Fibromyalgia
Guest Author: Tatyana Staroverska from www.StarOverSky.com What is Fibromyalgia? Symptoms of Fibromyalgia Causes of Fibromyalgia
Fibromyalgia takes the form of chronic musculoskeletal pain that occurs in different parts of the body and at different intensities. This sensitivity of the tissues is not accompanied by any inflammation, nor does it damage the internal organs.
For the most part, fibromyalgia affects people of a certain psychological type: emotional but with good self-control. Fibromyalgia is most common among middle-aged women, although recently it has been known to affect children and men.
Symptoms of Fibromyalgia
Fibromyalgia’s primary symptom is a migrating, chronic musculoskeletal pain. The pain is usually accompanied by a feeling of stiffness in the morning, a sensation of swelling in the arms and legs, and muscles that tire rapidly. Changes in the weather, fatigue, and stress worsen the symptoms.
Sufferers of fibromyalgia frequently have emotional disorders, ranging from slight mood swings to pronounced depression and anxiety.
Chronic fatigue – frequently accompanies fibromyalgia. This is a state of exhaustion of the nervous system when there is chronic stress or chronic infection. One of the most common complaints is that of becomingly quickly fatigued, which afflicts 87% of fibromyalgia victims.
Sleep disturbances: 79% of patients report difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, or not feeling refreshed after sleeping. Those afflicted with fibromyalgia experience deterioration of their REM sleep (which probably explains the common symptoms of morning tiredness and lethargy). More than half of fibromyalgia patients suffer frequent migraine headaches.
Fibromyalgia (FMS) is associated with digestive disorders, bloating, and abdominal pain as well as Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), and patients may have difficulty swallowing food.
Those afflicted with FMS may experience increased frequency of urination, without having a bladder infection. Some may develop damage to their bladder lining, called interstitial cystitis (IC).
Women with FMS may have painful menstrual cycles or a worsening of their FMS symptoms at this time.
FMS patients often have concerns about their balance. Since it is believed that fibromyalgia affects the eye muscles, nausea or blurred vision can occur when driving, reading, or trying to follow an object with one’s eyes. The weakening of the neck muscles can cause dizziness or loss of balance. In some cases, FMS causes a decrease in blood pressure and heart rate after rising from a lying position.
FMS may be accompanied by a skin disorder called ichthyosis, dryness, or mottled skin. Often there is dryness of the eyes and mouth.
Those afflicted with fibromyalgia may have swollen fingers. The usual complaint is that their rings will not fit.
Hypersensitivity to light, noise, smells and weather are common to fibromyalgia, as are allergic reactions to various substances (drugs, chemicals, food additives, etc.).
Patients may experience irritation and inflammation of the nose that is not related to allergies, similar to the symptoms of a cold, and there may be sinus pain, but without the immune response that is characteristic of allergies.
Although sufferers of FMS are often mistakenly diagnosed with depression or anxiety (”it’s all in your head”), studies have repeatedly shown that fibromyalgia is not a form of depression or hypochondria. However, it is important to treat any accompanying depression or anxiety, since they may worsen the symptoms of FMS and it is not possible to successfully control the symptoms of fibromyalgia without treating these symptoms.
Causes of Fibromyalgia
Although fibromyalgia is one of the most common diseases that affects the muscles, its causes are currently unknown.Most often the disease begins when the nervous system is in a prolonged state of tension, which act as a trigger for individuals who are predisposed to this condition. This trigger can be psychological stress or fatigue, surgery or serious illness, infection, accident or injury.
Under normal conditions, stress is a healthy response of the nervous system – for a short time it increases the body’s ability to respond physically to danger. When under stress, there is a strong discharge by the nervous system of its accumulated “emergency reserves,” such as: hormones, immune factors, heat, and various bioactive substances. If the stress continues for too long, then these reserves are depleted, and the nervous, immune and endocrine systems are strongly affected.
Prolonged stress (such as long-term irresolvable situations, unsatisfied desires, ambition, conflict, loss of a loved one, work, etc.) interferes with the functioning of the hypothalamic hormones, the pituitary and adrenal glands (somatotropin, norepinephrine, endorphins, dopamine, histamine, and gammaaminobuturovoy acid), which are directly related to the perception of pain. It has been found that patients with fibromyalgia have lowered levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin. In fact, many current fibromyalgia therapies are aimed at increasing these levels. Some studies have found that patients with fibromyalgia actually suffered from forms of subclinical hypothyroidism, which was not detected during routine laboratory tests. It has been suggested that hypothyroidism may have caused this dysfunction of the central nervous system.
Prolonged stress lowers the body’s immunity, allowing previously dormant infectious agents to attack. These infectious agents can include:
- herpes, types 1, 2, and 6
- cytomegalovirus;
- Epstein-Barr virus;
- varicella-zoster virus;
- chlamydia;
- mycoplasma;
- toxoplasmosis;
- streptococcus.
With fibromyalgia, the immune system might respond powerfully to an active infection, but without sufficient focus. A large number of antibodies appear in the blood, attacking not only the sources of the infection, but, mistakenly, the body’s own tissue, especially the muscles and tendons, causing fibromyalgia’s migrating pain.
Fibromyalgia shares many symptoms, clinical characteristics, and physiological mechanisms with other diseases, including: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), migraines, primary dysmenorrhea, Periodic Limb Movement Disorder (PLMS) or Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS), pain resulting from Temporomandibular Joint Disorder (TMJ) and Myofascial Pain Syndrome. Anyone suffering from these afflictions gets the best results with a systematic course of treatment (an entire set of strategies). Recent studies have confirmed that the best treatment option is a combination of different therapeutic approaches, including an individualized treatment plan.
