my personal theory about fms cause/effect

[Guest guest]

Hello. I'm new to this group and have read some of the messages -

many more to go

Thankfully, I don't have fms or cfs. I ended up here via another

disorder that I found can cause symptoms of fms. Most pages I read

about fms tell me that fms causes sleep disorders, and some even say

that fms goes hand in hand with a sleep disorder, or that fms IS a

sleep disorder. That's true but the cause-effect relationship is

backwards.

In short, here is my theory:

Stress, illness, pain, and apnea can interfer with sleep. When the

deep stages of sleep (3,4) are reduced or eliminated, the body doesn't

repair itself which leads to joint/muscle pain, depression, anxiety,

infections, etc. This causes a cycle which is difficult to break in

some people. I suppose a lot of people already know this stuff but

we're missing the point that sleep is the culprit.

What many people don't know yet is that a LARGE portion of our society

has sleep apnea. This is when you relax to sleep your airways shut

off which awakens you (without knowing it usually) and keeps you from

getting into the deeper sleep stages. Apnea leads to many other sleep

disorders such as restless legs, narcolepsy, insomnia - but not the

other way around. Yes, these disorders can happen on their own but

they can be caused by apnea. Some of the signs of apnea are: snoring,

night sweats, frequent urination, high blood pressure, acid reflux,

weight gain, racing heart and a bunch of other things that don't look

sleep related at all. Not everyone who has apnea has all these symptoms.

My estimation is that 50%+ of people in the US over the age of 40 have

sleep apena. I'm sure I'll get a lot of hate mail about this because

for some reason people can't stand the idea that they may simply have

apnea. ly, you should jump for joy if that's the problem because

it's so easily fixed and doesn't require you to take a pill that has

side effects.

It's very simple, air is very important and we spend 1/3 of our life

sleeping. You can die without food for a couple of weeks, without

water for a couple of days, without air for a couple of minuites - see

the priorities?

Please consider this as a possible cause of your fms/cfs. Because I

think they could be the symptom of apena. Consider asking your dr for

a sleep test referral. Please don't rely on the on-line questionaires

about apnea, they are useless and have given many people false

readings. Talk to your dr about it.

Thanks for listening and I hope this helps someone,

roger