"Fibromyalgia is a chronic invisible condition
that has finally come "out of the closet". Fibromyalgia isn't new. It was
described by William Balfour, a surgeon at the University of Edinburgh,
in the early 1800s. For many years it was called by different names,
including chronic rheumatism, myalgia, and fibrositis.
In 1987, the American Medical Association (AMA), recognized
FMS as a true illness and a major cause of disability. Now, nearly ten
years later, it is still too often dismissed as the "newest fad disease".
Most physicians lack the training to diagnose and treat it. It is incorrect
and a disservice to the patient to lump all soft tissue chronic pain conditions
as fibromyalgia.
FMS is a chronic non-degenerative, non-progressive,
noninflammatory, truly systemic pain condition. Diseases have known causes
and well-understood mechanisms for producing symptoms. FMS is a syndrome,
which means it is a specific set of signs and symptoms that occur together.
This does not mean fibromyalgia is any less serious or potentially disabling
than a disease. Rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and other serious afflictions
are also syndromes. The term "syndrome" is a measure of our ignorance,
not a reflectance of the impact fibromyalgia has on our lives.
Laboratory tests for fibromyalgia are valid only to
rule out other conditions. There is still no blood test that can accurately
identify fibromyalgia.
FMS can occur at any age. Many doctors who are expert
diagnosticians of FMS have picked out developing FMS in children at the
toddler stage. There are also people who develop FMS in their geriatric
years. The first trigger points of MPS may occur during birth.
About 25 percent of the FMS patients I see are men.
This ratio still differs from most sources in the literature. I think that
this is due to FMS being under-diagnosed in males. Pain is frequently the
most prominent symptom of FMS, but there are many others. You will learn
why when you get to the section about neurotransmitters. This is an emerging
field, and the majority of health care practitioners out there know little
about them, and yet they run, and can ruin, our lives.
Your thermal regulatory system may be out of whack.
You may notice this thermal fluctuation when you get out of bed (perhaps
often, due to TrP bladder irritability) during the night. You may have
to wait for your temperature to cool down after getting back in bed, before
you can pull the bed covers up again. Your hormones become unbalanced.
Fingernails can break off, often in crescent-shaped
pieces. If nails do grow, they sometimes start to curve under. Your cuticles
may overgrow, and yet they develop hangnails which take a long time to
heal. You get bruises, but you can't remember where you got them, and they
take forever to heal.
FMS is a sensitivity-amplification syndrome. This means
that you can be are hypersensitive to smells, sounds, lights, and
vibrations. The noise emitted by fluorescent lights can drive you crazy.
You may be unable to tolerate crowds, or cities. Your body might
interpret touch, light, or sound as pain. Your brain knows pain is a danger
signal--an indication that something is wrong and needs attention--so
it mobilizes its defenses. Then, when those defenses aren't used, it
become anxious.
Sleep, or the lack of it, plays a crucial role in FMS.
Perhaps you aren't getting enough sleep, or the right kind of sleep.
You may have insomnia of several types, or a host of other sleep-related
problems. People with FMS often have the alpha-delta sleep anomaly. As
soon as we reach deep delta level sleep, alpha waves (awake) intrude
and either jolt us to an awakening or to a lighter stage of sleep. We wake
up feeling like we've been hit by a truck. That's the sign of unrestorative
sleep. Our body heals and many of our neurotransmitters and other
informational substances are restored and regulated during delta sleep.
One might say that neurotransmitters are the "information superhighway"
between the body and mind. People with FMS have sleep deprivation.
Only about 20% of FMS cases have a known triggering
event that initiates the first obvious "flare." During a flare, current
symptoms become more intense, and new symptoms frequently develop. Life
is out of control. Even the best organized support systems
become strained at this time, and your whole focus has to be on survival.
"
