Chronic fibromyalgia is a condition characterized by chronic muscular pain. The pain affects all of the muscles and the ligaments of the body, and the patient typically feels very heightened painful response to pressure. Most of the patients affected by this disease are women, especially those in their middle 30’s to late 50’s. It is estimated that about 2 to 4 percent of the population suffers from this disease. According to the official documentation, fibromyalgia is often co-morbid with a diversity of psychiatric conditions for example depression, anxiety and stress-related disorders. However, diagnosis for chronic fibromyalgia is still controversial, despite the issues it causes, since there is no scientific consensus about its definite cause.
Fibromyalgia issues
Fibromyalgia is mainly associated with a constant feeling of pain. It is, to some extent, similar to arthritis, but here the pain and discomfort do not affect only joints, but also the muscles and ligaments. Patients typically complain about the pain in their shoulders, back, hips and neck, accompanied with typical burning-like feeling, aching or stabbing. Typically, the pain is increased in the morning, and it gradually alleviates during the day.Tightly associated with pain is another prominent issue characteristic for fibromyalgia – a constant fatigue. Patients often feel very tired and exhausted, and their levels of tiredness may range from mild to extremely severe. In most severe cases, patients will have troubles in everyday life and no amount of good night's sleep will help them feel better during the day.
Other common issues include problems with memory and concentration, depression, mental fogginess, anxiety, nervousness, frequent headaches, problems with insomnia, numbness, feeling dizzy and having problems with intestines.
Causes of chronic fibromyalgia
Science has no definite answer to the question what actually causes fibromyalgia. Some of the studies indicate that fibromyalgia results from certain sleeping problems. Proponents of this theory claim that fibromyalgia is caused by a lack of deep sleep that helps our body to relax and recover from daily strains.
Another theory proposes that people with fibromyalgia simply process pain differently. As a support to this theory, scientists have found that a particular cerebrospinal fluid, which transmits pain impulses to the brain, has triple levels in people affected by chronic fibromyalgia, than in those who do not have the condition.
According to all this, science doesn’t have a good advice on prevention of fibromyalgia. As always, the best possible approach to prevention is to lead a healthy lifestyle, try to get enough of good sleep and try to manage the daily stress.
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