Fibromyalgia:  What is it? and do you have it?

Fibromyalgia is a syndrome, in that is it is a collection of symptoms. There are no clinical tests for Fibromyalgia.

So how do you know if you have Fibromyalgia?

Do you have:

· Unexplained widespread pain or aching?

· Persistent fatigue?

· Generalized morning stiffness?

· Non-refreshing sleep?

· Multiple tender points?

Lets look at some of the official definitions as prescribed by the medical profession:

Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is a little understood condition, even by the medical profession. It is characterised by widespread myofascial pain, poor sleep, morning stiffness in the muscles and the presence of at least 11 of the 18 specified tender points.

It is not a new syndrome as it was first described by William Balfour, a surgeon at the University of Edinburgh in 1816 (van Why 1994) but confusion arose because of the many names the medical profession called it, names such as chronic rheumatism, myalgia, pressure point syndrome, and fibrositis, and many thought the whole thing to be just psychological.

As recently as 1987 the American Medical Association (AMA) eventually recognized FMS as a true illness and a major cause of disability. Final recognition came on January 1st. 1993 when it was officially recognized by the World Health Organization.

The Copenhagen Declaration in 1992 defines FMS as a painful but not articular condition predominantly involving muscles. And as the most common cause of chronic, widespread muscluloskeletal pain.

In 1990 The American College of Rheumatology (ACR) defined the finer points of FMS for diagnostic purposes. The WHO considered the ACR definition as "suitable for research purposes" and added the following, often overlooked symptoms to the syndrome -

the presence of :

· Unexplained widespread pain or aching,

· Persistent fatigue,

· Generalized morning stiffness,

· Non-refreshing sleep,

· Multiple tender points

In addition to the above I have observed that many fibromyalgics have flare ups of pain when the weather changes, and that normal pain killers have little or no effect on the pain.

It is reported that 85% of fibromyalgics are women and only 15% are male.
The problem may have a genetic component as it tends to run in families.

In his book "Let's Play Doctor" Dr Wallach ND.says:

"Fibromyalgia (adult onset muscular dystrophy, known in animals as stiff lamb disease) was eliminated from animals in 1957. It is a multiple deficiency disease of selenium, vitamin E and amino acids.
Treatment includes: elimination of all fried foods and vegetable oils, supplementation with Selenium 500mcg, Vitamin E 1200iu, and an Amino acid program."

We have only just started trials on this program at Pain Busters Clinic, so it is still too early to report on results.

Gary Clark

Tags: Musculoskeletal Disorders, chronic pain, Conditions and Diseases, National Fibromyalgia Association, Connective tissue

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Related posts:

1. Ten things we do at Pain Busters Clinic to help fight fibromyalgia