New Hope For Fibromyalgia Patients

A patient of mine sent me one of the most amazing articles last week out of the Journal of Pain. The article was about patients with diagnosed fibromyalgia or unexplained widespread pain. Now anyone who has fibromyalgia or even knows someone with this condition knows that it is a life changing disorder and makes pain an everyday occurrence. Those of you with fibromyalgia also know that there are not a lot of answers in regard to what may cause this condition or what to do about it, and this is why this article got me excited!
A study done right here in my own back yard at Pacific Rheumatology Research Inc. in Renton, Washington may shed some light on what may cause these horrible pain syndromes. In the study the researchers took MRI's of the neck in both flexion (chin tucked in) and extension (head tipped backwards). These MRI's showed "pressing or pinching of the spinal cord at the neck" in 71% of the fibromyalgia patients, and 85% of the chronic widespread pain patients. These are amazing numbers and should give hope to a lot of suffering patients.
To chiropractors and to my patients this is no surprise. We know that when under stress (this can be physical, chemical, or emotional stress) the bones of the spine can become misaligned. When misaligned, these bones that surround the spinal cord and protect the nerves, and pinch or press on the structures that they surround. Especially in the upper part of the neck. In my experience, up wards of 90% of my patients present with misalignments of the first two bones in their neck, which can cause tension and pulling of the spinal cord and nerves
It would make a lot of sense that people with pinching and pressure in their spinal cord, which is the information highway between the brain and the body, would have extreme amounts of pain. The neat thing is that this is what us as chiropractors treat on a daily basis, misalignments of the spine which cause "pressing or pinching of the spinal cord"