Presentation on Fibromyalgia (FM)

Dr. Hyde asked the audience if any of them with FM knew the exact cause of their illness: viral, bacterial or genetic?

As a fun start for his Fibromyalgia patients, Dr. Hyde sends them with a camera to a museum that has a thermogram. This type of picture will show blood circulation in the body, or, as is the case with many FM patients, it will show lack of circulation, which is Raynaud’s disease. Patients get cold easily and don’t warm up, and in extreme cases, can go into hypothermia.

Dr. Hyde’s definition of FM

FM used to be called Fibrositis, a non-articular muscle pain. Arthritis affects the joints. A patient can have both FM and arthritis. Fibromyalgia is non-articular muscle pain. Arthritis is articular (joint) pain.

If you have pain in the joints, in the bones, inside your chest or abdomen or pelvis, that is not fibromyalgia. Fibromyalgia is muscle pain.

Dr. Hyde's view is that Fibromyalgia is a vascular pathology — a pathological, hyper-elasticity of the peripheral vascular system or anything that causes this pathological expansion. Translated it means a problem in the muscles of the blood vessels.

At this point he asked everyone in the audience if they could touch their tongue to their nose. If so, it was evidence of the hyper-elasticity of the interstitial tissue called Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. In explaining its meaning, he said the ascending aorta can become flabby and have problems pumping blood. It was suggested that anyone who can meet this test should ask his/her doctor for an echocardiogram looking specifically to check the ascending aorta.