalgia is different than most diseases in that it takes away the patients ability to fight. After years of fatigue, depression and pain the patient, not being able to focus on anything but their poor health, pain, just trying to get through the day, becomes discouraged and often their spirit breaks. Family members become worn out with the disease and often abandon the stricken loved one. This brings more devastation to a already distraught victim of this insidious predator.

Early in 2000, I, after years in bed myself and finally recovering from chronic fatigue syndrome, had two fibromyalgia syndrome patients enter my office, both had been disabled in the same auto accident, 3 years previous and were taking the medical triad: pain pills, antidepressants, and sleeping pills, the standard fibromyalgia treatment, that often goes with fibromyalgia symptoms. This I thought was a golden moment, as it gave me the chance to cross check so many things and hopefully find common denominators that could be the cause of their condition. Having treated over 6,000 accident victims in the past and understanding the neurological and physiological implications, gave me a great advantage. I found that both had severely displaced C-1 vertebrae in a position that was previously thought to be found in less than 2% of our patients. But to make it worse this malpositioning was much more severe than what is normally seen. I immediately checked my other fibromyalgia patients and found the same condition.

http://www.stopfibro.com/images/tw_tm_inner.gif




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[MessiahMews]

Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue

A light case of fibromyalgia is often diagnosed as chronic fatigue, because the symptoms are almost identical. Light cases of fibromyalgia usually aren?t associated with pain, but have all of the fatigue, insomnia and depression of Chronic Fatigue.

It is still thought that the Epstein-Bar virus is associated with Chronic fatigue but other things can also cause chronic fatigue, such as allergies and sensitivities to chemicals. Household products and even caffeine to mention just a few. A thorough work up is needed, as well as a differential diagnosis.

http://www.stopfibro.com/tw_content_fatigue.html




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[MessiahMews]

Depression

Under the heading of depression, may fall depression Syndrome, depression suicide, severe depression, mental depression, stress depression, depression and fatigue, teen depression, bipolar depression, cause of depression, and treatment of depression.

This is a big subject, with many causes, such as brain injury, mistakes from the past, unfulfilled life, wanting more from life than you have, lack of thankfulness, chemical imbalances and many others.

Depression in Relationship to Fibromyalgia

We, as Chiropractors have known for almost a hundred years that depression and upper cervical (neck) problems go hand in hand. We have also known that auto accidents and depression go hand in hand. This has been explained as post concussion syndrome, assuming that the brain either doesn’t heal or takes some period of time to heal, leaving the victim The victim with symptoms that look very much like the following:

Symptomatology of Post Concussion Syndrome

Cognitive
Fatigue
Memory

Emotional Issues
Depression

Headache
Post-Traumatic Migraine

Sleep Disturbance
Neurological
Seizure

Vestibular and Cranial Nerve Symptoms

If you look at this carefully it looks very much like a fibromyalgia patient. This is not to say I don’t believe that post concussion syndrome exists, what I am saying is post concussion syndrome has been a diagnosis long before fibromyalgia was know to exist, and I believe now that it was often a miss diagnosis and we were really dealing with fibromyalgia and throwing everyone with a significant trauma into this bag. Even many today with post concussion syndrome have been misdiagnosed and need reevaluation. Even in my own profession I don’t believe this connection has been made. But armed with this connection between head and neck injury, and fibromyalgia depression, now gives us a new area to look at in making a differential diagnosis, between fibromyalgia depression and Post-Concussion Syndrome Depression.

But even with all of this understanding the etiology of fibromyalgia, depression is still elusive. I understand the combination of sleep deprivation, fatigue and the neurological aspects could explain the entire bases of depression, there seems to be more involved. I also understand that the depression leaves when I remove the pressure from the meninges, but I still believe that somehow this pulling and pressure on the meninges is somehow causing depression independently of the other factors.

I have watched over and over again, with almost predictive regularity, the depression of fibromyalgia patients remit usually within one to two months. This is accomplished solely with the repositioning of the exit of the spinal cord through the foramen magnum and the ring of the first vertebrae, the atlas or C-1.

I once treated a paranoid schizophrenic with severe upper cervical problems, in one month he told me he wanted to stop his meds and return to work at Rockwell International. With his treating doctors help he stopped his meds, went through one month of testing and was returned to work without further symptoms. This patient had been institutionalized two times and was being evaluated for the third admittance when I first saw him. This is what kind of impact this critical relationship can have on your emotional status and depression.

http://www.stopfibro.com/tw_content_depression.html




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[MessiahMews]

Surgery as a cause of Fibromyalgia

It appears at this time that in approximately 25% of my patients surgery was the initiating or an aggravating factor.

I have at least 12 patients who claim their FMS started with one or multiple surgeries. I have some theories about this but nothing solid at this time. We could be looking at something that happens during the surgery that allows the displacement of the atlas, breathing tube placement?

http://www.stopfibro.com/tw_content_surgerycause.html




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