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doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest his patients in
the care of the human frame, in diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease."
Thomas A. Edison
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Quotes for Your Life
"You will come to know that what appears today to be a sacrifice will prove instead to be the greatest investment that you will ever make."
Gorden B. Hinkley
"Sacrifice is giving up something good for something better."
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"Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Chronic Pain/Fibromyalgia and Premature Brain Aging
The following are quotes from a very important research article ( bolds and colors added by Dr. Z.)
Accelerated Brain Gray Matter Loss in Fibromyalgia Patients: Premature Aging of the Brain?
http://www.jneurosci.org/cgi/content/abstract/27/15/4004 The Journal of Neuroscience, April 11, 2007
Beginning of quotes:
Fibromyalgia is an intractable widespread pain disorder that is most frequently diagnosed in women. It has traditionally been classified as either a musculoskeletal disease or a psychological disorder. Accumulating evidence now suggests that fibromyalgia may be associated with CNS dysfunction. In this study, we investigate anatomical changes in the brain associated with fibromyalgia. Using voxel-based morphometric analysis of magnetic resonance brain images, we examined the brains of 10 female fibromyalgia patients and 10 healthy controls.
We found that fibromyalgia patients had significantly less total gray matter volume and showed a 3.3 times greater age-associated decrease in gray matter than healthy controls.
The longer the individuals had had fibromyalgia, the greater the gray matter loss, with each year of fibromyalgia being equivalent to 9.5 times the loss in normal aging.
In addition, fibromyalgia patients demonstrated significantly less gray matter density than healthy controls in several brain regions, including the cingulate, insular and medial frontal cortices, and parahippocampal gyri. The neuroanatomical changes that we see in fibromyalgia patients contribute additional evidence of CNS involvement in fibromyalgia.
In particular, fibromyalgia appears to be associated with an acceleration of age-related changes in the very substance of the brain. Moreover, the regions in which we demonstrate objective changes may be functionally linked to core features of the disorder including affective disturbances and chronic widespread pain.
End of quotes
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