What is Fibromyalgia?
Before learning about what Fibromyalgia, you should know what a chronic disease is!
A chronic disease is a disease that lasts long and re-occurs from time to time. You can say chronic diseases are lasting medical conditions and are persistent.
Fibromyalgia is a chronic disease. Fibromyalgia is a condition where the patient has prevalent pain in muscles and tendons. He/she is fatigued at various points on the body. Women are much more likely to attain this disorder than men. Usually, fibromyalgia sysmptoms are prominent after a trauma, but it is not mandatory that a triggering event occur to cause this medical condition.
Symptoms and Diagnosis of Fibromyalgia:
Remember the various points that are affected in the body that we talked about earlier? These points are called Tender Points. There is widespread pain that is seen on these points. When pressure is applied to these areas, there is additional pain, if the patient is affected by Fibromyalgia.
Some of the Tender Points are Top of Shoulders, Upper Chest, Upper hips, Sides of hips, Inner Knees, back of head. (Please note that tender points are not limited to the above mentioned areas.)
Because of the widespread pain in the body, people with Fibromyalgia wake up tired even after plenty of sleep. The reason experts believe is because they never go into the deep restorative stages of sleep.
Causes of Fibromyalgia:
Nobody clearly knows what really causes Fibromyalgia. But doctors believe a variety of factors work together to cause this weird medical condition. Factors include Genetics, infections and trauma.
Because it has been observed that Fibromyalgia is a condition seen in families, researchers/doctors believe there might be genetic mutations that might have an impact on making a person susceptible to the disease.
Also certain illnesses and post-traumatic stress have been linked to fibromyalgia.
Treatments and Drugs for Fibromyalgia:
Because the exact cause for this condition is not know, doctors concentrate more on reducing the pain due to Fibromyalgia and improve the general health of the patients.
Medications help to reduce pain and improve sleep quality. Analgesics like Acetaminophen might give relief from pain. Usually given analgesics include Tramadol. Aspirin, ibuprofen, etc.
If the doctor feels the patient is depressed, the patient might get some antidepressants like Flouxetine, Duloxetine, or milnacipran.
Hopefully this helps you to understand the issues, symptoms, causes, treatment of Fibromyalgia. Please do not rely on this article in diagnosis of your medical condition. Always contact your doctor and then you can use this to prepare for your appointment! If you are or someone you know has had Fibromyalgia or a similar medical condition, please share your experiences with other users. Read about other medical conditions and short articles and prepare yourself!