According to the article, by Tim Vaughan:
Reduced blood and oxygen flows to the muscles in ME/CFS/FM could set the stage for allodynia and other pain problems...
“Ischemia” [inadequate blood flow to a part of the body]...[is] where the capillary walls become clogged with platelets and white blood cells, thus blocking oxygen from reaching the muscle. Now the muscle has to deal with lack of oxygen and the inflammation cascade from reperfusion [the action of restoring the flow of blood to an organ or tissue. ...[T]his sets up a great environment for the generation of pain.I had a eureka moment when reading this article. In conjunction with my recent doctors appointments, and recent musing on my shortness of breath (and related symptoms), I had already started to reach the conclusion that my shortness of breath, light headedness, and tingling in extremities must be from lack of blood flow to capillaries and tissue. The one thing that kept me from realizing that blood/oxygen was the problem for so long was that my pulse oximeter always shows normal blood oxygen levels. But then in my last doctor appointment (3 weeks ago), Dr. M stated that the pulse oxymeter wouldn't detect oxygen levels in the capillaries, and certainly not in muscle tissue. This never occurred to me. It should have!..but it didn't.
So recently I've been musing about what to do with this new information, still not totally certain that it was a capillary and tissue problem. Then the allodynia arose. Then I read this article (linked above) and I suddenly feel certain that I'm dealing with lack of blood flow to capillaries and tissue...probably due to autonomic nervous system dysfunction.
Now the question is, what do I do with this information? I haven't figured that out yet...
Hello, we share a lot in terms of symptoms. I think you can 1 - Try LDN, if you haven't. It helps to fibro patients more than CFS patients. As a CFS patient I've been using it for 6 months and while I had no help for fatigue, I think it helped me with pain. And also I never had a major attack since I've started it. 2 - You can try HBOT. It can help with oxygen delivery to capillaries, but I think you need to do it for a long time to see a change. I haven't tried it yet but am willing to. 3 - You can try supplements or drugs that help with blood flow to small vessels. There is Nimodipine for that, there is even a CFS treatment protocol based on the use of this drug. Vinpocetine is also a supplement that you can look at for this purpose.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much. All of this is very valuable information to me. I found out today that the painful areas on my skin, which have now shown up as a rash, are actually shingles. But that doesn't change the fact that I have poor blood flow the the muscles, so I am going to look into treatment for those things.
Deletehow can check hemoglobin through Pulse Oximeter in % my hemoglobin in June 7.5 %. please reply how can read or convert oxygen level in percentage.
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