Fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia is a disease condition characterized by pain everywhere in the body. The condition results in extreme weakness, and increases the body’s sensitivity to pain reflex. The body muscles, ligaments and tendons are the primarily affected by this condition. Formerly it used to be known as fibrositis which refers to inflammatory process involving muscles and soft tissues. But later on studies revealed that the condition didn’t involve any nerve damage or inflammatory process, and was renamed.
It is also noticed that women are more prone to this in comparison to men. People of all age groups are susceptible, but those aged 35 – 60 are found to be more at risk.

Symptoms

The symptoms are found to differ from person to person. The major symptoms include,

Pain:
The pain is characterized by its widespread nature. One may experience it from their head to toe. The nature of pain varies from time to time. At times it may be a simple ache which may even be a sense of burning at times or even a sharp pain. Another noticeable feature is that pain intensifies at body parts more often used. This makes back, neck, feet and shoulders painful.

Extreme sensitivity:

The condition leaves a person sensitive to pain to such an extent that even a slight touch can result in intense pain. The pain also stays for a longer duration.

Fatigue and sleep deprivation:

The person may experience fatigue that may vary from a mild feeling of tiredness or may leave the person entirely exhausted. He/she may be as tired as not being able to do anything.
Often the sleep pattern of a person gets affected by his condition. Even if a person sleeps for enough he may feel exhausted as he wakes up.

Stiffness:

The disease also leaves one with muscle stiffness. When the person continues in the same position, the stiffness is found to increase.

Other symptoms include cognitive problems, headache of varying degree, Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), pain of facial region, hands and feet easily gets numb, dryness of mouth and eyes, periods menstruation and anxiety.

Causes

The precise reason is still puzzling. The following are the likely causes;

Problems with pain messages:

The people with this disorder have got a problem that their brain is much more sensitive to pain stimuli. Pain conveying substances are also found in a high level in these persons.

Low hormone levels:

Serotonin, dopamine and noradrenaline are the neurotransmitters that are found to be in a low level in these persons. This aspect is also thought to be a cause.

Sleep problems, external factors and genetic predisposition, joint hyper mobility, lupus etc are other possible causes that may result in this condition.

Treatment

The treatment mainly focuses on minimising the symptoms. The following medications are found to be useful,
Painkillers, antidepressants, muscle relaxants, Complementary therapies like acupuncture, warm water therapy etc.

Complications

Normally, the condition does not end up in a complication. Depression is a possible complication that usually arises as a result of the varying hormone levels.