A therapy dog is a dog that is trained to provide affection, comfort, and support to people, especially those who suffer from physical or mentalillnesses. They visit a variety of settings, including retirement or nursing homes, schools, hospice homes, and hospitals, but therapy dogs are also pets used directly by their owners for emotional support.
Therapy dogs are different from service dogs who are trained to perform specific tasks on behalf of their owners. Service dogs receive rigorously, and specialist task-oriented training aimed specifically at helping their owners cope with disabilities. Therapy dogs on the other hand provide attention and comfort and have a therapeutic benefit to those who face difficult health challenges.
Dogs are incredibly intelligent animals. As pain is one of the major symptoms of fibromyalgia and CRPS, this can have an impact on mobility. If someone is in pain from fibromyalgia or CRPS and finds it hard to walk, service dogs will be there to steady them when needed. They can also scan the body to see which parts are the coldest and when it is nap or bedtime they will cuddle into you on that part of the body to keep you warm.
Research has shown that patients diagnosed with a range of issues, such as depression, bipolar disorder, autism, ADHD, post-traumatic stress disorder, and Alzheimer’s disease, benefit from their interaction with therapy dogs and other companion animals. The presence of dogs and indeed other animals can help to relieve stress and anxiety, lower blood pressure, boost endorphins, reduce heart and breathing rate, and generally make us feel more positive.
Golden retrievers, poodles, and Labradors are commonly used as therapy dogs, due to their loving nature, and high levels of intelligence, however, any friendly breed of dog can be a therapy dog with a little bit of training.
Fibromyalgia is difficult to manage. Whilst there are some effective treatment strategies, most people live with chronic symptoms and look for non-conventional treatments for some relief. A recent study, “Better Together”, by the Mayo Clinic in America, showed therapy animals could be an evidence-based treatment option, and health care professionals should strongly consider using animal-assisted activity in the care of their patients with fibromyalgia. People who interacted with therapy dogs saw their oxytocin levels increase significantly, while their heart rates decreased.
Whether you suffer from CRPS, chronic pain, or fibromyalgia, therapy dogs can help make life that little bit easier.
Fibromyalgia (FM) is a syndrome defined by chronic widespread pain with multiple tender points, fatigue, sleep dysfunction, and abnormal pain processing. The syndrome can have many other associated symptoms as well but those can depend on person to person. The cause of the syndrome is unknown but theories have revolved around the idea of trauma or problem with the nervous system caused by injury, virus, or essentially an automatic nervous system dysfunctional condition along with theories that speculate it is an asleep dysfunctional condition or it is autoimmune in nature. The role of immune system dysfunction had been downplayed in recent years due to the recent evidence to demonstrate the neurological components. If this new research into the immune system can be replicated it may very well be that Fibromyalgia is a neuroimmune syndrome in nature which could vastly change how it is looked at in research and treatment. In fact, the method used in the research for their test could, in fact, be used in the future diagnostically.
The researchers used several methods to study the cytokine levels of people with Fibromyalgia to healthy subjects. Cytokines are part of our immune system which are proteins that help manage our immune response. “Recent data highlight the role of the immune system in FM. Aberrant expressions of immune mediators, such as cytokines, have been linked to the pathogenesis and traits of FM. We, therefore, determined whether cytokine production by immune cells is altered in FM patients by comparing the cellular responses to mitogenic activators of stimulated blood mononuclear cells of a large number of patients with FM to those of healthy matched individuals “ Prohealth
The study was done by the blind method. There was a total of 110 Fibromyalgia subjects and 91 control subjects involved. All the FM subjects had symptoms and a diagnosis of at least one year and underwent two independent examinations to confirm they met the criteria according to the standards of the American College of Rheumatology. All FM patients were off their fibromyalgia medications two weeks prior to the study being started. Patients with comorbid conditions were excluded specifically ones with already compromised immune systems; such as autoimmune conditions. The median age of the group was 39.
They used “Plasma and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC)…. Parallel samples of PBMC were cultured overnight in medium alone or in the presence of mitogenic activators; PHA or PMA in combination with ionomycin. The cytokine concentrations of IFN-γ, IL-5, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, MIP-1β, MCP-1, and MIP1-α in plasma as well as in cultured supernatants were determined using a multiplex immunoassay using bead array technology. ” BMC Clinical Pathology December 17, 2012
Essentially Fibromyalgia patients had substantially lower levels than the control group. Cytokine levels “of stimulated PBMC cultures of healthy control subjects were significantly increased as compared to matched non-stimulated PBMC cultures. In contrast, the concentrations of most cytokines were lower in stimulated samples from patients with FM compared to controls. The decreases in cytokine concentrations in patients’ samples ranged from 1.5-fold for MIP-1β to 10.2-fold for IL-6 in PHA challenges. In PMA challenges, we observed 1.8 to 4-fold decreases in the concentrations of cytokines in patient samples.””BMC Clinical Pathology December 17, 2012
The research done by BMC Clinical Pathology concludes “The cytokine responses to mitogenic activators of PBMC isolated from patients with FM were significantly lower than those of healthy individuals, implying that cell-mediated immunity is impaired in FM patients. This novel cytokine assay reveals unique and valuable immunologic traits, which, when combined with clinical patterns, can offer a diagnostic methodology in FM.” BMC Clinical Pathology December 17, 2012
“In the past, FM was claimed to be a rheumatologic, neurologic or psychiatric disease despite the fact that there were no objective links to any of those pathways. Our findings uncovered evidence that FM is instead an immunologic disorder. They prove that the immunologic basis of FM occurs independently of any subjective features. Hence, this illustrates the very strong clinical value of our test protocol. The fact that individual cytokines exhibited similar dynamics in patient samples reveals that the FM patients are uniform in regard to their cellular immunologic responses.” BMC Clinical Pathology December 17, 2012
Based on one study there is not enough evidence to say that Fibromyalgia is an immunologic disorder, but if more studies confirm similar findings it could mean a great deal. There has been a shift to see the syndrome as neurological and this would increase the shift towards neuroimmune. This means a great deal since it is pointing to specific immune dysfunction which could lead to specific treatments and a better overall grasp of what is going on with this syndrome. Most important is the idea that they could come up with a diagnostic tool, which the lack of has always been a problem. It could lead to people being diagnosed early and prevent misdiagnosis if there was a diagnostic tool.
When it comes to chronic pain syndrome, there is no universal definition, but it is often explained as pain that has persisted for longer than 12 weeks, or beyond what would be expected to have been a normal healing period.
When you are suffering from pain it is hard to explain to others how you are feeling. But chronic pain is very real and can be complex.
The Brain and the spinal nerves make up the central nervous system. The spinal nerves carry messages from the body to the Ronty to tell it what’s going on. The Brain acts like a control center working out from these messages if it needs to do anything. It’s sometimes easier to think of how the messages and the Ronty combine together to form an alarm system. It’s the Brain’s interpretation of this information from the alarm system that results in the feeling of pain. Sometimes the Brain’s interpretation of these signals isn’t accurate.
We usually expect the pain to settle down with time but sometimes the Brain continues to send out pain signals. These signals can be hard to stop, are often intense and at times seem to come for no obvious reason. This fact isn’t always easy to understand but it is important to understand that this pain is still “real”.
Why is the pain so bad?
Living with chronic pain can be exhausting, making daily life a struggle.
Chronic pain can interfere with your daily activities, such as working, having a social life, and taking care of yourself and your family, and can sometimes lead to depression, anxiety, and trouble sleeping. A lack of exercise and unused muscles due to living with a chronic pain condition can cause tiredness and exhaustion, starting a vicious cycle and making your pain worse.
Painkillers are often the first line of attack in treating chronic pain syndrome. Doctors may advise NSAIDs – Non-Steroid Anti Inflammatory Drugs – such as Ibuprofen. These work in the body by blocking the effects of a particular group of enzymes which contribute to the production of both pain and inflammation. Paracetamol can also help alleviate pain when taken on a regular basis, but It has no effect on inflammation. Opioids, such as Codeine and Tramadol, are another extremely powerful type of medication and work by binding to receptors and decreasing a body’s reaction to pain, and increasing tolerance levels.
Drugs are not the only answer to managing chronic pain; alternative medicine or therapies can be effective, especially when used in combination with an overall pain management program prescribed by a doctor.
Acupuncture is available on the NHS in some parts of the country and has shown to be helpful in combatting chronic pain.
Yoga, breathing techniques, and meditation can all be effective and help to reduce symptoms of chronic pain by learning how to remain positive and manage negative emotions.
Low-impact exercise (such as cycling, swimming, and walking) can help with chronic pain, as the movement can trigger the release of feel-good endorphins such as dopamine, which can result in improved tolerance for pain. The exercise can also help to alleviate stiffness and pain caused by a lack of movement in the joints.
Those who suffer from chronic pain are often inactive due to fear of causing their symptoms to worsen. However, this just contributes to the pain cycle. Of course, not everyone is able to exercise and medical advice should always be sought before embarking on a program.
Venturing out of my abode got me thinking about fickle fibromyalgia pain.
Recently I have been thinking about the variety of FM symptoms because some of them overlap with chronic migraine symptoms such that I don’t know which is the cause… such as vertigo; migraine-associated vertigo or FM-related vertigo, or the balance problems and even the sensitivity to sound and light. The thing is FM came first and migraines later and then chronic migraines so no matter how much my neuro wants to label everything chronic migraines he is actually just saying things doctors had actually labeled everything fibromyalgia before.
But my trip and any trip actually or any unexpected activity remind me of the fickle fibro pain. How it can hit like lightning in any muscle group or all muscle groups. How it can be a deep muscle ache that gets worse and worse, grinding and deep until your mobility is completely restricted, or a sharp nerve pain that arches through you or stings like cold fire or burns. The pain can be crippling and many of the incidents I remember can be so different and triggered by different things or nothing at all… so fickle.
Excluding the aches I had as a child the first sharp crippling pain came when I worked a job where I was standing for eight hours at some customer service job. I remember the pain of doing that but I was familiar with that sort of pain already and not diagnosed at the time. I believe at the time they had said I had ‘hypermobility with soft tissue pain’ so pain from standing was due to me being double–jointed. It sucked but it was familiar.
What wasn’t familiar was the fact that after enduring it for eight hours and getting home and sitting down, with profound relief, I couldn’t stand up. After a brief moment of rest and I tried to get up for supper and pain arched through my legs and they collapsed. Just gave out from the very pain itself.
It was the first time I realized if you have severe fibro pain you cannot stop and rest. There is no point to it because resting and getting up causes severe pain, sometimes causing your legs to just give out but most definitely causing a lot of difficulty in getting moving again because of intensepain… so it is better to just keep going, no matter how slow.
The next incidents of intense fickle fibromyalgiapain occurred when I was an undergraduate in university.
Because that is when my fibro because more severe due to sleep cycle changes and so forth. Also when I was officially diagnosed but not treated (I was told too young to be treated). I flared up really bad one year but there was no reason for it. I was living off-campus at the time. I was physically fit in the sense I walked to school every day. I walked my dog every day. I rollerblade and so forth. Fairly active for someone with chronic pain. I was doing what they want us to do… exercise. The flare-up nearly crippled me.
My fifteen-minute walk to school went from fifteen minutes to forty minutes and was extremely painful. It took a lot of willpower to achieve. Even when I got there it was difficult to sit at my desk, to actually sit down, and then to sit for the entire time. I just remember trying to pay attention through the pain. And that is why I remember that flare up so much because it reminds me of a migraine…. trying to think through pain and not being able to. That pain was all over pain. It hobbled me pretty good… but it was not just the legs, it was back, shoulders, neck… every damn place. And no cause. It lasted about six months and then was gone. It was in summer and wasn’t a weather thing. Just not sure what was the cause.
One thing about fibromyalgia was that I could not work during school. I wasn’t capable of it. Work took too much out of me, so during the summer was my saving up money time. But unfortunately, sometimes it took a little too much out of me anyway if I chose the wrong job. We learn that the hard way with fibro being as it is so fickle we learn what jobs we can and cannot work. I learned as a kid, and during summer jobs that standing for eight hours is extremely painful but what can you do? Service industry jobs are easy to get when you have no experience.
Next job I learned lifting things repetitively or moderate lifting is a very bad thing to do if you have fibro… I got costochondritis. But I didn’t know it. I started getting twinges of chest pains which I ignored, they got more frequent more painful than more constant. The local doc said it was stress. So I ignored it and it got worse and worse. Until when I lay down it felt like someone was squeezing the life out of me, pressure and pain. I ended up in the ER one night because it got severe one night when I went out drinking. That doc said he didn’t believe in fibromyalgia (as was common back then) and sent me away. Needless to say, this pain wasn’t going away so I made the trip home to my family doc who did a chest x-ray and told me what it was. I guess because I have fibromyalgia and maybe because I had aggravated it so much by working with the pain it lasted well into the school year. The pain receded very slowly over six months. It has never, ever been as bad as that.
When I was in graduate school and I needed to get my thesis signed by all the dudes who needed to sign off on it I had to get my copies printed then run around to find the professors to get them to sign and then get the thesis to the right place in order to meet my deadline. This campus was huge. I did a lot of running around. I can’t walk, walk, go upstairs, walk, walk, go upstairs without beginning to feel pain. It isn’t possible.
So I started getting pain in my hips, knees, and feet. I had to keep going because I needed to get it done. I started moving slower and slower and getting more and more distraught. I was running out of time but I couldn’t physically move faster. In the end, I was moving so slowly that I might as well not have been moving. I ended up in my department crying because I couldn’t get it done. A professor found me and I explained (I had not been aware I could get disability benefits on campus by the way so no one knew I had fibro) he called my missing prof and got him to come to me and then got someone to bring my thesis to the right place. I was extremely thankful. I was also stuck there for an hour before I could move again. It was embarrassing to me as well. I never wanted to admit it could actually affect me. Not like the migraines were… and the migraines are what killed my academic career.
The next incident was years later because like a good fibro girl I aimed for a desk job and settled into it. But flares for no reason happened anyway. This one just occurred and surprised me because I could not explain it. It started in my feet, in the arches. Severe arch pain in both feet. I could barely walk just shuffle around. I could not really lift my foot and every step hurt. I tried fake arches. An anti-inflammatory cream my doc gave me. Foot exercise. Nothing. It lasted a year and then just gone. Then started in my wrists, both wrists, tendinitis I guess but so painful I could not put any pressure on them, had a hard time writing with them, and had to wear a brace at night and sometimes at work. They hurt like that for about eight months and then just stopped.
So when my feel suddenly hurt when I wore those sandals I remembered that pain. Those are flares of pain. And the pain in specific spots. Pains other people get for different reasons but we get those sorts of pains for no reason they are part of our normal life. The aching muscles, and general soreness… that is every day, not a flare. Skin pain is a different kind of pain altogether. Nerve pain is also a different kind of pain. Fibromyalgia has a lot of different types of pain. Because it is fickle. It can hit when you take a fifteen-minute walk, which has happened to me, or not until you have walked for an hour. Random, completely random. And these Hellish Flares of Doom… I don’t know what causes them. Sometimes we overdo it and pay and pay and pay. Sometimes they hit for no reason and we pay and pay and pay. I don’t get it but they are way worse than any other flare we have… and we have enough of them as-is.
Personal Independence Payment (or PIP) is a welfare benefit in the UK that is intended to help adults with the extra costs of living with a long-term health condition or disability. It replaced DLA (Disability Living Allowance) and if you have a long-term physical or mental health condition or disability, and are over the age of 16, you may be entitled to benefits.
If you have been diagnosed with fibromyalgia you may be entitled to a range of welfare benefits, including:
PIP provides extra money to help with everyday living expenses and eligibility is not affected by your income, savings, or employment status. Eligibility is not determined by the condition you have, but instead by the amount of help you need as a result of how the condition affects you.
To be eligible for PIP, as a result of your condition, you must:
have had difficulties with daily living or getting around (or both) for 3 months; and
expect these difficulties to continue for at least 9 months.
Once you have checked you are eligible, to claim PIP, you need to:
Call the PIP new claims line on 0800 917 2222 to start your claim. You’ll then be sent a form that asks about your condition.
Complete and return the form.
You might need to have an assessment if more information is needed. At the assessment, you will be asked questions about your ability to carry out activities and how your condition affects your daily life.
Before calling the DWP, make sure you have your National Insurance number; your bank or building society account number and sort code; your doctor or health worker’s details; dates, and addresses for any time you’ve spent in a care home or hospital; and dates for any time you spent abroad for more than 4 weeks at a time, and the countries you visited, all to hand.
Visit the government website to find out more: https://www.gov.uk/pip/how-to-claim
There is much greater acceptance now that the condition of fibromyalgia is real and figures show that people with Fibromyalgia account for 3.5% of all applications for PIP. However as it is often seen as a hidden disability, make sure you are prepared before applying for PIP. Ensure your GP is up to date on how affected you are (from physical challenges to fibro fog) and see if they will refer you to a specialist. It can also be useful to contact your local authority to have an occupational health therapy assessment carried out and make sure you get a copy of this report as it could be useful when claiming for PIP.
If your application is declined, you can ask for a mandatory reconsideration and the DWP will look over it again.
Pediatric Rheumatology Online Journal, 2012, states Juvenile Fibromyalgia (JFM) is correlated with 40% of children and teenagers who also have benign hypermobility (HM). In fact, in adults hypermobility is an often seen comorbid condition.
Pediatric Rheumatology, however, undertook an observational study to see if hypermobility affects the pain experience of adolescents with juvenile fibromyalgia. It must be mentioned that juvenile fibromyalgia is a relatively new area. Often the reason it took people a decade or more to be diagnosed is that early symptoms were ignored, puzzled over, and passed on leaving the patient to continually get worse and eventually get diagnosed in their twenties if they were lucky.
So there has been a great deal of progress to see people acknowledging the syndrome presents far earlier than they had initially thought in many patients. In fact, there was a study done to see what the prevalence rate was for subjects who had fibromyalgia and hypermobility.
The study carried out by the Department of Pediatrics at Louisiana State University (study) had a study group of 338 students and the prevalence of JFM was 6% and of that six percent 40% had hypermobility.
The study included one hundred and thirty-one JFM patients between the ages of 11 and 18. They completed a daily visual analog scale (VAS) pain rating for a week and did the 18 tender point colorimeter assessment as well.
The results show that 48% of the sample size of JFM subjects was found to be HM+. HM+ and HM- patients did not have any differences in their self-stated pain intensity ratings. However, those who were HM+ had significantly greater pain sensitivity, their tender point threshold was found to be lower, and they had a larger amount of those tender points contrasted to HM- subjects.
From the study, we can say that a juvenile with FM and joint hypermobility does not necessarily report more pain intensity, but that there is increased physiologic pain sensitivity. They are looking to further study the relationship between increased pain sensitivity associated with hypermobility with juvenile fibromyalgia.
From this study, we can see a high co-occurrence of juvenile fibromyalgia with hypermobility. As research into juvenile fibromyalgia is relatively new it will be interesting to see what comes of it. Fibromyalgia is often considered to have an onset in the thirties that increases in probability with age. Researchers still investigate and speculate about rapid-onset cases where someone develops FM after an accident or illness, but it is an entirely different matter if it develops with no trauma and in childhood. It would be interesting to see how many adult-onset people with FM have hypermobility and if the occurrence rate is far lower why it would be that developing FM at such a younger age comes with such a high incidence of hypermobility.
I had no idea about this but apparently, they have a class of fibromyalgia called Juvenile Fibromyalgia… so they are actually looking at children and teenagers and diagnosing them properly. Would have been nice had they done that when I was younger because I was one of those people with FM that had it at a very young age and so spent a lot of time going to the doctor for blood work and tests and no answers. Took a long time to get my diagnosis and by then it was pretty bad. So I’m glad they have finally figured that out… not everyone gets in their thirties or older and not everyone gets it after a trauma or illness… sometimes we have the syndrome and it just slowly gets worse over time. I also have hypermobility syndrome.. that I was diagnosed with early by the way. And it is one of the things that is comorbid with FM, a lot of us are hypermobile and apparently about 40% of JFMers are. I wonder if it is just those who develop it as children who are more prone to having it or if it is all around common to have this co-occur and I wonder why so many of us have this… FM is in the brain and it is all about the nervous system, whereas hypermobility is the joints and connective tissue. An interesting puzzle.
The pain and fatigue associated with fibromyalgia can leave you inactive and overweight. It is difficult for many people to feel motivated to exercise at this time of the year when the weather is cold and wet and the nights are dark, and even more so when you are in pain and exhausted. Many people with fibromyalgia find they are more sedentary than they used to be which can lead to a loss of muscle strength and stamina. It can be a difficult cycle to break, however, extra weight can lead to more severe fibromyalgia symptoms, therefore it is certainly something that you should be aware of.
What Causes Weight Gain?
Weight gain does not only come from a lack of exercise. Several aspects of fibromyalgia contribute to excess weight, such as:
When you have fibromyalgia, the appetite-signaling hormone leptin may be out of sync, meaning that inaccurate hunger messages can be sent to the Brain, making you eat more, or
Your thyroid, which regulates metabolism, could be dysfunctional (which in turn can slow the body’s ability to burn calories)
The condition itself causes a metabolic slowdown
But there are still ways to take control of your weight if you suffer from fibromyalgia.
Due to the pain associated with fibromyalgia, along with chronic fatigue, patients may find exercise and daily physical activity more difficult. This can be a vicious circle as lack of exercise can naturally result in weight gain, which can exacerbate feelings of depression and self-worth.
Research has shown that engaging in aerobic exercise for 20–30 minutes per day a few days per week may help reduce symptoms and fatigue in people with fibromyalgia. Start slowly and gradually increase, and if you are unsure where to begin, speak to a doctor, physio, or personal trainer for some advice.
Walking – low-impact exercise is the best type of exercise for people who have fibromyalgia and are new to exercising because it builds general strength and endurance
Yoga – stretching can help relax tight muscles and ease spasms. Always take time to warm up and loosen your muscles first in order to help you avoid injury. Yoga can also help with mind-body awareness and some practitioners design workouts specifically for those with chronic pain
Swimming – swimming is a low-impact aerobic workout and exercising in water can improve overall fitness while putting less stress on the body. The water’s buoyancy eases stress on the joints, and in a heated pool, its warmth helps tight muscles relax. The soothing effect of the water may also reduce the perception of pain, helping lower anxiety
Tai chi– this ancient martial art incorporates stretching and slow movements. As it encourages mind-body awareness, it can help with both the physical and psychological symptoms of fibromyalgia
Weightlifting– many people with fibromyalgia claim strength training, when done properly, significantly improves their quality of life. It’s important to increase intensity slowly and use light weights, to begin with
Exercise can also help with other fibromyalgia symptoms, asides from weight gain, including depression, difficulty concentrating, and sleep problems. A balanced diet and a healthy lifestyle, combined with regular exercise can help alleviate some of the symptoms associated with fibromyalgia, but remember to speak to your doctor before embarking on a new regime.
There was a site that had this and I had linked to it on Tumblr but it is gone. So I had to hunt down someone who found my post and posted the whole thing in a forum. Anyway, it is around but I’m posting it here so I will not have to hunt it down to reference it. Now we all know the major symptoms are the widespread pain, but our pain isn’t just muscle pain… it can be nerve types of pain as well, fatigue and insomnia. And even among symptoms, there are some far more frequently than others, but it should be said we have categories… like the cognitive dysfunction, which is a broad one that has more than one symptom and we often just say fibrofog. Insomnia… more than one sleeping disorder. So the list is interesting.
GENERAL __ Fatigue, made worse by physical exertion or stress __ Activity level decreased to less than 50% of pre-illness activity level __ Recurrent flu-like illness __ Sore throat __ Hoarseness __ Tender or swollen lymph nodes (glands), especially in the neck and underarms __ Shortness of breath (air hunger) with little or no exertion __ Frequent sighing __ Tremor or trembling __ Severe nasal allergies (new allergies or worsening of previous allergies) __ Cough __ Night sweats __ Low-grade fevers __ Feeling cold often __ Feeling hot often __ Cold extremities (hands and feet) __ Low body temperature (below 97.6) __ Low blood pressure (below 110/70) __ Heart palpitations __ Dryness of eyes and/or mouth __ Increased thirst __ Symptoms worsened by temperature changes __ Symptoms worsened by air travel __ Symptoms worsened by stress
PAIN __ Headache __ Tender points or trigger points __ Muscle pain __ Muscle twitching __ Muscle weakness __ Paralysis or severe weakness of an arm or leg __ Joint pain __ TMJ syndrome __ Chest pain
GENERAL NEUROLOGICAL __ Lightheadedness; feeling “spaced out” __ Inability to think clearly (“brain fog”) __ Seizures __ seizure-like episodes __ Syncope (fainting) or blackouts __ Sensation that you might faint __ Vertigo or dizziness __ Numbness or tingling sensations __ Tinnitus (ringing in one or both ears) __ Photophobia (sensitivity to light) __ Noise intolerance
EQUILIBRIUM/PERCEPTION __ Feeling spatially disoriented __ Dysequilibrium (balance difficulty) __ Staggering gait (clumsy walking; bumping into things) __ Dropping things frequently __ Difficulty judging distances (e.g. when driving; placing objects on surfaces) __ “Not quite seeing” what you are looking at
SLEEP __ Hypersomnia (excessive sleeping) __ Sleep disturbance: unrefreshing or non-restorative sleep __ Sleep disturbance: difficulty falling asleep __ Sleep disturbance: difficulty staying asleep (frequent awakenings) __ Sleep disturbance: vivid or disturbing dreams or nightmares __ Altered sleep/wake schedule (alertness/energy best late at night)
MOOD/EMOTIONS __ Depressed mood __ Suicidal thoughts __ Suicide attempts __ Feeling worthless __ Frequent crying __ Feeling helpless and/or hopeless __ Inability to enjoy previously enjoyed activities __ Increased appetite __ Decreased appetite __ Anxiety or fear when there is no obvious cause __ Panic attacks __ Irritability; overreaction __ Rage attacks: anger outbursts with little or no cause __ Abrupt, unpredictable mood swings __ Phobias (irrational fears) __ Personality changes
EYES AND VISION __ Eye pain __ Changes in visual acuity (frequent changes in inability to see well) __ Difficulty with accommodation (switching focus from one thing to another) __ Blind spots in vision
SENSITIVITIES __ Sensitivities to medications (unable to tolerate “normal” dosage) __ Sensitivities to odors (e.g., cleaning products, exhaust fumes, colognes, hair sprays) __ Sensitivities to foods __ Alcohol intolerance __ Alteration of taste, smell, and/or hearing
OTHER __ Hair loss __ Mitral valve prolapse __ Cancer __ Dental problems __ Periodontal (gum) disease __ Aphthous ulcers (canker sores)
COGNITIVE __ Difficulty with simple calculations (e.g., balancing checkbook) __ word-finding difficulty __ Using the wrong word __ Difficulty expressing ideas in words __ Difficulty moving your mouth to speak __ Slowed speech __ Stuttering; stammering __ Impaired ability to concentrate __ Easily distracted during a task __ Difficulty paying attention __ Difficulty following a conversation when background noise is present __ Losing your train of thought in the middle of a sentence __ Difficulty putting tasks or things in proper sequence __ Losing track in the middle of a task (remembering what to do next) __ Difficulty with short-term memory __ Difficulty with long-term memory __ Forgetting how to do routine things __ Difficulty understanding what you read __ Switching left and right __ Transposition (reversal) of numbers, words, and/or letters when you speak __ Transposition (reversal) of numbers, words, and/or letters when you write __ Difficulty remembering names of objects __ Difficulty remembering the names of people __ Difficulty recognizing faces __ Difficulty following simple written instructions __ Difficulty following complicated written instructions __ Difficulty following simple oral (spoken) instructions __ Difficulty following complicated oral (spoken) instructions __ Poor judgment __ Difficulty making decisions __ Difficulty integrating information (putting ideas together to form a complete picture or concept) __ Difficulty following directions while driving __ Becoming lost in familiar locations when driving
Fibromyalgia is always difficult to diagnose, especially following a road traffic accident as it can follow on and progress from an initial injury involving whiplash.
Fibromyalgia is a pain syndrome of chronic widespread musculoskeletal pain and fatigue. The pain is thought to be caused by abnormalities in the pain pathways in the central nervous system, and is most commonly caused, or exacerbated by, physical traumas, such as car accidents and falls, often due to no fault of the patient. This is why it can often be initiated or exacerbated by whiplash.
There is no specific test to give a straight diagnosis of fibromyalgia and therefore it may take some time to get to the final answer. The symptoms of fibromyalgia are very similar to several other conditions hence it is well-known for its difficulty when it comes to diagnosis. Neck and shoulder tenderness is one common indicator that is used to diagnose fibromyalgia; general pain lasting longer than three months is another. Although fibromyalgia shares some symptoms with whiplash, a differentiating factor is that whiplash is centered on the neck and, back, and shoulders, whereas fibromyalgia is pain throughout the whole body.
What is Whiplash?
Whiplash is an injury to your neck/back, caused by your neck bending forcibly forward and then backward, or vice versa. The injury usually involves the muscles, discs, nerves, and tendons in your neck and back, and feels like a dull aching pain resulting in a stiff neck and back often making it difficult to turn your head from side to side. The pain can extend to the shoulders as well.
Whiplash can present itself in a variety of ways and most commonly comes about as a result of the sudden jolt that occurs in the course of a car accident, or from a vehicle impacting another from behind, causing the driver and passengers’ heads to jolt. Key symptoms of whiplash include:
With whiplash, the majority of neck pain goes away within a few weeks, and even more within three months, although it can last longer. Studies show that between 12% and 50% of people still have persistent neck pain after a year. Like most other injuries, serious side effects can occur if it is left untreated, therefore it is important to try and get an accurate diagnosis from your doctor as soon as possible.
Fibromyalgia is usually a long-lasting problem that doesn’t just go away six months later, not even after treatment. It is characterized by tender points all over the body, not just in the neck and shoulder areas and as a general rule, people with whiplash-associated disorders tend to have local tender points (i.e. just in the neck and shoulder and not anywhere else).
What Are The Main Symptoms of Fibromyalgia to Look Out For?
You should always consult a medical expert on fibromyalgia expert rather than self-diagnose. However, the symptoms of fibromyalgia to look out for include:
Other symptoms that people with fibromyalgia sometimes experience include dizziness and clumsiness; feeling too hot or too cold; an overwhelming urge to move your legs (restless legs syndrome); tingling, numbness, prickling or burning sensations in your hands and feet (pins and needles); in women, unusually painful periods; anxiety; and depression.
Whether it is whiplash or fibromyalgia, don’t ignore the symptoms following an accident and speak to a doctor for an accurate diagnosis.
Cannabidiol (more commonly known as CBD oil) is an extract of Cannabis indica and Cannabis sativa, the same plants used to make marijuana. From oils and nasal sprays to sweets and soft drinks, CBD is becoming increasingly popular in the UK for treating and helping to relieve various conditions.
CBD is said to provide relief for anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as pain relief, and there are said to be some key benefits that CBD oil may have when incorporated into your daily life.
Formerly known as Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD), Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) is caused by an injury to the sympathetic nerves resulting in severe pain. The definition of CRPS has changed regularly through the years and there are now two separate recognized types:
Type I – is often known as reflex sympathetic dystrophy and shows no evidence of nerve lesions
Type II – often known as causalgia and has clear evidence of nerve lesions and damage
CRPS is a chronic condition that is typically triggered by a traumatic injury to a limb, but the pain does not subside as would usually happen during a usual recovery. Those suffering from CRPS tend to experience pain that is greatly amplified and disproportionate to the severity of the injury itself and it can be catastrophic for many.
Cannabis has been used to treat pain for thousands of years, and in more recent history, scientists and researchers have uncovered that there are specific components of the marijuana plant, including CBD that is responsible for the pain-relieving effect that CBD can have.
Many people use CBD to relieve pain. CBD works in three main ways:
reducing inflammation by decreasing the production of inflammatory chemicals called cytokines;
by binding to and blocking receptors in the central nervous system that are associated with pain; and
reducing anxiety associated with pain by binding to serotonin receptors and giving a natural anti-depressant.
There are few studies that have specifically explored the relationship between CBD and CRPS itself, however, there have been a number of promising studies that have looked into cannabis and its ability to provide pain relief to sufferers of CRPS.
CRPS is a poorly understood condition and therefore difficult to treat. There is no known cure for CRPS, however, a combination of physical treatments, medication, and psychological support can help to manage symptoms.
CBD is legal in the UK, however, the law states that the product has to meet certain criteria to be lawfully available for human consumption. Primarily CBD oil must not contain any trace of THC to be legally sold in the UK (it’s the THC that’s present in the cannabis plant that gets you high). Many CBD products on the high street aren’t always properly authorized, therefore it’s best to buy them from trusted websites, pharmacies, or stores and to speak to your doctor before taking CBD products.
To be legal in the UK CBD products must have no THC so that they’re not psychoactive and won’t get you high. They are becoming increasingly popular for those suffering from various medical conditions, however, with all supplements, there are possible side effects that could affect you. Our understanding of the role of CBD in pain management continues to evolve and it is important to read the product information and packaging so you’re aware of what could happen and to speak to your doctor before starting to take CBD products to help relieve CRPS symptoms.
