Do you have tooth, mouth, or gum problems that you think are part of your fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome? A lot of people wonder about this, and if you check the discussion boards online, you'll see a plethora of concern and conversations. 
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Women need to be aware that they are at higher risk for periodontal disease and gum disease especially if they suffer from fibromyalgia. There may not be enough conclusive evidence into understanding why, but there is a correlation between various hormone levels in the body and inflammation in the gums surrounding the teeth. 

We have solid evidence of inflammation in chronic fatigue syndrome, and the recent research on connective-tissue inflammation in fibromyalgia is pretty compelling. If widespread inflammation is already noted, it stands to reason we'd have it in the mouth. Fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome both involve hyperalgesia (amplified pain,) so any gum pain caused by inflammation can be extra painful.

Mouth sores are common in a lot of autoimmune diseases. We know fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome both involve immune dysfunction, and some evidence suggests autoimmunity. Either way, a malfunctioning immune system can allow for the proliferation of viruses that cause mouth sores and gum inflammation, such as herpes viruses.

Sadly, most of us have been told that our routine oral hygiene must be meticulous.  Thus inferring that we've somehow morphed in these last few years to an uneducated, bumbling idiot not taking great pains in care of our teeth. Yet, nothing can be further from the truth.  Most suffers of fibromyalgia exert great effort with their daily preventative maintenance.  Unfortunately, we can be still plagued with sensitive gum inflammation intermittently.  
   
You may be surprised to find less occurrences if you switch to a good electric toothbrush, especially if it houses a sanitation UV light.  An electric toothbrush’s rotating head features bristles which can reach further thanks to the combination of motion and equal pressure from the brush itself. Most electronic toothbrushes are set for equal time for each quadrant which ensures a better, longer brushing and a great, clean feeling. Most importantly, an electric toothbrush is an excellent tool in the fight against gingivitis and gum disease in your mouth.

I personally use the Dental RX after being referred from my dentist due to a recent need for extensive periodontal treatment.  I've found less overall gum sensitivity since inception.  I am not a spokes person for the company, but have found the product overall superior to other's I've tried.  

It's hard enough to be stuck with fibromyalgia, it may seem as if you just can’t get a break from the pain which may include having your back go out for no apparent reason. As many as two-thirds of people with chronic low back pain also have fibromyalgia. In fact,  49 percent of people with fibromyalgia have lower back pain. In fact, back pain is so prevalent among people with fibromyalgia that it was once one of the symptoms doctors looked for in making a fibromyalgia diagnosis.

​The challenge of living with fibromyalgia should be enough on its own, let alone having episodes when your back feels such intense pain keeping you in bed. But it may make you feel a little better to know there is an explanation for the intensity of the pain you’re going through.

“Both back pain and fibromyalgia belong to a group of disorders called central hypersensitivity syndromes,” says pain management specialist Ronald Staud, MD, professor of medicine at the University of Florida in Gainesville.  The roots of both causes differ.  For example, back pain could be caused by a damaged vertebral disk, yet the pain experiences of the two conditions bear some similarities. Among them is the sense that these chronic pain conditions cause you to be on a “high alert” setting of sorts (doctors call it hyperarousal).  Once it starts, other players compound the game.  The pain wears you down, causing fatigue, depression, and anxiety that make living with fibromyalgia and back pain all the more draining.

“The hyperarousal is really a normal response,” says Dr. Staud. It may be normal, but it is no comfort when the syndrome hits and finding the right combination of treatments can be exhausting to one who is already unable to exert any more energy.  

One viable solution, especially in winter months, is to invest in a heating pad.  Hot treatments can reduce your joint and muscle pain according to medical experts. Heat relaxes muscles, and heating pads can conduct heat to muscle tissue keeping the muscle supple and relaxed.  

The trick is not to wait until you're inundated from the back pain.  Instead, while lying in bed each day during your daily rest, click on that heating pad while you read for 20 minutes or so.  Daily maintenance is the key by keeping the body's muscles relaxed continually.  That warm, cozy feeling you'll get will keep lower back pain at bay.   

This Netflix streaming seasonal piece was filmed in Kazakhstan, Malaysia, and Venice.  A great historical depiction of Marco Polo and the Great Kublai Kahn.  Acting is superb!

As a youth of 15 or 16, Marco Polo first met his father and uncle and embarked on an epic adventure, crossing thousands of miles of unforgiving terrain, through political unrest and upheaval, to the court of Kublai Khan in what is now Beijing. A Netflix original, rife with warfare and political/sexual intrigue, spotlights the years at the Chinese court and the journeys. A global roster of stars includes Italian newcomer Lorenzo Richelmy as Marco. Filming sites are Italy, Kazakhstan and Malaysia; producers couldn't get permission in China.

It turns out that a vast number of the pathogens we harbor are grouped into communities called biofilms.  Biofilms form when bacteria stick to surfaces in certain environments and begin to excrete a slimy, glue-like substance that can anchor them to all kinds of material such as human tissue. These bacterial builders make use of their site for the arrival of other pathogens by providing more diverse adhesion sites. They also begin to build a solid foundation that holds the biofilm together.

“Disease-causing bacteria talk to each other with a chemical vocabulary,” says Doug Hibbins of Princeton University. Multiple studies have shown that during the time a biofilm is being created, the pathogens inside it can communicate with each other thanks to a phenomenon called quorum sensing. This process always them to create a stronger fort and multiply quickly. Whether it is in our gut or on our teeth, bacteria survive and thrive in a structure that they create around themselves.
If you run your tongue along your teeth after a long day and feel a slimy coating, this stuff is the beginning of biofilm. Little bugs, which are found everywhere inside and outside the body, create biological homes using a mixture of sugars and proteins. These structures are pretty tough. For example, biofilm in the mouth is dental plaque, that hard stuff the dentist scrapes off your teeth with a special dental tool.

In a healthy gut that is filled with beneficial microflora, the biofilm that they create is thin mucus. This healthy biofilm allows the passage of nutrients through the intestinal wall. Healthy gut biofilm is moistening, lubricating, and anti-inflammatory.  An unhealthy gut biofilm, as you might suspect, does all the wrong things. For example, an unhealthy gut biofilm:

• Prevents the full absorption of nutrients across the intestinal wall.
• Protects disease-causing microorganisms from the immune system.
• Protects disease-causing microorganisms from antibiotics and antifungals (this means both herbal and pharmaceutical-grade).
• Promotes inflammation.
• Houses toxins like heavy metals.​

This applies to conditions like:

• Chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia, which are often thought to have an infectious root.
• Parasites.
• Systemic Candida overgrowth.
• Heartburn or GERD (gastroesophageal reflux).
• Small intestine bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), which includes symptoms like heartburn, bloating, gas, abdominal cramping, brain fog, arthritis, acne, and other skin conditions.
• Irritable bowel syndrome, ulcerative colitis, and Crohn’s disease. 

​Unhealthy biofilm allows some infections to persist for years. This means that the body may become more susceptible to other infections, or co-infections, as well as other chronic degenerative diseases.

Apple cider vinegar, a popular all-purpose home remedy and household cleaning agent, is an acetic acid solution. Apple cider vinegar strips away important minerals from the biofilm matrix. It can be taken internally for this purpose. 
There are two ways to rebuild your gut flora
1.    Eat a diet of whole and nutrient-dense foods. Eating this way sounds like a lot work, and it is. But your health matters. Think of it this way: if you only cut out all processed flours, sugars, and refined oils, you are off to a good start!
2.    Eat a diet rich in beneficial microbes. Fermented foods like sauerkraut, kimchee, and natto, cultured sauces and dips with sour cream and yogurt and spend money on a good probiotic taken withkefir each morning.

This one sat in my streaming movie que for months due to the two hour viewing time. I was pleasantly surprised to find this amazing setting in Morocco depicting Medieval Europe.  With such footage and a plot that will grip you in the first few minutes, you'll be mesmerized for hours.

When nine-year-old Rob Cole felt the life force slipping from his mother's hand he could not foresee that this terrifying awareness of impending death was a gift that would lead him from the familiar life of 11th-century London to small villages throughout England and finally to the medical school at Ispahan. Though apprenticed to an itinerant barber surgeon, it is the dazzling surgery of a Jewish physician trained by the legendary Persian physician Avicenna that inspires him to accept his gift and to commit his life to healing by studying at Avicenna's school. Despite the ban on Christian students, Rob goes there, disguising himself as a Jew to gain admission. Gordon has written an adventurous and inspiring tale of a quest for medical knowledge pursued in a violent world full of superstition and prejudice. -IMBd

Clinical experience and in-depth testing have begun to point to Lyme disease complex, co infections, and weakened immunity, which could answer the question of that all over flu-like symptoms experienced by fibromyalgia sufferers.  More than likely, since your illness is regrettably linked to those infected with Lyme disease, most you have tucked away that negative report you received when you first reported your illness.  

Lyme is characterized by an infection called Borrelia, which is a tube-like bacterium that works by releasing bacterial lipoproteins (BLPs). These BLPs are a type of neurotoxin that lead to memory problems; hormonal imbalances; burning neurological pain; generalized inflammation; gastrointestinal discomfort and numbness; not to mention symptoms like swollen lymph nodes; fever and chills; headache and stiff neck; muscle and joint paint; and the most common symptom, lack of energy.

These spirochetes are covered in antigens, which act like fingerprints that make them easy to mark in the immune system. When your Killer T Cells find these antigens, they know to destroy the invading bacteria. However, when the borrelia spirochete burrows into the body, its antigens are smeared over healthy tissue, which the killer T cells attack because they cannot differentiate between healthy and unhealthy tissue. When this happens, it can produce an autoimmune disease or fibromyalgia. The more the spirochete moves through the body, the more BLPs it releases which impairs the immune system, creates inflammations, irritations and wreaks havoc to the peripheral and central nervous system.

Because of this, the early stages of Lyme disease complex can be very difficult to diagnose, even with a blood test. In addition to physical examination results, most doctors will rely on environmental factors such as exposure to ticks.  Yet, most patients don't remember getting bitten by a tick.

Here's something you may be unaware of- Patients can contract an infection at any point in their lifetime, but the symptoms can very well lay dormant until the individual is weakened (immune compromised), usually by a traumatic experience such as a major injury, giving birth, receiving a vaccine or even extreme emotional trauma such as divorce or death. Such trauma will undoubtedly affect the HPA axis.

The HPA axis is where experts have argued there is a genetic link to FMS.  Chronic Lyme disease complex can affect the Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis in two ways: via neurotoxins and genetic shifts. So if imbalances in the HPA axis can lead to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, depression, insomnia and generalized pain, all of which is related to fibromyalgia, then it seems there is a strong link from Lyme disease complex and its coinfections to FMS.

If you think treating Lyme disease complex is tough, you're right. If it's caught early, antibiotics may nip the problem in the bud. However, this is rarely the case, if Lyme disease is detected at all. Second, the oral antibiotics are usually administrated in a 4-to-6 week period, meaning once that treatment ends, the borrelia will make a comeback, causing the patient to relapse. Furthermore, the antibiotics do not strengthen the immune system and do little to address the co-infections, the secondary infections, the BLP neurotoxins or strip away the protective biofilm, which is a sludge produced by the bacteria to protect itself from antibiotics.

Couple this with trying to find a knowledgeable physician that will be willing to treat you on symptamologies alone since most patients will test negative to Lyme disease.  Nonetheless, I have to admit, with  more medical journals I read, there are more and more doctors specializing in this field and understanding that conventional medical practices may have to be stepped up a bit to help us.   The trick is finding one.  

If your looking for a sultry, intense thriller Zipper is a must stream this weekend.  Great cast and plot will have you hooked in the first few minutes.  

Zipper is a political thriller that follows a promising political star who harbors a secret bubbling just below the surface. Sam Ellis (Patrick Wilson), a high-profile federal prosecutor, has aspirations of a powerful and influential political future, as does his wife, Jeannie (Lena Headey). After using a high-end escort service, however, Ellis' one-time decision turns into an obsessive compulsion that theatens to torpedo both his career and his life at home. Directed and co-written by Mora Stephens, the film co-stars Dianna Agron, John Cho, Richard Dreyfuss, and Ray Winstone as a journalist looking to uncover the truth about Ellis. - Fandango

Here's a great film if your just not ready to delve into the New Year once these extra days off are done.  Stop what you're doing and stream this one with those you love.  

At the Macy's Department Store Thanksgiving Day parade, the actor playing Santa is discovered to be drunk by a whiskered old man. Doris Walker, the no nonsense special events director, persuades the old man to take his place. The old man proves to be a sensation and is quickly recruited to be the store Santa at the main Macy's outlet. While he is successful, Ms. Walker learns that he calls himself Kris Kringle and he claims to be the actual Santa Claus. Despite reassurances by Kringle's doctor that he is harmless, Doris still has misgivings, especially when she has cynically trained herself, and especially her daughter, Susan, to reject all notions of belief and fantasy. And yet, people, especially Susan, begin to notice there is something special about Kris and his determination to advance the true spirit of Christmas amidst the rampant commercialism around him and succeeding in improbable ways. When a raucous conflict with the store's cruelly incompetent psychologist erupts, Kris finds himself held at Bellevue where, in despair, he deliberates fails a mental examination to ensure his commitment. All seems lost until Doris' friend, Fred Gaily, reassure Kris of his worth and agrees to represent him in the fight to secure his release. To achieve that, Fred arranges a formal hearing in which he argues that Kris is sane because he is in fact Santa Claus. What ensues is a bizarre hearing in which people's beliefs are reexamined and put to the test, but even so, it's going to take a miracle for Kris to win. - IMBd

This is by far one of the best Holocaust movies I've ever seen.  It will rivet you in from the first segment.

Concentration camp Buchenwald, end of March 1945. Inmate Hans Pippig discovers in a carrying case of an incoming prisoner a Jewish infant. If reported the three-year-old is dedicated to the death. On the other hand, a violation of the provisions of the camp threatens the long prepared uprising of concentration camp prisoners against the SS. -IMBd