There are a lot of odd things that happen with fibromyalgia; many of them are related to the symptoms of the disorder. One of the oddest symptoms that we have come across when looking at the disease is the prevalence of cold symptoms. Why do cold symptoms even play a factor in fibromyalgia at all? What purpose do they serve, and how can we make sure that we are able to deal with them in an effective manner? That’s what we’re going to look at here in this article.
What Cold Symptoms Are Associated with Fibromyalgia?
The common cold is something that a lot of people know and deal with; many people end up dealing with it on a monthly or yearly basis, depending on where they live and how good their immune systems are. That being said, you are likely familiar with the symptoms of the common cold and know when you’d have a cold. But what symptoms of the common cold often overlap with fibromyalgia? If you’ve got fibromyalgia, then you want to make sure that you keep an eye out for the following symptoms, because they may be more related than you realize.
– This word literally means “swollen nose” in Latin. Rhino (where we get the word “rhinoceros”) means nose, and “-itis” means swollen. You know that feeling that you get when your nose is all swollen and red during a cold? That’s rhinitis, and that will also happen when you are dealing with fibromyalgia as well.
– Stuffy, runny nose. This usually goes hand in hand with rhinitis, but it doesn’t always have to. We may have stuffy noses or have to wipe our noses on a regular basis because they won’t stop running. Sometimes, this is related to allergies (especially if it isn’t connected with rhinitis); other times, it may be a result of a weakened immune system or not getting enough sleep.
– Many times, people with fibromyalgia will cough without any reason. Of course, if you’re dealing with mucus, it’s going to make sense that you are fighting off a cough. But what if the cough seems to be for no good reason at all? What can cause this sort of thing to happen? Sometimes, the pain is enough for us to have to try and deal with, and coughing just comes as a side effect of it.
– Watery Eyes. Our eyes will often water up for a variety of reasons, including pain, irritation, and a variety of other reasons. Because there are so many reasons that our eyes may end up watering. Watery eyes are a normal part of colds, and our eyes will water as a reaction to a number of different things. In some cases, our eyes also may just be incredibly dry, which is also a common side effect of having fibromyalgia.
– Headaches are something else entirely, and if you have ever deal with these often frustrating pains, you may realize that they’re frustrating and, in the worst cases, can end up being incredibly debilitating. Much of what happens with headaches is due to the stress that the body is put under as a result of the fibromyalgia – if you are feeling tense or stressed, you are likely going to have headaches because your body just can’t deal with what is going on.
Preventing Cold Symptoms Related to Fibromyalgia
So, what can we do in order to prevent the cold symptoms that often come as a side effect to fibromyalgia? There’s a few things. First off, make sure that you are doing everything that you can in order to make sure that your body is in the best condition possible. Take your vitamins, ingest a lot of vitamin C, and eat lots of leafy greens. You basically want to treat your body like it has a cold, but do it on a regular basis so that you can fight off whatever is actually causing the cold and allergy issues that you may be fending off as a result of your fibromyalgia.
Another thing that you absolutely have to do is keep track of the symptoms that you are dealing with. Why? Because some of them may end up getting worse over time, or they may end up causing reactions that your body really isn’t able to deal with in a healthy way. Or, in some cases, you may even end up actually getting sick as a result – and because you ignored the symptoms, you may not even be able to realize when you actually have the cold or the flu.
Last but not least, please make sure that you are getting enough sleep during the night (and you may even want to take naps during the day). If you are not getting sufficient rest, then your body is not going to be able to function properly, thus making it difficult for you to recover from any ailments that may come up.
The rhinitis is thought to occur, at times, because the body doesn’t understand how to react to the pain that it is going through, so, like other areas of the body, it becomes red and swollen. Pain management, which also includes getting the right amount of sleep on a daily basis, is going to help you tremendously, and it could end up causing some, if not all, of the cold symptoms to go away or, at the very least, to reduce to a level where they are able to be tolerated more.
Instead of constantly feeling like you have the flu or a bad cold, there are plenty of things that you can do in order to make sure that you aren’t dealing with additional symptoms of fibromyalgia. The cold symptoms may just feel like an inconvenience, but if you don’t keep an eye on them, they may end up turning into much more of an issue in the future. Like any fibromyalgia symptom, you want to make sure that you are taken care of. Talk to your doctor for more information.
Further reading
Cold Symptoms and Fibromyalgia: http://www.fibromyalgia-symptoms.org/fibromyalgia_cold_symptoms.html
Info on Fibromyalgia and cold and flu season: http://www.medhelp.org/user_journals/show/601/Info-on-Fibromyalgia-and-cold-and-flu-season
Comments