Fibromyalgia is a chronic invisible condition that has finally
come "out of the closet". Fibromyalgia isn't new. It
was described by William Balfour, a surgeon at the University
of Edinburgh, in the early 1800s. For many years it was
called by different names, including chronic rheumatism, myalgia,
and fibrositis.
In 1987, the American Medical Association (AMA), recognized FMS
as a true illness and a major cause of disability. Now, nearly
ten years later, it is still too often dismissed as the "newest
fad disease". Most physicians lack the training to
diagnose and treat it. It is incorrect and a disservice to the
patient to lump all soft tissue chronic pain conditions as fibromyalgia.
The term "syndrome" is a measure of our
ignorance, not a reflectance of the
impact fibromyalgia has on our lives.
FMS is a chronic non-degenerative, non-progressive, noninflammatory,
truly systemic pain condition. Diseases have known causes and
well-understood mechanisms for producing symptoms. FMS is a syndrome,
which means it is a specific set of signs and symptoms that occur
together. This does not mean fibromyalgia is any less serious
or potentially disabling than a disease. Rheumatoid arthritis,
lupus, and other serious afflictions are also syndromes. The
term "syndrome" is a measure of our ignorance, not
a reflectance of the impact fibromyalgia has on our lives. Laboratory
tests for fibromyalgia are valid only to rule out other conditions.
There is still no blood test that can accurately identify fibromyalgia.
The official research definition further requires that tender
points must be present in all four quadrants of the body--that
is, the upper right and left and lower right and left parts of
your body. You must have had widespread, more-or-less continuous
pain for at least three months. Tender points can fluctuate and
vary from day to day and even hour to hour. Many doctors don't
stick close to the "research definition", will consider
patients with body-wide flu-like symptoms, multiple tender points
(NOT trigger points!), characteristic sleep disruption and resultant
fatigue as fibromyalgia.
This is an emerging
field, and the majority of health care practitioners out there
know little about them, and yet they run, and can ruin, our lives.
Tender points occur in pairs on various parts of the body. Because
they occur in pairs, the pain is usually distributed equally
on both sides of the body. In traumatic FMS, tender points are
often clustered around an injury instead of, or in addition to,
the 18 "official" points. These clusters can also occur
around a repetitive strain or a degenerative and/or inflammatory
problem, such as arthritis. The doctor must be very careful to
distinguish traumatic fibromyalgia from myofascial pain syndrome.
FMS can occur at any age. Many doctors who are expert diagnosticians
of FMS have picked out developing FMS in children at the toddler
stage. There are also people who develop FMS in their geriatric
years. The first trigger points of MPS may occur during birth.
About 25 percent of the FMS patients I see are men. This ratio
still differs from most sources in the literature. I think that
this is due to FMS being under-diagnosed in males. Pain is frequently
the most prominent symptom of FMS, but there are many others.
You will learn why when you get to the section about neurotransmitters.
This is an emerging field, and the majority of health care practitioners
out there know little about them, and yet they run, and can ruin,
our lives.
Your thermal regulatory system may be out of whack. You may notice
this thermal fluctuation when you get out of bed (perhaps often,
due to TrP bladder irritability) during the night. You may have
to wait for your temperature to cool down after getting back
in bed, before you can pull the bed covers up again. Your hormones
become unbalanced. Fingernails can break off, often in crescent-shaped
pieces. If nails do grow, they sometimes start to curve under.
Your cuticles may overgrow, and yet they develop hangnails which
take a long time to heal. You get bruises, but you can't remember
where you got them, and they take forever to heal.
FMS is a sensitivity-amplification syndrome. This means that
you can be are hypersensitive to smells, sounds, lights, and
vibrations. The noise emitted by fluorescent lights can drive
you crazy. You may be unable to tolerate crowds, or cities. Your
body might interpret touch, light, or sound as pain. Your brain
knows pain is a danger signal--an indication that something is
wrong and needs attention--so it mobilizes its defenses. Then,
when those defenses aren't used, it become anxious.
The best way
to deal with flares is to prevent them, and your best preventative
weapon is knowledge.
Sleep, or the lack of it, plays a crucial role in FMS. Perhaps
you
aren't getting enough sleep, or the right kind of sleep. You
may have insomnia of several types, or a host of other sleep-related
problems. People with FMS often have the alpha-delta sleep anomaly.
As soon as we reach deep delta level sleep, alpha waves (awake)
intrude and either jolt us to an awakening or to a lighter stage
of sleep. We wake up feeling like we've been hit by a truck.
That's the sign of unrestorative sleep. Our body heals and many
of our neurotransmitters and other informational substances are
restored and regulated during delta sleep. One might say that
neurotransmitters are the "information superhighway"
between the body and mind. People with FMS have sleep deprivation.
Only about 20% of FMS cases have a known triggering event that
initiates the first obvious "flare." During a flare,
current symptoms become more intense, and new symptoms frequently
develop. Life is out of control. Even the best organized
support systems become strained at this time, and your whole
focus has to be on survival. The best way to deal with flares
is to prevent them, and your best preventative weapon is knowledge.
This article is from Devin
Starlanyl's website. Devin Starlanyl is the author of 3 very
important books
about Fibromyalgia and Myofascial Pain Syndrome.
Go
to the next page for more info and Fibromyalgia links.
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