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Dr. Lowe How to Prepare Patient-to-Patient Fibromyalgia Research Foundation
The Metabolic Treatment |
Overview
of Fibromyalgia Why Fibromyalgia Patients Remain Ill Many factors can cause some symptoms and signs that led to a diagnose of "fibromyalgia." These factors have one thing in common: they impede the metabolism of the specific tissues from which fibromyalgia symptoms and signs arise. In 2006, two studies I conducted and published finally confirmed that women with fibromyalgia had abnormally low metabolic rates and body temperatures. In the first study, the average resting metabolic rate of 15 women with fibromyalgia was significantly lower than that of 15 matched healthy women who served as controls. The average metabolic rate of women with fibromyalgia was 28% below normal.[1] This study was published in Medical Science Monitor. (The publisher provides the full text of the report free.) In the second study, the average resting metabolic rate was again significantly lower than that of matched healthy controls. The metabolic rate of patients was 33% lower than that of matched healthy controls. (This published, too, provides the full text of the report free.) Not all patients diagnosed as having fibromyalgia have all of the well-established symptoms and objective findings of the syndrome. Most patients have only a few. However, from a scientific standpoint, the preferable explanation of the cause of fibromyalgia is the one that best accounts for all we know about fibromyalgia. Logical analyses of the available scientific evidence show that only one factor can cause virtually all of the symptoms and objective findings of fibromyalgia. That factor is too little thyroid hormone regulation of cell function. Thus, as I heavily documented in my book The Metabolic Treatment of Fibromyalgia, logical analyses of the evidence show that the best supported scientific hypothesis of the cause of fibromyalgia is the "inadequate thyroid hormone regulation hypothesis." Based on this scientific hypothesis, I developed a treatment called "metabolic rehabilitation." This form of treatment enables 75% to 85% of patients (those who go through the full treatment program) to fully and lastingly recover from fibromyalgia. (For the logical and scientific bases of these percentages, see my paper titled "Fibromyalgia and Thyroid Disease," published in Lyon Méditerranée Médical: Médecine du Sud-Est., 36(1):15-17, 2000.) Conventional doctors and fibromyalgia researchers have failed to scrutinize the available scientific evidence in the proper logical manner. As a result, they are unaware of the conclusions that the evidence overwhelmingly compels us to reach. As a result, fibromyalgia patients across the globe remain ill. This is tragic because most patients could recover if conventional doctors and fibromyalgia researchers became aware of the available scientific evidence and acted on it in their clinical practices. The Main Underlying Mechanism of Fibromyalgia The main underlying mechanism of fibromyalgia is too little thyroid hormone regulation of the patient’s cells. Too little thyroid hormone regulation results from one or both of two abnormalities: (1) thyroid hormone deficiency, and (2) partial cellular resistance to thyroid hormone. Both abnormalities cause symptoms and signs mainly through the same mechanism—inadequate thyroid hormone regulation of gene transcription in the cells of affected tissues. Most patients today can markedly improve or completely recover from fibromyalgia. My colleagues and I have shown this with hundreds of private clinical cases, well-designed experimental studies, and rigorous logical analyses. We help patients to improve or recover through the collaborative effort we call "metabolic rehabilitation." This clinical method is a systematic approach to eliminating or controlling the metabolism-impeding factors that are sustaining an individual patient's fibromyalgia. As I wrote above, thyroid hormone deficiency or cellular resistance to thyroid hormone is the metabolism-impeding source of most patients' fibromyalgia. For these patients to improve or recover, they must use the proper form and dosage of thyroid hormone. For most patients, however, simply taking thyroid hormone isn’t enough. Each patient must also adopt a wholesome diet, exercise to tolerance, and take therapeutic dosages of nutritional supplements. Some patients must also stop using drugs that interfere with their recovery of normal metabolism. To restore normal metabolism successfully, both the patient and the clinician must firmly commit to diligently carrying out the full rehab process. The clinician must invest the time to learn a great deal of specialized information. He or she must also devote the necessary time and attention to gradually guide the patient to optimal metabolic health. To guide the patient to optimal metabolic health effectively, the clinician must base treatment decisions mainly on the outcome of regularly repeated objective measures of the patient's metabolic status. The fibromyalgia patient in turn must make lifestyle changes and cooperate with the procedures necessary to acquire metabolic health. If the patient and clinician meet these requirements, most patients can markedly improve or completely recover.
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