Fibromyalgia Treatment at the Apheresis Center

Fibromyalgia symptoms

Symptoms vary from person to person and can flare up unpredictably, but most commonly include:

• Widespread pain and tenderness, often described in terms of specific pain points across the body
• Increased sensitivity to pain (allodynia or pain from things that shouldn’t normally hurt)
• Persistent fatigue, even after a full night’s sleep
• Muscle stiffness, particularly in the morning
• Sleep disturbances, difficulty falling or staying asleep
• “Fibro fog”: problems concentrating, remembering, or thinking clearly
• Headaches and migraines
• Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)-type digestive symptoms, such as bloating and stomach pain
• Mood changes: low mood, anxiety, or frustration related to the unpredictability of symptoms

Symptoms of fibromyalgia in women can also include increased menstrual pain and symptom flares linked to hormonal changes. There’s currently no single laboratory test for fibromyalgia.

Diagnosis is usually made by ruling out other conditions and assessing the pattern and duration of the symptoms. This is one reason it’s so often missed, dismissed, or misdiagnosed for years before a name is put to it.

How Is Fibromyalgia Connected to Long Covid, CFS, Lyme Disease, and IBS?

Fibromyalgia rarely exists in isolation. Increasingly, research points to fibromyalgia, Long Covid, myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), Lyme disease and IBS as conditions that sit on a shared spectrum.

They overlap in symptoms, in the biological processes that appear to drive them, and often in the patients who are diagnosed with more than one at once.

A few of the key connections researchers have identified include:

• Post-infectious triggers. Fibromyalgia can develop or worsen after a viral, bacterial, or parasitic infection.
• Shared central sensitisation. Studies suggest COVID-19 may contribute to the onset or worsening of fibromyalgia symptoms through central sensitisation (a process where the central nervous system becomes hypersensitive to pain and sensory signals). The same mechanism is thought to underlie much of the pain experienced in ME/CFS and IBS.
• Overlapping inflammatory pathways. Inflammatory markers such as IL-6 and TNF-α have been found elevated in both fibromyalgia and Long Covid patients, pointing to shared, treatable inflammatory processes rather than entirely separate diseases.
• Clinical overlap in practice. A growing body of research shows that a significant proportion of Long Covid patients meet the criteria for these overlapping illnesses, with a similar clinical course across conditions, and Long Covid, like ME/CFS, fibromyalgia, and IBS, is increasingly understood as a neuroimmune illness affecting both body and nervous system together.

In practical terms, this means many of our patients arrive with more than one diagnosis on their chart: fibromyalgia alongside Long Covid, ME/CFS, chronic Lyme disease, IBS, or MCAS.

Rather than treating each label separately, we look at the underlying drivers (inflammation, microcirculation, immune dysregulation, autonomic dysfunction) that connect them and build a coherent treatment plan based on your actual physiology.

Our Approach to Treating Fibromyalgia

Our Approach to Treating Fibromyalgia

As a multisystem condition with different underlying drivers from patient to patient, our initial evaluation typically focuses on:

• Your detailed medical history
• A review of symptoms and pain patterns
• Timeline of onset, including any preceding infection (COVID-19, Lyme, EBV, etc.)
• Sleep quality
• Autonomic symptoms
• Cognitive complaints (“fibro fog”)
• Physical stamina and post-exertional symptoms
• Overall functional impact on daily life

Additional diagnostic work

Because fibromyalgia so often overlaps with other chronic conditions, we carry out a structured diagnostic work-up to identify contributing factors and rule out or confirm overlapping conditions. 

Our assessment looks for patterns in:

• Chronic inflammation and immune dysregulation
• Microcirculatory impairment and oxygen delivery issues
• Autonomic dysfunction (POTS-like features)
• Mitochondrial and metabolic dysfunction
• Hormonal status
• Nutritional deficiencies and gut health
• Toxic burden
• MCAS / histamine-related sensitivity
• Post-viral or post-infectious triggers (Long Covid, Lyme, EBV)

We begin work with every patient on an individual basis by reviewing your medical history and existing lab work in detail, and then carrying out additional diagnostics where these are clinically indicated.

Our Treatment Approach: The Combination Therapy Model

We follow a Combination Therapy Approach, tailored to your specific clinical picture. We don’t treat fibromyalgia as pain alone. We address the underlying biological drivers that keep the pain and fatigue cycle going.

Treatment plans may include a combination of:

Your Journey Starts Here

Your patient journey with us includes:

• An initial in-depth consultation and medical review
• Diagnostic testing tailored to your individual case
• Interpretation of findings and a personalised treatment strategy
• A structured therapeutic program with regular monitoring
• Follow-up assessments to evaluate response and adjust treatment, as needed

Step 1: A free 25–30-minute consultation to review suitability.

Step 2: A paid doctor’s consultation (with detailed review, if needed).

Step 3: Your first face-to-face consultation on arrival in Cyprus, where you’ll receive a medical assessment and protocol confirmation.

Step 4: The treatment phase, typically 5–6 weeks, with two sessions per week.

Step 5: Monitoring and adjustment, with pacing based on your tolerance.

Frequently Asked Questions