: I have had managable FMS about 7 years. Dec'98, I tore my left meniscus. June, 99, it was scoped for repair. November, 99, I developed severe knee inflamation in BOTH knees almost overnite. I am 50 years old, and active with dancing. Could it be that I have such severe inflamation right from the very start because I have FMS? Does it "ampify" the inflamation? I have tried lots of drugs, strong does of IBeprofun, also celebrex, with little relief. Can you share your cooperative wisdom, please?

Betty,
People with fibromyalgia have an immune response and an inflammatory response that doesn't know when to quit. You could say that we're "hyperresponsive" to illness, injury and the environment. When we are injured or have surgery, we tend to form keloids (excessive scar tissue) and the keloids reinforce the inflammation. In addition, we tend to have systemic inflammatory responses, such as fibro flares, or even inflammatory responses in areas distant from the site of injury. Those who say that fibromyalgia is not an inflammatory disease only understand one type of inflammation. The type of inflammation we experience is caused by cytokine release and is similar to SIRS (systemic inflammatory response syndrome) only SIRS claims 50% of its victim. In our case, we have a chronic "SIRS" reaction and the anti-inflammatory drugs that are used for arthritis don't block the cytokine pathway. As far as I know, there are currently no drugs that will block cytokines.

Not only have I been a fibromyalgia patient for the past 52 years, but, until last August, I was a biochemist studying mechanisms of inflammation (quite by accident). It was the focus of my research for the past 15 years and I published papers on SIRS. However, I never got the opportunity to do fibromyalgia research but I probably understand the mechanisms better than most.

Cheryl
(aka Cheryl F. Scott, biochemist)