A Back and Neck Pain Center Inc.
Dr. Michael E. Whitman.

"Doctor I can't sleep, I can't do housework, I don't make love to my husband anymore, my children think I'm weird and they don't like being around me. --- I have literally seen 13 doctors and I'm still no better --- I wish I was dead." Is this from a soap opera? No, this is an actual case I treated two years ago. She had over 10 different diagnoses, but most of them fell under the umbrella of FIBROMYALGIA. Within two weeks of care, the overall pain indeed had improved 50%, fatigue 30% and she was able to sleep through the night for the first time in two years. At the end of care, Charlene stated, "It's like being reborn again, I have my life back, I have my husband and children. Thank you so much."

Fibromyalgia (FM) is usually classified as a soft tissue musculoskeletal condition. It causes debilitating, intense pain that can be constant and crippling. FM is often associate with another condition called Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS). Both conditions have numerous physical and emotional factors associated with them. CFS may have a hereditary component to it.

Symptoms of FM

1. Tenderness in at least 11 to 18 specific body points.
2. Stiff aching muscles, tendons and ligaments usually worse in the morning.
3. The pain takes on numerous characteristics, sharp, stabbing, burning, throbbing or a combination of all sensations.
4. Joint pain, jaw pain is common with difficulty chewing food.
5. Jumpy legs, restless leg syndrome causing discomfort in just about any position, when trying to sleep.
6. Sleep disorders - insomnia, non-restorative sleep.
7. Extreme fatigue to the point of disability.
8. Depression, often a feeling of hopelessness due to so many episodes of treatment failures.
9. Hyperirritability
10. Can't remember, can't concentrate, fibro-fog
11. Irritable bowel syndrome, gas, bloating with alternately constipation with diarrhea.
12. Sensation of numbness and tingling in the muscles.
13. Allergy type symptoms associated with congestion and sensitivity to environmental things.
14. Genital urinary problems like irritable bladder.
15. PMS.
16. Anxiety, panic attacks

1. Nerve, Energy Interference
   • Without proper nerve, bio-energy function nothing in the human body works properly. Cells don't get proper information from the nervous system. The body's energy system is short circuited. With the result that tissue begins to break down, normal activities like walking, bending, sitting, even getting in and out of bed is a painful experience. Restoring proper nerve, bio-energy function is often the missing link to greatly improve. Many chiropractors have a good degree of success with FM patients by restoring proper nerve, energy function and using soft tissue work. Yet if they would also address the following other areas of causation their success would be unbelievably improved.
2. Your Diet Does Make A Difference
   • It is essential in order to gain maximum results to evaluate what you eat. If you eat junk, your body will be junk with very little ability to repair body chemistry and tissue. If you eliminate specific food factors that have been shown to be detrimental to FM victims and add specific food factors that have been shown to help repair faulty tissue and chemistry, you are ahead of the average treatments that don't address the necessity of proper diet in resolution of the symptoms of FM. You are probably thinking, I bet this diet is impossible to follow, organic carrots, yogurt, buckwheat etc. Not so, in fact when the diet is properly utilized, it is much easier to follow than the average person's diet and much, much more healthy for the FM victims. It is absolutely essential to minimize or eliminate wheat (gluten) products, which is a factor in intensifying many FM symptoms. The rest of the diet helps to stabilize blood sugar factors and to deliver proper materials for tissue and chemical repair. A specific symptom survey with diet evaluation helps to earmark specific dietary needs. Clinical, metabolic testing here in the office, identifies your individual needs.
3. Toxic Metals
   • Toxic metals are found in abundance in our present day environment. Toxic metals play an important role in many present day diseases and conditions like FM. The following are some of the toxic metals that play a major or minor role in FM.
   • Aluminum
     • Aluminum can be found in drinking water, antiperspirants, baking powders, feminine hygiene products, soy milk, baby formula, antacids, aluminum cans, foil, pots and pans. It accumulates in muscle, skin, bones, brain and kidney and can cause Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. Further, aluminum can displace magnesium at the cell level, which allows both calcium and phosphates to excessively accumulate, the importance of this will be discussed later.
   • Mercury
     • Each silver filling released up to 17 mg of mercury every day. This increases to 500 mg with the smoking of cigarettes, the drinking of hot liquids, chewing gum, acidic saliva or the grinding of teeth at night. Mercury accumulates in the brain, heart, kidneys and endocrine glands and can cause depression, auto-immune diseases, memory loss, tumors, amnesia and heart attacks.
   • Lead
     • Lead is found in cosmetics, plastics, batteries, gasoline, insecticides, pottery, glaze, soldered, pipes and paint. Lead accumulates in the brain, spleen, liver, kidneys and bones. For each 30 mg of lead in a child's blood, his or her IQ drops 10 points.
   • Barium
     • Barium compounds are found in soaps, ceramic, paper, glass, plastic, textiles, dyes, fuel additives, rubber, paint and pesticides. Barium toxicity can cause vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pain.
   • Nickel
     • Nickel is found in stainless steel cuter, pots and pans, coins, dental filling and batteries. It accumulates in the bones, kidneys, liver, lungs, immune system and the brain where it can cause genetic damage and cancer.
   • Arsenic
     • Arsenic is found in cigarette smoke, laundry detergents, beer, seafood and drinking water. It can cause headache, confusion and sleepiness. It can damage the kidneys, brain and lungs.
   • Cadmium
     • Cadmium is found in soft drinks, cigarette smoke, water softeners, seafood, rubber, motor oil, pesticides, fungicides and poly-vinyl plastics. Cadmium can cause chronic fatigue syndrome, hair loss, high blood pressure, edema, arthritis, kidneys stones and impotence.
   • Uranium
     • Uranium is a radioactive element that disintegrates eventually into lead. There have been over 2,000 nuclear detonations on our planet since Hiroshima sending uranic into our atmosphere, not counting events like Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. Radioactive materials can cause cancer and birth defects.
4. Abnormal Accumulation of Calcium and Phosphates at the Cell Level
   • The abnormal accumulation of calcium and phosphates helps to elicit the disabling pain and tissue response found in Fibromyalgia. This abnormality is due to nerve, bio-energy interference, dietary factors and toxic contamination. Using personalized, specific, metabolic indicated diet modification, proper water intake and supplementation, along with Bio-Energetic procedures, toxic metal as well as abnormal calcium and phosphates accumulation can be eliminated. This process is enhanced by removing neural interference and balancing bio-energetic disturbances.
5. Improper Digestion, Absorption Assimilation of Food, Water and Utilization
   • At age 32, and much earlier in some, our efficiency in digestion, absorption, assimilation and utilization of the foods in our diet decreases rapidly. One underlying consequence is the disruption of proper amino acid metabolism. Protein products like meat, poultry, eggs and cheese supply amino acids in our diet. Protein digestion utilization is one of the first dietary factors to suffer when our digestive abilities begin to decline --- calcium utilization running a close second. To further complicate this natural decline in digestive ability, the pharmaceutical industry has convinced most of the public that Tums, Rolaids, that purple pill-Nexium along with numerous other products are the answer to all digestive, stomach problems. This further compromises proper digestion, absorption, assimilation and utilization of our foods.
     
     One of the first signs of poor protein utilization causing low Amino Acid availability is intradiskal lesions in the spine. What is an intradiskal lesion? Intradiskal lesions represent the early stages of disk degeneration (deterioration or break down) of the annulus fibrosis. The circular hub of the disk begins to tear due to mechanical, postural stressors to the spine like accidents, falls or lifting incidents. Common day to day activities can cause the tearing also in mechanical-postural imbalanced persons who also have this Protein Utilization Deficiency.
     
     Most back pain patients and all chronic or long-term sufferers will demonstrate intradiskal lesions at the site of their pain. Fibromyalgia sufferers will have these debilitating lesions throughout the spine. Instead of one or two lesions--- as many as nine, ten or twelve lesions can occur.
     
     You can now see why FM sufferers have so many of the symptoms they have. Spinal pain and disability, gastrointestinal problems like irritable bowel syndrome (a consequence in faulty digestion), assimilation, utilization of foods, depression, and anxiety (panic attacks). Amino acids are responsible for the production of neurotransmitters that are necessary in the mechanisms that control these emotions as well as sleep disorders---Serotonin is a neurotransmitter and potentially harmful drugs like Zoloft, Paxil, Celexa, Prozac, Re-Uptake inhibitors work by increasing the brains use of the neurotransmitter serotonin, not by the natural long term correctional means of restoring proper amino acid balance.

• A complete Fibromyalgia Evaluation which includes:
  • Mechanical, postural, structural examination
  • State of the art surface EMG scan (no needles). This scan will allow you to visually see the causes of many of your problems.
  • Evaluation of yeast indicators and thyroid-adrenal indicators
• When you become a patient you and loved ones or friends can attend at no cost any of our monthly or bi-monthly Fibromyalgia-Chronic Fatigue Workshops. In these workshops you will become an expert on your own condition and learn how to maintain and continue your healthy recovery success for the rest of your life. Priceless!