Fibromyalgia
The other day I saw an advertisement on early morning TV for
Dr. Frank’s Joint & Muscle Pain Relief spray and the similar Dr. Frank’s
Joint Pain Relief for Dogs and Cats.
This resonated a bit with me since I have been having joint and general
pains that I have been attributing to the march of time. When I went to the website to investigate the
formula (which I found lacking in proper form for the chemical components and
imprecise in the concentrations), I saw a link to “fibromyalgia”.
Fibromyalgia is word I had heard before but never new what
it was, so I started to do some investigation.
One of the first things I found was that it is third on the list of the
WebMD Top 12 heath topics for women and not on the list at all for men. (Women
are ten times more likely to get this disease than men.) I found this interesting being male and
having some of the symptoms that are listed on the WebMD site. Fibromyalgia is an arthritis related
illness. It is not well understood and
is often misdiagnosed, in fact there are even some who do not believe it
exists.
These symptoms are fairly general and some of them might
apply to nearly anyone. The symptoms
listed on WebMD are: Anxiety, concentration and memory problems -- known as
fibro fog, depression, digestive disorders, discoloration of hands and feet
(Raynaud's phenomenon), dryness in mouth, nose, and eyes, fatigue, headaches,
irritable bowel syndrome, morning stiffness, pain, painful menstrual cramps,
restless legs syndrome, sleep problems, swelling, numbness, and tingling in
hands, arms, feet, and legs, pain trigger points, and urinary symptoms.
The most common symptom is the pain which is reported in 97%
of those diagnosed with fibromyalgia followed by the pain trigger points,
fatigue, sleep problems, and depression.
Causes are unclear but there is evidence that genetics may
play a role as well as stress. In
addition sleep or lack thereof seems to have an association with the disease
but it is unclear whether that is an effect of fibromyalgia or a cause. There is no universally accepted cure for the
disease though some physicians claim to have found cures.
Wikipedia has a good more detailed overview.