Tag Archives: #painthreshold

Can we make our brain not misread pain signals? Food for thought…

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Just a blog to make you think deeper. I attended an online fibromyalgia summit not long ago. Dr. Whitten spoke along side Dr. Murphree. Both these gentlemen treat fibromyalgia patients in the United States. The information in the video I watched made me think on a different level.

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Food for thought…

We all know there is no cure for fibromyalgia, but what about treatment options ?!? Finding a treatment or routine that helps improve your fibromyalgia symptoms can be tricky. Looking at my own journey I have realized I haven’t really ever found that treatment route that works – especially when symptoms appear when they feel like it. I feel like no matter how much I try to prevent fibromyalgia symptoms , I’m fighting a losing battle. I’ve come to realize that my body will do what it wants to do and it’s hard to rein it back. You learn to deal with your symptoms day by day as you never know which symptoms will be prevalent that day.

Question:

Fibromyalgia is considered neurological at this point, so how do we rewire our brain so we don’t feel pain so intense?

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If fibromyalgia is really caused by our brain misreading signals, how do we think we will be able to control it or change it? Ever been driving to the store and your mind wanders and you find yourself thinking about other things? “I really should finish that assignment for work. What should I buy at the store? I should really be cleaning. I can’t forget my best friends birthday on the weekend.” We usually don’t even realize our brain is thinking up thoughts without us thinking. Interesting, isn’t it? This is our chatty brain talking. If we cant even shut off our chatty brain, how do we make our brain not misread signals ?!! Technically we can help limit our mind from wandering by “living in the moment.” It takes a lot of redirection of our thoughts. If our brain is stuck in fight mode (fight or flight) how do we rewire our brain so we can increase our pain threshold? I asked the following two questions to most health care providers I have seen and I have never been giving any answers. I don’t have the answers to these questions. Just a few questions for you to ponder over.

*”Pain threshold is the minimum intensity at which a person begins to perceive, or sense, a stimulus as being painful. Pain tolerance, is the maximum amount, or level, of pain a person can tolerate or bear.”

1. How does one raise that pain threshold without causing excruciating pain, chronic fatigue or flares to arise!?!

2. How does one create a successful treatment plan without the pain going out of control?

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I was often told to raise the pain threshold level by slowly adding time to activities or tasks, but I found this unsuccessful. Example: adding 30 extra seconds a week to your walking ability may help raise your tolerance slowly. Some people may add time to their activity every few days, but I found this to be physically demanding on my body causing increased pain levels to arise. For myself, this strategy would just backfire and cause me to flare, even if I stopped before I hit my pain threshold line. After three years of trying to incorporate this strategy, I can say it has failed. No matter the time increments I can’t seem to get passed being able to walk longer distances. Don’t forget, everyone’s body will respond differently. Just because it didn’t work for me, doesn’t mean it wont work for you. Give it a try! You can alter this strategy however you want.

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Health care providers mentioned using yoga to help raise the pain threshold. Yoga incorporates meditation, physical poses along with mental training. Many people without fibromyalgia take part in fibromyalgia and find it relaxing along with many increased health benefits. These benefits include increased muscle strength, flexibility, energy, weight reduction and energy. However, for people with fibromyalgia it can become very difficult to get in the “zone” to concentrate enough to take part in yoga. Being able to meditate can be difficult on its own, but factor in chronic pain and fatigue levels makes it even harder. For myself, I found yoga too slow for my liking and I couldn’t even get into half the yoga poses due to pain levels increasing. How does one find the benefit of yoga with difficulties concentrating and have limited motion /flexibility to get into the yoga poses is beyond me. I even started with the easy poses and had a difficult time. Yoga may benefit some people, but it wasn’t for me.

There may be more strategies out there, but these are the only two I was ever introduced to.

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If our pain, fatigue or flare ups increase drastically during treatment routes, I personally think that this is a failed treatment route. I’m not a believer in the “no pain, no gain” saying when it comes to fibromyalgia. First of all I live with daily pain, why would I do something that causes further pain to result!? My goal is to decrease pain levels not cause further pain from forming. When we live with pain levels that are 10/10 why would I want to “add to injury”?!? In my eyes, a successful treatment route should cause limited or no pain at the time being done. A successful treatment plan should not cause a flare up to form the next day. If it does, it means you have gone over your pain threshold level and pushed too hard. I am a firm believer in stopping before one hits that threshold level. You may want to try to push just slightly above that line to help try to heighten that threshold level. Successful programming or treatment routes should improve your ability to function and move better and not result in more pain. After-all the goal is to improve quality of life not hinder it further!

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In my experience, health care providers do not seem have current up to date information on fibromyalgia or have a lack of knowledge of the condition. Don’t get me wrong, some are very knowledgeable on fibromyalgia. The lack of understanding and knowledge often can lead to hands on treatments – which are often too aggressive. Example: A massage therapist may not even know what fibromyalgia is and when you go for a massage may not apply gentler pressure while massaging your back or legs – resulting in extreme pain levels. Many healthcare providers overlook the common issue in fibromyalgia – our bodies are hypersensitive. Dr. Whitten also mentioned this in his discussion.

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In order to help reduce fibromyalgia symptoms, we must find the right combination of routes for ourselves. This process can be very exhausting. Don’t give up! Try everything you can possibly try. Don’t be afraid to speak up if a health care provider mentions possible strategies that have maybe failed you. They may even be able to provide you with ways to modify those strategies that may help you find success!

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Fibromyalgia and Insomnia

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Fibromyalgia and insomnia seem to have a high correlation. In all the research I have done on fibromyalgia in the last three years, I have never found a solid explanation as to why people who have fibromyalgia suffer from insomnia. In the book, “What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Fibromyalgia“, a study states out of 665 males – 80% suffered from insomnia, while out of 4, 075 women 88% reported problems of insomnia. As we know, getting a good night sleep is important for anyone. The less sleep a person gets the less energy reserve one has, causing various negative effects such as cognitive changes. For people with fibromyalgia, insomnia can become a nightly issue. Decreased sleep can cause a person’s pain threshold to become lower. People who have fibromyalgia already have a lower pain threshold to begin with. This is due to desensitization – which will decrease one’s pain threshold even lower as time goes on. With a lower pain threshold, higher levels of chronic pain are formed, and the pain is felt at even higher rates. In all my research, before improving any other fibromyalgia symptoms, the number one advice listed in many sources is – one must first fix their sleep or at least improve their sleep. Sounds easy right? But that is not the case. It is not just an easy fix. I’ve had bouts of insomnia on and off for years, but after so long my body just crashed and I would sleep. These days no matter what I do to try to improve my sleep, it does not happen and results in insomnia. For the last week I have been sleeping poorly. In turn my pain levels have been hitting levels of ten and I’ve been exhausted.

Some of the remedies to help lesson insomnia sound very straight forward, but reality is they are much more difficult than one thinks when factoring in chronic pain/fatigue. Here is what I have struggled with trying to improve sleep quality and quantity.

  1. Stay active and don’t become sedentary. Not so easy when you live with chronic pain and chronic fatigue. Just getting out of bed some days is difficult enough. If you have read my pacing blog – remember the spoon theory? Some days I don’t have a spoon to use to exercise.
  2. Stick to a sleep schedule. I tend to go to bed early and at the same time every night – due to the fact that if I go to bed even an hour later then I usually do, I can’t function at all the next day. Getting up at the same time every morning is a different story. Who wants to drag themselves out of bed if they have not slept at all or very little? Just to keep a scheduled sleep schedule? I rather get sleep when I can.
  3. Lots of times people overlook their medication list as a cause of insomnia. Many medications can have a side effect of insomnia. After researching and speaking to a pharmacist I have come to learn that many of the medications I take to manage my pain, have a possible side effect of insomnia. For example, my one medication I use to manage my migraines, can possibly cause a reduction in melatonin levels being secreted. Melatonin is naturally released in our bodies, and it is an important hormone to trigger optimal sleep. Many doctors may make a suggestion to try melatonin supplements to help with sleep. You can buy these in the vitamin section in any pharmacy (at least in Canada). Before adding in melatonin, I would suggest speaking to your doctor or pharmacist. For myself, I found these melatonin supplements caused me to have very intense and weird dreams, so I stopped using them.
  4. Avoid or limit naps during the day. For myself I need to rest when tired, otherwise the fatigue levels get worse, pain levels increase, and my ability to function over all decreases drastically.
  5. Pain during the night? There are medications out there that can limit pain, but people who have fibromyalgia are often on medications already to help with pain levels. At night pain often wakes me up, and then I cannot get back to sleep. I end up tossing and turning the rest of the night and getting out of bed in the morning feeling like I am a zombie. I’ve yet to find a solution to this issue.
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You can find more information about insomnia by clicking here, which will redirect you to the Mayo Clinic website.

It is always a good idea to have a sleep study completed to make sure it isn’t sleep apnea. After my appointment with my neurologist, it was suggested I get a sleep test done to rule out apnea. The take home apnea test is simple to hook up. The only issue I had was getting tangled in the cords at night. My test came back negative, but I know a few others with fibromyalgia who tested positive on their test. Once they got a C-pap machine to use at night, their sleep improved immensely.

The use of sleeping pills to help get the necessary sleep needed, can be a touchy subject. I have found that many doctors do not like to recommend sleeping pills and are very hesitant to prescribe them. Many sleeping pills can become habit forming and an individual can become reliant on the use of these pills. In my case, I decided using sleeping pills – the benefits outweighed the risks. I used to use Zopiclone – which did help me sleep, but this drug is not meant to be used long term or nightly. I would use it one night- get a wonderful sleep and then not use it for nights to come. I would go 2-3 nights without sleep and then breakdown and take one. When I did take it, the medication was not out of my system by morning, and I was often left groggy half the day. My doctor and I had a very in-depth discussion about sleeping pills and he switched me over to another one, which is safe to use nightly and the groggy feeling wears off by morning. Even with the use of a nightly sleeping pill I often wake up anywhere from five to ten times a night – experiencing choppy sleep patterns and feel very fatigued during the day. Even on the nights I do manage to get a solid night’s sleep, I wake up feeling extremely fatigued. However, I am a firm believer I also have chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), alongside my fibromyalgia. The two conditions usually go hand in hand, but I have never been given a solid diagnosis of CFS by a doctor. If you have done any research on chronic fatigue syndrome, you have probably learned that fatigue experienced with this condition will not go away with sleep. I will be writing a blog on chronic fatigue syndrome soon!

Failing to get enough sleep can have many negative effects on one’s body. I won’t list these effects here because the list is way too long to begin to discuss. The pictures at the end of this blog, show many side effects lack of sleep and insomnia can have on one’s body. I will pick a few effects lack of sleep can have and discuss further in future blog posts. Stay tuned.

The best advice I can give to anyone who is experiencing insomnia alongside with their fibromyalgia, is to have a conversation with your doctor, and come up with a plan to help you with sleep. Everyone’s situation will be different. It may be a trial-and-error situation, to see what works best for you! As you can see even after three years, I still struggle with improving my sleep quantity and quality. Every night is different.

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