Fibromyalgia and neuroinflammation: what is actually driving the condition and what naturopathic care addresses
Many people who present at The Natural Clinic Cork with fibromyalgia have spent years being told that their symptoms are unexplained, psychological or simply something they need to learn to manage. They arrive having worked their way through the medical system, often with a diagnosis that came with a name but no mechanism, no map and no treatment beyond pain management.
The mechanism is now increasingly well understood, and it changes both what treatment looks like and what can genuinely be expected from it.
The neuroinflammatory picture in Fibromyalgia
Fibromyalgia is increasingly understood as a neuroimmune and neuroinflammatory condition rather than a purely muscular or psychological one. PET imaging studies using [11C]PBR28 have demonstrated widespread microglial activation across multiple brain regions in people with fibromyalgia. Microglia, the brain’s resident immune cells, appear to shift into a persistently activated, pro-inflammatory state in which they amplify pain signals, drive fatigue, generate cognitive symptoms and create the sensory sensitivity that makes everyday inputs overwhelming.
CSF and plasma studies have found elevated inflammatory markers including IL-7, CD40 and SIRT2 in fibromyalgia patients compared to controls, and a 2025 review describes a distinct plasma cytokine signature consistent with chronic low-grade neuroinflammation. Research on fibromyalgia microglia specifically shows hypersensitivity to ATP, the body’s basic energy currency, with microglial TNF-alpha now implicated as a key driver of pain, exhaustion, brain fog and sensory amplification simultaneously.
Central sensitisation, where the nervous system amplifies and maintains pain signals long after any original injury has healed, is a recognised mechanism in fibromyalgia, chronic back pain, migraine and irritable bowel syndrome. This is why fibromyalgia pain does not always correspond to identifiable tissue damage, and why approaches that address the nervous system directly rather than the individual symptom sites tend to produce more lasting results.
Why fibromyalgia disproportionately affects women
Fibromyalgia affects women far more often than men, with many studies showing a strong female predominance and women reporting more severe symptoms and greater impact on daily functioning. This is not a matter of pain tolerance or psychological vulnerability. It reflects specific features of female biology.
Female microglia are more numerous and more prone to pro-inflammatory activation than male microglia. Oestrogen directly influences microglial reactivity and cytokine profiles, which is why fibromyalgia symptoms so frequently worsen during hormonal transitions including the menstrual cycle, perimenopause and the postpartum period. The female HPA axis also responds more strongly to relational and caregiving stress, which is disproportionately carried by women, creating a sustained neuroinflammatory load that compounds over time.
Women with fibromyalgia also experience longer diagnostic delays than men, with their symptoms more likely to be attributed to anxiety, depression or stress before a neuroinflammatory explanation is considered. This is consistent with patterns documented across autoimmune and neuroinflammatory conditions generally, where female-typical presentations are underrecognised and underinvestigated.
Heat and symptom amplification
Autonomic dysregulation is a well-documented feature of fibromyalgia, and heat significantly compounds this picture. In healthy individuals, heat exposure shifts the autonomic nervous system toward sympathetic dominance, increasing heart rate, elevating muscle sympathetic nerve activity and raising urinary norepinephrine. For someone whose autonomic system is already running in sympathetic overdrive, that additional load pushes the system further into dysregulation, amplifying pain, fatigue and cognitive symptoms in ways that are physiologically measurable.
During periods of high heat, pacing, electrolyte replenishment, anti-inflammatory dietary support and nervous system regulation practices all reduce the additional load on an already taxed neuroimmune circuit.
Fibromyalgia FAQs
What causes fibromyalgia?
Fibromyalgia is increasingly understood as involving chronic microglial activation and neuroinflammation in the brain, central sensitisation of pain pathways, and autonomic nervous system dysregulation. It is not caused by tissue damage or psychological factors alone. Research using PET imaging has demonstrated widespread microglial activation in people with fibromyalgia, and elevated inflammatory markers have been found in both cerebrospinal fluid and plasma.
Why do women get fibromyalgia more than men?
Female microglia are more prone to pro-inflammatory activation, oestrogen directly influences microglial reactivity, and women carry a disproportionate HPA axis stress load through caregiving and relational roles. This creates a specific neuroinflammatory vulnerability that helps explain the strong female predominance in fibromyalgia diagnoses and the frequent worsening of symptoms during hormonal transitions including perimenopause.
What treatments are available for fibromyalgia at The Natural Clinic Cork?
Louise Kane Buckley offers craniosacral therapy, somatic fascia release, EFT tapping and nutritional therapy, each addressing the neuroinflammatory and autonomic picture from a different angle. Treatment is whole-person, extended and built around understanding the full picture rather than managing individual symptoms in isolation. All approaches work alongside existing medical care.
How does craniosacral therapy help with fibromyalgia?
Craniosacral therapy works with the craniosacral system, the fascia and the autonomic nervous system to address the chronic holding and activation patterns that keep the neuroimmune system in a state of high alert. The fascia hosts over 250 million nerve endings and plays a central role in pain processing and autonomic regulation, making it a primary target in fibromyalgia treatment. Many clients notice meaningful reductions in pain, fatigue and sensory sensitivity following a course of treatment.
Is fibromyalgia worse in heat and what helps?
Yes. Autonomic dysregulation in fibromyalgia means the nervous system already struggles to regulate internal states, and heat exposure adds a significant additional load. Timing activity for cooler parts of the day, prioritising electrolyte replenishment, anti-inflammatory dietary support and nervous system regulation practices all help reduce the heat-related amplification of symptoms.
Can fibromyalgia improve with naturopathic treatment?
Naturopathic treatment does not cure fibromyalgia but can meaningfully shift the neuroinflammatory and autonomic terrain in which it exists, reducing the frequency and severity of flares and improving the nervous system’s capacity to regulate. Many women experience significant improvements in quality of life when the full picture, hormonal, neuroinflammatory, autonomic and stress physiology, is addressed together rather than managing individual symptoms in isolation.
What naturopathic treatment addresses at The Natural Clinic Cork
Louise Kane Buckley works as a Naturopath and Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapist at The Natural Clinic Cork, offering extended appointments that allow the full neuroinflammatory, autonomic, hormonal and stress physiology picture to be assessed and addressed together.
Craniosacral therapy works with the craniosacral system, the membranes and cerebrospinal fluid surrounding the brain and spinal cord, and with the fascial tissue and autonomic nervous system connecting everything below it. The fascia is now understood to host over 250 million nerve endings and to function as a primary sensory organ of the nervous system, holding the chronic bracing patterns that both reflect and perpetuate the sensitised state in fibromyalgia. Craniosacral work reaches these patterns in ways that other approaches cannot, communicating directly with the tissue most responsible for maintaining the sensitised baseline.
Somatic fascia release discharges the accumulated tension held in the connective tissue, addressing the bracing patterns that developed when the body learned, through experience or through inheritance, that constant readiness was necessary. In fibromyalgia this frequently involves decades of held tension in the jaw, diaphragm, pelvic floor and the fascial lines connecting all three.
EFT tapping has specific evidence in this population. A randomised controlled trial demonstrated significant reductions in PTSD symptoms alongside meaningful improvements in pain, anxiety and depression following EFT treatment, and early pilot work has found measurable shifts in the expression of stress and immune-related genes. EFT addresses the cognitive and emotional patterns that keep the nervous system generating the threat signal driving sensitisation, and provides a portable self-management tool that clients can use between appointments.
Nutritional therapy addresses the cellular terrain that the neuroinflammatory picture depends on. Anti-inflammatory dietary patterns, omega-3 support, blood sugar stability, gut microbiome restoration and targeted mineral support including magnesium reduce the inflammatory load and support the nervous system’s capacity to regulate. Magnesium is consistently depleted in fibromyalgia populations and supports nervous system regulation, muscle relaxation and sleep quality simultaneously.
All treatment at The Natural Clinic is designed to work alongside existing medical care, addressing the neuroimmune and autonomic terrain that medical management alone cannot reach.
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