Dr. Daniel Clauw is the leading researcher in the field of fibromyalgia and chronic pain at University of Michigan. HIs group was the first one to show that the pain of fibromyalgia was real. By using functional MRI of the brain (fMRI). We chatted about many things and today I am bringing you part 1 of the 2 part interview. Part 1 brings the following: - how it all came to be that he was leading the group in studying fMRIs in patient with fibromyalgia (his group got funding for studying various symptoms in Gulf of War veterans and used fibromyalgia patients as positive controls) - What this meant for pain classification (entirely new group of pain type was created as a result of the study results - neuroplastic or nociplastic pain!) - I asked whether you can actually see the fMRI "lighted up" images in real life (no, you cant :-() - what the term neuroplasticity actually means (yes, the brain is trying to "shrink" certain regions and augments other regions!) - is the cause of wide spread pain actually known? - Children develop sleep problems and memory issues before they develop multisite pain - Importance of correcting sleep (seriously) - Effectiveness of NON-Pharmacological treatments as effective if not more than pharmacological treatments - We did get to chat about pain reprocessing therapy and the approach that emphasizes focusing on prior trauma and psychological issues. His group offers free guide for patients called Painguide: https://painguide.com As always you can find me at: www.winningatfibromyalgia.com or on Apple Podcasts Winning at Fibromyalgia and I love if you can leave a 5 star review :-)

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