Fibromyalgia is a real disease.

If you read through the Medically defined diseases or conditions, almost all of them say, “we don’t know what causes this, but we try to control the symptoms with these drugs.”  Add Fibromyalgia to that list.

Functional Medicine doesn’t treat diseases, we treat people.  It doesn’t matter what you call your pain. This Fibromyalgia case study explains how we discovered Jaime’s root cause.

If you have Fibromyalgia, you don’t need me to tell you how real this condition is.  Jaime knew.  She was disabled with pain and exhaustion, extreme sensitivity to stress and exertion, muscle weakness, and depression.  

She still holds the record for “high score” on our symptoms questionnaire, ten years later.  This questionnaire asks you to rate thyroid symptoms, and hormones, digestion, circulation.  Everything.  And Nothing seemed to be working.  Is it possible that she had multiple organ failure?

The reality, in fibromyalgia, is that they have governing organ failure.  The brain regulates every other function, including digestion, circulation, coordination, and the perception of pain.  When the brain becomes inflamed, nothing works quite right, but everything appears normal.

If you scan the brain, however, you see nearly identical changes in fibromyalgia patients.

The frontal cortex is depressed, which controls attention, focus, and motivation.  The cerebellum is depressed, which controls movement and coordination.  With poor muscle and joint coordination, bending over or combing your hair can cause muscle injuries.

The Parietal cortex is over-active.  This is the part of the brain that perceives pain, and the root of why the pain feels so intense.

The low functioning frontal cortex affects regulation of internal organs, resulting in heart palpitations, poor digestion, and almost NO control over the stress response.

When I met Jaime, we reviewed her Medical Records.  When I read through them, I read the story of disappointment.

She went to her doctor and reported that her muscles and organs ached, her eyes, ears, and head ached, she was incontinent, had numbness and weakness in her arms and legs, frequent panic attacks, and her eyes twitched.  The doctor prescribed pain medication.

She returned 2 more times, complaining of “no help” and both times her doctor added another pain medicine.

Then the cycle of specialists.  Rheumatologist, Neurologist, Gynecologist, Chiropractor, Physical Therapy, and finally, a head-case Therapist.  (No offense, I love my therapist.  And I’m definitely a head-case, but also the first doctor to help this poor woman!)

A fairly deep pile of medical records and the result was worst ever.  She had never felt so horrible in her life!  She was almost completely disabled.

She told me that she had been diagnosed with Fibromyalgia 7 years earlier, but was able to manage the pain with yoga and a healthy diet.  Two years ago she felt well enough to have a baby boy.  After she Mothered her baby through a rough illness, she started to lose control. Since then she had been worsening, and couldn’t find anything or anyone to help.

When I examined her, I knew about the brain research, so I started with a neurological exam.

When she attempted to touch her finger to her nose, with her eyes closed, her hands and arms shook uncontrollably, and by the 3rd attempt, she couldn’t even find her nose with her left hand!

I took her pulse on both arms, and the left was 68 while the right was 82.  I placed a tuning fork on the top of her head, and she could only hear the vibration in her left ear.

Her brain was definitely broken!

I stimulated her left cerebellum with movement of her left arm and leg.  Then the right cortex with sensory stimulation, such as smell, visual, and touch stimulation.  When we had her put on red glasses, smell cinnamon through her right nostril, and stretched the muscles on the front of the left arm…she could touch her nose without shaking.  She could hear vibration in both ears, and her pulse on the right and left evened out.

That was her homework.  Stimulate her brain in precise ways multiple times per day.

Then we checked the systems that most affect the brain.  You could guess if you tried.  Immune and hormonal systems.  Almost everyone has had the experience of a bad flu that caused their brain and even their hair to hurt!

She didn’t have the money or insurance to do our lab testing, so we did our best using muscle testing.  Her body weakened to parasites, autoimmunity, and adrenal exhaustion.  We responded with True GI Cleanse and True Lymphatic Cleanse for possible parasites.  It wouldn’t hurt if we were wrong, so the only downside would be her ongoing disappointment.

I’m pretty sensitive, so I did everything in my power to avoid more disappointment.

Next we added True Immune Balance #1 to shift her immune system away from autoimmunity, and True Stress Resilience to rebuild her adrenal glands and balance hormones.  This was 10 years ago, though, so she probably got just one or two of the plants we use now, in my best ever versions of the medicines that co-wrote the healing stories I share.  You can get them in our online store.

Try some on your own, or come in as a patient.  We’re virtual now, so we can help anyone in the country, with A Metabolic Tune-Up.

I hate disappointing, and thankfully I didn’t.  Jaime: “In one month, I feel so much better that I’m in disbelief, having seen more specialists and had more tests than I can even begin to list, and Dr. Stone is the first Dr that (I feel) can wrap his head around what’s going on inside me enough to help me heal.”

We kept stimulating her brain and nourishing her adrenals and immune system.  At six weeks, she said she was 50% improved overall, and at three months, 70%.  We kept going until she found true health, almost a full year.

Jaime moved away around that time, but when I log in to facebook, I get to see her happy, glowing face.  I doubt she even considers herself a fibromyalgia patient anymore.  Just a regular person, living and loving life.

Yours in Health and Happiness,

Dr. Todd Stone