Fibromyalgia. The word itself can feel like a life sentence. If you’ve been diagnosed, you already know the uphill battle it brings: constant, widespread pain, relentless fatigue, and often, a frustrating lack of answers. And perhaps the most disheartening part? Most people—including doctors—don’t really understand why it happens.
At The Spero Clinic, we do things differently. Our founder, Dr. Katinka, has spent years looking deeper than surface-level symptom management. What she’s found is that fibromyalgia isn’t just a collection of symptoms—it’s a signal that something much deeper is out of balance.
In Dr. Katinka’s opinion (and clinical experience), the cervical spine (your neck) and the autonomic nervous system are almost always involved in fibromyalgia—sometimes as the sole cause, sometimes as part of what Dr. DeMartino (DCQN) calls “the perfect storm.”
Fibromyalgia, at its core, is a global failure of the central nervous system.
Let that sink in for a second. We’re not talking about random pain flares or unrelated symptoms. We’re talking about your body’s electrical system—your nervous system—going completely haywire.
If you’ve ever had a car accident, a fall, or even a birth injury, that trauma may have done more than hurt your muscles or bones. It could have shifted the delicate alignment of your upper cervical spine, putting pressure on your brainstem—the control center of your autonomic nervous system. This kind of injury can flip your “fight or flight” response into permanent overdrive.
Normally, your sympathetic nervous system (SNS) is supposed to kick in for emergencies—like dodging a saber-toothed tiger (or maybe your boss’s surprise Zoom call). But when that system is stuck in the “on” position 24/7, your body can’t rest, digest, or heal. Your parasympathetic nervous system, the one responsible for calming things down, is basically shut off. This imbalance can lead to:
Sound familiar?
Your nervous system is like the breaker panel in your house. If your lights, microwave, and hair dryer all stop working at once, you don’t throw them away—you check the breaker box. That’s what we do at The Spero Clinic. We treat the source: the central nervous system.
In fact, studies show that people who suffer from cervical (neck) injuries are up to 13.3 times more likely to develop fibromyalgia. Dr. Katinka estimates that as many as 80% of fibromyalgia patients have experienced some form of upper cervical trauma—often years before their symptoms began.
Even spinal stenosis (a narrowing of the spinal canal, which can be genetic or acquired) can predispose someone to fibromyalgia. One study found that nearly 50% of fibromyalgia patients had cervical spine stenosis, and another found spinal cord compression in up to 65% of cases.
While cervical trauma is a key player, fibromyalgia often emerges from a combination of stressors—what we call “the perfect storm.” These include:
Each of these can overload your nervous system and push it past its breaking point. When that happens, your body stops functioning as a whole—and starts glitching like a computer running corrupted code.
Start your patient journey with the Spero Clinic's neurologic rehabilitation program.
