HealthcareFibromyalgia 101: 6 Things To Know

Fibromyalgia refers to a long-term condition usually characterized by pain and tenderness throughout the body. All patients have their respective triggers and each trigger can be more painful than the last. Given that each fibromyalgia patient has their respective flares and triggers, this necessitates the need to keep learning more about this disease.

If you or someone dear to you has recently been diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, it pays to be armed with information. This is the best way you can manage and have a better quality of life, despite having fibromyalgia.

To help debunk some of the common fibromyalgia myths, here’s a list of the six things you have to know about the disease.

1. The Symptoms To Watch Out For

First on this list are the symptoms. If any of the symptoms keep coming back quite frequently, that should be a telling sign enough for you to see a doctor. That way, proper diagnosis can be made as to whether or not those symptoms are, in fact, because you have fibromyalgia.

Those common symptoms include:

• Cognitive difficulties. This refers to how the ability to focus and perform mental tasks is affected.
• Widespread pain. For patients that suffer from fibromyalgia, the pain is usually dull, but constant. And, it can last for as long as three months. Rather than being centered in one location of the body, however, a person feels the pain throughout the entire body.
• Bladder problem. Patients will usually experience increased urination.
• This refers to the regular feeling of tiredness, despite having adequate sleep and rest.
• Mood swings. These are more evident in extreme cases of fibromyalgia, whereby patients tend to be more anxious and depressed.

2. There Are Certain Foods You May Want To Avoid

The human body is fueled and affected by food intake. Like any other disease, when you suffer from fibromyalgia, this means you’ll also have to be more mindful of the food you eat. There are certain foods you’ll want to avoid, like:

• Also known as an artificial sweetener, this sugar substitute may exacerbate a patient’s fibromyalgia symptoms.
• Yeast and gluten. These may increase the feelings of joint and muscle pain.
• Food additives like MSG. Monosodium glutamate is an additive or flavor enhancer. Like aspartame, MSG is classified as an excitotoxin. It may intensify pain in some patients.
• Nightshade plants. There are over 2,000 plants classified as nightshade plants. Some of the frequently eaten ones are tomatoes, eggplant, chili, potatoes, and bell peppers. These may trigger flare-ups of certain types of arthritis, including fibromyalgia.
• Sugar, fructose, and simple carbohydrates. When you reduce or cut down on food containing these three, you’re also reducing the chances of catching yeast infection. This is a type of fungus that breeds well in sugars.

3. There Are Potential Triggers To Fibromyalgia Flare-Ups

Each patient has their respective triggers as to why their fibromyalgia flares up. Some of the more common ones, however, are:

• Diet;
• Temperature or weather;
• Hormones;
• Sleep;
• Physical or psychological stress.

4. The Treatment For Fibromyalgia

Treating fibromyalgia entails a visit to the doctor. They’ll be the ones to give you a detailed treatment and management plan for you to follow. Generally, those treatment options include:

• Exercise and diet;
• Taking medication such as anti-seizure drugs, antidepressants, and pain relievers;
• Getting adequate sleep;
• Therapies such as occupational and behavioral therapy;
• Stress management.

5. The Presence Of Abnormal Pain Messages

One of the distinctive features of patients who suffer from fibromyalgia is the fact that many of them may have changes in the way their central nervous system process pain messages throughout the body.

While the cause behind this is still being studied, the main theory behind this has to do with changes to the chemicals found in the nervous system. Note that the central nervous system, comprised of the nerves, brain, and spinal cord, transmits information all over the body through specialized cells. Changes in the way the system works can, therefore, be the plausible reason why fibromyalgia consistently results in extreme feelings of pain.

6. The Risk Factors Of Fibromyalgia

While there are reasons or causes for the flare-ups of fibromyalgia, it’s worth knowing too that it also has certain risk factors. These include:

• Gender, as fibromyalgia may be diagnosed more often in women than in men;
• Connected disorders like lupus, osteoarthritis, or rheumatoid arthritis;
• Family history, as you’re more likely to develop fibromyalgia if you also have a parent that has fibromyalgia.

 Conclusion

There’s still so much to learn about a disease as complex as fibromyalgia. However, all the information you’ve just read through above isn’t supposed to be a substitute to sound medical advice. It’s only through a thorough check and examination of your doctor that a diagnosis can be made. With the right treatment and management options, one can still live a good quality of life despite also battling fibromyalgia.