Pain & Managing Pain from an EDS Patient’s View

This is a comprehensive review of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, focusing on pain management. Mark Martino of EDNF.org,  describes his personal experiences and addresses techniques to reduce pain. He proposes explanations on why EDSers suffer “acute chronic pain”. The article references many useful medical papers on EDS pain and physical therapy. It includes a great outline of Dr. Clair Francomano’s multi-modal pain management approaches.

“I have been studying Ehlers-Danlos syndrome since I was diagnosed more than ten years ago, but I still find it helpful at times to think through from  the fundamentals. EDS is a collection of genetic collagen defects.  Each type of EDS is defined as a distinct problem in making or using one of the types of  collagen. Collagen is the most abundant protein in the body, so effects can be wide-ranging in both location and severity. Collagen is what the body uses to provide strength and elasticity to tissue; normal collagen is a strong protein that allows tissue to be stretched, but not beyond its limit, and then safely returned to normal. In most EDS types,the affected collagen is badly structured, which means that any tissue using the mutated collagen can be pulled beyond its normal limits, causing damage.

What can still surprise me is how widespread the effects of having a mutated type of collagen can be…”

This article will arm EDSers with an excellent collection of medical papers demonstrating the link between EDS, chronic pain, fatigue, and functional impairment. 

Click here to read the complete article.