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Fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia is a common syndrome of chronic widespread soft-tissue pain accompanied by weakness, fatigue, and sleep disturbances. It is characterized by chronic widespread aching and stiffness, involving particularly the neck, shoulders, back, and hips, which is aggravated by use of the affected muscles.

According to the Marshall PathogenesisA description for how chronic inflammatory diseases originate and develop., fibromyalgia is caused by groups of microbes which downregulate activity of the Vitamin D ReceptorA nuclear receptor located throughout the body that plays a key role in the innate immune response., a nuclear receptorIntracellular receptor proteins that bind to hydrophobic signal molecules (such as steroid and thyroid hormones) or intracellular metabolites and are thus activated to bind to specific DNA sequences which affects transcription. which plays a key role in maintaining the function of the innate immune responseThe body's first line of defense against intracellular and other pathogens. According to the Marshall Pathogenesis the innate immune system becomes disabled as patients develop chronic disease.. Physical or psychological stress may exacerbate the disease, but it should not be considered ultimately responsible for it.

The Marshall ProtocolA curative medical treatment for chronic inflammatory disease. Based on the Marshall Pathogenesis. treats fibromyalgia by reactivating the innate immune response. In the course of treatment, patients' disease symptoms may become worse due to a process called immunopathologyA temporary increase in disease symptoms experienced by Marshall Protocol patients that results from the release of cytokines and endotoxins as disease-causing bacteria are killed..

Managing symptoms while on the Marshall Protocol

Stress

Main article: Stress

Not unlike vitamin D metabolism, the human stress response is governed by a sophisticated hormonal system, one which is also dysregulated in patients with chronic inflammatory diseases. Successful management of both stressors and a patient's stress response can temper disease symptoms while the Marshall ProtocolA curative medical treatment for chronic inflammatory disease. Based on the Marshall Pathogenesis. (MP) is facilitating recovery from disease. These diseases cannot be cured or resolved through lifestyle modifications including “stress management” any more than HIV, tuberculosis, polio, or any of the other forms of infectious disease can.

Physical stress or trauma has also been accepted as a partial contributor for several chronic diseases. However, psychological or physical stress does not appear to play any greater role than many factors which drive disease. There appears a difference between stress causing disease and stress being one of many factors which can influence the progression of disease. Other factors such as the presence of microbial pathogens appear to play a more prominent role.

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Psychosomatic explanations for disease

Sigmund Freud and Jean-Martin Charcot were born 150 years ago, but their ideas about the effect of the subconscious on disease continue to resonate in the scientific community.1) Freud and colleagues argued that unconscious mental processes such as sublimated rage could manifest as physical symptoms. However, with the advent of superior technology, one by one, many diseases once supposed to be caused by psychological stress have since been attributed to other factors including infections.

According to the Marshall Pathogenesis, chronic fatigue syndrome, multiple chemical sensitivity and other chronic inflammatory diseases are likely caused by pathogens, yet many physicians consider these diseases to be “medically unexplained.” Medically unexplained diseases are widely prevalent2) but at the same time have few discernible markers or objectively measurable symptoms. While a lot of Freudian ideas have fallen out of favor, one legacy remains: difficult-to-explain diseases are still routinely attributed to psychological causes. The process by which patients supposedly manifest psychological problems as a disease has been named and renamed, classified and reclassified: hysteria, psychosomatic disorder, somatoform disorder, conversion disorder, functional disorder, etc. In each of these diagnoses, however, the stated origin of disease is unchanged: symptoms that cannot be explained are ultimately “all in a patient's head.”

While there is no denying the existence of some sort of “mind-body connection,” there is minimal compelling evidence that as the 19th century Swiss physician Georg W. Groddeck claimed: “Illness has a purpose; it has to resolve the conflict, to repress it, or to prevent what is already repressed from entering consciousness.”3) Despite the stark absence of evidence supporting these views, it is not unusual to read papers describing how patients with long-term so-called psychological illnesses may be subconsciously manifesting them, because it would allow them to have more “care, attention, disengagement, or even financial benefits.”4) Nor, is it uncommon for new theories to spring up along these lines. In one example, a 2008 continuing medical education publication taught physicians that when a celebrity becomes ill, healthy people are suggestible enough to develop long-term illnesses consistent with the celebrity's descriptions of their conditions. Such claims are recklessly speculative, harming patients and stalling needed research.

Treating patients who complain of so-called medically unexplained symptoms with cognitive behavioral therapy or, in the case of chronic fatigue syndrome, graded exercise therapy, may do more harm than good.5) The emergence of metagenomic technologies offers a more sophisticated set of tools for detecting and characterizing microbes in these disease states. Perhaps it is only the use of this technology that will finally relegate the notion of patient as attention-seeking victim to historical relic.

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Patient interviews

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sarcoidosis, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS)

Read the interview

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Interviews of patients with other diseases are also available.

Notes and comments

References

1)
Friedman L. Reasons for the Freudian revolution. Psychoanal Q. 1977;46(4):623-49.
[PMID: 335422]
2)
Nimnuan C, Hotopf M, Wessely S. Medically unexplained symptoms: an epidemiological study in seven specialities. J Psychosom Res. 2001 Jul;51(1):361-7. doi: 10.1016/s0022-3999(01)00223-9.
[PMID: 11448704] [DOI: 10.1016/s0022-3999(01)00223-9]
3)
Webster, R. 1996. Why Freud was wrong: sin, science and psychoanalysis. London, HarperCollins.
4)
Barsky AJ, Borus JF. Functional somatic syndromes. Ann Intern Med. 1999 Jun 1;130(11):910-21. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-130-11-199906010-00016.
[PMID: 10375340] [DOI: 10.7326/0003-4819-130-11-199906010-00016]
5)
Twisk FNM, Maes M. A review on cognitive behavorial therapy (CBT) and graded exercise therapy (GET) in myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) / chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS): CBT/GET is not only ineffective and not evidence-based, but also potentially harmful for many patients with ME/CFS. Neuro Endocrinol Lett. 2009;30(3):284-99.
[PMID: 19855350]
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