This is going to ramble through a few subjects, starting with costo-chondritis, so I hope it's not too confusing. Costo-chondritis can be very painful, and if you have larger breasts, it may simmer beneath the surface most of the time once you get it. A heating pad may help a lot until it calms down. The feelings of being hot or cold for no logical reason with chills, and goosebumps can come and go, and I believe they are due to dysautonomia. POTS and NMH are also due to that, imo. If you have been diagnosed with MVP like so many of us are, and even if you haven't, reading about MVPS aka Mitral Valve Prolapse Syndrome may help you with understanding some of the strange symptoms we get, since that syndrome includes dysautonomia. I have always thought that most of our symptoms are due to dysautonomia, but that still does not tell us what originally caused the dysautonomia. My cardiologist told me I do not really have MVP because they now know that mild heart valve prolapses with mild regurgitation are normal in most people as they age. Over 30 years of being told I had MVP and was on my way to heart failure were erased because the Echocardiographic ultrasound technology has gotten so much better. A list I saw had congestive heart failure as the number two cause of death in people with FMS, so I figured that would be my eventual fate. My point here is they can make major changes even in your diagnoses as more is learned. Many of us eventually get diagnosed with chronic Lyme and I am also one of those. The cardiology P.A. told me that he believes most chronic Lyme symptoms are due to dysautonomia. An Israeli study showed whiplash injuries were responsible for 41% of Fibromyalgia cases, making it the number one trigger. The autonomic nervous system (ANS) runs all over the body, but the brain stem at the nape of the neck comes as close as you can to being the center for the autonomic nervous system, so that makes sense. It seems to me that anything that helps strengthen the parasympathetic half of the ANS should help us feel better, like vagal nerve stimulation, GABA, foods that raise serotonin, Seriphos, L-theanine, valerian, lemon balm, mindfulness, meditation, spending time in nature, and so on.
