Guess what! It’s not all in the mind…

‘When are they ever going to figure out that things are never “all in your head?” Whenever something doesn’t fit in their tiny little understanding, they belittle the patient and tell them they are crazy. Prescribing SSRIs for everything is not the answer any more than a lobotomy or hysterectomy was.’

So said one commenter in the Las Vegas Guardian Express in a report on a new breakthrough in the understanding of fibromyalgia by researchers Frank Rice and Philip Albrecht working at the University at Albany’s East Campus outside  New York.

It appears that the pain, ultra-sensitivity, fatigue and poor sleep associated with fibromyalgia may all be caused by excessively sensitive nerve fibres around blood vessels in the hands, and poor functioning of the system which regulates blood flow to the hands. If you want to understand exactly what they are suggesting, see this report from the University at Albany.

So fibromyalgia sufferers were not imagining it.

Or, how about – ‘Researchers find biological evidence of Gulf War illnesses’. No, really?…

A study published in June in the on-line journal PLoSOne, and discussed in some detail in and article by James Dao in  the NYTimes, has found that Gulf War veterans do appear to have suffered specific neurological damage which could account for the spectrum of symptoms (joint pains, physical malaise, memory impairment, insomnia, digestive problems, depression etc) suffered by a significant number (possibly over 30%) of those who served in the Middle East in the 1990-1 war.

As John Scott, who pointed me towards both reports, says:

‘It really is high time that doctors stopped dismissing the evidence presented by patients on the basis of a lack of scientific proof for what the patient is saying! Anyone with genuine hippocratic intentions should be using science to help their patients not as a stick with which to beat them!

At least those with food intolerance, multiple chemical sensitivity, electromagnetic sensitivity, etc., can now show their doctors the new biological evidence for FM and GFS and suggest that they consider the possibility that their patient’s condition will eventually also be shown to have a basis in biology, and act accordingly.’

Too right!!