Is there a connection between childhood and 'the formative years' and having fibromyalgia, chronic pain, chronic fatigue, and other of the 'overlapping conditions'? (Lupus, MS, Sjogren's, anything 'autoimmune' and the sort of patient that is referred to rheumatology, typically, or more recently with FM, neurology as it is recognized there's a component that has to do with the nervous system.) In the distant past, some people who presented with symptoms of fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue were thought to have nothing actually going awary in the 'body', it was 'all in their minds'/mental/psychological.

And this could not have been further from the truth! But now that the pendulum has swung the OTHER way, many people are overlooking that illness and wellness always have a mix of all the experiences we have collected since conception, through being born (a traumatic experience for all babies, some more than others), and then becoming an adult eventually. That includes body, mind, spirit components the WHOLE WAY.

Even our ancestors have handed down through their genes getting 'tweeked' in what is known as 'epigenetics'. Have you ever thought about people reading to their unborn babies, or being concerned about what they're exposing the baby to with what they breathe and eat and drink? It's very 'cumulative' and there are LOTS of components. So this topic is here to have something very clear about the mental/behavioral component and from the links below, you can read other things that I've created at Lumigrate to support this aspect about fibromyalgia.

Lumigrate's approach to wellness/illness is to take a holistic approach which covers the mind, body, and spirit such as the model of integrative medicine utilizes, and we actually expand upon that in more detail and break those into smaller components when you get into further detail here. We take a functional medicine approach, which is to look underneath the symptoms and say 'why did the body react that way, with that condition/symptom'.

I hope people can independently 'peel the onion' that is YOU! And if someone is stuck I can act as the desk clerk for short term guidance at no charge or be asked as you would a concierge at a hotel, for a fee, to work with getting you started on that OR along the way if you're stuck. We all get stuck, so don't hesitate to ask. (Contact us comes to me, and I'm available on FB and Lumigrate's phone #/Google Voice/USA is 970/773-7921.)

This is a resource from PubMed that is older but very 'solid' and has stood the test of time, at least. Keep in mind this data was collected before this was published in the 'last century'. I selected this topic for other reasons, though -- to show that fibromyalgia was being studied back in the 1990s, related to the 'mind' aspect, the effects of childhood trauma also affects 'spirit', and they all then feed back into what the body experiences.

"The issues are in the tissues", so to speak. Getting the various aspects of the tissues to release the past and what the body is bearing the burden of, is a critical part of reversing the illness process with many cases of chronic pain and fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue in particular. NOTE: MANY people who have these conditions are not aware their exhaustion or headaches or irritable bowel syndrome and tight muscles indicate they'd be on the 'continuum' of CFS/FMS (the other end of the line is 'wellness' -- we're ALL on it somewhere!)

The CDC revised the information they had on the topic in late 2013 and I was thankfully made aware of it on Facebook by Lumigrate's certified spirituality coach, Beth Patterson today (5/7/14). Here's the link. Note: It's a VERY easy website to navigate, and it CLEARLY shows how to get to the questionnaire's and many other resources. I highly suggest taking the trip to 'see the sites' at this link: www.cdc.gov/ace/index.htm [1]

Here is the PubMed link and I'm going to add in also what is at that link and then suggest you go to the link if you want to learn more than is provided as their 'overview'.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10070600 [2]

Relationship between traumatic events in childhood and chronic pain.

Goldberg RT [3], Pachas WN [4], Keith D [5].

Source

Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, USA.

Abstract

PURPOSE:

The purpose was to examine the relationships between traumatic events in childhood, such as sexual and physical abuse, alcoholism, and drug addiction, and three types of chronic pain: facial pain, myofascial pain, and fibromyalgia. A fourth group, a heterogeneous group of other pain, was used as a comparison group.

METHOD:

Ninety one patients with chronic pain, age range 20-60, were consecutively recruited from the outpatient clinics of a rehabilitation hospital and a general hospital. Patients were given four measures for completion at evaluation: Childhood History Questionnaire; Childhood Traumatic Events Scale; McGill Melzack Pain Questionnaire; Pain Disability Index. Chi-square was used to test significant differences among four pain groups on sexual, physical, and verbal abuse; alcoholism; drug dependence; medications; major upheaval, childhood illness, death of a family member or friend, and separation or divorce of parents. Logistic regression was used to predict membership in the four pain groups.

RESULTS:

All pain groups had a history of abuse exceeding 48%: fibromyalgia, 64.7%; myofascial, 61.9%; facial, 50%; other pain, 48.3%. All groups had a history of family alcohol dependence exceeding 38%, and a history of drug dependence ranging from 5.8 to 19.1%. A combined history of pain, child physical abuse, and alcoholism was prevalent in 12.9 to 35.3%. Logistic regression showed patients who were female, with an alcoholic parent, using non-narcotic drugs were more likely to be members of the facial, myofascial, and fibromyalgia groups.

CONCLUSIONS:

Child traumatic events are significantly related to chronic pain. Since the problem of child abuse is broader than physical and sexual abuse, health and rehabilitation agencies must shift from individualized treatment to interdisciplinary treatment of the family and patient.

PubMed ID: 10070600

And here is a link to a topic I created on Lumigrate.com related to the Adverse Childhood Experiences research, supported by the Kaiser Foundation, and picked up by a child psychiatrist named Dr Bruce Perry, who brought it on an educational 'tour' to Colorado, where, thankfully, Cheryl and Dr Chris Young learned of it the night before the event and cancelled their plans and went to hear him speak to a PACKED high school gynmasium in Glenwood Springs, Colorado (you turn there to get to Aspen, it's a good location in Western Colorado to get a big turnout of educated, interested, 'sophisticated' medical consumers and providers, teachers/educators, and administrators, etc.)

I couldn't find that ACE research had specifically targeted fibromyalgia, but they had looked at 'autoimmune disease' and so I used that one, because that is, basically the 'overlapping condition umbrella term'. To me, it's very convincing evidence when I see things such as about a quarter of people with autoimmune disorders in adulthood having had high rates of childhood adversity/trauma. It means that, while we might say 'it's just our bodies gone awry and we don't know why --- we just take the BigPharma intervention drugs for it' OR "it's proven that it's from eating foods such as wheat (and dairy and any others that are largely to blame)", we have to remember that success can only happen with regaining wellness to it's fullest if we address all aspects of a person. The body. The mind. The spirit.

So here is the link about that, to get you going on MORE here at Lumigrate.com IF your interests are piqued now: www.lumigrate.com/forum/cumulative-childhood-stress-and-autoimmune-diseases-adults-fibromyalgia-applications [6]

... and I do provide a link there to get back to here, or for people who start there to come here .. and then, well, go from there! Simple questions we handle complimentary, as a desk clerk would, more extensive it is fee for service, similar to a concierge at a hotel. Think of Lumigrate as the community nearby the hotel which I refer to the most often if it's the right thing and otherwise I'll research outside sources. If it's something that would likely be of help to others coming to Lumigrate, we create our new topics in that fashion, as we go. So this truly becomes something YOU help us create, as our guests/users, and I thank you! ~~ Mardy

__________________

Live and Learn. Learn and Live Better! is my motto. I'm Mardy Ross, and I founded Lumigrate in 2008 after a career as an occupational therapist with a background in health education and environmental research program administration. Today I function as the desk clerk for short questions people have, as well as 'concierge' services offered for those who want a thorough exploration of their health history and direction to resources likely to progress their health according to their goals. Contact Us comes to me, so please do if you have questions or comments. Lumigrate is "Lighting the Path to Health and Well-Being" for increasing numbers of people. Follow us on social networking sites such as: Twitter: http://twitter.com/lumigrate [7] and Facebook. (There is my personal page and several Lumigrate pages. For those interested in "groovy" local education and networking for those uniquely talented LumiGRATE experts located in my own back yard, "LumiGRATE Groove of the Grand Valley" is a Facebook page to join. (Many who have joined are beyond our area but like to see the Groovy information! We not only have FUN, we are learning about other providers we can be referring patients to and 'wearing a groove' to each other's doors -- or websites/home offices!) By covering some of the things we do, including case examples, it reinforces the concepts at Lumigrate.com as well as making YOU feel that you're part of a community. Which you ARE at Lumigrate!

High Rates of Childhood Trauma/Adverse Childhood Experiences Found in Studies of People with Fibromyalgia and Chronic Illness