What is the root cause of fibromyalgia

The cause and treatment of fibromyalgia in detail

In this article we will discuss:
What is fibromyalgia
Why (myofascial) trigger points are the largest cause
How scientists have successfully treated fibromyalgia
Practical advice

Why trigger points are by far the biggest cause of sensitisation

What are trigger points

Trigger points are those tender lumps in your muscles that therapists find. For more information please see our article Your Complete Guide To (Myofascial) Trigger Points .

Why trigger points are the biggest cause of sensitisation

As stated above your nervous system can be sensitised by a host of inputs, and it is very important to remember that exposure over time is important and sources can add together. However, for the following reasons it is trigger points that commonly bombard nervous systems with pain over long periods of time:

1. trigger points are arguably the greatest cause of pain syndromes such as back, neck and shoulder pain,
2. they are often not diagnosed, and
3. they are often inadequately treated.

Trigger points are often inadequately treated

Prescribing pain killing drugs obviously does not address the trigger points, but what happens when they are identified and treated with therapies such as needles, laser or one of the many manual therapies? As we discuss in our article Why trigger points keep coming back most treatments for trigger points merely temporarily relieve their symptoms but do not eliminate the trigger points. As a result the pain eventually comes back, and as scientists have found even when temporarily not hurting points still bombard your nervous system with sub threshold levels of pain (8).

How the scientists successfully relieved fibromyalgia

Basic principle

Sensitisation is usually caused by prolonged exposure to pain or some other form of stress. Simply, what the scientists did was remove this source of pain, allowing the nervous system to normalise.

Practical advice

It is very important to understand how fibromyalgia typically develops as a result of un-diagnosed and poorly treated trigger points.

How fibromyalgia develops

Early stages

In the early stages people develop trigger points which result in typical musculoskeletal pains such as back, neck and shoulder pain. These are typically dealt with by:

• self medicating with pain killers
• doctors prescribing drugs and ineffective therapies
• trigger point therapies that only provide temporary relief

Middle stages

As the trigger points continue to develop pain worsens, and becomes more constant and widespread. Usually similar “treatments” are continued, though as the condition has worsened it needs either stronger or more frequent medication, or more therapy to provide relief. At this although sensitisation is not yet an issue the person still has widespread pain and tenderness due to the trigger points. Even though, as mentioned doctors are not trained to recognise trigger points so having widespread pain with no recognisable cause some doctors will start diagnosing fibromyalgia.

Later stages

After a long period of time the person will have widespread pain due to trigger points, plus his or her nervous system will become sensitised making the condition much more painful and complicated. The doctors were unable to identify and deal with the issues earlier, but now they can tell you that you have this condition called fibromyalgia that has no known cause but a shopping list of symptom relieving drugs they can try.

What you can do about it

You need to actually get rid of the trigger points

The scientists who relieved fibromyalgia by injecting trigger points with anaesthetic have made an extremely valuable contribution. Their research has shown that pain from trigger points is the major cause of the sensitisation, and that by eliminating that pain the nervous system will settle back down. However, if you have ever had a dental anaesthetic you will understand that anaesthetics wear off after a while. It is completely impractical to keep injecting trigger points with anaesthetics. We have to actually get rid of the trigger points.

How to get rid of your trigger points

As previously discussed, trigger point therapies and treatments too often just temporarily relieve trigger points but do not eliminate them. However, there are effective ways you can deal with trigger points, including very effective treatments that can be self applied. This is very important because you will likely need regular treatments over a long period of time, which if all done professionaly would be very inconvenient and expensive. For details please see our article How to massage fibromyalgia . Please see our video below for a practical demonstration.

References

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