News — chronic pain

The body senses painful stimuli through certain receptors located in the skin, joints and many internal organs. Specialized nerve fibers relay these signals to the brain, where pain becomes recognized and “felt”. Gamma-amino butyric acid (GABA) is one of the primary neurotransmitters your body produces to calm your central nervous system. Research has shown with chronic inflammatory diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis or after nerve damage following an injury, the pain inhibiting action of GABA becomes severely compromised and pain signals conducted to the brain are almost unfiltered. Also when the body fails to produce enough GABA, or utilize the...

Fibromyalgia syndrome affects the muscles and soft tissue. Symptoms include chronic muscle pain, fatigue, sleep problems, and painful tender (trigger) points. It is not one condition but a compilation of different syndromes; therefore, one treatment does not fit all patients. More than that, treatment of two patients with similar fibromyalgia symptoms may be drastically different due to different underlying triggers. Dr.Anne Louise Oaklander, MD, PhD, director of the Nerve Injury Unit in the Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Neurology says, “Fibromyalgia is too complex for a 'one size fits all' explanation. However there are some basics that apply to most...