Is Fibromyalgia Caused by Back Injury?

Fibromyalgia is a chronic pain condition that affects 10 million Americans. The most common symptoms are wide spread muscle pain and stiffness, fatigue due to sleep disturbances, and depression.

Many fibromyalgia sufferers also experience impaired memory and concentration (also known as "fibro fog"), irritable bowel syndrome, skin sensitivities and rashes, Raynaud's Syndrome, dry eyes and mouth, anxiety attacks, dizziness, vision disturbances, impaired coordination, restless legs, and various other neurological symptoms.

I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia in 2004, shortly after my thirty-fifth birthday. I had suffered pain in my neck and upper back since an accident in 2002. I had tried physical therapy, chiropractic treatments, massage, stretching, heat packs and ice packs. Nothing relieved my pain for more than a few hours.

Then in 2004, I started experiencing insomnia, heart palpitations, an icy-hot feeling in my skin and muscles and unexplained burning, tingling and buzzing sensations. After many medical tests and several examinations, I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia and sent home with prescriptions for amitryptaline and muscle relaxers. My doctor explained that fibromyalgia was a chronic condition with no known cure and recommended that I try to get more exercise.

But I wasn't willing to accept that I'd have to spend the rest of my life feeling like I had the flu. After all, I was a strong, active woman in the prime of my life! I had places to go, things to do, and people to see. I certainly wasn't about to let something like fibromyalgia stand in my way.

So I took the pills prescribed by my doctor, started a gentle walking and stretching routine, and started learning everything I could about fibromyalgia. I soon discovered that, just like me, many fibromyalgia patients had suffered back or neck injuries prior to the onset of their fibromyalgia symptoms. The more I learned about fibromyalgia, the more sense this made.

You see, as adults our muscles shorten with exercise or injury. Actually, they shorten to some degree with any movement at all. Some doctors and scientists believe this is a result of dwindling human growth hormone levels as we age. This muscle shortening causes the stiffness we feel after exercising, sitting in one position too long, or sleeping. A back or neck injury that causes nerve compression (pinched nerve) will result in muscle spasms (shortening).

If the injury does not heal properly, the affected muscles may remain spastic and form a scar in the tissue. This scarring can cause further nerve compression and before you know it, you have a chronic pain condition.

An American physiologist by the name of Walter Cannon (1871-1945), established what is now a widely accepted principle of physiology known as "Cannon's Law of Denervation Supersensitivity." According to Cannon's Law, when a nerve is injured or "pinched", the results are not just muscle spasm and stiffness, but a whole series of reactions that compound the pain. Bands of muscle fibers tighten and squeeze specialized pain sensing nerve fibers within the muscle known as trigger points. Compressed muscles do not allow proper blood flow (which can explain symptoms like dizziness and Reynaud's Syndrome) or waste products like lactic acid to be removed. The buildup of waste products in the muscle exaggerates the perception of pain. Long-term muscle shortening and compression can cause tendonitis to occur throughout the body. It becomes a vicious cycle of pain, muscle spasms, and nerve entrapment.

But how do muscle spasms and pinched nerves lead to symptoms like sleep disturbances, rashes, irritable bowel, dry eyes, and anxiety attacks?

The spinal nerves located between our vertebrae regulate all body functions: respiration, heart rate, digestion, ovulation, red blood cell production, kidney and liver function, etc. The spinal nerves receive signals from the skin, muscles, internal organs, eyes, ears and tongue, and transfer those signals to the brain. When one or more of the spinal nerves is damaged or dysfunctional, it can have a significant affect on one or more body functions and can result in a variety of seemingly unrelated physical symptoms.

Do I believe that the neck injury I suffered in 2002 is the direct cause of my fibromyalgia symptoms? Not exactly. Not everyone who suffers a neck or back injury develops fibromyalgia and not everyone with fibromyalgia has suffered a neck or back injury. My neck injury was a major contributing factor that, combined with other factors such as stress, depression, hormones, diet, and activity level, resulted in the set of symptoms known as fibromyalgia.

Do I believe there is a cure for fibromyalgia? Again, not exactly. I don't think of fibromyalgia as being a disease with a definitive cause and cure.

Instead, I view fibromyalgia as a complex condition that can be reversed with a treatment plan that addresses all of the contributing factors: nerve entrapment, trigger points, lactic acid buildup, hormone levels, stress levels, depression, diet and exercise. Even if one is successful in eliminating the symptoms, they'll probably always have a susceptibility to fibromyalgia and will experience flare ups during times of illness, stress or depression.

Fibromyalgia is a wake up call. It tells me that my body and my lifestyle are out of balance. Walter Cannon also conducted ground breaking research on the effects that our emotions have on our bodies. His research confirms my own personal experience that reversing fibromyalgia requires a holistic lifestyle change to regain the equilibrium (what Cannon calls homeostasis) that is so critical to our physical, spiritual and emotional health.