The second highest disorder in bones and muscles is fibromyalgia. The bad thing is it is mostly misunderstood and misdiagnosed. The most predominant symptoms are widespread pain in the joint and fatigue.
Causes behind this disease:
Most physicians are still confused about its causes, yet many think the problem lies with how the human brain and the spinal cord processes the pain signal received from nerves.
Physicians opine that certain things signal that an individual is more prone to get the disease. These could be:
- You are a woman
- You have some kind of painful disease like that of an infection or arthritis
- You suffer from mood disorder, for instance depression or anxiety
- You have PTSD or Posttraumatic Stress Disorder or were emotionally or physically abused
- It could be hereditary
- You hardly exercise
Symptoms of the disease:
To put it simply, the patient has complete body pain, with common symptoms like muscle pain, twitching, tightness, and/or burning. There is low threshold of pain or tender points, fatigue, trouble in remembering or concentrating, suffer with insomnia or do not sleep well.
The symptoms of fibromyalgia could feel similar to osteoarthritis, tendinitis, and bursitis. However, rather than hurting in specific area, there could be stiffness and pain through the entire body.
Other symptoms in fibromyalgia could include:
Other common symptoms include pain in the belly, constipation, queasiness, bloating, and diarrhea (irregular and irritable bowels), headaches, dry mouth, eyes, and nose. The patient could also feel sensitivity to sound, light, cold, or heat, frequent urination, numbing sensation or tingling on feet, arms, hands, face, or feet.
Diagnosis
Your physician would examine and request your past medical issues and other family members. There is no test that could clearly diagnose your having fibromyalgia. Instead, as the symptoms are quite similar to other conditions, your doctor would want to say you don’t have illness like different types in thyroid, arthritis, underactive thyroid, and lupus. So, you would probably have to get your blood test and check hormone levels plus understand the signs of inflammation along with X-rays.
If your physician isn’t able to diagnose the exact reason behind your pain, they may use two-part system of scoring to measure how widespread the pain has been also how much the symptoms are affecting the daily life. With the help of those results together, you can come up with a plan on managing the condition.
Treatment:
Depending on the symptoms, the physician may prescribe antidepressants, pain relievers, drugs, muscle relaxers, etc. that helps you rest and sleep. There are three drugs that are specifically for pain in fibromyalgia, viz;
- Duloxetine
- Milnacipran
- Pregabalin
Over-the-counter medicines may bring down the pain as well. Stronger medicines, for instance opioids, usually don’t work well for long and you could get dependent on them. Moderate exercise at a moderate rate is the main method physicians suggest of controlling fibromyalgia. You would better conduct low-impact activities that would help in building your endurance, strengthen and stretch your muscles, plus help in improving your ability of moving with ease. Indulge in physical activities like tai chi, yoga, walking, and pilates. With exercise, endorphins are increased in the body that fights pain, feeling low, and anxiety and stress. It could bring in better sleep. The patient could also attempt complementary therapies like massage, acupuncture, along with chiropractic manipulation to bring the level of stress and aches.
Suresh Hospital’s treatment:
A counselor, support group, or therapist could help you deal with stressful emotions. at Suresh Hospital, we attend to the patients taking an all round perspective of the condition. We look into the patient’s condition and after following all tests, we provide therapies or medications that is best suited for the patient to cure.