Fibromyalgia is a common syndrome of chronic widespread soft-tissue pain accompanied by weakness, fatigue, and sleep disturbances. It is characterized by chronic widespread aching and stiffness, involving particularly the neck, shoulders, back, and hips, which is aggravated by use of the affected muscles.
Three types of overlap occur among the disease states chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), fibromyalgia (FM), multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). They share common symptoms. 1)
According to the Marshall PathogenesisA description for how chronic inflammatory diseases originate and develop., fibromyalgia is caused by groups of microbes which downregulate activity of the Vitamin D ReceptorA nuclear receptor located throughout the body that plays a key role in the innate immune response., a nuclear receptorIntracellular receptor proteins that bind to hydrophobic signal molecules (such as steroid and thyroid hormones) or intracellular metabolites and are thus activated to bind to specific DNA sequences which affects transcription. which plays a key role in maintaining the function of the innate immune responseThe body's first line of defense against intracellular and other pathogens. According to the Marshall Pathogenesis the innate immune system becomes disabled as patients develop chronic disease.. Physical or psychological stress may exacerbate the disease, but it should not be considered ultimately responsible for it.
The Marshall ProtocolA curative medical treatment for chronic inflammatory disease. Based on the Marshall Pathogenesis. treats fibromyalgia by reactivating the innate immune response. In the course of treatment, patients' disease symptoms may become worse due to a process called immunopathologyA temporary increase in disease symptoms experienced by Marshall Protocol patients that results from the release of cytokines and endotoxins as disease-causing bacteria are killed..
from DJ in California
Almost a year ago (February 2013) I was on this discussion topic with others. I am retired and have a lot of time on my hands, so I did some work as a member who cares.
This is statistical data taken from the progress reports of you, the members of this forum. I do not know any of you and I read so many reports I could not tell any of you what has happened to anyone single person.
My report is on SUBJECTIVE data, it is not based on any one measurable test or physical reading. It is based solely on the testimony of members who have used the Marshall Protocol.
During the summer of 2013 I looked at 2,000 records of people using the Marshall Protocol.
I eliminated all records that had less than 20 messages, as these were usually inquiries into the treatment without actual participation. I eliminated all records from people who had been banned from the site. I eliminated all records from Health Professionals who did not actually have disease. I eliminated all records where I could not find a valid progress report. This left me with 864 meaningful records.
My method was to bring up a members progress report. I would make note of the major disease listed by the member. I would then page down to the last page of the progress report and find the last, or last meaningful reply and try to determine if the member was reporting improvement in health, a decline in health or worsening of symptoms. Sometimes this was just that the person said they felt better. Sometimes this was looking at the change in toleration numbers.
I then determined that they were in some way reporting success on the protocol. Or they were reporting no success. In some cases I could not tell from what the person had written whether they had success or not.
I am not expecting this data to stand up to the double blind studies of the professional scientific researchers. (I know what double blind studies are about, I was married to a cardio vascular PhD researcher for over 20 years. I have also been a subject in a double blind study, and am currently involved in one. I know how precise these must be.)
We don't have a controlled study group here but we do have a lot of honest testimony from a lot of people who were very sick when they signed on to this site. Who took the time to make weekly or other periodic reports. Who have voices (your voices) to say this Marshall Protocol treatment works or does not work.
I tried my best to be unbiased as I was expecting to see about a 20% improvement in health of members, or in other words a 20-25% success rate. I was intending to compare this to the 10% success rate I found done on the use of prednisone to treat Sarcoidosis. That double blind report shows that 10% treated with prednisone achieve remission. (BTW remission in Sarcoidosis as far as I can find out is measured rather subjectively)
The following information is what I found:
Fibromyalgia: 53 members; 34 success; 6 no success; 13 unsure
TOTALS: 864 members;573 report success; 119 report no success; and for 172 results are not clear.
SUCCESS RATES: Over all success rate 66.32% Over all unsuccessful 13.77% Over all unsure 19.91%
Fibromyalgia success 64.2%
All Other Th1 diseaseAny of the chronic inflammatory diseases caused by bacterial pathogens. success 59.8%
Main article: Stress
Main article: Psychosomatic explanations for disease
Sigmund Freud and Jean-Martin Charcot were born 150 years ago, but their ideas about the effect of the subconscious on disease continue to resonate in the scientific community.2) Freud and colleagues argued that unconscious mental processes such as sublimated rage could manifest as physical symptoms. However, with the advent of superior technology, one by one, many diseases once supposed to be caused by psychological stress have since been attributed to other factors including infections.
According to the Marshall PathogenesisA description for how chronic inflammatory diseases originate and develop., chronic fatigue syndrome, multiple chemical sensitivity and other chronic inflammatory diseases are likely caused by pathogens, yet many physicians consider these diseases to be “medically unexplained.” Medically unexplained diseases are widely prevalent3) but at the same time have few discernible markers or objectively measurable symptoms. While a lot of Freudian ideas have fallen out of favor, one legacy remains: difficult-to-explain diseases are still routinely attributed to psychological causes. The process by which patients supposedly manifest psychological problems as a disease has been named and renamed, classified and reclassified: hysteria, psychosomatic disorder, somatoform disorder, conversion disorder, functional disorder, etc. In each of these diagnoses, however, the stated origin of disease is unchanged: symptoms that cannot be explained are ultimately “all in a patient's head.”
While there is no denying the existence of some sort of “mind-body connection,” there is minimal compelling evidence that as the 19th century Swiss physician Georg W. Groddeck claimed: “Illness has a purpose; it has to resolve the conflict, to repress it, or to prevent what is already repressed from entering consciousness.”4) Despite the stark absence of evidence supporting these views, it is not unusual to read papers describing how patients with long-term so-called psychological illnesses may be subconsciously manifesting them, because it would allow them to have more “care, attention, disengagement, or even financial benefits.”5) Nor, is it uncommon for new theories to spring up along these lines. In one example, a 2008 continuing medical education publication taught physicians that when a celebrity becomes ill, healthy people are suggestible enough to develop long-term illnesses consistent with the celebrity's descriptions of their conditions. Such claims are recklessly speculative, harming patients and stalling needed research.
Treating patients who complain of so-called medically unexplained symptoms with cognitive behavioral therapy or, in the case of chronic fatigue syndrome, graded exercise therapy, may do more harm than good.6) The emergence of metagenomic technologies offers a more sophisticated set of tools for detecting and characterizing microbes in these disease states. Perhaps it is only the use of this technology that will finally relegate the notion of patient as attention-seeking victim to historical relic.
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<div class=“patientinterviewname”></html>Carole Morgan<html></div></html>
sarcoidosis, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS)
Read the interview
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Interviews of patients with other diseases are also available.