I’ve had CFS ME for 20 years, then developed Mdds all of a sudden last year after a long drive. It was fun explaining the difference 
even though it is clear as a bell to me. Having rocking vertigo on top of fatigue – I remember reading about an ancient mythological explanation of day and night, how the sun is laden with weights and burdens all day until s/he collapses at night, and then rises again the next day to do it all over again.
I’ve never had migraine, or even headaches.
FWIW:
from BioMed Central’s open access journal Arthritis Research & Therapy.
Embargoed until Friday 15th March 2013, 00.01 (GMT)
Alcohol, fibromyalgia, and quality of life
Low and moderate drinkers of alcohol reported lower severity of symptoms of fibromyalgia than teetotallers, finds a study in BioMed Central’s open access journal Arthritis Research & Therapy. Too much alcohol reversed this effect.
The chronic pain of fibromyalgia is thought to affect one in 20 people worldwide but there is no known cause or cure. It often goes hand in hand with fatigue and sleep problems, headaches, depression and irritable bowel and bladder problems. Treatment is based around pain management and lifestyle changes.
Alcohol is reported to have both positive and negative effects on health. Moderate drinking is thought to reduce risks of cardiovascular disease especially when in conjunction with a healthy lifestyle, regular exercise and not smoking. Researchers from the Mayo clinic in the US and the University of Michigan surveyed patients with fibromyalgia to examine the association between alcohol and their severity of symptoms and quality of life.
Low and moderate drinkers had better scores for physical function, ability to work, the number of work days missed, fatigue and pain, than people who abstained. Moderate drinkers who had between three and seven standard drinks a week seemed to have less pain than low or heavy drinkers, even when the results were controlled for confounding factors. A standard drink is equivalent to 12 American oz / 355ml (1.25 units) of beer, 5 oz/ 148ml of wine (1.8 units), or 1.5 oz/ 44ml (1.8 units) of distilled spirits. Similar results were seen for the quality of life scale including social functioning, vitality and general health.
Discussing why moderate drinking may have this effect Dr Terry Oh, who led this study said, “?-Aminobutyric Acid (GABA), an inhibitory neurotransmitter, is low in the brain in fibromyalgia, which may go some way to explain why the nervous system reaction to pain is amplified. Alcohol binds to the GABA receptor in the central nervous system which in turn may turn down pain transmission. However the effects of alcohol may also be due to improved mood, socialization and tension, and while moderate drinkers have fewer symptoms there are still many questions about how this happens.”
- ENDS -
just wanted to bump this up given the new thread on this topic
Interesting. I was advised to get a second opinion by my neurologist after a diagnosis for migraine variant balance disorder by a neuro- otologist I was referred to as my symptoms were severe and he didn’t think I fit the criteria completely.
The second opinion was that I was considered a classic case of chronic fatigue with fibromyalgia but the treatment I had started would be beneficial to me anyway. That was over 4 months ago and am in the process of trying to stabilise my symptoms with diet, meds and VRT. Haven’t had a migraine headache for just over a month but still got lots of other weird symptoms going.
Both my Mother and sister suffer from ME/fibromyalgia type symptoms, though neither of them are classic cases so they are ultimately undiagnosed.
In the year before getting vertigo symptoms I started suffering with nerve pain in one of my legs (apparently meralgia parasthetica) followed by some sciatica type nerve pain in my other leg and foot pain. Also got some random numbness/tingling in other parts of the body. I did have a period of fatigue at the start of these symptoms and in retrospect had possibly had episodes of fatigue for a few years before, though the fatigue seems to have left me the last 18months and both my mother and sister suffer more from pain and weakness rather than fatigue.
All these disorders are neurological in origin so there is a crossover in symptoms between the recognised “conditions” but I suspect many people fall between the accepted criteria for each as there is no definitve tests for these conditions. Ultimately I suspect there will be underlying genetic reasons that people are susceptible to these conditions and it will turn out that many different specific treatments will be needed to deal with them, much in the same way as they are starting to discover for various cancers.
Hi guys,
I have had CFS since having a glandular fever type virus aged 17, although I wasn’t diagnosed until 2005 aged 37
I have just recently been diagnosed with MAV in Dec 2013 after over 20 years of spontaneous vertigo. I hadn’t heard of a link between the two until I started coming on to these forums. It is extremely interesting.
I have been prescribed 150mg lyrica which I hope is working, although Dr Surenthiran said mine would be more of a marathon rather than a sprint as I’ve had it so long. I had all the tests at The National Neurology Hospital in Queens Sq, London. I was diagnosed with peripheral vestibular disease and possible MAV. A little conflicting. Peripheral meaning anything in the inner ears, big area! and possible MAV? I wish someone had given me some advice on MAV as I completely disregarded it straight out! It wasn’t until I had my first aura last year that I looked into it. I was then sent to another neurologist about migraine and she still didn’t connect the two! Go figure! Anyhow, finally thru these sites I’ve had a diagnosis. Hurrah
My perspective on Fibromyalgia is that after studying pain, it seems that some people have an open gateway to their neural pathway to pain. For reasons unknown the gate has been left open whereas a person with a gate that shuts can alleviate their pain with painkillers etc. It has been recently found through the many pain clinics that taking certain drugs can shut the gate. Theses same drugs are used both for pain relief and MAV. Also it was found that people whom have a negative view of their pain have a higher likeliness of having chronic pain.
Thought this May be of interest
Bev