----- Original Message -----
From: "Barbara Davis" <kdavis@...>
Sent: Friday, October 03, 2003 1:03 PM
Subject: Fw: [ceda] Can Being Double-Jointed Cause Pain ­ orFibromyalgia?
ImmuneSupport.com


> > Can Being Double-Jointed Cause Pain ­ or Fibromyalgia? ImmuneSupport.com
> > 10-01-2003
> > By Mary Anne Dunkin
> >
> > Being able to bend your joints beyond their natural range of motion may
do
> > more than make you the life of the party. Research has suggested this
> > ability (called joint hypermobility) might up your odds of developing
> > fibromyalgia < or at least a "fibromyalgia-like syndrome."
> >
> > In a 2001 study published in the Journal of Rheumatology, researchers
> looked
> > at 178 people < about half of whom had been diagnosed with fibromyalgia,
> the
> > other half with no fibromyalgia symptoms. They found that people with
> > fibromyalgia who met American College of Rheumatology (ACR) diagnostic
> > criteria, which include the presence of tender points and widespread
> > musculoskeletal pain, were slightly more likely to have joint
> hypermobility
> > than the healthy people.
> >
> > The biggest difference researchers found, however, was in people who had
> > been diagnosed with fibromyalgia but who didn't meet the ACR criteria
for
> > the syndrome. Thirty-one percent of those people had joint
hypermobility,
> > compared to just 6 percent of those who did not have fibromyalgia.
> >
> > Why? "It seems reasonable to hypothesize that repeated minor trauma
[from
> > moving the joints past their intended range] may result in
musculoskeletal
> > pain that may eventually amplify into a more diffuse pain syndrome
> > recognizable as fibromyalgia," says Mary Ann Fitzcharles, M.D.,
associate
> > professor of medicine at McGill University in Montreal.
> >
> > "Clearly hypermobility is not the only or the major factor in the
> > development of widespread pain or fibromyalgia, but rather a
contributing
> > mechanism in some [people]," explains Dr. Fitzcharles.
> >
> > Source: The Arthritis Foundation (www.arthritis.org). Study reference:
> > Journal of Rheumatology, Vol. 27, No. 7
> >
>