1.
Nature.com: Salivary cortisol is associated with cognitive changes in patients with fibromyalgia
From the study: “The link between cognitive change and cortisol suggests stress maladaptation may play some role in the cognitive dysfunction associated with [fibromyalgia]. Additional studies must elucidate whether stress management improves cognitive performance in patients with [fibromyalgia].”
2.
Fox News: Lyme disease cases in U.S. could be 10 times higher than currently reported, CDC study finds
From the article: “Between 30,000 and 40,000 cases of this disease are reported to the federal agency each year, current estimates show. But in a report released earlier this month, the CDC estimated that some 476,000 Americans were diagnosed with Lyme disease annually between 2010 and 2018 – about 10 times higher than what’s currently reported.”
3.
Psychology Today: Ready for your fecal transplant? Strange as it seems, someone else’s poop could turn your life around.
From the article: “One study suggests that the success rate and safety for treating C. diff could open the door to treating Parkinson’s disease, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, multiple sclerosis, obesity, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, depression and autism.”
4.
Gizmodo.com: ‘Cat scratch’ bacteria linked to psychiatric symptoms in people
From the article: “Then in 2016, doctors noticed the boy had very characteristic lesions, resembling stretch marks, along his thighs and armpits. Eventually, tests revealed that he was carrying a chronic bloodstream infection caused by the bacteria Bartonella henselae, and he received intense antibiotic therapy.”
FYI: You can also become infected with bartonella via a tick bite. Bartonella symptoms mirror those of fibromyalgia and Lyme disease. Some of the most common symptoms include pain throughout the body (often misdiagnosed as fibromyalgia), bone pain, shin pain, pain on the bottoms of the feet (often misdiagnosed as plantar fasciitis or neuropathy), a rash that looks like stretch marks, mood swings, unexplained anger (nicknamed “bart rage”) and headaches.
For those of you who are trying to figure out the underlying cause(s) of your fibromyalgia symptoms, it’s definitely worth your while to research bartonella (and Lyme) as a potential culprit for your illness – even if you don’t recall a tick bite! (Only about 1/3 of people diagnosed with Lyme remember seeing or being bitten by a tick.)
Below are a few articles about bartonella and its symptoms to help you get started:
Is the coinfection bartonella sidelining you?
Bartonella infection is everywhere, but we don’t know about it
Bartonella: More problematic than Lyme disease?
5.
The Pain Companion: 7 ways chronic pain taught me to honor myself
From the article: “After having been in pain for so many years, I am convinced that pain brings many unforeseen and unacknowledged gifts with it. Most of these gifts were unwelcome at the time, but looking back, I can see the value of what I’ve learned from my experience of living with pain. Following are seven ways that pain taught me how to honor myself and thus enhance my life, even in the midst of the challenges.”
And an extra…
Pain News Network: Low-dose naltrexone gaining recognition as chronic pain treatment
From the article: “… in smaller doses of 5 mg or less, patients with a wide variety of pain conditions have found LDN to be a surprisingly effective pain reliever. PNN columnists have shared their positive experiences using LDN to treat everything from interstitial cystitis to Ehlers-Danlos syndrome to fibromyalgia.”
This week on FedUpWithFatigue.com…
2020’s top fibromyalgia news and research | A year in review
Liberty Lotion sale…
(This section contains affiliate links.)
Through Feb. 9, Liberty Lotion is offering 30% off all of its CBD products, including the company’s new CBD-infused bath bombs! The discount will be applied at checkout – no promo code needed!
Read my past reviews of Limitless Lotion and Liberty Lixir!
Replays…
Earlier this week, Ashok Gupta, creator of the Gupta Program and the Meaning of Life Experiment, hosted an online webinar entitled, “Acceptance and Surrender in Healing from Chronic Illness.”
Ashok also led attendees through an “Acceptance and Surrender Meditation,” and he answered questions during a question-and-answer session.
Yoga for Stress…
My friend and colleague Melissa Reynolds recently posted a free calming yoga sequence designed specifically for people with chronic pain conditions!
From Melissa: “You can do this sequence no matter your mobility level, simply omit what doesn’t work for you today. This is the beauty of yoga, we can adapt it to fit our needs.”
The Truth about Lyme Disease conference…
Drs. Tom Moorcroft and David Dornfeld are hosting the free 5-day “Truth about Lyme Disease” conference starting tomorrow, Feb. 6.
More than 25 experts will cover the following topics during the conference:
- Why treating Lyme disease is so complicated
- How to dramatically improve your outcomes using both conventional and natural approaches
- How to manage the often long, circuitous path to healing from Lyme disease
- The latest scientific breakthroughs for treating Lyme disease and how to effectively implement them to optimize healing
- The impact of mycotoxins, nutrition and mindset have on healing
- Healing PANS/PANDAS from the basics to cutting edge therapies
- The future of treatment and how practitioners can integrate the latest findings into their practice
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I’m Donna, a longtime newspaper reporter, health writer and chronic illness thriver! Fed Up with Fatigue provides weekly news, research, treatments and more to help you live better with fibromyalgia and/or Lyme.
Very interesting study on cortisol and brain fog in those living with FMS. It’s the thing that gets me the most down.