Oh my goodness. I took it upon myself what? About 11 years ago? Maybe 12 years ago? To try to start learning every single bit of info about Fibromyalgia as I could. I then in turn set out on a mission to educate every single person I could on this horrible, disgusting, vile disorder I could. On the truth about it. From the $hitty quality of living those of us with it have, to the dire need for more research to try to understand it and treat it. To it being taken seriously by not only community and family members, but by others in the medical field as well!
About the time I was diagnosed and cried, and refused to accept that I "really" had fibromyalgia, something there isn't a cure for, new reseach was saying that FMS had at first been thought of as being an autoimmune disease but that actually it wasn't classified as a "disease" at all, that it was classified as a "disorder". That it actually wasn't autoimmune either, it was NEUROimmune. It stimulated in the brain. I cannot tell you HOW many times I wrote that. I talked that. I corrected people. I had people get mad at me and fight with me about it. I was being treated by an internationally known rheumatologist at The Cleveland Clinic, and she taught me the current "how's & why's" of it being neuroimmune rather than autoimmune. Let's now fast forward to July 1, 2021. An article titled "Fibromyalgia Likely The Result Of Autoimmune Problems" in Science Daily science news rocked my world!
This college. More specifically, this exact building/department of this college, has now changed it all once again. Kings College London, department of psychology and neuroscience teamed up in collaboration with the University of Liverpool and the Karolinska Institute, to do a new study. THIS study, led proof that FMS IS a autoimmune disease.
"Professor Camilla Svensson, the study's primary investigator from Karolinska Institute said, "Antibodies from people with FMS living in two different countries, the UK and Sweden, gave similar results, which adds enormous strength to our findings. The next step will be to identify what factors the symptom-inducing antibodies bind to. This will help us not only in terms of developing novel treatment strategies for FMS, but also of blood-based tests for diagnosis, which are missing today."
The above quote that I've pulled straight from the Science Daily article, sounds pretty good. It lends HOPE, once again. HOPE. There's that little four-letter word, once again.
The premise of this study, was that they injected anitbioties from people living with Fibromyalgia (from 2 different countries) into mice. They also injected antibioties from people that do NOT have fibromyalgia, into mice. The mice that were injected with the antibioties from people with FMS, developed clear and concise symptoms of FMS. Obviously, the mice injected with antibioties from people that don't have fibro did not develop those symptoms.
Now, here's where things get really interesting to me. The mice that had been injected with the antibioties of people living with fibro, returned to "normal" once those antibioties cleared their system. WHAT?! You mean if the antibioties can be cleared out of the body, we wouldn't live the life we currently have to lead? Feeling drained of EVERY. SINGLE. OUNCE. of enegry? Being in PAIN every single day of our lives? The sleep disturbances, the cognitive delays. Feeling like our joints have had a vat of concrete poured into them. All of that could be GONE? Umm ...are we finally talking that a cure may be on the horizon?! Or even as I've b!tched, moaned, begged, and pleaded for all of these years "At least a solid, universal treatment plan that would work for EVERYONE"??! It sounds like it may be feasible, folks. It's too unreal for me to even be able to comprehend at this point in my life.
