Fibromyalgia is an extremely peculiar, but still very serious and daunting disorder that affects nearly one out of every twenty Americans. The fibromyalgia disorder has been defined as a musculoskeletal pain that is spread all over the body and that is oftentimes paired with several symptoms and states, including chronic fatigue, occasional memory loss, severe mood alterations, and can alter sleeping patterns and create sleeping issues.
Researchers of the fibromyalgia disorder have pointed to the fact that people with fibromyalgia sometimes can be affected by heightened painful sensations that cause the brain to become overly receptive of the pain flares and fatigue may ensue.
The fibromyalgia disorder affects far more of the female population than it does the male population. Those diagnosed with the fibromyalgia often claim that they experience tension headaches or migraines and will suffer from a certain joint disorder known as temporomandibular joint disorder, or TMJ. Sometimes, irritable bowel syndrome, or what is known as IBS, can be paired with, or possibly cause by, fibromyalgia.
Additionally, feelings of anxiety and more severe states of depression have been found in patients with fibromyalgia. The primary cause of fibromyalgia has not been verified either. However, it has been noted that in many cases the symptoms associated to fibromyalgia soon begin after someone has gone through some form of physical trauma, has a major surgery, and on the rare occasion, after that person has been dealing with lots of emotional stress.
It has also been documented on some occasions that an infection may have triggered the fibromyalgia symptoms. At the present time, no verifiable cure of fibromyalgia has been identified, but there are a few options made available to those with fibromyalgia to help ease them of their symptoms.
While there are a limited amount of these options for people to rid them of the disorder, several medications and a few natural or home remedies have been used to treat the symptoms and have at least some success in easing the toll of the symptoms if only for a short time.
It has also been advised that adequate exercise, adoption of a healthy diet, and the use of several stress reducing activities and some tested relaxation methods can help with soothing or easing the symptoms.
Primary Fibromyalgia
Primary fibromyalgia, also known as idiopathic fibromyalgia, can be quite difficult to treat because there are no concrete clues as to what triggered the disorder. Experts have strayed from calling primary fibromyalgia a disease for this reason and have chosen to call it a dysfunctional disorder instead.
It has been theorized that the primary fibromyalgia disorder is caused by a conglomerate of biological responses from the body to stress. Individuals who are more prone to these stresses are at a greater risk due to their histories with stress and negative responses to it or possibly their genetic histories.
A recent study was conducted on the children of mothers that were diagnosed with fibromyalgia and reported that nearly thirty percent of those children also developed the dysfunctional disorder. The study was done on children that had no differences in terms of psychological disorders but still were diagnosed with the fibromyalgia disorder or never developed the disorder.
Another study that was conducted explained that nearly two-thirds of the parents of children that were diagnosed with the fibromyalgia disorder has once reported some type of chronic pain their adult history. Of these parents, about ten percent of their children were reported as having fibromyalgia.
The closeness of a family cannot be identified as a primary factor, but it should be noted that one study examined that the fibromyalgia’s symptom’s severity in children that had been diagnosed with the disorder and had parents that had more issue in coping with their offspring’s pain and symptoms was quite higher than those who had more supportive and emotionally available parents. This, or course, is not determinable by concrete evidence.
Chronic Sleep Disturbances
There have been some signs noticed by researchers and experts on and of primary fibromyalgia that many patients that have been diagnosed with the disorder had been subject to some sort of disturbed sleeping pattern. These people had notified their physician in the past before being diagnosed that had not been sleeping well and were often disrupted by several factors while they were trying to sleep at night.
There have been several studies conducted to find some sort of correlation between disturbances in sleeping patterns and the eventual development of primary fibromyalgia disorder. One of the studies conducted had volunteers that had never been diagnosed with fibromyalgia, but did report they had the same pains attributed to the fibromyalgia disorder after they had been subjects of disrupted deep sleeping on several occasions.
From this study, and several others, it can be suggested that disturbances in a person’s deep sleep at night may actually be a factor that triggers the body’s immune system and eventually causes the pain and inflammation that is commonly associated with primary fibromyalgia disorder.
Primary fibromyalgia is the most common of all widespread muscular pain. The disorder currently affects nearly two percent of the population. It has documented that two thirds of all individuals that have been diagnosed with the fibromyalgia disorder are, in fact, women.
There is still not verifiable research to point to an exact cause for the skewing of the data that showcases women to be more prone to the disorder than men. Additionally, it has been evidenced that the severity of the fibromyalgia disorder is significantly increased in the women that are affected by it in comparison to the men.
There is some evidence that shows that individuals with relatives that have been diagnosed with the disorder are more likely to develop it. While the disorder is quite an unusual one, the rate of incidence surrounding the disorder is becoming more and more prevalent in many populations, including female children. Researches must look to identify the primary causes of the disorder before they can find a justifiable cure for it.
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