|
|
|
|
Patient-to-Patient Fibromyalgia Research Foundation
The Metabolic Treatment
Your Guide to
|
September
23, 2002 Dr. Lowe: According to some studies, about 30% of patients' fibromyalgia symptoms are "post-traumatic." This means that their symptoms began either at once or shortly after a trauma. Obviously, a sudden onset of fibromyalgia symptoms is fairly common. In The Metabolic Treatment of Fibromyalgia, I gave the a plausible explanation for the sudden onset of fibromyalgia symptoms following a trauma. When I carefully scrutinized many patients' medical histories, I came to a tentative conclusion: The typical patient with post-traumatic fibromyalgia symptoms has a history of marginally adequate metabolism. The marginally adequate metabolism is suggested by experiences the patient commonly reports after some contemplation—intermittent hypothyroid-like symptoms, especially after or during physical and emotional stresses. As a part of stress—either physically or emotionally induced—the adrenal glands release more "cortisol." Cortisol is a hormone that helps the body adapt to cellular needs that abruptly change during stress. The blood cortisol consequently rises. The increased cortisol transiently suppresses the thyroid system. Increased cortisol reaching cells of the pituitary gland suppresses TSH secretion. As a result, the reduced TSH reaching the thyroid gland decreases the glands' release of thyroid hormones into the blood. The increased cortisol reaching other cells inhibits their conversion of T4 to T3. The result is a body-wide slowing of thyroid hormone-driven metabolism. In most people, the slowed metabolism might not generate fibromyalgia (hypothyroid) symptoms. But some patients’ metabolism was only marginally adequate to start with. Slowing their metabolism even more can induce symptoms typical of hypothyroidism, which doctors diagnose as fibromyalgia. Most clinicians today fail to recognize these symptoms as those of hypothyroidism. This is especially true of most endocrinologists, who over the past 30 years have all but lost the ability to recognized hypothyroid symptoms for what they actually are. Hence, the patient may end up with a diagnosis of post-traumatic fibromyalgia. The correct diagnosis, however, would be hypo-metabolism secondary to post-traumatic hypothyroidism. It's important to note that if the patient's cortisol level stays high, her thyroid system usually "escapes" the inhibiting effect of the cortisol. The escape usually occurs within a few weeks. But the injured patient, especially if her injury was severe, is likely to be relatively inactive physically for a few weeks. She may even be inactive for a few months. Her low physical activity during this time is likely to reduce her body's muscle mass. The reduction in mass will lower her metabolism even further. Keep in mind: Other factors held constant, our metabolic rate is proportional to our muscle mass. Even a small loss of muscle mass in a patient with marginally adequate metabolism may reduce her metabolic rate enough to produce chronic symptoms of abnormally slow metabolism. In my experience, many fibromyalgia patients come to realize they've long had symptoms of slow metabolism only after learning what the symptoms are. Their realization often occurs after they've recovered a noticeable degree of metabolic health. Experiencing good metabolic health teaches them to distinguish good from poor metabolic health. Is this mechanism of post-traumatic fibromyalgia established scientifically? No, it's not. But it's reasonable based on the available scientific evidence, and it’s presently our only plausible explanation. Certainly it deserves investigation. You, of course, are the best person to decide whether the mechanism applies in your case. Regardless, understanding the mechanism can help one to see how some patients’ fibromyalgia symptoms might start after an injury. Perhaps you can share this causative conjecture with your endocrinologist. Perhaps he’ll then appreciate the fact that some patient’s fibromyalgia symptoms are post traumatic and do develop suddenly. November 5, 2000 Dr. Lowe: The time has passed. We’ve already solved the problem of fibromyalgia. In addition, we have a treatment, "metabolic rehabilitation", that relieves some 75% to 85% of patients from their fibromyalgia symptoms—fully and permanently. I explain the solution and the treatment succinctly on various pages of drlowe.com, and I explain in depth in The Metabolic Treatment of Fibromyalgia. In a single statement, fibromyalgia is the symptoms and signs of too little thyroid hormone regulation of tissues, due either to hypothyroidism or thyroid hormone resistance, complicated in most cases by a health-impairing diet, nutritional deficiencies, and physical deconditioning. But it isn’t enough that we’ve solved the scientific problem of fibromyalgia. We must now solve a daunting psychosocial problem—how to educate other fibromyalgia researchers and practicing doctors about the fact that we’ve solved the problem. This educational undertaking is proving far more difficult than solving the scientific problem. The main difficulty is the unscientific code of conduct that predominates in conventional medicine. In compliance with this code, most conventional medical researchers and doctors dogmatically cling to false beliefs they’ve accepted without question while bowing before the throne of medical authority. This unscientific code of conduct is often whitewashed as the "conservative nature of doctors." It is, however, a major obstacle to the relief of human suffering from disease. Tragically, as we toil at this educational task, patients with the set of symptoms we label "fibromyalgia" will continue to suffer on a worldwide scale.
|
|
