Thursday, April 19, 2007
Rave of the Day for April 19, 2007:
Got this article a few days ago in the Fibrohugs newsletter. It's a fascinating possible explanation for fibromyalgia, and one that certainly makes sense to me. For more news, please see the Fibrohugs site, which is on my Links list.....
Accelerated brain gray matter loss in fibromyalgia patients: premature aging of the brain?
April 16th, 2007 by fmsglobalnews
Kuchinad A, Schweinhardt P, Seminowicz DA, Wood PB, Chizh BA, Bushnell MC.
McGill Centre for Research on Pain, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 2B2.
Fibromyalgia is an intractable widespread pain disorder that is most frequently diagnosed in women. It has traditionally been classified as either a musculoskeletal disease or a psychological disorder. Accumulating evidence now suggests that fibromyalgia may be associated with CNS dysfunction. In this study, we investigate anatomical changes in the brain associated with fibromyalgia. Using voxel-based morphometric analysis of magnetic resonance brain images, we examined the brains of 10 female fibromyalgia patients and 10 healthy controls. We found that fibromyalgia patients had significantly less total gray matter volume and showed a 3.3 times greater age-associated decrease in gray matter than healthy controls. The longer the individuals had had fibromyalgia, the greater the gray matter loss, with each year of fibromyalgia being equivalent to 9.5 times the loss in normal aging. In addition, fibromyalgia patients demonstrated significantly less gray matter density than healthy controls in several brain regions, including the cingulate, insular and medial frontal cortices, and parahippocampal gyri. The neuroanatomical changes that we see in fibromyalgia patients contribute additional evidence of CNS involvement in fibromyalgia. In particular, fibromyalgia appears to be associated with an acceleration of age-related changes in the very substance of the brain. Moreover, the regions in which we demonstrate objective changes may be functionally linked to core features of the disorder including affective disturbances and chronic widespread pain.
Accelerated brain gray matter loss in fibromyalgia patients: premature aging of the brain?
April 16th, 2007 by fmsglobalnews
Kuchinad A, Schweinhardt P, Seminowicz DA, Wood PB, Chizh BA, Bushnell MC.
McGill Centre for Research on Pain, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 2B2.
Fibromyalgia is an intractable widespread pain disorder that is most frequently diagnosed in women. It has traditionally been classified as either a musculoskeletal disease or a psychological disorder. Accumulating evidence now suggests that fibromyalgia may be associated with CNS dysfunction. In this study, we investigate anatomical changes in the brain associated with fibromyalgia. Using voxel-based morphometric analysis of magnetic resonance brain images, we examined the brains of 10 female fibromyalgia patients and 10 healthy controls. We found that fibromyalgia patients had significantly less total gray matter volume and showed a 3.3 times greater age-associated decrease in gray matter than healthy controls. The longer the individuals had had fibromyalgia, the greater the gray matter loss, with each year of fibromyalgia being equivalent to 9.5 times the loss in normal aging. In addition, fibromyalgia patients demonstrated significantly less gray matter density than healthy controls in several brain regions, including the cingulate, insular and medial frontal cortices, and parahippocampal gyri. The neuroanatomical changes that we see in fibromyalgia patients contribute additional evidence of CNS involvement in fibromyalgia. In particular, fibromyalgia appears to be associated with an acceleration of age-related changes in the very substance of the brain. Moreover, the regions in which we demonstrate objective changes may be functionally linked to core features of the disorder including affective disturbances and chronic widespread pain.
Comments:
At the risk of sounding mean, but actually tryin to be humorous... bet you wish you'd respected your brain cells a little better back in those college days.
Another perspective is like we girls used to say in junior & senior high... we mature faster than the men... thus the brain by logic is aging faster.
If I were aging at the rate you are, I would never be called "too young" again.
You know I love ya.
Pete
Another perspective is like we girls used to say in junior & senior high... we mature faster than the men... thus the brain by logic is aging faster.
If I were aging at the rate you are, I would never be called "too young" again.
You know I love ya.
Pete
Actually, if I had partied half as hard as certain acquaintances of ours, my brain would have died of old age already!
As I told the ladies at my aquacise class (the youngest of whom is 63), I may act like a 12 year old, but I feel like an 80 year old!
This may have some weird implications as to the age difference between Dan and me, heh heh.
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As I told the ladies at my aquacise class (the youngest of whom is 63), I may act like a 12 year old, but I feel like an 80 year old!
This may have some weird implications as to the age difference between Dan and me, heh heh.
