Educate Yourself on Fibromyalgia

It seems that there are many different diseases and conditions which cause a person consistent pain. One of these is fibromyalgia. This disorder causes pain throughout the entire musculoskeletal system. In addition, the other symptoms of fibromyalgia can damage a person’s ability to easily complete their day to day life activities.

Since there’s no cure for fibromyalgia, it’s important to start treatment for it early upon diagnosing it. While it’s obviously up to a doctor to diagnose it, there’s a way to assist them. Educating yourself about Fibromyalgia can give you a headstart. Seeing the symptoms as they appear can help you pinpoint exactly what’s happening. From there, knowing how to treat the issue will make things easier.

Signs and Symptoms of Fibromyalgia

When it comes to fibromyalgia, there’s a few main symptoms that everyone seems to experience. When experiencing fibromyalgia, it’s expected to see the following:

• Pain Everywhere - This is the most common and headline symptom of fibromyalgia. People feel a pain that lasts throughout their entire body. Typically this sort of dull pain lasts for an extended period of time, many months at a time.
• Fatigue - When people have fibromyalgia they will often wake up still feeling quite tired despite a full night’s sleep. Many will also wake up due to the pain they experience, ensuring they don’t actually get the full sleep they were hoping for. It can also lead to a coexistence of other sleep problems like sleep apnea or restless leg.
• Cognitive Dissonance - A common symptom is sometimes called the “Fibro Fog”. People struggle to focus or fully concentrate on mental issues and tasks.

Treatment of Fibromyalgia

The main type of treatment is fibromyalgia pain treatment. People suffering from fibromyalgia pain are dealing with constant low level pain. The first step will usually be medication. There’s different types of medication that’s used with different goals. They include:

• Pain Relievers - Most of these are the simple over the counter pain relievers intended to mute the pain. In severe cases, they can turn to prescription options advised by a doctor.
• Anti-Seizure Drugs - Some of these drugs also work very well for helping people with fibromyalgia.
• Antidepressant Drugs - The goal of these is to ease the mental pain and the fatigue that people have as they struggle through the trouble of fibromyalgia pain.

In addition to medicine, therapy is often used to help people with fibromyalgia. There’s three types that are commonly used. Counseling assists with the mental aspects for handling stressful situations related to fibromyalgia. Physical therapy works to improve a person physically. Additional strength and stamina are the goal. Occupational therapy works individually with people to help assist them in their specific job and minimize the stress on their body.

Home Remedies

Home remedies for fibromyalgia is all about changing lifestyle. The goal is to make a body as healthy as possible to minimize the effect of fibromyalgia. Home remedies and lifestyle changes include:

• Exercising Regularly - Regular exercise can be painful at first. However, the long term benefit is reduced pain on the body.
• Sleep - Sleep is hard with fibromyalgia is difficult. Getting a full night’s sleep is important. Stick to a specific schedule of repetitive sleep.
• Stress Reduction - It’s difficult to reduce stress. Between, work, family and social situations, stress is sure to crop up.
• Keep Things Even - Activity levels should be maintained instead of going too far with exercise or activity or doing nothing. This moderate level keeps the body at a consistent healthy level.

Complications and Associated Conditions

Fibromyalgia is often experienced by people who suffer from other serious problems. It’s common for fibromyalgia sufferers to also deal with arthritis. This leads to a combined fibromyalgia arthritis pain treatment.

In addition to the issues with arthritis, it’s common for sufferers to have migraines or other bouts of headache pain. As if there wasn’t already enough pain associated with fibromyalgia. Many also suffer from irritable bowel syndrome as well. Other people suffer from more obscure issues like painful bladder syndrome or interstitial cystitis or temporomandibular joint disorders.

Because of the mental stress that fibromyalgia puts on a person, it’s often misunderstood. People unable to sleep and function properly end up displaying a lot of the anxiety and frustration common in depression.