011 - Why fractalkine is important in chronic pain and fatigue 

Always so grateful you are working so hard to help patients with the various diseases under your study AND your visibility with your testing and results. It gives us all hope for eventual solution, so sorely needed. Cheers to all you do!

As someone who has 0 experience with the medical landscape, I’ve really appreciated the easy to understand and informative videos, thank you!

As someone who has been fighting RA, fibro & CFS since I was diagnosed at 27 (41 now), I found this really fascinating. Being based in the UK I know our medical rules are different but this could help so many people around the world in the long term. Thank you for continuing to do research into this. I'm so lucky that my rheumatologist is amazing, a workaholic & always follows worldwide studies & research. We sufferers only have hope because of people like you that don't give up & think outside the box when doing studies like this. Thank you so much from the UK. I'll definitely mention this to my rheum consultant (although he'll probably already be aware, Haha).

Thank you for continuing to work on this. My husband has been suffering with worsening chronic pain and fatigue for more than 25 years now, with no answers at all. It's playing whack-a-mole with symptoms, mostly. And finding a doctor willing to push beyond the "normal" bloodwork is maddening.

I am severe autoimmune wceliac, mold exposure, celiac dermatitis, food/environmental sensitivities, gut dysbuosis, sibo ibd, ..see 11drs who treat 11 bidy parts w rx bandaids..now long covid, lyme reactivated, studied 2 years w drs all over the world..psesentation is spot on.. system activation that never sguts off🤢..yore dedication , knowledge is a bright light in a dark tunnel , huge gratirude to u😻❤️, + other pioneers who can think out side the box!

I had no idea you have to pay extra to allow public access to your research. Thank you for this! I'm a first time viewer and you definitely got my sub. I can't wait to dig in to your other videos.

I often wonder how many Fibro patients have an actual infection that is keeping the immune system active but that doctors haven’t diagnosed. We all know that most doctors aren’t doing a comprehensive investigation prior to diagnosing fibromyalgia. I had a h.pylori infection go undiagnosed for 20 years as all the doctors said my gut symptoms were ‘just Fibro’. Over those years my immunity decreased and I became sensitive to environmental stimuli and had recurring viral outbreaks. Once I treated the h.pylori lots of improvement ensued. But there was a lot of damage to repair and I do feel that my glial cells were highly sensitized. LDN has helped with that 🙏

Thank you. It gives me hope to know that there is research on going to find the reason for fibromyalgia syndrome. I have carried this with me for almost fifty years. What I would give to have a day free from this scourge. I have fought it for many years but as I age it becomes difficult. Please continue your work and solve the puzzle.

Please please o please, Sign Me Up!!! If you need test subjects for any trials at all,, I will Happily put my hand up!!! My Neurologist once told me I'm one of those unlucky " Only in 5%" type of people!!! So I know I'd'make a great test subject,, cause my body is that screwed up, I've got or had it all. Thank you so much for actually being Willing to look at things from different angles to find the answers we so desperately need. ❤

Sounds interesting. I often think when I am laying in bed unable to get out it is an over active immune system. Just being able to differentiate patients from controls based on this test is remarkable if it can be reproduced. I hope you can get the funds to do what you need to push this forward and sooner rather than later. Thank you for your commitment to us!

Hi, This is fascinating work! I suffered TBI back in 1989 and many of my symptoms remain severe and chronic -- pain and fatigue being two of the most consistently difficult to have while trying to function. I look forward to your further studies. Thank you for your work!

Thank you for your efforts to help us long-neglected sufferers. Any amount of relief will be much welcomed. You have a true gift at explaining to us lay people the important takeaways in a concise and clear manner. God speed.

This is very fascinating! I need to move closer to be a test subject. Many of us are talking about fundraising for the research. Thank you for this information!

That sounds very interesting 🙂 I hope you'll get to test that soon, in tiny doses, I guess, since it's so common to overreact to drugs with these conditions? Thanks for your videos and the great work you carry out!!

Dr. Younger, you are indeed a blessing to a lot of very sick people. Thank you so, so much for all that you do. Do you know if that hypothesis somehow can be linked to ME-patient's dysfunctional mitochondrias and ditto autonomic nervesystem?

I SO appreciate the clarity of your presentation, Jarred.

Wow, I could feel your excitement in your research…..thank you so very much for continuing….amazing stuff….i feel a little excited too…soooo interesting to hear all of your talks . Thank you

Thank you for all your hard work! Appreciate you dedicating your professional life to helping people with this illness.

I don't know how you came up in my feed, but thank God. I am subscribed.

Amen to you, Jarred Younger!🎉

I have been dealing with chronic fatique for 8 years and this sounds very promising. The best way i can describe it to people is that you feel like you're coming down with the flu. Actually 2 years ago on a Saturday i got covid which turned out to be the best tbing that happened to me and I'll quickly explain as it could be of interest to your research. April 16th 2022 : got covid and feeing terrible. legs especially incredibly weak April 17th :no change April 18th :changed time to start taking calcium. calcium meds to be taken no sooner than 4 hours after taking my thyroid meds. April 19th :Starting to feel a little better and my head is clearer, fatique not as severe. April 20th :continuing to feel a little better and decided to clean drive with power washer April 21th : tired and some muscle pain after yesterday but the tiredness is more related to yesterday than the regular fatique. April 22th : still a little sore but able to do some work in the front garden April 23th to 29th : continuing to feel ok and spend the week cleaing the decking, emptying the shed, hanging some shelves and finally getting the cement done on the deckign paving stones. April 30th : Got up late after sleeping well and decided to get my hair cut. feeling good and plannig the next few days. Around 8p.m I can feel the extreme fatique starting to come back. over the following few days right back to feeling lifeless and the brain fog is back, depressed Maybe the response you are getting is related to the severity of how ill someone gets. I will keep an eye out on your channel Regards Malcolm

PS. May I ask a question .. no idea whether this is the forum for it but.. here goes? : I've had a very brief look at literature linking fractalkine and SFPN (I have extremely severe neuropathic pain all over my skin which is rather running out of control now, but I won't bore you with the details). I'm no scientist so apologies if I've got the wrong end of the stick, but one paper, I believe, implies that fractalkine might actually be part of the process which leads to the development of neuropathic pain. This confuses me, not least because your theory feels like it 'fits' apropos the genesis of my SFPN pain in the first instance. I do realise this might not be the place for a discussion but it's worth mentioning (I think) just in case...... 🤔

Following! I'm a somatic psychotherapist and treat chronic pain and syndromes.

Thank you! Very interesting. Glad to see that there are still good researchers at UAB.

Thank you for researching this problem. Lupus sufferers might also benefit.

Thank you so much for trying to help. This fibro can really get you down in every way. Good luck and God bless.

I have just discovered your RU-vid channel. I am watching your videos as time permits. I am 72 and I believe I've had fibromyalgia for most of my life. It probably started after a severe childhood case of measles or mumps. It wasn't until my 50s that my doctor advised I probably had fibromyalgia after I went through all the diagnostics for an answer to my disableing GI symptoms without any answers. I have slowly descended into nearly complete disability. I was wondering if you have any possible recommendations for current treatment providers in the US such as clinics, hospital groups, doctors that are currently up on treatment regimes that might be worth seeking out?

Oxalate overload from leaky gut is what made me so sick and chronic pain and inflammation. Plus amped up immune system. Loads of health problems. All gone and healed on carnivore diet. 70% meat. The rest eggs, selected fruit and vege. Minimal variety.

Thank you!

I have strongly felt for a very very long time that if one could support and feed/heal the mitochondria, most of my health issues could be resolved. I with ALL THE MANY MANY HEALTH ISSUES I AM DEALING WITH I FEEL THERE HAS TO BE A ROOT CAUSE, MEANING A POSSIBLE ROOT CURE/HELP. MULTIPLE AUTOIMMUNE DISORDERS, NEUROLOGICAL DYSAUTONOMIA, SEVERE ASTHMA, ALLERGIES, TYPE 1 & 2 DIABETIC, CF, ME, EHLERS DANLOS, CHRONIC PAIN, TBI’S, LONG COVID, Just to name a few things. I would love if you could address some of these or your hypothesis, on root causes. My body is great at attacking itself. THANK YOU FOR YOUR WORK AND HELP!

Thank you for your work.

Thank you for the amazing work you do, and for sharing your work and information with us 🙌 I’ve always thought there might be a similar “root cause” for ME/CFS and fibromyalgia (and long COVID) but until I found you I’ve actually never heard it before from anybody else. So excited to keep following you and your labs work 👍

Thank you doc - really interesting and useful - thanks for your hard work and dedication 🎉

Great video!

This is fascinating. I do hope you are able to expedite your research in this area, it makes complete (theoretical) sense to me. Thank you. 👍

Can’t wait to read your paper.

Jarred you're an angel, when I win the lottery you're getting a load of money for your trials. Helen UK, 26 yrs lyme, but diagnosis is m.e.

thank you so much

Wow. Fascinating. This is the first I am hearing of this, but it makes so much sense when so many of us who suffer say why is today so bad and why was this other day not so bad. I have been diagnosed with fibromyalgia, but I also have a chronic sinus infection of seven years. I’m going to have to re-listen to this, but this seems paradoxical to me as far as help for both of these conditions?

This sounds very Hopeful!

Thank you for sharing this. This is very cool. Very interesting. I've been taking low dose naltrexone for my fibro and it has helped tremendously but I would like something that sounds really cool

Laughed when you said the original patients were rodents. I’m terrified of rats, but if they help find solutions I guess they’re okay. (River rats invading your apartment during postpartum hormones was not a great combo.)

AND SO, DOES YOUR RESEARCH FINDINGS SAY ANYTHING ABOUT THE ISSUES OF LEAKY GUT AND IT CONTRIBUTION TO A PERSONS BODY NOT BEING ABLE TO SEND THE SIGNAL TO SHUT DOWN THE INFLAMMATORY RESPONSE?

IF there are human studies, I'd be interested in signing up. 34 years of fibro. Add in 3 brain injuries. My energy is zilch. My pain levels are high, but fluctuate. Blood tests are normal. I used 5mg Donepezil for 10 years with amazing results, but had to cease all together due to horrific muscle spasms as a side effect. My mind is sharp, unless it's not, meaning when brain fog sets in I'm drained. I'm 68, and healthy as a horse, otherwise. Sick and tired of being sick and tired.

Could you please explain how Post Exertinal Malaise fits in this hypothesis? PEM is the most unpredictable and most debiliating symptom in ME/CFS and as far as I know also in Fibromyalgia. I am wondering which mechanism is going on in our bodies in relationship to fraktalines?

I'm 65 in august had this scurge since I was 37. A hallmark symptom I have had the entire 28 years is what I call brain sciatica. The pain is very similar to sciatica in the way it feels as well as moving around from butt cheeks to legs, to feet, etc. Except with brain sciatica it is just contained to the head and throat. It doesn't happen often but I have other symptoms like one I call "meningitis headache" which is more flue like but again contained to the head and neck. The brain sciatica moves from eyes to ears, to throat, to scalp. I've also associated soars mostly on the roof of my mouth but sometimes gums. I had another symptoms bumps on the inside my mouth on the inside of my lips. I thought that might be related to food reactivity since celiacs get something similar. I have had in the past pins and needles on my face but haven't had that since I moved out of my moldy house 23 years ago. Slurred speech sometimes but so subtle only I would notice it. Also dizzy spells I am going through that as I write this. Which feels somewhat like you feel after you drank too much and lay down and the room is spinning. Brain fog of course. Flue like symptoms. A condition I call brain burn. All these symptoms are transient and I never really have more than one of them at any time. Except for brain fog and brain burn. Have those pretty much all the time to one degree or another. some of the other symptoms like brain sciatica and meningitis headache, soars on the roof of my mouth I "think" I have treated somewhat successfully with aspirin. I rarely take it but when I feel the symptom coming on I take usually 2 bear aspirin. I have tylenol and ibuprofen which I think work similar but usually just use the aspirin. Again seemingly with much success. The dizzy spells I have had from the beginning also. At first I was able to blow them off and just go about my day. Then I got flue like illness with normal temperature, than I found I couldn't make it through my days because of the overwhelming fatigue. Then permantly unable to work. When I was in the moldy house I was bedridden. Now I am able to take care of my self and mildly active but do have days where I can't get out of bed. Usually after a day of higher activity. It is a roller coaster for sure. I left a lot out like low bp high heart rate my back get's soar easily sitting in bed with my computer in my lap, difficulty with problem solving tasks intensified by stress,, a shingles like outbreak with pock marks on my chin and cheeks dr's said wasn't shingles. Pretty bad permanent tinnitus after the "false shingles" episode. blah blah blah

Thanks for all your research. I’ve long suffered from fibromyalgia and your ldn work has given me some pain relief. I’d be curious if benfotiamine works on any of these mechanisms in high doses bc I’ve started taking it and seen about a 50% pain reduction?

How could this relate to PEM specifically after exercise? Is the same process, since exercise starts inflammatory processes too?

If LDN stopped working for me should I hold out any hope on dextro naltrexone?

Are there any natural sources of fractalkine?

Interesting, would that mean avoiding meds like statins, since those can down regulate fractalkine? And probably also why statins are linked to muscle pain in some people when not taking CoQ10. I wonder what other meds might make fibro worse for some people.

Are genes associated with fractalkine and its regulation known? It would be interesting to see if there are any genetic differences between the controls and fibromyalgia patients, especially ones with autoimmune disease in the family.

Do we know the impact of drugs currently on the market, such as hydroxychloroquine or cefuroxime, on fractalkine? Thanks for your research and continued attempts to solve issues of chronic illness--from someone struggling for 20+ years with Lyme disease.

Have you researched whether fractalkine has any connection to focal dystonia?

I would be the first one to get in line to be a guinea pig for that! But after watching this video, I wonder now if fractalkine could be deficient in some people, much like how Von Willebrand's disease is a deficiency in Factor 8, could there be something that's causing the body not to release fractalkine?

WOULDLOVE TO BE A PATIENT IN YOUR STUDY THAT RECIECES FRACTALKINES!!!!❗️❗️⚕️👨‍🔬⚕️❗️❗️

I have recently diagnosed adhesive arachnoiditis which may have been exacerbated (in terms of chronic pain) by the mRNA vaccine. Thanks for the info.

Did you see the giant LC-ME conference being organized?

On the wiki page it says that fractalkine is unregulated "during a brief temporal window following spatial learning". Maybe as an intermediate step before injecting it directly would be to find a way to increase the levels through behavioral processes. I'm not sure if it would show up in the blood in a detectable way but if you can show that certain processes specifically increase fractalkine levels and specific ways then that could be used as a substitute method before moving on to injection. I don't know if it would increase the levels enough or in the right places but if the blood levels show an increase and the patient "feels better" when doing those specific tests and there is some other meaningful correlation such as reduced Corticosteroid levels then it might offer some proof that there is a strong connection.

Do you answer questions? Will subscribing provide impetus?

Hi Jared, statins are known to reduce fractalkine along with TNF-alpha. If someone has a very high level of tnf alpha, would you recommend statins even if it might further lower their fractalkine levels?

Or certain people can’t clear these things daily and the h build up better explanation IMO. I don’t want my immune response tamped down if it’s struggling to clear the things others easily do. Rather have help for that! Which is how I cured extremely severe FMS for example. Aiding body to remove burdens worked. Shocking my doctors to this day as their worst patient.

Thank you for your research. It helps give me a handle on, and at times hope for, my wife’s condition of ME/CFS. A question for you. Is there a part of the nervous system that, while often subconscious to us, individuals can take control of, or can learn to regulate, that can either “calm” or agitate the microglia? If it can be calmed, not further agitated, could this have a positive effect on the sufferer’s overall wellbeing?

can it be made into a pill?. by the way my M.E. is very noticeable on my Garmin 965 watch and app. let me know if you want me to email you screen shots

I have a very severe form of RA along with a nasty form of fibromyalgia. The Dr.s have just about exhausted all the available drugs for the RA; not only do they not provide any relief of pain symptoms but they are poisoning me (I went into anaphylactic shock with two of them). The only relief from pain that I can find is prednisone however I can't take that anymore due to my bones becoming severely brittle. I DID get some pain relief when I was put on doxycyclein when it was suspected that I had Lymes disease. I think you mentioned something about bacteria? Maybe there is a connection?

I wonder if this is true if toxins are added to those who have genetic tissue disorders like Ehlers Danlos Syndrome?

I would be very interested in being a study subject, as I have been genetically tested for fibromyalgia and proven to have on the higher end of the disease process, including raynades.

IS there anyone to find out why its lacking in certain population and ways to boost it naturally..or with meds?

Thumbs-up

While what you describe may or may not be true, if it is true it is only an effect of another cause. What is the cause that prevent the fractalkine from activating? and what is then the cause of that malfunction? It is also, again if true, likely only one effect of a larger complex of issues. There are ultimately only two possible root causes, genetic or environmental.

Thank you for doing what you do. I got sick with Epstein Barr Virus as a young teen and have never been healthy again. Not like i was. Thank you for looking for a cure. I hope you find it.

Thank you! This brought to mind how some of us MECFS patients felt better after a few hours, for a few hours, after the PfitZer Covid vaccines. I wonder if the vaccine has fractalkene in them?

Yet again... Nicotine Patches to the rescue. It is much easier to test this that pure fractakine. This is a communication issue... then the cholinergic system needs to work. Nicotinic signaling is reset with nicotine patches and the sickness response is calmed. I will link to an paper of interest in a second comment.

🤞🙏🤞

Clear as mud! UGH!