Could your Fibromyalgia Actually be Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome? No
Fibromyalgia symptoms can overlap with autoimmune diseases and other arthritis conditions making it difficult to diagnose. The defining symptoms of fibromyalgia are often associated with other subjective and objective symptoms which occur in combination. The cause of fibromyalgia is considered as complex as its clinical presentation. The exact cause of fibromyalgia is still not well understood but mechanisms that have been suggested include
Abnormal circulating levels of central neurochemical substances
Skeletal muscle abnormalities, structural or functional
It has also been suggested that joint hypermobility (JH) may be associated with the pathology of fibromyalgia.
Joint Hypermobility (EDS)
Joint hypermobility is defined as “abnormally increased mobility of small and large joints beyond the limits of their physiological movement.” Joint hypermobility is common among in young females and is seen in about 5% of the healthy adult population. When musculoskeletal symptoms occur in hypermobile people in the absence of any other systemic rheumatological disorder, it is called “hypermobility syndrome.” Joint hypermobility is also a feature of a medical condition called Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) that is characterized by weakness of the connective tissues of the body.
What makes EDS different from fibromyalgia?
One with this condition has deformed collagen, the glue of the body. Therefore, ligaments and tendons do not have the strength to function effectively to work correctly and muscles must work on overload to compensate for their lack of effectiveness. This causes looseness in the joints that allow for bones to shift. One lives with many subluxations (partial dislocations) and even full dislocations. A simple twist, turn, a hug can all cause things to shift. Unfortunately, this shifting of the structure creates pain that one must learn how to live with. Remember, it IS NOT a Systemic Autoimmune Disorder or a Collagen Vascular Disorder.
The Study
In a study reported in the Journal of Rheumatology, the association between joint hypermobility and primary fibromyalgia was investigated. The study group was comprised of 88 patients (all female, median age 34 years old) with widespread pain clinically diagnosed as fibromyalgia and 90 healthy controls (all female, median age 36 years old). Excluded from the study were
Patients with any other rheumatological or systemic disorder.
Patients with any other inflammatory process or degenerative arthritis.
Anyone who had been receiving medications.
The patients had not been diagnosed with having fibromyalgia by a rheumatologist prior to the study and had not been treated for fibromyalgia.
Study Process
All patients were admitted based on widespread pain lasting longer than 3 months. Patients and controls were then initially evaluated by a rheumatologist. The patients underwent further and more specific evaluation by two other clinicians (who were blinded to the initial evaluation) for the determination of fibromyalgia and joint hypermobility.
Fibromyalgia was assessed in all patients by questioning about common complaints associated with the disease. They were diagnosed with fibromyalgia if they met the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria for the classification and diagnosis of fibromyalgia. Joint hypermobility was considered present in patients based on the Beighton modification of Carter and Wilkinson criteria for joint hypermobility.
Study Results
Fifty-six of the 88 patients with widespread pain initially resembling fibromyalgia met the ACR criteria for fibromyalgia, while 6 of the 90 healthy controls also met the ACR criteria. Patients with or without fibromyalgia were also compared for the frequency of joint hypermobility. The frequency of joint hypermobility was:
8% in patients with fibromyalgia.
6% in patients without fibromyalgia.
Joint hypermobility was also recognized in 10 of the 32 patients with fibromyalgia who did not exactly meet the ACR criteria. The presence of joint hypermobility was more common in this group than in the controls.
Conclusions
The association between fibromyalgia and joint hypermobility is not totally understood. Joint hypermobility may cause widespread arthralgia in patients due to misuse or overuse of hypermobile joints.
Data from this particular study indicated:
That the typical complaints of fibromyalgia were primarily observed in the patients that did meet the ACR criteria.
Some patients who exhibit fibromyalgia symptoms clinically but do not meet the ACR criteria could actually have joint hypermobility misdiagnosed as fibromyalgia.
Joint hypermobility was first featured in rheumatology literature in 1967. Today, joint hypermobility is better understood and more widely recognized. However, further investigation and research are still needed to learn even more about the interaction between joint hypermobility and fibromyalgia.
You have inside you a cloak of gossamer connective tissue that surrounds and supports everything and functions like fiber optics. This tissue is called fascia.
Fascia is a specialized system of the body that has an appearance similar to a spider’s web or a sweater. Fascia is very densely woven, covering and interpenetrating every muscle, bone, nerve, artery and vein, as well as, all of our internal organs including the heart, lungs, brain, and spinal cord. The most interesting aspect of the fascial system is that it is not just a system of separate coverings. It is actually one continuous structure that exists from head to toe without interruption. In this way, you can begin to see that each part of the entire body is connected to every other part by the fascia, like the yarn in a sweater.
Trauma, inflammatory responses, and/or surgical procedures create Myofascial restrictions that can produce tensile pressures of approximately 2,000 pounds per square inch on pain-sensitive structures that do not show up in many of the standard tests (x-rays, myelograms, CAT scans, electromyography, etc.) A high percentage of people suffering from pain and/or lack of motion may be having fascial problems, but are not diagnosed.
Ever feel like this? You have achy pain all over your body, especially in your muscles. When you sleep — whether it’s five hours or 14 — you never feel refreshed and you’re always tired. Sometimes you forget where you just put your keys or your brain is in a fog. You might feel worse in the morning, when it’s cold or when the weather changes. If this sounds familiar, you may have fibromyalgia, a chronic illness with three main symptoms — widespread pain, chronic fatigue and cognitive trouble.
Fibromyalgia is a complicated illness that’s not well understood. In the past, it was mischaracterized as a mental health disorder. Even today, some doctors wave off fibro symptoms as being “all in your head.” This isn’t the case. Fibromyalgia involves alterations in the function of your nervous system and how your brain processes pain. It also causes a response in your hormone and immune systems that can lead to many different changes, including neuroinflammation or inflammation in the tissues in your nervous system.
Many doctors refer to fibromyalgia as a “hypervigilant” or “fight-or-flight” illness because your nervous system stays in alarm mode all the time. If someone in your family has fibromyalgia, you’re more likely to have it. If you’ve experienced trauma, such as sexual or physical abuse, a bad car accident or combat, you also have a higher chance of developing fibromyalgia.
It’s common to have fibromyalgia and other chronic conditions as well as mental illness, though fibromyalgia is not a mental health condition itself. These conditions could include:
Fibromyalgia does not just affect the muscles and nerves — it deeply affects the communication system between the brain, nervous system, hormones, immune system, and gut. Many researchers now refer to this as the brain-gut connection, and in fibromyalgia, that connection can become dysregulated and overwhelmed.
The gut and brain are constantly “talking” to each other through the vagus nerve, hormones, neurotransmitters, and the immune system. In a healthy body, this communication helps regulate digestion, sleep, mood, energy, pain response, and inflammation. But in fibromyalgia, the nervous system becomes hypersensitive and stuck in a chronic state of alert — often called “fight-or-flight mode.”
When the brain stays in survival mode, the body prioritizes protection over digestion.
That means:
Blood flow is redirected away from the digestive system
Stress hormones remain elevated
Muscles stay tense
Sleep becomes unrefreshing
Inflammation increases
Pain signals become amplified
Gut function slows down or becomes erratic
The gut then struggles to properly digest food, absorb nutrients, and maintain healthy bacteria. This can lead to bloating, IBS, constipation, diarrhea, food sensitivities, nausea, and exhaustion after eating.
At the same time, an unhealthy or inflamed gut can send distress signals back to the brain, increasing:
Brain fog
Anxiety
Depression
Fatigue
Pain sensitivity
Sleep disruption
So the brain stresses the gut… and the gut stresses the brain.
It becomes a vicious cycle.
Many people with fibromyalgia feel like:
“My body is constantly bracing for danger, even when I’m safe.”
That constant nervous system overload affects the entire body — especially the gut, because digestion only works properly when the body feels calm and safe.
Researchers also believe trauma can play a major role. Emotional trauma, PTSD, chronic stress, abuse, accidents, illness, or years of emotional suppression may train the nervous system to stay hyper-alert. Over time, the body forgets how to fully relax.
This is why treatment for fibromyalgia often needs to be holistic, supporting:
The nervous system
Gut health
Sleep restoration
Gentle movement
Stress reduction
Trauma healing
Nutrition
Emotional support
Pacing and rest
Fibromyalgia is not weakness. It is a body and nervous system that have been overloaded for too long, trying to survive while asking desperately for balance, safety, and healing.
Currently, there is no cure for fibromyalgia. Though fibromyalgia can be debilitating, there are many treatments to try. These might include:
Medications
Exercise programs
Pain management regiments
Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT)
Natural and integrative medicine therapies
Lifestyle changes
It can take a while to find a combination of treatments that help. Researchers are working to find the cause of fibromyalgia, a potential cure and additional treatment options.
Who Gets Fibromyalgia?
An estimated 3 to 6 percent of the U.S. population lives with fibromyalgia, and it’s considered the most common chronic pain condition.9 Fibro is twice as common in those born female.10 Doctors believe women get fibromyalgia more often because of the construction of their nervous system. Male and female nervous systems operate differently because of the variations in male and female genes.2
People of all ages can get fibromyalgia. However, fibromyalgia is most common among young adults in their 20s and 30s. Today, doctors more frequently make the diagnosis in teenagers, but many still go undiagnosed until much later.7Fibromyalgia also occurs among all ethnic groups.
Where Does Fibromyalgia Come From?
We don’t know what exactly causes fibromyalgia. In the past, doctors found the symptoms of fibromyalgia mysterious — their patients didn’t look sick but they reported constant pain and fatigue. Doctors couldn’t find a source of the pain, so they dismissed their patients as having a mental health condition or said their symptoms were “all in their head.” Unfortunately, there are still doctors who may dismiss your symptoms because they don’t understand the latest research on the condition.
In their work to understand fibromyalgia, researchers first thought it was an autoimmune disorder. Autoimmune diseases occur when your body attacks healthy cells. However, that’s not what scientists observed in fibromyalgia. People with fibromyalgia had symptoms in their nervous system and their immune system that couldn’t be explained by any other chronic illness or mental illness. Fibromyalgia is best understood as a pain processing disorder in your nervous system caused by your fight-or-flight alarm system going off all the time. Fibromyalgia also impacts the immune system, and it is likely passed through families.
The Nervous System
Your nervous system, made up of several different systems, is a complex web that regulates the body’s functions. Fibromyalgia affects your autonomic nervous system. This controls the “automatic” functions in your body thanks to two separate branches — the sympathetic nervous system and parasympathetic nervous system.
Your parasympathetic system takes charge when you’re relaxed. Your muscles loosen up, the brain calms down and the digestive process begins. Your sympathetic nervous system revs up when it feels you are under attack. It activates your body’s fight-or-flight mode, tensing your muscles, pumping up your heart rate and increasing your attention and awareness.
When your hypothalamus, a part of the brain that coordinates your autonomic nervous system, senses danger, it sends a signal to the sympathetic nervous system to prepare the body to react: fight, flight or freeze. In a healthy nervous system, once the perceived threat ends, the hypothalamus signals the parasympathetic nervous system to take back over and calm the system back to a resting state. In fibromyalgia, however, your alarm system gets stuck in the “on” position.
Fibromyalgia causes you to stay in that hypervigilant state much longer than you’re supposed to. As a result, you experience chronic muscle tension (pain), trouble getting good sleep, issues with digestion and an overall sense of fatigue.7
In addition, fibromyalgia affects the complex systems in your brain that process pain. The systems in your spinal cord designed to reduce pain don’t work well if you have fibromyalgia and the ones that amplify pain work overtime. Pain that wouldn’t bother most people is amplified when you have fibromyalgia.6 Scientists can see from neuroimaging brain scans that people with fibro process sensory information, especially pain, differently than the average person.10
Trauma
When you hear “fight-or-flight response,” your mind might automatically think of trauma. Many fibro patients report the sexual or physical assault at some point in their life, often that happened during childhood. There’s also a strong overlap between fibromyalgia and the trauma-related mental illness post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Nearly half of men diagnosed with combat-induced PTSD also meet the criteria for a fibromyalgia diagnosis.8
The link between trauma and fibro, however, isn’t so straightforward. Fibromyalgia tends to develop when you experience high amounts of psychological stress during trauma or a physical illness — and this is common in any traumatic situation. Fibromyalgia also can run in families (more on this later), which means your parents pass the genes on to you. However, having a gene for fibromyalgia doesn’t necessarily mean you will get the condition. You may never get fibromyalgia and never know you carry the gene. But if you have a gene, you have a much higher risk of developing the condition.
Trauma like abuse, wartime combat, a bad car accident or violence, can be enough to trigger your fibromyalgia. It’s like a one-two punch. You have a genetic predisposition for fibromyalgia. Then a trauma triggers the gene to express itself and you develop the condition. The timing of when you experience a trauma also seems to factor into whether you will get fibromyalgia, though it’s unclear why. Women who experience trauma in their adolescence seem particularly prone to having fibromyalgia.
Not everyone who has survived trauma will develop fibromyalgia, and you can still have fibromyalgia even if you can’t identify a traumatic experience in your life. Other incidents, like bad auto accidents where you experienced whiplash, have a strong connection to fibromyalgia. If you have another chronic illness, like Lyme disease or chronic fatigue syndrome, that can also trigger fibromyalgia.7
The Immune System
Fibromyalgia also affects your immune system. It’s not an autoimmune disorder — it doesn’t cause your body to attack healthy cells — but it does cause immune system dysregulation. When immune cells become inflamed, they send a signal that something is wrong in the body. With fibromyalgia, your inflammation signals aren’t firing right — they send the wrong signals at the wrong time to the wrong places. This is why sometimes, especially when your fibro flares, you feel achy like you have the flu. Researchers have confirmed that inflammation can occur in the brain and nervous system as well.1
Genetic Causes
There’s evidence that fibromyalgia runs in families. If your parents, siblings or children have the condition, you’re more likely to be at risk. Researchers haven’t identified all the genetic markers linked to fibromyalgia yet, however, they have identified differences in genes linked to the pain control systems.
They have found that fibromyalgia patients often have a gene related to a dysfunctional enzyme — a substance in the body that facilitates chemical reactions between cells. This enzyme should break down the chemicals involved in the fight-or-flight process, but something goes awry when you have fibromyalgia. You’re also more likely to have genes programmed for abnormal receptors in the fight-or-flight or pain nerves.
Other Research
Researchers continue to discover new information about fibromyalgia. For example, they’ve found that fibromyalgia could be related to an area of your brain called the default mode network (DMN). The DMN helps us reflect on our lives, and is typically most active when you’re at rest or daydreaming.
When you’re doing a goal-oriented cognitive task, the DMN is usually quieter. Using brain scans, researchers found that the DMN in patients with fibromyalgia seems to be online more than usual during cognitive tasks. It was caught communicating with the insula, another part of the brain that influences sensory processing like pain when it should be quiet.10
Long-Term Outlook
Fibromyalgia can be a serious illness. Many have such severe symptoms it impacts their ability to go to work or school or even complete basic tasks around the house. When you have fibromyalgia, you’re twice as likely to be hospitalized versus someone without the condition.3 Approximately 30 percent of those diagnosed with fibromyalgia qualify as disabled.4 Your experience may be different.
It can also be expensive and difficult to afford the care you need with fibromyalgia. Treating the disease often requires experimenting with different medications and doctors, which can be costly even if you have insurance. One 2007 study found that those with fibromyalgia typically spent between $100 to $1,000 a month out of pocket for medical costs related to the condition. Another study revealed that fibromyalgia patients paid nearly $1,500 for alternative treatments and spent a total of about $5,300 annually out of pocket for all medical expenses.4
Despite the lifelong challenges of living with fibromyalgia, it’s a misconception that nothing can be done to help. There are many treatment options for managing your symptoms even though it can be hard to find what will work for you. However, many people find they do better and experience some improvement or relief from their symptoms with the right combination of treatments.5Fibromyalgia is a painful and frustrating condition, but there is hope.
Related: Here are some ways people describe what it’s like living with fibromyalgia.
The Mighty’s Condition Guides combine the expertise of both the medical and patient community to help you and your loved ones on your health journeys. For the fibromyalgia guide, we interviewed five medical experts, read numerous studies and surveyed 13,997 people diagnosed with the condition. The guides are living documents and will be updated with new information as it becomes available.
The Mighty’s Condition Guides combine the expertise of both the medical and patient community to help you and your loved ones on your health journeys.
Energy artist, Soul Coach, Advanced Energy Healer and originator of The Initiatory Journey To Awaken Your Sacred Masculine.
I am clairvoyant and medical intuitive, being born highly empathic. Having studied and practiced a wide array of alternative healing and consciousness growth modalities for over 35 years, I have been developing my innate intuitive and healing abilities to assist those I work with.
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A student writes “This painting depicts a dream I had where Grandmother Kaariina and I were sitting by the Oceanside as she told me the secrets of the sacred blood that lived in the bleeding Cedar tree. This is a very Sacred tree on the unseeded Coast Salish territories where I live, and this dream happened just after I began being a student of grandmother’s bundle. I was inspired to become a student of the bundle after feeling grandmother’s sharp perception- She is able to see very clearly underlying dynamics between my relationship to myself and my relationship with all other things, while holding with clarity the energy and instruction for right relationship.. this vision has been truly a gift, along with the wisdom of womanhood and my womb’s sacred blood, I have released ancestral baggage and unconscious patterns which waste my energy, and instead I am accessing within myself more softness, more authenticity, more generosity, and the communication skills needed to honour myself and my relationships. I am truly grateful to be a student of this bundle, expanding my own capacity to see, expanding my Nervous system’s capacity to embody my truth free of trapped emotions, and integrating the lessons my ancestors could not understand”.
Grandmother Kaariina teachers advanced courses on REIKI for Financial Abundance and Authentic Prosperity.
Her current Bundle of contemporary coaching within the Medicine Wheels of ancient ways are opening once more during the week of June 5, 2019.
Travellers or students of these earth-based ways are invited to request: an INTAKE for a one and one half hour JOURNEY of lifetimes in order to explore whether there is a fit between student and GMA.
Sessions are conducted via skype at kaariina.saarinen1and require that students have these systems in order.
Another prerequisite is to establish a Sacred Space for this first exploration and discovery. Instructions are forwarded after the INTAKE has been received.
This JOURNEY is valued at $244 USD via paypal; or $266 CND via email interact.
A portion of all income generated is dedicated to land conservation!
The BUNDLE is a commitment to NINE MONTHS of Travelling
through time-space continuum! ONLY 15 travellers will be admitted
to this intensive teaching and learning space.
The exploration session’s value will be moved towards the NINE MONTH
investment when there is agreement.
The BUNDLE’s value is $5,777.00 USD with co-creative payment plans!
What value are your life and its soul’s purpose?
For all of our relations
REIKI for Financial Abundance and Authentic Prosperity
Given the challenge to shift our perceptions of success and of wealth, Grandmother has divined a systematic way of initiating students through the REIKI lineage.
3 levels are offered in a wilderness setting: REIKI level one; For self-love self-care self-healing *reactivation of the original intelligence of this universe
REIKI level two: For resolving issues with relatives in this and other lifetimes *clearing the multiple dimensions so that light may enter in*includes journeys with creature teachers, plant and tree essences, flower remedies and crystals
REIKI level three: For releasing the paradigms of the victim; duality and entering the threshold of Personal Mastery. *includes 8 mastery symbols, activations, applications *personal timeline releases*envisioning outcomes on all levels, especially global benefits *Health and Wealth planning along with timelines *envisioning, sensing, feeling, following the Principles of Conscious Cocreation *developing accountability allies!
The first two levels require a dedication of 7-8 hours each with 21 days of practices. The third level invites a devotion of 4 full days on site with Gma Kaariina , including community building and offerings
to this earth and others. This also opens to another 21 days of practices
with 22 applications with others. Students will complete Observation Templates in order to develop their energetic observation abilities.
NOTE: the second and third levels are financially regenerative; students are invited to open to receive $ in exchange for their offerings.
NOTE: Kaariina is available at 604 815 8793 for a consultation and initial session to determine when and where these Precious Teachings will be offered!
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