Fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia is a pain that spreads broadly across the muscles, ligaments and tendons that support the back, neck and limbs, so it can affect quite a lot of different parts of the body.

It is not known what exactly causes Fibromyalgia, but certain factors seem to increase the risk of getting it. Infections seem to sometimes bring it on or aggravate it. It also seems to run in the family. It seems to appear more often when another member of the family has experienced it. It also seems more prevalent in women than in men. Understandably enough, injury and trauma, such as from a car accident, seems to trigger it off.

Symptoms

The three main symptoms of Fibromyalgia are:

1) the widespread pain, itself occurring on both sides of the body and in the lower part as well as the top part,
2) Intense fatigue to the point that one is feeling tired from the moment of waking up and often not even being able to sleep properly because of being woken up by the pain,
3) Fogginess in thinking, being unable to focus sharply on a task.

It is not known which is cause and which is effect, but Fibromyalgia is often accompanied by other conditions such as migraine and bowel and bladder disorders.

Treatments

The treatments for fibromyalgia are to be used together as no one treatment works for every symptom you might have. The treatments are used to minimize symptoms and to improve your health in general. These treatments include both caring for yourself at home and medication and therapy.

Medication

Drugs can help to relieve pain and help you to sleep. These include:

Pain relievers — you can get pain relief either over-the-counter or from your doctor. Acetaminophen (Tylenol, etc.), Ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin IB, etc.), and naproxen sodium (Aleve, etc.) are over-the-counter pain relief that can help to reduce the pain of fibromyalgia. Your doctor may prescribe something stronger such as tramadol (Ultram) if over-the-counter medication does not work.
Anti-depressants — pain and fatigue are symptoms of fibromyalgia and anti-depressants can help to combat them. Drugs such as duloxetine (Cymbalta) and milnacipran (Savella) can help with this. In order to help you sleep, you might be prescribed amitriptyline or a muscle relaxant like cyclobenzaprine.
Anti-seizure drugs — to reduce certain kinds of pain, medication used for epilepsy can be used. Medication such as gabapentin (Neurontin) and pregabalin (Lyrica) can help reduce fibromyalgia symptoms.

Therapy

Physical therapy — you can be taught different exercise that will help to reduce pain by increasing your strength, stamina and flexibility. Try water based exercise like aerobics for better affect.
Occupational therapy — in order to cause less stress on your body, an occupational therapist can help to make your work space and actions easier to manage.
Counselling — to strengthen your beliefs and to learn ways to deal with stress you can talk to a counselor.

Things to do at Home

Exercise — it could be that exercise increases your pain at first but the longer you do it and gradually building it can help to decrease pain and symptoms.
Reduce stress as much as possible — make a plan to limit the amount of fatigue and emotional stress in your day-to-day life. You might have to consult a therapist in order to help you and show you which actions can help you to reduce stress. Ask your therapist about stress management techniques.
Make sure to get enough sleep — getting sufficient sleep is very important for fibromyalgia as fatigue can be a major symptom. Try to practice good sleeping habits, like the time you go to bed and the time you get out of bed and limit daytime napping.
Be healthy — be aware of leading a healthy lifestyle with a good diet and limitation for bad foods and drinks like caffeine and sugar.

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