Explore the conditions associated with Fibromyalgia, their symptoms, and how to manage them for improved well-being.
Are the eyes the window to whatever’s going wrong with the brain in fibromyalgia? Research published in 2015 and 2016 suggests that it just might be. Fibromyalgia is widely believed to be a condition of the central nervous system, which includes the brain and spinal column. It also includes the eyes and the structures that help our brains interpret what we see. Chief among these structures is the optic nerve, which is similar to a cable made…
I’m a fairly open person when it comes to physical and mental illness, but I can also be very reserved, especially about my chronic pain and fatigue. It’s not because I don’t want to share about what’s going on with me, but because I don’t want people to think I’m a “whiner” or “attention seeker.” I am neither of those things. In fact, I’m quite the opposite. A lot of people know I have fibromyalgia. What they don’t…
Social Security has published a ruling that helps define when applicants with fibromyalgia should be granted disability benefits. A lot of candidates for Social Security disability benefits the ones who apply based on fibromyalgia get rejected. The part of the motive was that Social Security does not have a disability “listing” for the condition. (Social Security’s disability listings offer the conditions needed for numerous different impairments to be sanctioned as disabilities.) The Social Security Administration…
We still don’t know what causes fibromyalgia. But we often treat it with a class of drugs that are usually used to treat disorders like seizures. While these drugs can help manage the symptoms of fibromyalgia, they can also cause a range of side effects, including dyskinesia. Dyskinesia is a condition that causes frequent, uncontrollable movements of the limbs. And it can become very difficult to manage if you suffer from it for a long time.…
Achalasia is a rare disease. So rare in fact, that you may never have heard of it. But for people who suffer from the condition, it’s very real and often extremely painful. And it actually has a fair amount of relevance for people with fibromyalgia. That’s because people with fibromyalgia often deal with persistent heartburn. and achalasia can mimic many of the symptoms of that condition. So it’s possible that if you have fibromyalgia and you’re dealing…
This will be the first Christmas that Tammi Hale spends without her husband Doug in over 30 years. The 53-year old Vermont man, who suffered chronic pain from interstitial cystitis, committed suicide in October after his doctor abruptly cut him off from opioid pain medication. “His primary care provider kept trying to wean him off his opioid therapy, which worked at higher doses,” says Tammi. “My husband ran out (of medication) early a few times,…
Summary: People with unrelenting pain are often depressed, anxious and have difficulty making simple decisions. Researchers have identified a clue that may explain how suffering long-term pain could trigger these other pain-related symptoms. Researchers found that in people with chronic pain, a front region of the cortex associated with emotion fails to deactivate when it should. It’s stuck on full throttle, wearing out neurons and altering their connections. People with unrelenting pain don’t only suffer…
It is not uncommon to have hip flexor issues or pain in this area when living with fibromyalgia. The hips, hip flexors, and lower back correlate with fibromyalgia pain areas due to tender areas around the lower back, many more trigger point areas and other conditions that affect the surrounding areas.The hip flexor muscles allow your hips to move with flexibility. You are engaging these muscles whenever you move your legs, and that means your hips…
A recent study threw up an interesting notion on the root of fibromyalgia. The study suggests that fibromyalgia could be caused by malfunctions in two chief body systems – the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) and the Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis (HPA). These two body systems are key in regulating the production of important hormones and managing stress responses by the body. Imbalance in the two-body systems can lead to sleeplessness, lack of energy, higher pain sensitivity, mood…
Shoulder pain is really just pain in the joints and muscles in the shoulder area that may or may not limit what your arm can do. Much of this pain originates in the tissues and bones in the shoulder, and you might also only feel the pain in the middle of physical activity or when you move your arms. Other times you might feel pain in your shoulder nonstop. There are multiple questions you probably…