Fibromyalgia: A Commonly Misunderstood Illness

In the case of fibromyalgia, this is a illness that is closely related to arthritis and almost as predominant as osteoarthritis. Despite this, there has been much misidentification regarding fibromyalgia and how it operates in the human body. In essence, fibromyalgia is a type of rheumatic condition that causes pain and fatigue across the body in the muscles and joints. Because of the level of pain and frustration that it causes it often makes the patient very depressed and will cause them to live in a state of social isolation as patients with fibromyalgia do not like to leave their home.

Fibromyalgia is essentially a syndrome that is collective, or a set if you will. When these specific conditions exist at the same time then there is the implication of a chance of creating a greater chance of developing fibromyalgia. In the case of fibromyalgia, there are a series of symptoms that occur in concert that create the syndrome. Those are pain throughout the body, decreased pain threshold, depression, anxiety, and fatigue that will literally cause the patient to become incapacitated. While there are more than 12 million Americans that currently suffer from fibromyalgia, most of this number is made up of women. Women, between the ages of 25 and 60 years of age, are more than 10 times as likely to get fibromyalgia then men.

In short, fibromyalgia is a condition that causes the patient to literally ache all over their body. It also causes the patient to experience conditions where they feel continually fatigued even when they initially wake up after sleep. There will be several points located over the body that will become painful, even to painful to touch. There may also be some swelling in specific areas, an inability to enter REM II sleep due to disturbances, as well as various mental issues and imbalances, such as depression and other mood disorders. Often times, the patient will allude to certain amounts of pain in the areas of the tendons likening them to pulls that are commonly caused by lifting weights excessively. The feeling is that of taut or extensively pulled tension within the tendons making the area of the limb sore and difficult to use.

How is Fibromyalgia Diagnosed?

Patients that have developed fibromyalgia will often accrue a host of different problems that do not stop with simple joint pain and aches of the hips, neck, back and shoulders but may also cause the following: fatigue upon waking up, abdominal pain, stiffness, irritable bowel syndrome or IBS, dryness of the mouth, eyes and nose, the inability to concentrate clearly, chronic headaches, and painful menstrual cramps. Because fibromyalgia causes symptoms that are similar to bursitis, tendinitis, and osteoporosis. Unfortunately, there are no tests that can conclusively or specifically identify or diagnose fibromyalgia in the patient so for many physicians they include these symptoms into a general category, taking in the majority.

In an effort to make sure that there is a consensus in how to treat the patient there must be a an effort to rule out other possible conditions that may cause the symptoms that the patient is experiencing. To that effect, the physician may run a series of blood tests which may or may not include trying to get an accurate blood count as well as test the patient for certain chemicles. Glucose is a chemical that may cause issues for the patient that includes certain symptoms that are related to fibromyalgia. Further testing may also be done to check the thyroid as a depressed thyroid may cause similar symptoms as fibromyalgia which includes muscle aches, depression, weakness and fatigue.

Other tests are or can be conducted to rule out rheumatoid arthritis conditions, the levels of prolactin in the body as well as the amount of calcium the body is getting. Fibromyalgia can be serious and dehabilitating to the patient. Here in this site the patient and practitioner will be able to find out information on what causes fibromyalgia as well as its symptoms as well as treatment so that the fibromyalgia can be beaten. Please visit back with us often as we'll update the website with more information as important research and clinical trials are currently underway that help treat and cure this terrible condition for millions of Americans.