What Is Fibromyalgia?
Fibromyalgia fye-bro-my-AL-jah is a syndrome characterized by long-lasting widespread pain and tenderness at specific points on the body. The term fibromyalgia means pain in the muscles, ligaments and tendons. Although not defining characteristics, sleep disturbances and fatigue are also integral symptoms of fibromyalgia.
This condition is referred to as a syndrome because it’s a set of signs and symptoms that occur together with no known cause or identifiable reason. Although considered an arthritis-related condition, fibromyalgia is not truly a form of arthritis since it does not cause inflammation or damage to the joints, muscles or other tissues. It is, however, considered a rheumatic condition because it impairs the joints and/or soft tissues and causes chronic pain.
Fibromyalgia is an especially confusing and often misunderstood condition. Because its symptoms are quite common and laboratory tests results usually are normal, people with fibromyalgia were once told that their condition was all in their head. However, medical studies have proven that fibromyalgia does indeed exist, and it is estimated to affect about two percent of the U.S. Population today.
Although fibromyalgia has no cure, it isn’t a progressive disease, meaning that it will not get worse over time and it’s never fatal. With a treatment plan that integrates several modalities that include exercise, rest, stress relief, coping skills and medications, people with fibromyalgia can live happy, productive lives.
Causes Fibromyalgia
Researchers have made some progress in determining what is happening in the body that might cause some of the symptoms people experience. Most agree that the central nervous system in people with fibromyalgia is not functioning properly and that components of the body’s stress response are responsible for symptoms.
- Sensory processing: Disturbances are probably general and not pain-specific. People with fibromyalgia often experience great sensitivity not just to pain but to loud noises, bright lights, odors, drugs, temperature changes and chemicals.
- Substance P: People with fibromyalgia have approximately threefold higher concentrations in their spinal fluid of this chemical that amplifies pain signals than healthy controls.
- Serotonin: This brain chemical is believed to modulate pain signals and has been found to be low or processed poorly in people with fibromyalgia
- HPA axis: Several abnormalities in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (the brain and hormone interactions that regulate virtually all physiologic activities, including the stress response) have been noted.
- Growth hormone:
Fibromyalgia Effects?
The main symptoms of fibromyalgia incudes:
Pain and tenderness
Musculoskeletal pain in all sections of the body is the most common symptom of fibromyalgia. The pain may begin in one region of the body, but eventually every section becomes affected. For some people, the pain waxes and wanes, and seems to travel throughout the body. The muscle and tissue pain has been described as tender, aching, throbbing, sore, burning and gnawing; it sometimes is accompanied by strange sensations such as tingling, numbness, burning or prickling.
Fatigue and sleep disturbance
Most (75 to 80 percent) people with fibromyalgia experience chronic fatigue and tire quickly after only mild exertion. In fact, about half of individuals who meet diagnostic criteria for fibromyalgia also meet the diagnostic criteria for chronic fatigue syndrome. For many people, the fatigue can be more debilitating than the pain.
Other common symptoms
- Frequent headaches: tension and migraine
- Cognitive difficulties: poor attention span, trouble with short-term memory, inability to think clearly; often called “fibro fog,” possibly related to lack of sleep
- Irritable bowel syndrome: abdominal pain, bloating and alternating constipation and diarrhea
- Dry eyes and mouth
- Temporomandibular joint syndrome (TMJ): pain around the joint where your lower jaw attaches to your skull
- Sensitivity to loud noises
- Unusual, uncontrollable eye movements
- Constitutional symptoms: weight fluctuations, heat and cold intolerance, night sweats, weakness
- “Allergic” symptoms: multiple chemical sensitivity, nasal congestion, rhinitis (inflammation of the nasal passages). The reactions are not actually allergic because the defining immunologic responses are not present, but the symptoms felt are similar.
- Restless leg syndrome: numbness, tingling and crawling sensations that necessitate constantly moving the legs; contributes to poor sleep
- Urinary urge and frequency
- Painful menstrual periods, inflammation of the opening of the vagina and itching burning sensations around the vaginal opening
Fibromyalgia Treatments | Home Remedy for Fibromyalgia
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