Part 3 - Vaccinations and Infections      The National Fibromyalgia Association’s 2006 Internet survey of 2596 individuals found that 26.7% of those who could trace the origin of their FMS to a specific event reported that event to be an illness and 45% felt that infections worsened their FMS symptoms.  However, the reports in the scientific literature are conflicting.      Only one study has been reported showing that chronic hepatitis B infection may increase the risk of FMS. In this study 25% of patients who had antibodies that were positive for Hepatitis B also had FMS.  Two studies with a total of 202 FMS patients have reported an association of hepatitis C virus infection and FMS.  Conversely, two studies with 267 FMS patients found no association to hepatitis C.  If such an association does exist, one possible pathological mechanism may involve hepatitis C induced changes in cytokines which affect the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis.       If you’re wondering just what are cytokines, then be sure to read the two short reports on cytokines and neuroendocrinology. Until you do here is an introduction to cytokines. They are cellular molecular messengers that the body uses primarily to regulate inflammatory responses. When you hear about…

Part 2 - Emotionally Traumatic Events      Emotionally traumatic events have long been considered a cause of Fibromyalgia Syndrome (FMS). However, it has been difficult to attempt to do research in this area primarily because of a statistical peculiarity called Berkson’s bias. If you have read some of the other short reports you may have remembered reading about the odds ratio. The odds ratio is a number that simply tells you about the odds of having a disease or medical condition compared to something else. For example, if you smoke the odds ratio of developing a particular type of cancer may be 6.8 compared to someone not smoking. This simply means you are at almost seven times the risk of developing that cancer by smoking, or it appears at a frequency in smokers that is 700% greater than non-smokers – the numbers mean the same thing.      Berkson’s bias applies to people with two or more separate medical conditions – say heart disease and diabetes. People with heart disease and diabetes will see their doctor more than someone with just one of those diseases simply because having both diseases usually means they have more problems with both diseases than if…

Part 1 - Physically Traumatic Events      The role of physical trauma in the development of Fibromyalgia Syndrome (FMS) continues to be deliberated in the literature. A major difficulty has been the reliance on someone’s ability to recall events that may have occurred thirty years prior. Post-traumatic fibromyalgia is also known as reactive fibromyalgia syndrome and the first paper on the subject was published in 1992. Those researchers reported that 23% of 127 FMS patients reported a specific event – trauma, surgery, or medical illness preceded their FMS. Patients in this group were significantly more affected with 70% losing their job, 34% receiving disability, and 45% having reduced physical activity. Shortly thereafter, in 1994, another study reported a follow-up of 176 FMS patients; 61% reported symptoms after a motor vehicle accident, 12.5% after a work injury, 7% after surgery, 5% after a sports related injury, and 14% after some other type of traumatic injury.      A 2002 case-control study was published, which is a type of study where people with FMS are matched to healthy, normal individuals in as many characteristics as possible except for their disease, FMS. Then researchers try to find out what was different about people who…