What is fibromyalgia? Fibromyalgia (FM) is often considered a medical mystery. It need not be. I often hear all laboratory tests are negative in patients with FM. That's not true. Most physicians are uneasy when confronted with persons suffering with FM. That need not be so. I sometimes hear FM is not treatable. Nothing is further from the truth.

THREE BASIC FACTS ABOUT FIBROMYALGIA
1. All symptoms of fibromyalgia are caused by cellular oxygen deprivation.
2. Oxygen deprivation is caused by dysfunctional oxygen metabolism.
3. Oxygen metabolism becomes abnormal due to excessive and cumulative oxidative stress caused
    by sugar overload, antibiotic abuse, undiagnosed allergies, synthetic chemicals, and anger.

    Dysfunctional oxygen metabolism is not merely lack of oxygen in the air we breathe, in the blood, or in the cells. This is a critical distinction. I coin this term for a much deeper problem of oxygen metabolism within the cells that involves failure of enzymes involved in oxygen metabolism. This also forms the core of my ODD theory of the fibromyalgia/fatigue complex (ODD stands for oxidative-dysoxygenative dysfunction).

    That fibromyalgia is reversible is the second core point of this article. It is regrettable that many fibromyalgia "experts" emphatically state that it is irreversible. (Why would anyone become an expert in a disease that he can never effectively treat?) I strongly disagree with them.
    I consider persons with fibromyalgia as human canaries whose oxygen enzymes are more easily injured than other people. They are more vulnerable to unrecognized allergies, sugar overload, excessive antibiotics, and anger, and have been poisoned by synthetic chemicals. Those human canaries are telling us something important about the shape of things to come. What injures their oxygen enzymes eventually will injure the oxygen enzymes of others, unless we find ways to protect the oxygen metabolism.

FOUR MAIN SYMPTOMS OF FIBRO CANARIES
1. Persistent muscle pain and weakness.
    Explanation: Oxygen deprivation causes muscle pain.
2. Disabling fatigue.
    Explanation: Oxygen deprivation in tissue causes fatigue and exhaustion.
3. Brain fog (problems of mood, memory, and mentation).
    Explanation: Oxygen deprivation in brain cells causes brain fog and dysfunction.
4. Air hunger.
    Explanation: Oxygen deprivation within the cells causes air hunger.

    The last item requires a special comment. Like other physicians, until some years ago I accepted the prevailing view that the body learns about the lack of oxygen through special oxygen sensors in the brain as well as in the walls of large blood vessels in the chest and neck. My fibro canaries have forced me to look deeper into this issue. The sense of air or oxygen hunger in fibromyalgia cannot be explained merely on the basis of those oxygen sensors. Oxygen levels in the large vessels in those locations are within the normal range in fibromyalgia. Thus, I had to look for some other mechanism. Now I believe oxygen hunger is caused by abnormal oxygen metabolism within the cells —though the evidence for my view at this point is indirect.

1. Symptoms of weakened immune systems, such as sore throats, swollen neck glands, and painful tissues.
   Explanation: Oxygen deprivation in immune cells causes immune weaknesses.
2. Abdominal bloating, cramps, episodes of diarrhea and constipation, and problems of digestion and malabsorption.
   Explanation: Oxygen deprivation in the bowel causes bloating, cramps, and malabsorption.
3.  Cold sensitivity and poor circulation.
   Explanation: Oxygen deprivation in skin causes cold sensitivity.
4. Sleep difficulties, restless leg syndrome, and legs.
   Explanation: Oxygen deprivation interferes with functions of the sleep center and causes other problems, such as restless leg syndrome.
5. Lightheadedness, dizziness, heart palpitations, and skipped beats.
   Explanation: Oxygen deprivation in the heart and vessel walls causes lightheadedness, dizziness,
       heart palpitations, and skipped beats.
6. Dry skin, dry eyes, dry mouth, and dry vaginal tissues.
   Explanation: Oxygen deprivation in the cells of the skin, eyes, mouth and vagina muscles causes cell shrinkage and dryness skin.
7. Vaginitis, bladder spasms, and bladder infections in women and prostatitis in men.
   Explanation: Oxygen deprivation in genital tissues causes vaginitis, bladder spasms, and bladder infections in women and prostatitis in men.
8. Joint and muscle stiffness and pain.
   Explanation: Oxygen deprivation in joints and muscles causes stiffness and pain.
9. Lack of sex drive in both sexes and menstrual irregularities in women.
   Explanation: Oxygen deprivation interferes with the enzyme functions of sexual organs and their hormones.