Iorio Eugenio Luigi, Gargano Maria Giuseppa, Rossi Simona
International Observatory of Oxidative Stress, Salerno, Italy

Background; Fibromyalgia (FM) is a chronic pain syndrome with increased sensitivity to painful stimuli, accompanied by depression, anxiety, fatigue and sleep disturbances. Despite its high prevalence, its aetiology is still unknown and there are no effective treatments. However, in recent years, a possible pathogenic role of oxygen availability has been suggested, thus opening the doors to a non-pharmacological approach. Indeed, patients with FM showed low muscle oxygenation at least in the ‘trigger points’ and abnormal systemic biomarkers of oxidative stress, respectively. On the other hand, in chronic pain disorders endogenously generated reactive oxygen species may impair spinal cord neuron transient receptor potential V1 and A1 that act as nocisensors, thereby producing systemic pain conditions without central sensitisation through neural crosstalk. Unfortunately, classical antioxidants such as coenzyme Q10 may counteract only partially FM-related oxidative stress that seems generated primarily by an impaired oxygen bioavailability. In this context, in a 6-month single-blind, cross-over, randomised placebo-controlled trial of CellfoodTM (Eurodream, La Spezia, Italy, from NU Science Corporation, CA, USA), a non-addictive, completely non-toxic, unique colloidal formula containing finest all-natural, minerals, enzymes and amino acids from Lithothamnium calcareum was able to significantly improve clinical symptoms and quality of life in FM patients. These effects now can be attributed to the recently demonstrated ability of CellfoodTM to stimulate oxygen consumption and to improve antioxidant defences under either hypoxia or oxidative stress, respectively.

Conclusions: Although further studies must confirm these preliminary data, CellfoodTM appears a very promising prototype of a novel class of ‘physiological modulators’ that by making available O2 ‘on-demand’ can successfully counteract FM symptoms.

Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eujim.2012.07.531