TMJ 'dysfunction' - Health implications

I have never been diagnosed as having ME or Chronic Fatigue. But I have had a history of vague symptoms that chime with these two illnesses: depression, low energy, cold hands & feet, poor digestion, slow metabolism, low blood pressure & an eating disorder since I was 14/15.

I always suspected something was wrong, but any medical professional I have ever been to never took my symptoms seriously. I stopped having periods for a number of years - again, this was because I wasn't eating properly.

However, my problems started years before my eating disorder took hold. When I was born, I was born in the 'brace' position - my head was face up, rather than tucked into my chest like normal births. My first memory is of physical pain in my neck & no strength in my neck. I did not start to walk until I was almost 3. My mother eventually took me to see a Consultant, who examined me and pronounced me as 'lazy'.

Aged 33, I discovered Dr Amir at Atlasbalance. I went to him because I was suffering a lot from neck pain. He told me my Atlas Vertebra was improper. He had a look at my teeth. During my teens, I was sent to a total cowboy of an Orthodontist who took two of my teeth out and whacked a brace on my teeth. Dr Amir asked when I began to have Orthodontic treatment - it was aged 14/15 - exactly coinciding with the onset of my eating disorder. He made the connection between the two. I was more dubious.

From that initial consultation, it took me 18 months to pluck up the courage to begin having treatment with Dr Amir. I was worried about the cost/time involved.

I have been wearing a brace now for 1 week to realign my jaws. In that short time, I have experienced a huge shift. My energy level is better than ever before. I now realise how ill I was. I always wondered where the surrounding others - my siblings & friends - got their energy from.

I was literally dragging myself around, but because it had always been that way, I didn't know that life could be any different. Furthermore, I feel like a different person - I am on better form, more positive, I feel more able to cope. I feel less daunted by working & holding down a full-time job (I have always only been able to work part-time & felt such a failure about that without realising it had so much to do with my energy levels).

Furthermore, I am hopeful that my problems & fear connected to food may well be because I put on weight so easily due to such a slow metabolism. I am excited now that I may have got to the root cause of it. I always thought the root cause was psychological - what had happened in my childhood to make me like that? But now, Dr Amir has helped me to see there was a physical problem to begin with.

Wearing this brace has been a huge breakthrough for me.

© 2012 M. Amir All rights reserved

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ME/CFS has nothing to do with "Depression/Low Energy".

It is a well defined disease the principal symptom of which is post-exertional malaise or post-exertional neuro-immunological exhaustion. If you do not have those symptoms you do not have ME/CFS.

This is the most up to date definition/criteria for the disease: http://www.meassociation.org.uk/?p=7173

Vitalic
By now I have treated very many patients who had been OFFICIALLY diagnosed as suffering from ME/CFS. Almost every patient walking through my door with that label has mostly recovered from all their symptoms with a very large number who went back to work during treatment.

Either they were all misdiagnosed or the ME/CFS label is another name for TMJ Dysfunction. Please visit this temporary website: mecfs.com to read some more testimonials.

Here is a graph of a new recovering patient with more comprehensive symptoms which would enable a confirmation into the rather dubious label of ME/CFS. I thoroughly and unequivocally have disputed this assertion since 2004. I have written extensively to the promulgators of the Canadian Consensus Document which is largely being followed around the world and from which you quote:

Hi Dr Amir,

The key thing that seems to be overlooked is post-exertional malaise. This is the only aspect of the illness which is unique to ME, and if it's not listed as one of the symptoms we cannot know if that person really had ME/CFS. It is defined as:



It has been shown repeatedly that ME patients respond differently in the 24-48 hour period following exertion compared to sedentary controls and even patients of other diseases like MS. What is important to know is not whether the patient's fatigue has diminished but has their tolerance to physical exertion increased?

I do not understand why the ME associations have not responded to your letters and I certainly agree that patients should at the very least be made aware of the potential link between ME and cranial issues. The information is slowly starting to become available though, indeed I found your work only after seeing a link in the following ME/CFS treatment roadmap:

https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id ... TiJk9QIeY0

Temporomandibular joint dysfunction is not mentioned until the very end however! Perhaps this should be one of the first things to be checked.

Excellent response.
Please note that TMJ Dysfunction causes very many disorders. This forum covers only about half. The questionnaire was originally designed to cater for everything in a more generalised manner.
We recently added a section where patients are asked to name the illness they have medically been diagnosed with. This warrants that we add every 'fashionable' symptom, like you admirably point out, to the questionnaire and this will be immediately added.

I can assure you that if I had this question in my original questionnaire most patients would have said a most definite YES to it. I have been seeing this symptom in many patients and it is one of the hall marks of the illness as you rightly point out.

We will be presenting more graphical information in the coming months which hopefully will conclusively dispel the myths about ME/CFS in a vast majority of cases.