Fibromyalgia is an umbrella term for a neurological disorder, causing patients to experience chronic pain that affects the entire body and may “jump” from area to area along with severe, chronic fatigue. Patients with fibromyalgia often report that they suffered from some type of old cervical or tailbone injury, such as whiplash or falls.
There are many unique and complex characteristics surrounding fibromyalgia, which make it one of the most difficult, challenging, and complicated conditions to work with – or to suffer from.
Another significant factor is that fibromyalgia tends to run in families, and genetic factors are likely to contribute to the disorder. However, not a lot is known about the specific genes involved. Researchers believe that other, nongenetic factors also play a role in a person’s risk of developing the disorder. Such triggers may include having a disease that causes pain, such as rheumatoid arthritis, anxiety, or depression.
Anyone can develop fibromyalgia. It affects people of any age, including children. Around 4 million people in the U.S. are living with fibromyalgia – women and people older than 40 are more likely to be diagnosed with this disorder. Until the Arkansas-based Spero Clinic started its unique treatments for this condition, fibromyalgia patients had little hope of recovery.
What is Fibromyalgia?
In general, doctors are very confused about fibromyalgia. Its symptoms make this condition extremely puzzling and difficult to treat. Seemingly without a direct cause, the condition is considered incurable and is simply managed with medication to numb or suppress the pain.
Often, patients themselves, and even their family and friends, don’t understand the condition either. It can set in without warning or an obvious reason. Yet, few people can imagine the intense pain fibromyalgia patients experience every day, or understand how life-robbing this condition is.
Fibromyalgia Symptoms
Symptoms often start after a triggering event such as an injury, surgery, an infection, or emotional stress. Symptoms can build up over time, with no single event to trigger them.
Many people who have fibromyalgia also have:
- Headaches.
- Jaw and facial pain due to temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorders.
- Irritable bowel syndrome.
- Anxiety.
- Depression.
Rheumatic diseases, mood disorders, or conditions that cause pain are other likely indicators of fibromyalgia, including:
- Rheumatoid arthritis.
- Systemic lupus erythematosus (commonly called lupus).
- Ankylosing spondylitis.
- Osteoarthritis.
- Depression or anxiety.
- Chronic back pain.
- Irritable bowel syndrome.
Fibromyalgia is a so-called “dynamic” condition. This means people won’t experience symptoms in any specific order — there is no roadmap to know when or how fibromyalgia symptoms will affect a person. In other words, even if fibromyalgia is a phantom in terms of location and cause, it’s very real for those who suffer from this condition.
The Causes Behind Fibromyalgia
Looking beyond the different symptoms, Spero’s Founder and CEO, Dr. Katinka van der Merwe, found that fibromyalgia is not caused by a single source. Rather, this condition seems to occur due to a malfunctioning central nervous system, which covers the entire body and directs all body functions.
To understand the cause of fibromyalgia, think of your nervous system as the main electrical system. In the case of fibromyalgia, that system isn’t connecting correctly. Signals from the central nervous system through the sympathetic and parasympathetic pathways to the nerves are either garbled or not arriving at all. The results are shorts and power outages, which, in the body, translate to disorders and pain.
How a Spillover Effect Causes Symptoms
One of the lead investigators studying the role of the central nervous system in fibromyalgia, Dr. Daniel Clauw, remarked that not only do abnormalities in the brain and central nervous system seem to “spillover” into the body and produce the collection of symptoms we know as fibromyalgia, but there is also evidence that injuries, illnesses, or other major stressors in the body can overwhelm the brain and central nervous system and cause different symptoms.
For example, when a person suffers a neck injury that creates a direct or indirect impact on the brain stem, the sympathetic nervous system will become active to protect the body from harm. It will direct blood, oxygen, and other necessary components to the injured location to help the healing process. When the danger has passed, the parasympathetic nervous system will take over and put the body at rest.
Both systems are meant to complement each other and work in harmony. When one is active, the other is meant to be turned off. However, when the nervous system is damaged or misfiring, the sympathetic nervous system may remain stuck in the “on” position while the parasympathetic nervous system remains turned off. This situation will cause the classic symptoms of fibromyalgia and other autonomic dysfunction disorders.
A Roadmap to Healing
Given that the cause of fibromyalgia symptoms and conditions is a misalignment and malfunctioning of the nervous system and its various components, the key to healing lies in healing the nervous system itself.
Trained as a chiropractic and holistic expert, Spero’s Dr. Katinka found that the most effective approach to treating fibromyalgia is to bring the central nervous system into balance. In her words, “When the nervous system is given the tools that it needs to achieve a state of balance once again, signs and symptoms of fibromyalgia tend to resolve. You are not broken beyond repair. Your body is amazing and capable of healing!”
Spero’s Unique Treatment Modalities
Over the years, Dr. Katinka has introduced numerous tools and techniques to perfect Spero’s treatment program and help fibromyalgia patients achieve healing. These modalities consist of (but are not limited to):
Katman Vagus Nerve Therapy
This patented technique was developed by Dr. Katinka and Dr. Manuel Mazzini from Milan, Italy. Vagus Nerve Stimulation is achieved by using a gentle, patented manual technique in the upper cervical spine, allowing the Vagus nerve to return to optimal function over time. This is an important cornerstone of Spero’s treatment system, as it calms the central nervous system and restores the autonomic nervous system to optimum function once again.
Magnetic Resonance Therapy
This technique consists of whole-body immersion into a uniform electric field (EMF) and targets specific tissues based on molecular weight, depending on what the patient needs. In Spero’s experience, this therapy calms the natural inflammatory response of the nervous system, providing healing in itself and also preparing the body to be able to tolerate Spero’s other therapies and respond to those therapies more rapidly.
Scar Tissue Therapy
Scar tissue may present as an invisible obstacle to healing, as it blocks the normal flow of nerve communication from cell to cell. This may affect the outcome of the patient’s treatment if left unaddressed. People often have scar tissue in areas where they were not physically injured, so they are not even aware that it is present. Spero specialists are trained to find and break up scar tissue with soundwave therapy, which is a gentle, powerful, and effective treatment.
Microcurrent
A patented device applies an extremely mild current to the body. Depending on the tissues involved, specific frequencies are selected to encourage natural healing of the body and reduce pain.
Low-Intensity Electric Stimulation
This technique is used to successfully treat circulatory issues, all types of acute and chronic pain, long-term (intractable) pain, and drug-resistant pain. This treatment also offers specific parameter-signaling for efficacious neuromuscular reeducation, muscle strengthening, and relaxation of muscle spasm activity.
Customized Dietary Changes
Spero utilizes a standard food sensitivity test, as well as blood analysis, to pinpoint specific foods that may be inflammatory to each patient. Trained specialists make dietary recommendations unique to every patient based on these results, rather than recommending a one-size-fits-all diet for all patients.
Brain Balancing
Physical and/or emotional stress and trauma compromise and undermine a person’s overall well-being and may cause the brain to get “stuck.” The brain is the master regulator and the key to mediating the effects of stress on one’s body, its systems, and overall well-being. Brain balancing helps the brain to get “unstuck” and return to a state of optimal functioning.
Oxygen Therapy
Spero uses a system where the patient’s peripheral oxygenation and heart rate are carefully monitored. The patient’s heart rate is then elevated while their oxygen intake is decreased, causing the body to dilate its capillaries. The patient then breathes in 95% oxygen, causing even the most distal cells to be flooded with oxygenated plasma.
Lymphatic Therapy
This modality uses a device that creates physical vibration with acoustic waves, an electrostatic field, and electro-pressure that is low in energy and safe. It replicates the motions used in manual lymph drainage but gives a rapid sequence that can’t be achieved manually. This therapy improves the lymphatic flow and helps with accelerated detoxification.
Neuromuscular Re-Education
Spero uses patented FDA-approved technology, utilizing a unique direct current to reprogram the patient’s muscles, ligaments, and nervous system. This technology vastly speeds up recovery that may otherwise require months or years of physical therapy. In some cases, this treatment allows patients to overcome physical limitations that traditional physical therapy cannot overcome.
Cold Laser Therapy or Low-Level Laser Therapy (LLLT)
This treatment utilizes specific wavelengths of light to interact with tissue and is thought to help accelerate the healing process. It can be used on patients who suffer from various acute and chronic conditions to help eliminate pain, and swelling, reduce spasms, and increase functionality. When cells absorb laser light energy, a series of events is initiated in the cell that is hypothesized to result in normalizing damaged or injured tissue, a reduction in pain, inflammation, swelling, and an overall speeding up of healing time by increasing intracellular metabolism.
Bloodwork Analysis and Supplementation
A full analysis of the blood work of every single chronic pain patient is completed. Based on the results, personalized dietary and supplement recommendations are created from this analysis. Because Spero specialists have studied laboratory tests and markers of hundreds of chronic pain patients over the years, they have grown exceptionally skilled at identifying and addressing problems common to this patient group.
Ionic Therapy
This therapy uses charged particles to purify and detoxify the body. This balances the body’s PH level (an important factor in health), reduces swelling, boosts immunity, and removes harmful bacteria, fungi, and microorganisms.
Non-Invasive Neuromodulation
The neuromodulation device is applied directly to the skin and delivers pain-free, non-invasive interactive neurostimulation.
Who Can Benefit From Spero’s Treatments?
Spero’s treatments are drug-free and can be tolerated by all patients aged 5 to 80+. None are invasive, and all are aimed at repairing and revitalizing the central nervous system. The Spero Clinic treats patients suffering from neurological disorders, including chronic pain, CRPS, Long COVID, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, POTS, and more.
The road to healing is not going to be a “quick fix” – for those who have suffered for years, the healing process may be long and sometimes difficult. However, given the ordeal these patients have gone through before they entered The Spero Clinic, they gladly progress on that road towards recovery. Making progress every day, they experience the results for themselves.
Discover the Best Relief at The Spero Clinic
Suffering from fibromyalgia can be incredibly isolating, hopeless, and frightening. The Spero Clinic is the only facility in the world offering life-saving treatment for fibromyalgia patients. Their expertise is constantly being developed; their success rate is unprecedented.
Take Kim, who spent years in the endless medical maze to find treatment for her daughter’s fibromyalgia condition until they discovered The Spero Clinic.
In her words, “We spent the summer of 2019 at the clinic. We saw improvements in just a couple of weeks. By the time we left, her pain went away, she got her flexibility back, and her personality came back. We have since been back for some tune-up/follow-up visits, which have been so helpful. I cannot recommend Spero enough. The staff is top-notch, very compassionate, and truly committed to healing. It works, simple as that.”
If you or your loved one suffers from fibromyalgia, contact The Spero Clinic at www.thesperoclinic.com or call (479) 304-8202.
