Welcome to Natural Pain Relief For Fibromyalgia

 Are you sure it’s Fibromyalgia?

If you have been diagnosed with Fibromyalgia I have come across a couple of articles that you need to be aware of if you suffer with this mysterious illness that has no explanation. 

There are other illnesses that can actually be misdiagnosed as Fibromyalgia or Fibromyalgia can be caused from.

The first article shows that Endometriosis can cause Fibromyalgia.
Please read below.

I have listed some highlights below but you can read the full article at:

http://www.endo-resolved.com/symptoms.html

As Endometriosis develops, a woman’s immune system becomes more and more impaired and this leads to further health problems. Due to increased research, as well as surveys of Endometriosis patients, it is now becoming clear that women with this disease are susceptible to other serious health problems including:

  • Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (100 times more common in women with endometriosis)
  • ME Hypothyroidism – under-active Thyroid gland (7 times more common in women with endometriosis)
  • Fibromyalgia
  • Rheumatoid arthritis

If you do have endometriosis here are some studies. Even if you don’t need to read this. You can check out the full article below but I have included some that are relevant to our situation:

http://endotimes.blogspot.com/2006/04/dioxin-and-endometriosis-studies.html

 

The Dioxin and Endometriosis Studies

The following 18 studies indicate a possible link between dioxin

exposure and the development of endometriosis, just as the previous
section found links for PCB exposure. Certain PCBs are dioxin-like. In addition,
PCB mixtures are often contaminated with dioxins. See PCBs, Dioxins,
Furans and Mercury — They Travel Together.

Study #1 – endometriosis is directly linked to dioxin exposure, and dose-dependent

Study #2 – endocrine disruptors are implicated in endometriosis

Study #3 – dioxin or dioxin-like compounds (certain PCB’s) are associated with endometriosis

Study #4 – endometriosis increases in female offspring of dioxin-fed mothers, dioxin increases the size of endometriotic lesions

Study #5 – dioxin increases the incidence and severerity of endometriosis human rates of endometriosis have increased during the last decades. Dioxins are a family of chlorinated aromatic hydrocarbons that are produced during combustion processes in the presence of a chlorine donor and as by-products of the chlorine-processing chemical industries.

Study #6 – the dioxin margin of safety is insufficient to protect against endometriosis

Study #7 – dioxin is correlated with an increased incidence of Endometriosis

 

See the full article for all case studies, I think the point was made here. 

So what the heck are dioxins, where do they come from and how can we avoid them? I did some further research to find out how we can avoid these dioxins. My Mother died of breast cancer and suffered major gynaecological problems so I was probably like the baby in study #4.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dioxins_and_dioxin-like_compounds


Dioxins and dioxin-like compounds (DLC)
- are by-products of various industrial processes

- commonly regarded as highly toxic compounds that are environmental pollutants and persistent organic pollutants (POPs).

They include:

  • Polychlorinated dibenzodioxins (PCDDs), or simply dioxins, technically a
    derivative of dibenzodioxin 
  • Polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs), or simply furans, technically a
    derivative of dibenzofurans. Whilst they strictly speaking are not dioxins,
    they have dioxin-like properties
  • Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which also strictly speaking are not
    dioxins, but some have “dioxin-like” properties. They can under certain
    conditions form from the more toxic dibenzodioxins and dibenzofurans through
    partial oxidation
  • Finally, it may refer to Dioxin (chemical), the basic chemical unit of the
    more complex dioxins


According to the Agency of Toxic Substances & Disease Registry:

- dioxins are not intentionally produced and have no known use
- they are the by-products of various industrial processes (i.e., bleaching paper
pulp, and chemical and pesticide manufacture) and combustion activities (i.e., burning household trash, forest fires, and waste incineration)
- the defoliant Agent Orange, used during the VietnamWar, contained dioxins. 
- Dioxins are found at low levels throughout the world in air, soil, water, sediment, and in foods such as meats, dairy, fish, and shellfish
- the highest levels of dioxins are usually found in soil, sediment and in fatty tissues of animals- much lower levels are found in air and water

Sources

Dioxins are produced as by-products of incomplete combustion and some chemical processes, including natural ones. General sources of exposure

Dioxins enter the physical environment by release during:

  • Combustion
  • Metal smelting and refining
  • Manufacturing of chlorinated chemicals
  • Paper bleaching
  • Natural biological and photochemical processes
  • Mobilization from environmental reservoirs (e.g., stirred sediments)

Specific sources and routes of exposure

Exposure through diet

The major sources of human exposure (96%) are

  • Animal fats found in meats
  • Full fat dairy products
  • Fatty fish (herring, mackerel, salmon, sardines, trout, tuna)

Exposure through air

  • Breathing incineration gases released from medical, municipal, and
    hazardous waste incinerators.
  • Breathing gases released by industrial processes from paper mills,
    cement kilns, and metal smelters.

Exposure through occupation

People who perform the following types of work can be exposed to dioxins:

  • Production and handling of certain chlorinated phenols (such as 2,4,5-trichlorophenol or pentachlorophenol (PCP)
  • Production or handling of chlorinated pesticides, such as 2-4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2-4-D) and other herbicides
  • Chlorinated pesticide application
  • Pressure treatment of wood with PCP and handling of PCP treated wood
  • Production of chlorinated paper at pulp and paper mills
  • Operation of municipal solid waste or hazardous waste incinerators
  • Hazardous waste clean-up operations

Accidental exposure Rare cases of high level exposures through industrial accidents such as occurred in Seveso, Italy.

Exposure from waste sites Potential chronic low level exposure by living next to a hazardous waste site containing dioxins. Currently, in the United States, there are 126 Superfund sites (with a completed exposure pathway) contaminated with dioxins.

Intentional Toxic Equivalent Factors (ITEF) for the dioxin congeners of concern (NATO/CCMS)

http://www.ejnet.org/dioxin/


Do dioxins cause cancer?


Yes. The EPA report confirmed that dioxins are a cancer hazard to people. In 1997, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) – part of the World Health Organization – published their research into dioxins and furans and announced on February 14, 1997, that the most potent dioxin, 2,3,7,8-TCDD, is a now considered a Group 1 carcinogen, meaning a “known human carcinogen.”


Also, in January 2001, the U.S. National Toxicology Program upgraded 2,3,7,8-TCDD from “Reasonable Anticipated to be a Human Carcinogen” to “Known to be a Human Carcinogen.” See their reports on dioxins and furans from their most recent 11th Report
on Carcinogens. 

Finally, a 2003 re-analysis of the cancer risk from dioxin reaffirmed that there is no known “safe dose” or “threshold” below which dioxin will not cause cancer. A July 2002 study shows dioxin to be related to increased incidence of breast cancer.

(there you go mom)


What other health problems are linked to dioxin exposure?

- cancer

- dioxins can cause severe reproductive and developmental problems (at levels 100 times lower than those associated with its cancer causing effects)

- well known for its ability to damage the immune system and interfere with hormonal systems


Dioxin exposure has been linked to:

  • - birth defects
  • - inability to maintain pregnancy (my mother had about 6 miscarriages)
  • - decreased fertility
  • - reduced sperm counts
  • - endometriosis
  • - diabetes
  • - learning disabilities
  • - immune system suppression
  • - lung problems
  • - skin disorders
  • - lowered testosterone levels and much more.

 

For a detailed list of health problems related to dioxin, read the People’s Report on Dioxin.

How are we exposed to dioxin?

The major sources of dioxin are in our diet. Since dioxin is fat-soluble, it bio-accumulates, climbing up the food chain. 

  • A North American eating a typical North American diet will receive 93% of their dioxin exposure from meat and dairy products
    (23% is from milk and dairy alone; the other large sources of exposure are beef, fish, pork, poultry and eggs).
  • In fish, these toxins bio-accumulate up the food chain so that dioxin levels in fish are 100,000 times that of the surrounding environment.
  • The best way to avoid dioxin exposure is to reduce or eliminate your consumption of meat and dairy products by adopting a vegan diet. 
  • According to a May 2001 study of dioxin in foods, “The category with the lowest [dioxin] level was a simulated vegan diet, with 0.09 ppt…. Blood dioxin levels in pure vegans have also been found to be very low in comparison with the general population, indicating a lower contribution of these foods to human dioxin body burden.”
  • In EPA’s dioxin report, they refer to dioxin as hydrophobic (water fearing) and lipophilic (fat-loving). This means that dioxin, when it settles on water bodies, will rapidly accumulate in fish rather than remain in the water. The same goes for other wildlife. Dioxin works its way to the top of the food chain.
    Men have no ways to get rid of dioxin other than letting it break down
    according to its chemical half-lives. Women, on the other hand, have two ways
    which it can exit their bodies:
  • It crosses the placenta… into the growing infant;
  • It is present in the fatty breast milk, which is also a route of
    exposure which doses the infant, making breast-feeding for
    non-vegan/vegetarian mothers quite hazardous.


If you’re eating the typical North American diet, this is where you are getting
your dioxins from:

 

 

Dioxin Exposure Chart

Chart from EPA Dioxin Reassessment Summary 4/94

- Vol. 1, p. 37 (Figure II-5. Background TEQ exposures for North America by pathway)


[A TEQ is a dioxin Toxic EQuivalent, calculated by looking at all toxic dioxins and furans and
measuring them in terms of the most toxic form of dioxin, 2,3,7,8-TCDD.

This means that some dioxins/furans might only count as half a TEQ if it's half
as toxic as 2,3,7,8-TCDD.]

Dioxin Levels in Food

 

[

 

from May 2001 study by Arnold Schecter et. al., Journal of Toxicology and Environmental
Health, Part A, 63:1–18]


Note: freshwater fish were farm-raised on a diet of meat, which is why
they show the highest dioxin levels in this study.


For more information on dioxin in the food supply…


Other diseases that mimic Fibromyalgia 

MSG and Aspartame poisoning can also mimic Chronic Fatigue, Fibromyalgia and Lupus among other illnesses. My advice is to eliminate Aspartame and MSG out of your diet to see if your symptoms go away.

See article on MSG and Aspartame or sign up for more info.

One more study I will have to dig out is celiac disease as also being misdiagnosed as Fibromyalgia. Celiac disease is a medical condition in which the absorptive surface of the small intestines is damaged by a substance called gluten. This results in the inability  of the body to absorb nutrients: proteins, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals, which are necessary for good health.
Read more on this:

http://www.celiac.ca/EnglishCCA/eceliac.html

http://naturalpainreliefforfibromyalgia.com/1106

http://naturalpainreliefforfibromyalgia.com/1090

http://naturalpainreliefforfibromyalgia.com/471

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