When someone fights a daily battle to move around freely or simply to feel comfortable without the feeling of aching all over, something is seriously wrong and this is the lot of a fibromyalgia sufferer.

Fibromyalgia is a syndrome which is is still very much misunderstood and many who suffer from it tend to withdraw from life simply because they don’t want to be seen as hypochondriacs.

Symptoms Of Fibromyalgia

So what is Fibromyalgia and what actually causes it? At this time, researchers are still working on theories although they are getting close to “nailing” possible causes.

Explaining symptoms of fibromyalgia is where non-believers like to have a shot at it’s validity because there are still several theories. In a nutshell let’s take a look at what fibromyalgia is not:

- it’s not an inflammatory disease and
- it should not be thrown in the trauma basket or associated with trauma

One of the best explanations we’ve seen is that it is akin to referred pain. In other words, fibromyalgia can be categorized as referred pain emanating from areas of the body such as muscle, fat and the tissue surrounding muscles known as fascia.

Referred pain you say? Is that a condition? After all, examinations reveal there is no disease present. Why does this matter? It’s a little like UFO sightings - we think they’re out there but until someone can produce a real live spacecraft and an alien which we can physically see or touch, they will remain a mystery.

Symptoms Of Fibromyalgia - Refeered Pain

One theory relates to referred pain being caused following translation of messages by the brain to the body following the chemicals of nerve cells within the brain being stimulized. The term used for this is “pain modulation.” Another description refers to “down regulation of endorphins.”

Trying to find a medical comparison, medicos will use an analogy such as rheumatic fever. Rheumatic fever surfaces due to hypersensitivity - hypersensitivity to an infection such as the throat.

The theory is that the cause of symptoms of fibromyalgia is similar - an infection or area of the body under stress will result in a similar reaction.

In layman’s terms, the cause of fibromyalgia can still be put under the “theory”banner. Triggers known to exacerbate the condition include exposure to inclement weather including wet conditions. Another connection found in fibromyalgia sufferers is sleep pattern abnormalities.

Unrested sleep is a common complaint. People with symptoms of fibromyalgia often report waking up feeling more tired than when they first went to bed.

Filed under: Diseases And Conditions

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