Posted on 04/26/2008 8:59:33 AM PDT by blam
Fibromyalgia Affects Women More Often Than Men
ScienceDaily (Apr. 26, 2008) — Are you exhausted? Do you have pain all over but can’t figure out what’s wrong? If so, you may be suffering from fibromyalgia, a chronic condition that causes exhaustion, sleep disturbances and diffuse pain in your muscles, tendons, and ligaments.
Fibromyalgia patients experience a range of symptoms of varying intensities that increase and decrease over time and often resemble other conditions. For years, because of their complex nature and a lack of research on the condition, many doctors misdiagnosed fibromyalgia symptoms or dismissed them as being in the patient’s head. Even today, it is estimated to take an average of five years for a fibromyalgia patient to get an accurate diagnosis.
There is no laboratory test available to diagnose fibromyalgia. Doctors must rely on patient histories, self-reported symptoms, a physical examination and an accurate manual tender point examination.
To receive a diagnosis of fibromyalgia, a patient must experience widespread pain in all four quadrants of the body for a minimum duration of three months and experience tenderness or pain in at least 11 of the 18 specified tender points when pressure is applied.
Fibromyalgia may affect as much as 3-6 percent of the U.S. population. It is more common in women than in men, but the reasons for this difference are unclear. “There are various theories, depending on which research you're looking at, but nothing absolutely definitive has come forward yet,” says Elisabeth Deffner, executive editor of Fibromyalgia AWARE, a publication of the National Fibromyalgia Association in Anaheim, Calif. Researchers are examining hormones, immune system differences, brain chemistry and genetics, among other areas, to shed light on the sex differences.
Although the cause of fibromyalgia is currently unknown, many researchers hypothesize that the symptoms result from “central sensitization.” According to this idea, sufferers of fibromyalgia have a heightened sensitivity in the brain to pain signals and as a result, have a lower pain threshold. As time goes on, the brain's pain receptors become conditioned to remember pain and potentially overreact to the brain's chemical signals or neurotransmitters. In other word, people with fibromyalgia may experience pain in stronger ways than others who don't have the condition.
Aside from predominantly affecting women, there are several risk factors for fibromyalgia:
* Age: the condition usually occurs in people between the ages of 20-60 years, although cases have been reported in children and elderly people. Some research studies have noted peaks around age 35.
* Family History: studies have shown that having a relative with fibromyalgia may put you at higher risk for developing the disorder.
* Other Rheumatic Diseases: a person who has other rheumatic diseases including rheumatoid arthritis and lupus may be more likely to develop fibromyalgia than those who do not have a rheumatic disease.
* Stress: although controversial, certain studies suggest that people who have had difficult or stressful past experiences may be at risk of developing fibromyalgia.
Because the causes of fibromyalgia are not clear and no cure exists, the goal of treating fibromyalgia is to control symptoms and minimize discomfort.
“Practitioners must diagnose and treat co-morbidities of fibromyalgia,” said Shanda Shribbs, Executive Director of the National Fibromyalgia Research Association in Salem, Ore. “Untreated restless legs, sleep apnea and upper airway resistance syndrome can have a dramatic impact on sleep and fatigue. Other conditions such as cervical cord compression, irritable bowel syndrome and myofascial pain syndrome are frequent co-morbidities which should be considered and treated when they are present.”
Common medications for treating fibromyalgia pain include analgesics (including NSAIDs or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs), muscle relaxants and anti-seizure drugs. Medications to ease sleep disturbances include: anti-depressants and short-term use of sleeping pills. Some doctors recommend combining medication with therapy to help patients learn to techniques to cope with stress, which can exacerbate or trigger pain symptoms. Some patients have found relief through alternative treatments including: acupuncture and massage therapy.
Adapted from materials provided by Society for Women's Health Research.
I have a severe case of fibromyalgia. It caused me to quit work when I was 40, and I didn’t even know what it was.
I just gave people diffuse excuses because I didn’t want them to think I was a hypochondriac.
I know of 3 women that have it....
it is kinda scary
I have personally seen quite a few male steroid users who get it at certain times in their dosage cycle.
My oldest daughter was an elite swimmer, an American record holder at the age of 15. When she was competing in Australia she had a series of physical problems that led to knew surgery. She never really recovered, and the pains just seemed to move. At first the coach and trainers thought that she was just a hypochondriac, then the doctors decided it was fibromyalgia. She was adamant that it was not.
The pains disappeared for the most part as long as she didn’t swim. When she was 35 she decided to try a triathlon, but when she started training, the pain occurred in her back. People talked her into seeing a chiropractor. It turns out that when she was fifteen, at that Australian swim meet, she broke her neck when she swam into the wall during a IM competition. All the other pains were related to that. No fibromyalgia. No one had ever thought to xray the upper part of her body. Another swimmer on her team, a back stroker, was also diagnosed with fibromyalgia and we have been wondering if the same thing had happened to her. Their necks were just so strong that they didn’t realize how bad the injury was.
I know what you feel, they think your nuts. For me, it was brought on by severe trauma to one of my legs, (at least that is what they say causes it in most cases). It started showing it's symptoms after I had extensive reconstruction surgery to my leg.
I have it as well. Its brutal. There are days when I feel like I’m being beaten to death by a gang of thugs armed with crowbars.
I was one of the lucky ones. It took only 2 months before I was diagnosed, my doctor has it and recognized the symptoms.
I have theory that it may be caused by a malfunction in the as-yet-undiscovered mechanism that regulates neurotransmitter levels. Just last week I found an herb that has been shown in clinical trials to regulate neurotransmitter levels, but the don’t know how it does that. I’m guessing its by strengthening that mechanism. I’ve ordered the herb, we’ll see if it works. Might take a few months of testing to be sure though, the symptoms come and go on their own so much.
Its called roseroot, or rhodelia rosea (I may be misspelling the latin there). Its mild enough that it is still eaten like a vegetable in some cultures, a huge plus given the way I react to things sometimes.
Mrs Alloysteel has this disorder.
Enough so, that she was awarded disability because of it. Not the fibromyalgia itself, but the COPD she developed, which was sufficient to grant the ruling.
Once she got off the mountain and down to sea level, most of the COPD symptoms went into recission. But not the fibromyalgia.
She got steroids, particularly prednisone. Prednisone causes the shape of your skeleton to change, thickening some bones and thinning others. While she was bending over, doing some relatively simple task, her pelvic cradle snapped in four places, and while it was healing back, a sciatic nerve was exposed and damaged by the edge of the bone fracture. She ended up in a power wheelchair, until orthopedic surgery on her spine was done to relieve the pressure on the sciatic nerve. She recovered well enough to walk again, but gone is the endurance and agility she once knew, She still has to rely on the power wheelchair if she must traverse any distance greater than a couple hundred yards. So we end up trucking it just about everywhere. She gets around the house OK, but only rarely gets out into the yard.
It changes the way you look at prospects of what you might do in an afternoon.
My thoughts and prayers are with anyone that has this diffcuilt disease...
http://web.mit.edu/london/www/magnesium.html
read this....my husband has FM. I did alot of research and found high doses of magnesium REALLY helped him w/ pain and all the other peripheral issues, such as restless leg, cramps, twitches and night sweats (all are completely gone). Take a Vitamin D supplement as well.
Only take magnesium malate (source naturals is a good brand) and take 6-8tabs/day. This is about 800-900 mg of mag.
I promise you’ll feel better.
I believe that FM is related to the massive increase in filtered water; all of our minerals are disappearing and we’re deficient.
My fibro was not diagnosed until I was about 21 yrs old (some 20 yrs ago). After I was diagnosed the doctors had me on every kind of meds possible. I did that for about 15 yrs and I had finally had enough with the side effects from the prescription meds. I stop all meds including Tylenol in which I discovered Tylenol was the cause of my migraine headaches which I had also suffered from since I was 13 yrs old.
I have been nearly med free for about 7 years. I have learned how to manage it without all year around daily meds for fibro. I sleep and rest when my body aches and I have learned what my limits are.
Winter is the worse time for me. So I do get a prescription from the doctor over winter for Flexeril and Amitriptyline but I only use these as needed and not on a daily basis. I sometimes use Zanaflex for a few days when it is really really bad. Typically a 30 day supply gets me through all winter as I only take them when I have a winter flare up that won't go away.
I really believe that Fibro can be self managed through diet, sleep, rest, heat therapy by using heating pads, Thermacare pads, Ace bandages on sore joints to help keep body heat in and knowing your limits in most cases.
Drugs should only be used during bad flare ups. It seemed that all the prescription drugs the doctors had me on after I was diagnosed made me feel worse and too dependent on the drugs. The drugs also caused other health problems.
I try my best to also avoid salt in my diet as much as possible. I crave salt like crazy and if I go on a salt eating binge then my Fibro really acts up. The only thing I take daily all year long is a Centrum Chewable Multi Vitamin and one Claritin for my sinus problems.
My advise to anyone who has Fibro and takes a lot of daily meds for it is to try and wean yourself off the daily meds as they are most likely causing more problems. You may find that you can manage your fibro on your own and just take some meds during your worse flare ups.
I think the hardest thing is accepting that you have a illness and that so little is known about it and that there is no known cure for it. I think once someone accepts having it, then they will learn how to manage it without the use of daily drugs day in and day out.
I know this lady from church that was diagnosed with fibromyalgia. She tried different remedies but nothing work. Eventually, she and her husband divorced because he was having an affair. She’s been well ever since to the point of holding down a job and raising her daughter. Hmnnn!!
I couldn’t function due to pain in every muscle; even dressing was painful so I wore a robe in the house to avoid the dressing pain; had to hold on to something to go down stairs; I fell easily as my balance was mostly gone; if I was standing and closed my eyes, I fell; I never went into deep sleep. A regular doctor gave me Hydrocodone pain pills; they didn’t work. When my feet became numb, went to neurologist. He explained the pain was neurological so Hydrocodone was useless. I am now mostly okay due to taking Elavil (calms down neurological pathways that were excessively firing causes muscles to constrict constantly), a muscle relaxant, and a sleeping pill that allows my body to experience restorative deep sleep. I don’t fall anymore and the constant pain is gone.
All the very annoying debilitating nonfatal ailments seems to be female dominated. Lupus. Fibromyalgia. Arthritis. And then there are all those problems that only women can get, like endometriosis.
We men just lead in the stuff that often kills you right away. Heart attacks. Car accidents. Work fatalities.
That’s very interesting to me. I found out last year that I had a previously broken neck that had healed at some point and I never knew it happened. They did an MRI on my neck because I broke my neck last year(a minor break) and discovered that I had an older break that was a serious break that I never knew about.
I’ve been diagnosed with many “possible” things over the years. carpal tunnel, arthritis, fibro, Raynaud’s phenomenon, liver unbalances, sodium deficiency, mineral deficiency, pinched nerves, blah blah blah. I blow it off as their excuse for something they don’t know what it is.
There have been times in the past where I had so much pain in my entire body that I felt like I couldn’t move. The only thing I found that helped was to drink a beer...a very simple fix and with almost immediate results. Hell with the dam quacks.
The strange thing is I don’t get headaches or normal pains. I can’t pinpoint pain usually. IT’s just a vague overall body ache that increases utill I lie there in a fetal position moaning. Legs and back affected the most and also the guts sometimes and the arms occasionally. I almost always have mild to medium aching neck/shoulders. Teeth hurt frequently (moderately to severely) but no indication of tooth defects. But simply drinking a beer or two makes it all go away almost completely.
My arms go numb. My hands go numb. My fingers turn blue and get cold. I get elecrical shock sensations in my wrists and forearms and backs of my hands. But I pass the standard tests for carpal tunnel.
From my EXPERIENCE, and my study, fibromyalgia and numerous other pain related diseases.....are often times caused by hormone depletion and the endocrine system being out of balance....that’s why it’s always mostly women who have these diseases....get your hormones checked ladies, by a COMPETENT doctor who knows something.....and isn’t pushing drugs.
Have you had your estrogen, progesterone, DHEA, pregnenelone, testosterone levels checked? And of course, your Free T3 and Free T4? It might help. I had symptoms similar to yours....now I’m like my old self - only feeling younger than ever....and bouncing around.
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