working to improve care for people living with:
working to improve care for people living with:
Fibromyalgia is recognized by the medical discipline of Rheumatology as a real condition. Rheumatologists have written extensively on the subject and have created diagnostic criteria that can be used by general practitioners of medicine: you can get a diagnosis from your family doctor. It is characterized by nociplastic pain which appears to originate in the brain (central nervous system) and is not a consequence of acute threats to tissue (nociceptive pain) nor caused by damage to nerves (neuropathic pain). There are a number of other common symptoms including fatigue, sleep disturbances, cognitive dysfunction, and depression and anxiety. There is help for people suffering from Fibromyalgia. While there is no cure there are both pharmacological and non-pharmacological “treatments” that can help manage symptoms. The Ontario based Centre for Effective Practice (a Canadian organization that “helps primary care clinicians navigate the increasingly complex clinical environment”) has created a set of tools that your doctor can use to both diagnose and treat Fibromyalgia.
Myalgic encephalomyelitis is an acquired neurological disease with complex global dysfunctions. Pathological dysregulation of the nervous, immune and endocrine systems, with impaired cellular energy metabolism and ion transport are prominent features.
Myalgic Encephalomyelitis involves dysfunction across at least thirteen major biological systems with substantial mechanistic interdependence. Mitochondrial energy deficit drives neuroinflammation and oxidative stress while impairing immune cell function. Chronic immune activation and altered cytokine production perpetuate neuroinflammation despite simultaneous immune exhaustion. Dysregulation of the HPA axis and autonomic nervous system, driven by activated immune-inflammatory pathways, causes cardiovascular and metabolic dysfunction. Vascular and endothelial abnormalities reduce tissue oxygenation, compounding mitochondrial dysfunction and perpetuating the bioenergetic crisis. Gut dysbiosis permits microbial translocation triggering sustained immune activation. Persistent or reactivated viral infections establish latency-based immune evasion mechanisms. These systems interact through feedback loops—cellular energy deficit amplifies inflammation, inflammation exacerbates oxidative stress, oxidative stress damages mitochondria—creating self-sustaining pathophysiological cycles that characterize ME/CFS’s chronic, relapsing-remitting course.
CareNow Ontario will use the term Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) on this website and in associated documents, unless specifically referencing a document that uses a different term. Over the years other terminology has been used (e.g., ME/CFS, chronic fatigue syndrome). The use of ME is in keeping with patient preference and the terminology that has been adopted by the ICanCME Research Network.
Myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME)stands for “muscle pain” and “inflammation of the brain and spinal cord.” ME is a serious, complex and debilitating condition causing a wide range of symptoms. It affects many people in Ontario and worldwide. In spite of recent research clearly demonstrating many biological abnormalities across many body systems, people living with ME face lingering stigma, in part because the underlying mechanisms of the disease are not known and a lack of funding for research has perpetuated this lack of knowledge. The name by which it has long been known, ‘chronic fatigue syndrome’ is another major reason for stigma.
