Chronic pain + Fatigue + Tender points = Fibromyalgia

Are you suffering from chronic fatigue and sleeping problems? are you having chronic pain with multiple tender points all over your body? All these symptoms could be related to a condition called Fibromyalgia.

Fibromyalgia is a chronic condition that affects the soft tissues like muscles, tendons and ligaments. It can cause pain and stiffness all over the body. One of my patients was feeling tired for a longtime. She described her pain as severe tender points on both sides of her body which are very sensitive to touch.

She was also having headaches, feeling down with sleeping problems. lots of times, fibromyalgia can also be present with other conditions like migraine, IBS and pain in in the jaw joint, which is called TMJ.

The cause of this condition is not known but could be related to chemical imbalance in the brain. Women are more likely to have it than men. There is no blood test or X-ray to diagnose this condition, but we normally do different tests to exclude other serious conditions.
What about the treatment? the treatment can be difficult because there is no cure for fibromyalgia, but certain medications can help improve the symptoms. Some of them are over the counter pain medications or mild prescription pain killers.
Another medicine used is Pregabalin like Lyrica which is used for chronic pain or Duloxetine like Cymbalta which is also used for depression.

More importantly, doing exercise, water aerobics and muscle stretching are very helpful. Also, avoiding stress by preforming yoga, meditation and good sleeping habits can improve this condition as well.

Unfortunately, this chronic disease is very disturbing and frustrating to the patients, either physically or even psychologically, to the point it can result in a chronic anxiety and depression, which will interfere with their daily life both at home and at work.

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video shot and edited by: Fadi Helbaoui
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