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Is There A Link Between Fibromyalgia And Parkinson’s

Question: How Long Will The Vaccine Protect Me

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Dr Okun: As more data comes for each of the vaccines, we will be able to answer this question individually as it may differ. The hope is that you’ll get at least a year of protection. The data on people who are in vaccine trials will tell us more about the length of protection.

Examining the length of protection of the vaccine is tricky because viruses like COVID-19 mutate to survive. The B.1.1.7 coronavirus variant first identified in the U.K. is the dominant strain of COVID in the U.S. today, different from the dominant strain that was here in March. We might need to administer the COVID-19 vaccine annually based on what we think the dominant strain will be, much like we do with the flu vaccine. We will need a strategy and it will likely include yearly vaccines for years to come.

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The team searched the Clalit Health Services database between the years 2000 and 2015 for people diagnosed with Parkinsons and fibromyalgia. Researchers identified Parkinsons patients through the application of a medication tracer algorithm, and those with fibromyalgia based on medical records.

During this 15-year period, 2,606 people were diagnosed with Parkinsons and 60 of them also had fibromyalgia .

The majority of those with both the neurodegenerative and rheumatic disorders were women diagnosed at a mean age of 63.95 for Parkinsons, while their age at fibromyalgia diagnosis varied from 51.68 to 76.22 years. A majority 77% also received a fibromyalgia diagnosis after that of Parkinsons disease.

This particular patient population also had a higher prevalence of depression, anxiety, dementia, hypertension, and heart failure.

Compared to those with Parkinsons, patients with both conditions used different analgesics at higher rates as well as more antidepressants.

This FLISPAD subgroup of patients are mostly female, younger at PD diagnosis with a higher rate of cigarette smoking, anxiety, and depression, the researchers wrote. And they consume more analgesic drugs, both over-the-counter and prescription medications, including opioids.

A diagnosis of depression or use of antidepressants tended to come a mean 3.5 years before a fibromyalgia diagnosis.

Natural Treatment For Fibromyalgia Patients

If you suffer from chronic pain, sleepless nights, cognitive cloudiness, and the other symptoms of fibromyalgia, you may be searching for a natural way to get some relief. The link between neck and jaw problems and fibromyalgia helps to substantiate the connection to an atlas misalignment. Thus, its worth a try to at least have an evaluation by a specialist in this niche. Therefore, we are happy to introduce you to upper cervical chiropractic.

Upper cervical care is gentle and precise. It involves the use of diagnostic imaging that can measure atlas misalignments down to hundredths of a degree. As a result, adjustments can be tailored to meet each patients needs and are long-lasting, leading to less frequent visits over time. Therefore, upper cervical chiropractic can be a cost-effective form of care besides being safe and gentle. That is certainly important when you are dealing with a chronic health condition that often is accompanied by big medical bills and few results to show for them.

To learn more about what upper cervical chiropractic care may be able to do for you, get in touch with a practice in your area. The search feature on this website can help you to locate our preferred doctors. A no-obligation consultation may be your first step down the path to better overall health and well-being. So if you are weighed down under the burden of fibromyalgia, this may be the way to get your life back under control.

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Ethics Approval And Consent To Participate

This study was approved by the SUMC institutional review board Committee . All clinical investigations were conducted according to the principles expressed in the Declaration of Helsinki. The IRB approval exempted the study from informed consent due to the retrospective data collection nature maintaining subject confidentiality. Patient records were anonymized and de-identified prior to analyses.

Question: How Worried Should We Be About Virus Variants Does That Level Of Worry Change If Weve Been Vaccinated

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Dr Okun: Mutations are very common in coronaviruses. Sometimes the mutations are easier to treat and sometimes they’re harder to treat. The vaccine is still active, but the longer we give the virus to continue to mutate the worse chance we have of beating this thing. This is why its important for us to get our vaccines, put our masks on and distance. If we don’t do these things and we let this virus crawl back in, and keep mutating, eventually it could beat the vaccinations. That’s why it’s so important for us to continue masking even though we are vaccinating.

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The Basal Ganglia Connection

Basal ganglia abnormalities have been implicated in all three diseases. Miller found that reduced activation of the basal ganglia was associated with reduced reward and fatigue in ME/CFS. Reduced blood flows to the basal ganglia were also recently associated with increased pain disability and the overall impact of fibromyalgia in FM patients.

The basal ganglia is an intriguing organ which regulates not just movement and the autonomic nervous system, but cognition and emotions such as reward.

First, a look at the role basal ganglia problems may play in producing chronic pain and reward.

A Retrospective Fibromyalgia Study

According to researchers in Germany, there is a higher incidence of neck and jaw problems in patients with fibromyalgia. How was this link discovered? Is there a good reason for these conditions to be connected? How can you find relief from the chronic pain and other debilitating symptoms of fibromyalgia? These are the questions you need answers too. Lets start with a brief look at the study.

The 555 patients in the study were all experiencing either neck problems, jaw issues, or both. Of the 555, 63% met the criteria for a diagnosis of fibromyalgia. In fact, 83% of the patients with fibromyalgia were experiencing facial asymmetry. What can cause these neck and jaw problems?

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Chronic Pain Emotions Addiction And The Basal Ganglia

The neurons in the nucleus accumbens in the basal ganglia are activated by drugs such as opiates that produce euphoria or by participating in rewarding experiences such as sex, exercise, etc. The connection to the mesolimbic pathway which is highly activated in addiction suggested to the researchers that the brain can become hardwired or addicted to producing pain. One asserted that the results indicate that chronic pain cannot be viewed as a purely sensory phenomenon but instead is closely related to emotions.

Thats no surprise. Its clear that the anticipation of pain, for instance, results in increased pain. Anticipating pain could be viewed as the opposite of anticipating reward.

Millers ME/CFS study found that basal ganglia inactivity and reduced reward was associated with increased fatigue in ME/CFS. Reward is clearly a complex phenomenon that integrates emotions and motor activity. High reward states may be synonymous with increased motor activation and vice versa.

Getting To The Bottom Of Fibromyalgia Or A Different Diagnosis

What’s the Connection Between Fibromyalgia and Sleep? A Doctor Explains

So how can you be sure you really have fibromyalgia? First, be sure your provider runs labs, gets a thorough medical history, including sleep , and does a top-to-toe physical exam, says Dr. Morris. We examine and look at the muscles and the joints and see if and where theyre tender. Do they have good range of motion? Do they have good muscle strength? Those are some of the things that we look for, he explains.

Then your provider should ask questions like these: Is your pain and fatigue concentrated in the muscles or the joints? Does your pain get better or worse with activity?

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Preclinical Models Of Pain In Parkinsons Disease

From the outset, it is important to note that we are not considering here animal models of pain per se. The existence of good models in the pain field is itself subject to ongoing debate and outside of the scope of this review., Here, we are specifically interested in whether, and how, animals can be used to model pain in PD. As such, our attention is focused solely on existing animal models of PD and how effectively they recapitulate what is seen with respect to pain in the clinical setting.

Studies investigating pain in animal models of PD have so far almost all been conducted in rodents: no data are available regarding pain phenotypes in non-human primate models of PD or those constructed in multicellular model organisms like zebrafish, C. elegans or drosophila. In the remainder of this review, we discuss the various rodent models of pain in PD, considering how well each exhibit face and predictive validity and how they have helped progress the understanding of pain in PD. Ultimately, it is hoped that one or more of these models might provide an accepted testbed for use in the search for novel analgesics to better treat pain in PD.

Always A Comorbid Disease

Cutting across several of the above hypotheses is a hypothesis that proposes that fibromyalgia is almost always a comorbid disorder, occurring in combination with some other disorder that likely served to “trigger” the fibromyalgia in the first place. Two possible triggers are gluten sensitivity and/or irritable bowel. Irritable bowel is found at high frequency in fibromyalgia, and a large coeliacsupport group survey of adult celiacs revealed that 7% had fibromyalgia and also has a co-occurrence with chronic fatique.

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Should You Be Worried About The Link Between Pesticides And Parkinsons Disease

In recent years, research has accelerated into Parkinsons disease. Researchers are studying the disease around the clock in order to understand the causes, and solutions, to the disease. While there are still dozens of different avenues to look into, some research has illuminated a potential link between common household pesticides and Parkinsons Disease.

Its been found that exposing certain neurotransmitters to pesticides greatly reduces their energy level and output, which could translate into the development of Parkinsons Disease. The link between pesticides and Parkinsons Disease is still being studied and reviewed thoroughly, so new evidence is still coming out every day. Heres a brief guide to the findings so far.

Dementia With Lewy Bodies

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  • Dementia with Lewy bodies is a progressive, neurodegenerative disorder in which abnormal deposits of a protein called alpha-synuclein build up in multiple areas of the brain.
  • DLB first causes progressive problems with memory and fluctuations in thinking, as well as hallucinations. These symptoms are joined later in the course of the disease by parkinsonism with slowness, stiffness and other symptoms similar to PD.
  • While the same abnormal protein is found in the brains of those with PD, when individuals with PD develop memory and thinking problems it tends to occur later in the course of their disease.
  • There are no specific treatments for DLB. Treatment focuses on symptoms.

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The Basal Ganglia And Movement

The basal ganglia are not just about emotions and reward, though. The primary function of the basal ganglia is to ensure that voluntary movements are carried out smoothly. It does this by regulating the activities of the motor and premotor cortical areas.

Could excitatory neurotransmitters be inhibiting movement in ME/CFS and FM?

Excitatory neurotransmitters such as glutamate cause the basal ganglia to impair movement. Glutamate activates a pathway involving the basal ganglia which inhibits signals coming for the motor cortex. Dopamine-producing neurons in the basal ganglia, on the other hand, stimulate movement.

In Parkinsons disease destruction of the dopamine-producing neurons puts the movement inhibiting portion of the brain on overdrive. Their muscles, for instance, remain in a state of contraction with a high muscle tone. This does not appear to be the result of muscle problems their brains have simply lost the ability to tell them to move.

Take Control Of Your Health

If you suspect you could have fibromyalgia, you’ll want to talk to your doctor about your nasal symptoms and find out how best to prevent or at least manage them. You may also want to keep track of the things you eat and the symptoms you experience to see if there could be any food allergy link.

There’s no cure for fibromyalgia, but many patients respond well to a combination of medication and alternative therapies to help them manage the discomfort on a regular basis.

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Who Is At Risk For Either

There is no known cause for either Parkinsons or fibromyalgia, but there are several known risk factors. For both, genetics may play a role and having a family member with either disease indicates an increased risk. With fibromyalgia, there is an associated risk factor with traumatic brain injury, immune disorders, serious illness, surgery and gender.

Women are more likely to develop fibromyalgia than men. With Parkinsons the genetic factor is high, but there is also an associated risk for those who are exposed to certain pesticides, and a reduced risk for those who smoke tobacco as well. It should also be noted that there is a correlation between the ability to handle stress and childhood trauma in both too.

What Is Multiple Sclerosis

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Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune neurological condition that destroys the protective coating that surrounds the nerves. MS causes the body to mistake the healthy myelin that surrounds the nerves as foreign.

MS destroys the myelin and eventually causes the nerves to no longer be able to function as they should. Over time, MS can completely destroy the myelin. It may then begin attacking and destroying the nerves themselves.

While these two conditions share some symptoms, they also have distinct symptoms of their own.

Symptom

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Question: When Should I Get The Vaccine If I Tested Positive For Covid

Dr. Okun: We don’t have the exact answer to that question, but we’re starting to get some clarity. If you had COVID-19 you should still be vaccinated. The Centers for Disease Control is looking at this question. We dont know how long its safe to not be vaccinated after youve recovered from COVID-19 or how long does the protection last. We are assessing whether an unvaccinated previously affected person can be with someone who’s vaccinated and for how long they may get protection from having had the actual COVID-19 virus.

We have seen people with COVID-19 infection who do not have antibodies a few months down the road. The CDC is examining this issue but in general we recommend that people with Parkinsons who had COVID-19 get vaccinated 6-8 weeks after the infection. This may change with more guidance from the CDC.

Things are evolving quickly in the field and we want to make sure that we get you as much information as we can in-real time, so be sure to frequently check Parkinson.org/COVID19 for updates on the COVID-19 vaccination.

Why It Is Important

A high prevalence of fibromyalgia has been found in patients infected with Hepatitis C, especially women. According to Israeli researchers, recognizing fibromyalgia in people with Hepatitis C will prevent misinterpretation of fibromyalgia symptoms as part of the liver disease and enable physicians to correctly focus on alleviating these symptoms.

A doctor well versed in fibromyalgia should be consulted if this syndrome is suspected. Because its diagnosis is not simple and symptoms often overlap with other conditions, a proper evaluation will test for fibromyalgia while ruling out other diseases. Doctors who are familiar with fibromyalgia typically make a diagnosis based on criteria established by the American College of Rheumatology . Those criteria are:

  • Widespread pain that lasts for more than 3 months.
  • Eleven or more tender points present at 18 specific sites on the body.
  • Whenever there is a profound crossover in a diseases symptoms, we can learn from their parallels. Although many questions shroud the connection between fibromyalgia and Hepatitis C, their relationship exists in many people with either condition. With their comparable symptoms, similar immune biochemistry and irrefutable statistics of simultaneous presentation, exposure to the Hepatitis C virus may be one of fibromyalgias triggers.

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    Autonomic Nervous System Breakdown

    Recent findings suggest that autonomic nervous system problems run rampant in Parkinsons. As in ME/CFS and FM, parasympathetic nervous system functioning is impaired. Problems with orthostatic intolerance are being found as well.

    The autonomic nervous system findings in Parkinsons strongly correlate with findings of small nerve fiber neuropathy. These findings are particularly intriguing since they suggest that, just as in fibromyalgia, Parkinsons is more than a central nervous system disorder the peripheral nervous system is also affected.

    Pesticides And Parkinsons Disease

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    The connection between pesticides and Parkinsons has been raised many times, which led some researchers to look into specific pesticides. However, these efforts are difficult because they require data which already exists in the population. Researchers cant simply expose individuals to pesticides and record the data, so they must use information from pre-existing patients and study their findings based on the patients accounts.

    However, despite these difficulties, there have been specific chemicals which have been studied, as there is enough data to do so. The chemical paraquat has been the most studied chemical in this timespan and seems to pose a significant risk to triggering Parkinsons in patients.

    The chemical is associated with a likelihood of disease development two or three times the control group. Another chemical which is concerning to the scientific community is rotenone, which acts to disrupt mitochondria during its use. Rotenone is actually extracted from plants, making it a natural pesticide though it has still been associated with Parkinsons Disease and its development.

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