Disease
What Is Fibromyalgia? Understand Causes And Symptoms
A disease called fibromyalgia is characterized by significant musculoskeletal pain along with difficulties with sleep, memory, and mood. According to experts, fibromyalgia alters how your brain and spinal cord receive painful and non painful impulses, increasing painful sensations.

A disease called fibromyalgia is characterized by significant musculoskeletal pain along with difficulties with sleep, memory, and mood. According to experts, fibromyalgia alters how your brain and spinal cord receive painful and non-painful impulses, increasing painful sensations.
After an incident, such as a physical injury, surgery, infection, or severe mental stress, symptoms frequently start to appear. In other situations, the disease develops gradually without a particular cause.
Women experience fibromyalgia more commonly than the male population. Numerous patients with fibromyalgia also suffer tension headaches, TMJ problems, irritable bowel syndrome, anxiety, and depression.
Although there is no known cure for fibromyalgia, various medicines can help manage symptoms. In addition, exercise, rest, and stress-reduction methods may also be helpful.
Fibromyalgia Signs And Symptoms
Fibromyalgia’s main signs and symptoms include:
- Tremendous suffering: A continuous, dull ache that has persisted for at least three months is a common way to describe the pain brought on by fibromyalgia. Widespread pain must affect both sides of your body and your upper and lower waist to be deemed widespread.
- Fatigue: Even if they profess to sleep for a long period, people with fibromyalgia frequently wake up feeling exhausted. Pain often keeps people from sleeping, and many fibromyalgia patients also suffer from other sleep problems such as restless legs disease and sleep disorders.
- Cognitive challenges: Focus, attention, and concentration on mental activities are hampered by a fibromyalgia symptom known as “fibro fog.”
The Fibromyalgia Causes
Although the exact cause of fibromyalgia is unclear, studies have shown that those who suffer from the disorder have heightened pain sensitivity, making them feel pain when others do not. In addition, in fibromyalgia patients, there are indications of abnormal signaling in the neurological circuits that transmit and receive pain, according to studies on brain scans and other types of research. The weariness, sleep problems, and cognitive issues that many patients with the disease suffer could be caused by these changes.
Genetic factors are expected to have a role in the development of fibromyalgia because the disease frequently runs in families, although little is understood about the precise genes responsible. The probability that someone will have the illness is thought to be affected by environmental (nongenetic) variables as well. These environmental factors could be having a painful condition, like rheumatoid arthritis, or mental health issues, like anxiety or depression.
Who Could Get Fibromyalgia?
Everyone can get fibromyalgia, although women are more likely to do so than males. However, it typically begins in middle age, and the probability of developing it grows with age. It can impact people of any age, including youngsters. Anyone who has it does, irrespective of race or ethnicity.
Fibromyalgia risk may increase if you already have other illnesses, especially rheumatic diseases, psychological disorders, or painful conditions. Among these disorders are:
- Arthritis rheumatism.
- Lupus erythematosus systemic (commonly called lupus).
- Spondylosis with ankylosing.
- Osteoarthritis.
- Either anxiety or depression.
- Persistent back pain
- Bowel irritability syndrome.
How Is Fibromyalgia Diagnosed?
No test can conclusively identify fibromyalgia. Fibromyalgia is diagnosed clinically based on your symptoms and physical examination. To check out other reasons for weariness, such as anemia or thyroid disorders, basic blood tests are advised. Your family and health information, along with your symptoms, are used to make the diagnosis.
Fibromyalgia patients usually have high sensitivity to pain that wouldn’t trouble most persons. Your health professional may determine the number of tender places on your body that are very sensitive to touch. For a diagnosis, there must be extensive pain for three months, as well as exhaustion and other symptoms like memory and focus problems, poor sleep, symptoms of depression, and irritability syndromes.
What Fibromyalgia Complications Are There?
Pain, disability, and a lower standard of living can all be managed by fibromyalgia. However, adults with fibromyalgia may experience difficulties like:
- More hospitalizations You are double as likely to be hospitalized if you have fibromyalgia as if you don’t.
- A lower standard of living A poorer quality of life may be experienced by fibromyalgia-affected women.
- More incidences of severe depression. Major depressive disorder is more than three times more common in persons with fibromyalgia than in adults without the condition. Depression needs to be tested for and treated quickly.
- Higher rates of injury and suicide deaths. Although fibromyalgia patients had increased rates of suicide and accidental deaths, total mortality among individuals with fibromyalgia is comparable to that of the general public.
- Increased incidence of other rheumatic diseases. Many forms of arthritis, including osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and ankylosing spondylitis, frequently co-occur with fibromyalgia.
Final Thoughts
Healthy levels of physical activity can lower the risk of issues linked to a sedentary lifestyle and may avoid the worsening of fibromyalgia symptoms.
There is no cure. However, balancing medicine, physical activity, stress management, and healthy habits may reduce your problems to the point where you can enjoy a regular, healthy lifestyle.