Know About Fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia is a long-term (chronic) condition. It causes:

• Pain in the muscles and bones (musculoskeletal pain)
• Areas of tenderness
• General fatigue
• Sleep and cognitive disturbances

This condition can be hard to understand, even for healthcare professionals. Its symptoms mimic those of other conditions, and there aren’t any real tests to confirm the diagnosis. As a result, fibromyalgia is often misdiagnosed.

In the past, some healthcare professionals even questioned whether fibromyalgia was real. Today, it’s much better understood. Some of the stigma that used to surround it has eased.

Fibromyalgia can still be challenging to treat. But medications, therapy, and lifestyle changes can help you to manage your symptoms and to improve your quality of life.

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Fibromyalgia symptoms

Fibromyalgia causes what’s now referred to as “regions of pain.” Some of these regions overlap with what was previously referred to as areas of tenderness called “trigger points” or “tender points.” But some of these previously noted areas of tenderness have been excluded.

The pain in these regions feels like a consistent dull ache. Your healthcare professional will consider a diagnosis of fibromyalgia if you’ve experienced musculoskeletal pain in 4 out of the 5 regions of pain outlined in the 2016 revisions to the fibromyalgia diagnostic criteria.

This diagnostic protocol is referred to as “multisite pain.” It’s in contrast to the 1990 fibromyalgia diagnostic criteria definition for “chronic widespread pain.”

This process of diagnosis focuses on the areas of musculoskeletal pain and severity of pain as opposed to an emphasis on pain duration, which was previously the focal criteria for a fibromyalgia diagnosis.

Other symptoms of fibromyalgia include:

• Fatigue
• Trouble sleeping
• Sleeping for long periods of time without feeling rested (nonrestorative sleep)
• Headaches
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Trouble focusing or paying attention
• Pain or a dull ache in the lower belly
• Dry eyes
• Bladder problems, like interstitial cystitis

In people with fibromyalgia, the brain and nerves may misinterpret or overreact to normal pain signals. This may be due to a chemical imbalance in the brain or abnormality in the dorsal root ganglion affecting central pain (brain) sensitization.

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Fibromyalgia fog

Fibromyalgia fog – also known as “fibro fog” or “brain fog” – is a term some people use to describe the fuzzy feeling they get. Signs of fibro fog include:

• Memory lapses
• Difficulty concentrating
• Trouble staying alert

According to a 2015 study published in Rheumatology International, some people find mental fogginess from fibromyalgia more upsetting than pain.

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Fibromyalgia trigger points

In the past, people were diagnosed with fibromyalgia if they had widespread pain and tenderness in at least 11 out of 18 specific trigger points around their body. Healthcare professionals would check to see how many of these points were painful by pressing firmly on them.

• back of the head
• tops of the shoulders
• upper chest
• hips
• knees
• outer elbows

For the most part, trigger points are no longer a part of the diagnostic process.

Instead, healthcare professionals may diagnose fibromyalgia if you’ve had pain in 4 out of the 5 areas of pain as defined by the 2016 revised diagnostic criteria, and you have no other diagnosable medical condition that could explain the pain.

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Fibromyalgia pain

Pain is the hallmark fibromyalgia symptom. You’ll feel it in various muscles and other soft tissues around your body.

The pain can range from a mild achiness to an intense and almost unbearable discomfort. Its severity could dictate how well you cope day to day.

Fibromyalgia appears to stem from an abnormal nervous system response. Your body overreacts to things that shouldn’t normally be painful. And you may feel the pain in more than one area of your body.

But available research still doesn’t pinpoint an exact cause for fibromyalgia. Research continues to evolve in better understanding this condition and its origin.

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What Causes Fibromyalgia?

When you get injured, nerve signals travel from the problem spot on your body through your spinal cord to your brain, which senses these signals as pain. It’s a warning that something’s wrong. As you heal, the pain gets better, and in time it goes away.

But if you have fibromyalgia, you hurt all over even when you’re not sick or injured. And the pain doesn’t go away. Some doctors think they know why: a glitch in the way your brain and spinal cord handle pain signals.

When you have fibromyalgia, you may have more cells that carry pain signals than normal. And you may have fewer cells that slow pain signals down. This means your pain volume is always turned up, like music blasting on a radio. The result is that minor bumps and bruises hurt more than they should. And you may feel pain from things that shouldn’t hurt at all.

Doctors aren’t sure why some people get fibromyalgia. Many things could cause the body’s pain signals to go awry. Plus, different people report different things that seemed to trigger their condition. You can even have more than one cause.

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