Never Stop
Travel. Yoga. Life.
Just another girl consumed by wanderlust in Boulder, CO
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You’re not a hoarder, you’re a nonrelinquisher.Eleanor Williams
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Photo reblogged from Yoga Journal of a Not-Very-Calm Character
Today is the National Fibromyalgia Awareness Day
And this is my post of hope. The cause of FM is not completely understood yet, but this is no longer considered a subjective pain condition. There are consistent, measurable changes happening in the body, that are helping researchers solve the mysteries.
- 4-fold increase in nerve growth factor
- elevated levels of substance P in spinal fluid (3 times higher levels than those of non-FM patients)
- during sleep, alpha waves interrupt the ‘deep sleep’ delta waves
- SEMG analysis shows muscle modifications
- brain imaging scans show atrophic changes in the brain areas involved with pain processing, and reduction in gray matter in 11 different areas of the brain
- SPECT images show decreased cerebral blood flow in areas of the brain that modulate pain perception
- fMRI scans show pain changes in the brain happening at a much lower pain stimulus than in patients without FM
And then, just last month, two separate research groups published the discovery of genetic changes.
- The first study found that people with at least one copy of Apo E4 and an environmental factor (such as a car accident) were more likely to have the illness.
- The second study found a significant difference in the frequency of B(2)AR (a gene polymorphism) in comparison to people without FM.
All this is great news for us. Research is being done, they are discovering and putting together the pieces of this puzzle. It’s a step closer to understanding FM, knowing what causes it, having more efficient treatment, and maybe even finding a cure. It brings hope to the millions of people affected by it: men, women, children and teens.
And hope is what I want to spread on this year’s Awareness Day.
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Feel free to reblog or grab the direct link of the picture above.
Resources:
American Pain Association | National Fibromyalgia Research Association | National Fibromyalgia Association | FDA’s page about FM | CDC’s page about FM -
The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.Marcel Proust
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Moonset over the Flatirons… maybe if I was more savvy with my camera I would have been able to get it right on the first shot when the moon was higher… Work in progress.
April 2011 -
Photo reblogged from Yoga Journal of a Not-Very-Calm Character
