Fibromyalgia

So if they tell you that you have fibromyalgia, then what? It’s nothing, but you feel good because at least you know what’s wrong, theoretically. Most people don’t know that all fibromyalgia means is that you have pain all over. You have pain in your tissues. So “fibromyo” means tissues and “algia” means pain. So it doesn’t mean much more than that. That’s it. Pain in your tissue. You go to your doctor and tell him, “Doctor, I’m in pain, tell me what’s wrong with me.” He looks at you he tells you, “You are in pain.” So we haven’t done anything, have we? You go pain and he tells you, you are in pain. No diagnosis. That’s why it’s been labeled the wastebasket diagnosis. Does that make sense?

Beyond symptom management, so what we’re going to be talking about today, and this is very important, is not about symptoms, because you can have, as we mentioned earlier, 20, 30, 40 things wrong with you. What do you do? Do you take a pill for each. You see a specialist for each. With all due respect to all specialists, most of them are doing a great job, but if you go to a rheumatologist, or a cardiologist, or an internist, or an eye specialists, whatever it is, each one is going to treat you in parts, and each one is going to tell you this is what’s going to work for you. And the bottom line is that you get very, very frustrated, lost, and very irritable, and you become prisoner in your own body. It’s scary. The question is why do these conditions remain unresolved?

How come fibromyalgia is not resolved? You take drugs, and then, after a little while, drugs don’t work. You’ve heard this before; friends, family who are in pain, because the underlying causal process is rarely, if ever addressed. “What’s causing my problems, Doctor.” “I don’t know.” “It just happened.” “What do you mean?” That’s just what it is. The underlying cause is not being addressed. It’s just the way things look on the outside, Chasing symptoms, ladies and gentleman, is like chasing your shadow. Has anyone been able to catch a shadow. Never. There is no end. You’re around and there’s your shadow, following you. So you’re chasing your symptoms.

Maybe you control one symptom, but what about the other fifteen. What do you do with the other 14? Then you are put on an assortment of medications. And you’re all familiar with this. We’re not going to go over this. Lyrica, Zoloft, Lunesta and others with serious, serious side effects, ladies and gentlemen. Medications are chemicals, not nutrients. They are chemicals, and chemicals have serious side effects. How is fibromyalgia diagnosed? Does anyone have an idea? Beside looking at the slide. So you go to your doctor, and this is the criteria they use, the list. You should have a history of widespread pain, more than three months. All right, I have widespread pain, and a patient should have or should feel 11 out of 18 painful spots, so if you have 11, good luck, you have been labeled with fibromyalgia. But what if you have eight or six? But what are you labeled with, sub-fibromyalgia. What does that mean? It becomes very frustrating because you say, “Doctor, only 3 or 4 points hurt.” He looks at you, and says, “Take this drug. See how you do. Let me know in a week, or two weeks, or a month.” Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

Now, a serious question, or very serious questions. Every patient asks this: “What do you do when medications stop working?” I see this every day. Patients come and tell me, “Doctor Jaudy, now I’m on 13 pills a day, nine pills a day. None of them is working. What do I do?” I have two options. Suicide is one, and the other place is here. Would you be able to help me?” You see this patients sitting in front of you, tears in his or her eyes, and they come with files that thick, literally, I’m not exaggerating, and they come with bag fulls of drugs and supplements, and oh my god, what are you doing? Or they go to a doctor and, if they don’t know what’s wrong, they tell them, “You know what, I don’t see anything wrong with you, you look good, it’s all in your head, and just get it out of your head and fibromyalgia will go away.” No, ladies and gentlemen, it’s not in your head. It’s a true neurological disorder, and we’re going to get to that in second.

Or they tell you, or you ask a question, is it something that you have to live with. What do you think? Do you think that you should live with fibromyalgia with pain all over, 24/7, 365? Do you think any human being deserves this quality of life? No! We need to find answers. Then you become a prisoner. You can’t go, come, enjoy life. Be with your friends, enjoy a meal, eat something. It becomes very, very crippling.

The true causes of fibomyalgia, this is very important, true causes. What are they? Number one Fibromyalgia is a neurological condition. Did everyone get that? It’s a problem in your processing of information, brain processing. The latest research appoints the brainstem, we’re going to get to that in a second, malfunction as a major cause, if not the cause. Brainstem, in the brain. Second, it is a Functional Disconnection Syndrome. What does that mean. This means that connections between your brain and your body have been lost or impaired. Functional Disconnection Syndrome. Things are not connecting properly. So that’s why you become hypersensitive. If anyone touches you, “Ouch! Don’t touch me because, I get… If you touch me, I’ll be two weeks in bed. It doesn’t make any sense. Setting off an electrical imbalance in the brain.Does everyone get that? It’s an electrical imbalance in the brain, triggering the whole cascade of pain and symptoms. Very important. The third cause of fibromyalgia could be physical, emotional, chemical stress. For example, you fall, you get into a car accident, you are emotional abused, or something happens, marriage problems, whatever it is. This also affects your brain chemicals, your electricity and it can set off a cascade, a volcano of pain.

We’re going to look at these two pictures. The control center is situated in the brain stem.


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