10 terms everyone with fibromyalgia should know | Tompkins Family Chiropractic | Chiropractor in Oro Valley

by Dr. Emil Tompkins a Chiropractor in Tucson, AZ with a passion for helping people live pain free.

If you’re like most people with fibromyalgia symptoms, you are doing your homework and trying to understand a condition that most people don’t understand.  I’m going to try to clear things up a bit and explain 10 terms that anyone with fibromyalgia must understand.

Allodynia: pain, usually a type of pain felt on the skin.  This pain is caused by something that for moat people normally wouldn’t cause pain. Some of the things that cause allodynia in a person would be pressure from clothing, gentle touch, massage, or sheets rubbing.

Central Sensitization: When the entire nervous system becomes sensitized to a sensation.  Many times the result of sensitization is an allergy.  In Fibromyalgia, it is how the body amplifies pain signals.

Cortisol: is the body’s stress hormone. When the brain stimulates cortisol release in response to stress, the body works to better regulate blood sugar and blood pressure levels. Studies show cortisol levels are low in people with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome.  This could be why is is difficult for people with fibromyalgia to deal with stress.

Dopamine:  a neurotransmitter that helps regulate movement, walking, balance, sexual desire, happiness, immune function.  People with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome have low dopamine levels.

Glutamate:  is involved in learning and memory.  It also can be an excitatory neurotransmitter so it will excite areas in the brain or nervous system.  It can be so excitatory that it is toxic and will cause nerve cell damage.

Here are a few terms that you should understand.  Stay tuned for the next set of terms.  I believe it is important that as you are dealing with this condition that you re as educated as possible.

At Tompkins Family Chiropractic, we believe that understanding is the first step in eliminating your pain.  We then put you on a multi-step plan to begin helping you relieve your pain.   If you would like relief from your fibromyalgia pain, please contact our office today at 520-572-2596 for a consultation with Dr. Tompkins.