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Although FM has not been classified as autoimmunity, it has been classified as neurological... Linda Watkins at the University of Colorado in Boulder has been doing some wonderful work to describe the neuropathic pain pathway, and has been working with a neuropathic pain rat model... she and her colleagues have shown that the mechinism is two-fold... an autoimmune attack on the peripheral nerves causes the severe inflammation of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (aka RSD)... while the immune-like response that is initiated by the surrounding glial cells within the spinal cord create a hyperpotentiation (aka long term potentiation) which is the same type of action potential that is present in the hippocampus and thought to be the mechanism to memory formation.... BUT in the spinal cord the immune-like response causes a positive feedback that can go on for days, weeks, months, or years depending upon the chemical basis for the positive feedback (without a negative feedback to turn it off or simply running out of the chemical that feeds the system, the process continues).... FM and neuropathic pain have more similarities than is currently understood... research still needs to be done... Dr. Watkin's work shows relation to allodynia, hyeralgesia, dysthesia, CRPS, Gullian Barre, diabetes, etc...
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=2394739
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Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and fibromyalgia (FM) are not autoimmune diseases. But they often have symptoms similar to some autoimmune diseases and other illnesses. Just two of
these symptoms are being tired all the time and being in pain.
- Chronic fatigue syndrome is a complex disorder that can cause you to be very tired, have trouble concentrating, feel weak, and have muscle pain. Symptoms of CFS can come and go. We don’t know what causes CFS.
- Fibromyalgia is a disorder that has symptoms of widespread muscle pain, fatigue (feeling tired and having low energy), and multiple tender points. Tender points are located in the neck, spine, shoulders, hips, and knees. These areas are painful when pressure is applied to them. FM occurs mostly in women of childbearing age. But children, the elderly, and men are sometimes diagnosed with FM. We don’t know what causes FM.
Source: National Women’s Health Information Center, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, www.womenshealth.gov