These posts seem to confirm what is available in the literature. Basically that there are many treatments and everyone responds differently to each.
There is a lot of research into treatment, but very little into "Cause."
The questions I submitted were for the purpose of spurring research, not into treatment, but into a possible "Cause."

As I'm sure you all know, pain starts at some point in the body and travels through the nervous system to be perceived in the brain. Asprin which comes from willow bark stops the process at the site of the pain. Tylenol stops it in the brain where it is perceived. When drugs are taken to affect the brain's perception of something, the brain compensates by increasing its own sensitivity to that stimulus.
Recent research reported on mainstream media shows that taking tylenol increases the sensitivity of the pain receptors in the brain thus increasing the perception of pain in subsequent episodes.
That in no way diminishes the importance or the intensity of the pain and that was not my implication. However the news reports about tylenol made me wonder if it might be more than coincidence that fibromyalgia became endemic in America about the same time as tylenol was introduced.
I did a little research and it appears that the condition is much less common or even non-existent in countries where Tylenol is not in wide spread use. That seems to be more than coincidence to me.
I believe it might be the result of the production of isomers, but that's another long story, so...
I thought if I could find enough fibromyalgia sufferers who could trace their condition to Tylenol use, I might be able to inspire some sort of research. Of course it might be difficult because most research in America is controlled by pharmaceutical companies who supply matching money for federal funds, but...

smile

[ May 01, 2005, 05:42 PM: Message edited by: smilinize ]