Understanding the Neurology
Let’s have a quick lesson on neurology based on these findings.
The fibers on our organs, skin, and peripheral nerves are known as C fibers or small fibers. Their main function is to provide sensation to our skin and control all autonomic functions. These refer to all the automatic tasks that your body performs, such as breathing, regulating the heart rate, and body temperature. If these nerves are damaged, you will end up with a condition known as peripheral neuropathy.
Based on the final findings above, it was found that the patient has “fewer unmyelinated nerve fiber bundles are on the skin, although there’s a normal level of myelinated nerve fibers.”
Imagine an electronic cable that is cut in half. In it, you will find a bunch of smaller cables and are secured together inside a casing. This is how the small fibers in our body are bundled together while they travel together from the nerve cells going to the various areas in your body. A casing known as myelin protects some of these bundles. In medical terms, the sheathed bundle is called myelinated.
Some of these bundles are bare, which means that they are not encased by the myelin sheath. It is these bare unmyelinated bundles that were damaged on people with fibromyalgia. This is one of the clues that researchers are relying on as they uncover the causes behind this damage.
