Our bodies are mysteries of nature. In one way or another, they are so similar to the mechanism behind a computer that it can be scary to think that our bodies can “break” unexpectedly as well – and that there may be no repairman that is able to “fix” it.
Medical technology has really come a very, very long way, but there are questions to which we still cannot give any answer. How to cure cancer, AIDS and how to safely remove certain types of tumors? Why do we feel depressed?
What causes arthritis? The number of questions seems to be ever-growing and it seems that no matter how much research is being made, the answers fail to appear as a natural consequence.
Fibromyalgia is a riddle and not many can solve it. In fact, nobody can solve it completely, as nobody knows exactly what its causes are, how to cure it or why it is that certain people are more prone to developing it. There are medical professionals who will instantly dismiss even the idea that fibromyalgia is real and there are doctors who will openly admit that it does exist but that it is very difficult to diagnose. And then, there are the doctors who will mistakenly take it as one of the many other associated and very much similar conditions: depression, myofascial pain syndrome, the chronic fatigue syndrome or even rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.
What is Fibromyalgia, Then?
We don’t know. Fibromyalgia is a syndrome that involves such a wide range of symptoms that it seems close to impossible to even try to define it. Indeed, the number of symptoms patients with fibromyalgia show can be overwhelming. From widespread pain in the body to headaches, vomiting, bladder issues and palpitations to cognitive issues (loss of short-term memory, impaired speed, limited attention span) and depression and anxiety, fibromyalgia can show a lot of signs and symptoms.
It happens quite commonly that fibromyalgia patients get diagnosed with other diseases and medical conditions precisely because there are so many symptoms that are similar to those of these diseases. For example, patients with fibromyalgia very frequently show fatigue and malaise symptoms, the same as those who have the chronic fatigue syndrome, but the fact is, the two conditions are different and they should be treated differently.
The cause that leads to fibromyalgia is completely unknown. There are many theories out there, one of the strongest ones being that fibromyalgia is caused by a dysfunction at the level of the cells that send pain signals to the brain. There are even people who connect fibromyalgia with thyroid issues and people who connect fibromyalgia with depression (this time, as a cause and not just as a symptom, risk factor or co-morbid medical condition).
Since the cause of this syndrome remains mysterious, there is no cure either. The treatment administered in the case of fibromyalgia includes pain medication, medication meant to treat the separate symptoms (for example, drugs for the irritable bowel syndrome) and, sometimes, medication that is approved for treating fibromyalgia (some of these drugs are anti-depressants at their origin and they can show adverse effects similar to them). Furthermore, alternative therapies are recommended too, because they can help patients manage the level of pain as well.
Hip Pain and Fibromyalgia
Hip pain is one of the many symptoms fibromyalgia patients can experience. The pain can be difficult to handle and it will need proper treatment to be alleviated so it is important that you present yourself to the doctor if you feel that your hip pain has been going on for a long time (generally speaking, pain starts to be labeled as “chronic” after 3 months in the human body).
It is important that you know that hip pain is not a symptom present in fibromyalgia only. There are many other conditions that could lead to this kind of pain and one of the most common ones is arthritis. This is a joint disease that is very, very commonly spread (even more than fibromyalgia) and which can be considered to be as enigmatic as fibromyalgia and, same as in the case of this syndrome, its real causes are not yet known.
What arthritis does is attack the joints of the bone structure, which can cause chronic pain in the area in which it develops. Hip pain appears in the case of arthritis patients too, the same as it appears in the case of those with fibromyalgia. However, it is definitely worth noting that the pain in the case of arthritis is a bone-related pain, while the pain experienced by those with fibromyalgia is related to the muscles and tissues.
Furthermore, the fibromyalgia hip pain is more widespread and less centralized than the arthritis hip pain. Also, do bear in mind the fact that older patients with fibromyalgia can experience referred hip pain and knee pain connected to the hip as well.
How to Treat Hip Pain?
If you have been diagnosed with fibromyalgia, you should talk to your doctor about your hip pain. He/she will be able to recommend or prescribe pain-management medication that can help you cope with it better.
In addition to this, make sure that you do exercise. It can be extremely hard to exercise when chronic pain is something you have to deal with every day, but the truth is that it can help you a lot. However, do not exercise on your own if you do not know exactly what to do. The best way to do this is attend physical therapy classes where a specialist can guide you through the best types of exercises for your problem.
Yoga, Tai Chi, meditation and acupuncture can also be helpful, as many patients claim. Although you may be skeptical to the effectiveness of these Eastern-borrowed practices, they can be efficient for fibromyalgia because they stretch the body and they work with certain points on your body that could communicate with the painful area (such as in the case of acupuncture).
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