Fibromyalgia, and, Chronic Myofascial Pain Syndrome ( FMS / MPS ) from Devin Starlanyl.

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This site is a

Editor's Choice Site

Devin's

Recommended Books and Tapes

Available from:

NEW: Now Easier

to Navigate!!

Care Provider's List

NEW: Links

First Timers

Please See :

the FMS/CMPS

definition page

The Institute

Information for

your Health Care Team

Information for

Health Care Providers

Definitions

Some Symptoms

Bibliography

Information on

Guaifenesin

Information For

Patients

What are FMS

and Chronic MPS

An

informational sheet for Relatives & Supporters

Myofascia

FMS

Trigger Points

(TrPs)

Tender Pt.

Definition

Chronic MPS

FMS/MPS

Complex

Information on

Guaifenesin

Support Groups

Info. for Your

Physician

Information for

Allergists and E.N.T. Professionals

Information

for Dentists

Information for

Eye Care Professionals

Information

for Mental Health Care Professionals

Information for

Neurologists

Information for

Ob./Gyn. Health Care Professionals

Information

for Pharmacists

Information

for Physical Therapists

Information for

Primary Care and Rheumatologists

Information

for Surgeons

Information for

Urologists

About

Headaches and MPS

Medications

Reactive

Hypoglycemia (RHG)

Other Info.

Exercise and

FMS

Tandem

Tennis Balls

Reading/Viewing

Bibliography

About the Video

Click here for Information

and to ORDER Devin's Newest Book!

Fibromyalgia & Chronic Myofascial Pain

Syndrome

(FMS & CMPS)

We

have many requests for the physician's side symptoms list,

known as " Devin's Diagnostic "

This site describes two medical conditions which often occur

together: Fibromyalgia and Chronic Myofascial Pain Syndrome.

These conditions are clearly clinical

disorders, and as they share symptoms with so many other

disorders, are currently among the most misdiagnosed of ailments.

We hope that this information will help

people to get more information about these illnesses so as to

better their chances of accurate diagnosis and improved therapy.

How To Use This Website

1) Begin by reading the site. Start with the

diagnostic, which will help you discover if fibromyalgia and/or

chronic myofascial pain syndrome and/or reactive hypoglycemia

(insulin resistance) may be a factor in your life. It will help

pinpoint some of your symptoms sources, and will also give you

suggestions and guidelines.

2) Identify and deal with the perpetuating

factors. This should help decrease your symptom load, and is

necessary before any therapy " holds " .

3) Copy the referenced data sheets for your

medical care team.

4) Do read the physicians' data sheets--they

may hold the answers to your questions.

5) Feel free to access the physicians'

bibliography and see all the medical journal articles being

written. Your reference librarian will help you get articles you

need through the Interlibrary Loan.

The

Fibromyalgia Advocate: Getting the Support You Need to Cope with

Fibromyalgia and Myofascial Pain Syndrome by Devin J.

Starlanyl

See what other Medical

Professionals are saying about " The Fibromyalgia

Advocate "

Fibromyalgia

and Chronic Myofascial Pain Syndrome: A Survival Manual by

Devin Starlanyl and Ellen Copeland M.S., M.A., 400 pages US

$19.95

Please do not request opinions on

specific diagnoses, including test interpretations. It is illegal

to give specific treatment advice for individual patients over the

Internet. Devin Starlanyl is not in medical practice. We are

restricted by law to providing general information such as can be

found in a medical text. Please check the " Books

and Tapes " section for more informational resources.

U P D A T E S

NEW -

02/10/00: We Need Your Help with a Study of Vital Importance

Dear

FMily,

The

Fibromyalgia and Chronic Myofascial Pain Institute is planning

a study which we feel is of vital importance.

An Israeli team of doctors has written a paper which

indicates that there may be a blood test for fibromyalgia (Yaron,

I., D. Buskila, I Shirazi, I. Neumann, O. Elkayam, D. Parran and

M. Yaron. 1997. Elevated levels of hyaluronic acid in the sera of women with

fibromyalgia. J Rheumatol).

Women

with fibromyalgia have too much hyaluronic acid in their serum.

Patients with both fibromyalgia and myofascial pain seem to

have more pain than the sum of the two.

Hyaluronic acid (HA) is a component of the “ground

substance”, which may be causing changes in some of us that lead

to the presence of geloid masses in the areas of resistant trigger

points.

There

is a biochemical in the body called hyaluronidase (H-ase), which

breaks down hyaluronic acid.

The production of hyaluronidase can be triggered by the use

of T3 (triiodothyronine), a normally occurring thyroid hormone.

The

purpose of this research is to see if the geloid mass

soften/become more pliable/reduce in size, the symptom load

diminishes, with transdermal T3 therapy.

All

of us involved in the study are donating our time, but there are

considerable costs for the study.

We plan to include men and women in our study, and already

have a full roster of candidates which we are screening now.

Please

help us by sending what you can to the

Institute. We welcome all contributions, however small.

This is a FMily project.

If we get positive results, the formulation will be made

free, available to compounding pharmacists.

We’ll keep you posted on the status of the study.

Devin

Starlanyl

11/28/99: News in the World of Myofascial

Pain 9/99

Life has been tough for

those of us with myofascial pain syndrome.

We have too often been met with doctors who “don’t

believe in” MPS. We

have been hampered by the lack of a scientifically credible and

understandable cause for this condition., and an officially

recognized set of diagnostic criteria. This resulted in a lack of training of physicians and

therapists. The

insurance companies and the Social Security Administration made

our lives even more difficult.

This is about to change.

We now have facts that

cannot be disputed. At

last we have proof that myofascial pain caused by trigger points

is a true disease. We

know what creates a trigger point, what it is, and many of the

ways it can cause us pain and other symptoms. We know what causes

those taut bands that constrict our muscles, and we know why our

muscles become so tight that they hurt.

A myofascial trigger point

is a localized area starving for oxygen.

It creates an increased local energy demand. This local energy crisis releases neuroreactive biochemicals

which sensitize nearby nerves.

The sensitized nerves initiate the motor, sensory, and

autonomic effects of myofascial trigger points by acting on the

central nervous system. Muscles with trigger points are muscles in

a constant state of energy crisis.

Myofascial trigger points

can be identified and documented electrophysiologically by

characteristic spontaneous electrical activity (SEA).

They may also be identified histologically (which means

that the structure of the cells have changed) by contraction

knots-- the lumps and bumps we know only too well.

Both of these phenomenon seem to result from excessive

release of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine (ACh) from the nerve

terminal of the motor endplate (the complex end formation of the

nerve).

We now have objective

confirmation of electromyographic

imaging of a myofascial trigger point. There are also ultrasound

imaging of local twitch responses of trigger points, and biopsies

of myofascial trigger points that show contraction knots and giant

rounded muscle fibers. To

quote from this article, " The endplate dysfunction

characteristic of MTrPs involves both the nerve terminal and the

postjunctional muscle fiber.

This relationship identifies MTrPs as a neuromuscular

disease. " Simons DG. 1999. Diagnostic criteria of myofascial

pain caused by trigger points. J Musculoskeletal Pain

7(1-2):111-120.

A MTrP is always found in

a taut band which is histologically related to contraction knots

caused by excessive release of ACh in an abnormal endplate. The

pathogenesis of myofascial trigger points appears to involve

serious disturbance of the nerve ending and contractile mechanism

at multiple dysfunctional endplates.

Doctor Hong has even formed a theory concerning

fibromyalgia tender points. Hong,

C-Z. 1999. Current research on myofascial trigger

points-pathophysiological studies. J Musculoskeletal Pain

7(1-2):121-129.

Please ask your librarian to obtain these

articles through Interlibrary loan, and give them to your

doctor. Don’t forget to keep copies for yourselves.

For more information on this issue of the Journal of

Musculoskeletal Pain, and/or to order at a reduced rate, click

here

Devin

Starlanyl

Journal

of Musculoskeletal Pain from Haworth Medical Press

10/27/99: Advocacy: What

You Can Do When You are in Too Much Pain and Brainfog to Do Much

of Anything.

By Kaplan

10/26/99: TWINS with fibromyalgia or

chronic fatigue syndrome:

There is a study on-going that may help us

all find out more about these conditions. Please consider joining.

For information, check this website: http://www.aacfs.org/html/twins.htm

09/13/99: Myofascial

Release: The

F. ' Approach

The more I study fibromyalgia and myofascial

pain syndrome, the more I am convinced that many of the keys to

BOTH of these conditions lie in the fascia. Fascia is pervasive.

It is a network that structures and coordinates the body--and at

least some aspects of the mind as well. The more you learn about

myofascia, the easier it will be for you to understand the

concepts behind fibromyalgia and myofascial pain. To learn about

fascia, please read '

excellent website.

08/28/99: Care

Provider's List

Some of these doctors are knowledgeable in

the fields of FMS and MPS. Some are simply willing to listen

and support their patients. This information comes from many

sources. This list is an attempt to help people find doctors

and other health care providers and supporters who have other FMS

and/of MPS patients whom they have cared for in an appropriate and

kindly manner. Any patients might have a bad

experience with one doctor. We hope this list will

grow, as we believe that everyone has a right to competent health

care.

05/10/99: A Message From Devin

The

earlier fibromyalgia and chronic myofascial pain syndrome are

detected and properly treated, the greater the quality of life for

the patient, and the less the cost. It is vital that our medical

school students be trained in these common chronic pain

conditions. If you would like to read and sign a petition to this

effect, please visit http://members.aol.com/fibroworld/signpetition.htm

or http://www.geocities.com/Paris/8922/petitioa.html

and add your name and your support. This

petition was written by Joy Vu.”

The link is to the petition on her site.

Thanks,

Devin J. Starlanyl

05/18/99: MTPT

" Do you have a problem finding a

myotherapist who KNOWS trigger points? Check for a graduate of the

Academy for Myofascial Trigger Point Therapy. they even have a

directory at this site. "

http://www.frontiernet.net/~painrel/directory.htm

" Myofascial Trigger Point Therapy is

the protocol for treating the myofascial component of pain. the

Myofascial Trigger Point Therapist

(MTPT) takes a detailed history to determine

the cause of the pain and to become aware of any perpetuating

factors that need to be addressed in order for relief of the

patient's symptoms to be maintained. The actual therapy involves

treating the muscles containing trigger points with gentle

compression techniques that release the trigger points.

Since the trigger point shortens the length

of the muscle, the MTPT may use a variety of techniques that

lengthen the contracted areas of the muscle. The patient then

learns to retrain the muscle through gentle stretching and other

techniques that lead to greater function. The goal of the

treatment is to decrease or eliminate the patient's pain complaint

and to give the patient the tools required to maintain the benefit

of the treatment. MTPTs work under the referral of the patient's

doctor. "

Finn, CMTPT, Academy Director

" Worlds

of Power, Lines of Light "

07/02/99: ORDER

" Worlds of Power, Lines of Light " HERE

Or order from and Noble

WORLDS

OF POWER, LINE OF LIGHT

05/07/99: Do your family,

friends and co-workers " not get it " when it comes to

fibromyalgia and myofascial pain syndrome? Do you get the feeling

that they think it's all science fiction? Would you like that to

change?

Show them the difference! NOW

AVAILABLE, the first fun way to teach others about the

reality of FMS and MPS: " Worlds of Power, Lines of

Light " , the first science fiction that deals with FMS

and MPS. A percentage of the profits will go to The

Fibromyalgia and Chronic Myofascial Pain Syndrome Institute.

From the back cover: Take

nine explorers of mixed talents and specialties, one of whom is

not what he seems. Give them an anomalous stellar system with two

habitable planets to investigate. Mix in a unique blend of plants

and animals, all which use electromagnetics in diverse and

unpredictable ways. Add a boatload of traumatized refugees, a

variety of empaths, and a sprinkling of trouble. The Kellierin

System is waiting for you. Come and visit.

Interested? Find out more...Read

the Prologue.

1/1/99: We are now the Fibromyalgia

and Chronic Myofascial Pain Institute, Inc., a non-profit

organization. On

the Institute

Except as noted,

all content & COPY; copyright 1995-1999

Devin J. Starlanyl & Ellen Copeland

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