溫氏現代針灸 溫崇凱中醫診所-耳針眼針頭皮針舌針權威-跟診日誌

With Acupuncture, Patients with Fibromyalgia are No Longer Considered to be ‘Princesses’

Fibromyalgia, abbreviated to FMA, is also called the ‘Princess Syndrome.’ This nickname originates from the fact that patients with FMA have a lower pain tolerance. Even being touched gently will make FMA sufferers cry out in pain, as if they were fragile and pampered princesses who cannot bear being touched. Patients with FMA respond dramatically to touch and pressure. Their peripheral nervous systems are over-stimulated and their central nervous systems are more hypersensitive. Their perception of pain tends to be extreme; the pain can even be described as 'like being cut by glass'. As the causes of FMA cannot be identified through examinations, sometimes others might surmise that FMA patients are just moaning about imaginary illnesses. As a result, these patients become anxious, depressed, insomniac, and even develop comorbidity. They cannot clearly identify the specific pain points, and often generalize it by indicating it to be “widespread pain over the entire body.” To date, the pathogen of FMA is still unclear. However, it has nothing to do with the fibers or muscles but possibly with the imbalance of the neurotransmitters of the central nervous system, for example, the deficiency of serotonin, a chemical that inhibits pain. As a result, in Western medical practices, in addition to painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs, some doctors will prescribe antidepressants or anti-epileptic drugs in order to increase the serotonin level in the patients' blood. Until now however, the exact causes of this illness, which is considered to be responsible for the mysterious pain, are still unknown, nor are there effective treatments for it.

The nervous system of a human body is divided into the Central Nervous System (CNS) and Peripheral Nervous System (PNS); the former can be further divided into the brain and spinal cord, and the latter into the Somatic Nervous System (SNS) and Autonomic Nervous System (ANS). The ANS can be further divided into the Motor Nervous System and Sensory Nervous System. The Sensory Nervous System is a sensory input system. Most of the five senses, i.e. the visual, auditory, gustatory, olfactory and tactile senses, and senses of pain and heat are received by sensor receptors and then sent through the body into the CNS, i.e., through the spinal cord and thalamus to the brain. The disorder in the neurotransmitters might indeed cause the hypersensitivity of the CNS nerves, resulting in excessive electrical discharge of the nervous system and the sense of pain being overly magnified.

One night when I sat in at the clinic and observed my master, a female patient in her twenties said that she had been advised by a Western medical doctor to see a psychiatrist. Based on the main symptoms that she described, I realized that she had being suffering from Fibromyalgia. The patient's mother revealed in private to my master that, just as her daughter had struggled with academic performance, all her siblings had been ranked in the first few places at school. However, she had been too big for her boots and considered herself no worse than her siblings. She had encountered setbacks and started panicking whenever an exam drew close. For a long time, she had become dependent on sedatives and sleeping pills and had been in a daze. Around the time of her visit to this clinic, she was taking extended leave from school. Without the academic stress, her mental state had become stable and she was not restless as she had been previously, but she started to complain of pain across her body, so painful that she could not sleep. She had endured the pain for a long time, perhaps for several months. However, she was unable to be specific about where the pain was. In fact, her mother had been suspicious and worried that her daughter might have developed delusions. Before they came to my master's clinic for treatment, they had visited the departments of Family Medicine, Rheumatology, and Pain Medicine at various major hospitals and had undergone numerous examinations, but none of them were able to help identify the causes. Because the patient had once been treated for her psychiatric illness, eventually the western medical doctor suggested that she see a psychiatrist...

Actually, this patient was an existing patient of my master and had been treated by him before. My master focused on the patient's nervous system and made the feeling of pain disappear on the spot. In disbelief, the patient's mother said “Musculoskeletal pain like this is terrifying. It causes patients to be wrongly regarded by others as having mental disorders. We are lucky enough to have met Dr. Wen; otherwise, I don't know for how long my daughter would have had to take sedative drugs.”

The patient, as if replying to her mother or talking to herself, said distantly “Actually I have been taking the sedatives for several weeks. I have also tried both the ice and heat packs to no avail. I still feel the pain.” The mother quickly comforted her, replying “Fortunately, we are here and back with Dr. Wen. Don't be afraid.”

Although Fibromyalgia is considered to be a disease that causes ‘mysterious pain’, with my master's hands, it is not mysterious at all. With the acupuncture needles inserted in her head and ears by my master, the level of her pain was immediately relieved on the spot. Coupled with Chinese medicine, I believe that she can recover from FMA in the foreseeable future.