Frequently Asked Questions About Fibromyalgia
What is fibromyalgia?
Fibromyalgia is an arthritis-related condition characterized widespread muscle pain and the presence of tender points, or areas of the body that are particularly sensitive to pressure. Other symptoms may include sleep disturbances, severe fatigue, depression and anxiety, cognitive difficulties, headaches, bladder irritability and spasms, irritable bowel syndrome, jaw problems and painful menstruation.
Fibromyalgia affects 3 percent to 6 percent of Americans, mostly women. Its exact cause is not known.
Who gets fibromyalgia?
Fibromyalgia affects more than 3.7 million Americans. The majority are women between the ages of 40 and 75, but it affects men, young women and children as well. People with other rheumatic diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis or lupus, are at greater risk for fibromyalgia. For example, about 20 to 30 percent of people with rheumatoid arthritis also develop fibromyalgia, although no one knows why.
Fibromyalgia sometimes occurs in more than one member of the same family, but doctors have not verified a hereditary link or common genetic type. Several studies have, however, found a possible link between genetic markers called human leukocyte antigens, or HLAs, and fibromyalgia. This suggests that a gene that predisposes a person to develop fibromyalgia may exist.
What causes fibromyalgia?
No one knows that causes fibromyalgia, although there are a number of theories. Some studies show that an injury or trauma, physical or emotional, may affect the central nervous system’s response to pain. For example, a 2002 Scottish study of 136 patients with fibromyalgia and 152 controls found that 39 percent of those with fibromyalgia had significant physical trauma in the six months before they were diagnosed compared to only 24 percent of the controls. Some scientists theorize that trauma leads to biochemical changes in the muscles and, later, the central nervous system, leading to chronic pain, or that injury to the central nervous system interferes with brain wave patterns. Other researchers believe hormonal changes or infections, such as a flu virus may trigger fibromyalgia.
There are some scientists who suspect that lack of exercise and changes in muscle metabolism may play a role in fibromyalgia or that the opposite, muscle overuse, may be the key.
Sleep disturbance, a symptom of fibromyalgia, may also be a cause. Sleep disturbance lowers the production of a growth hormone crucial to the repair of muscles.
An established link exists between fibromyalgia and depression, but no one knows if depression is a cause or effect of fibromyalgia. What does seem to be true is that all of these conditions may contribute to fibromyalgia for different reasons.
Research is continuing to examine these and other potential causes in hope that a better understanding of what causes fibromyalgia could lead to ways to prevent it or to treat it more effectively.
Why don’t some people take fibromyalgia seriously?
Unlike diabetes, which can be diagnosed with a simple blood test, fibromyalgia does not show up on lab tests. Unlike rheumatoid arthritis, which can cause joints to become swollen and deformed, fibromyalgia’s effects on the body are invisible. Most people with fibromyalgia don’t look sick. In most cases, the only clue there’s a problem is the person’s complaints of hurting all over or constantly feeling tired. Thus, many people – doctors included – have incorrectly assumed the condition is all in one’s head.
Increasingly, however, that attitude is changing. The more researchers learn about this condition, the more doctors are taking it seriously.
