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Can Fibromyalgia be Caused by Exposure to Environmental Toxins?

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Can Fibromyalgia be Caused by Exposure to Environmental Toxins?

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With fibromyalgia, a syndrome that combines pain, fatigue, anxiety, and depression, you have to separate “cause” from “trigger.” New research suggests that this mysterious syndrome is caused by imbalances of chemicals and hormones in the nervous system that amplify sensation, making even a slight touch feel painful. In a study published last year, Daniel Clauw, MD, a rheumatologist at the University of Michigan, used MRIs to show what happens in the brains of fibromyalgia patients in response to minimal pressure to their left thumbs – blood rushes to areas involved in pain perception. To get the same response from healthy people Clauw had to apply twice the pressure. The super-sensitivity to pain that characterizes fibromyalgia seems to be genetic. The disorder runs in families, and researchers have identified one gene believed to be involved in the syndrome. Patients also have higher than normal levels of a neuropeptide called substance P that is involved in pain signals and subnormal

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