What Does Diagnosing Fibromyalgia Entail?

Are you experiencing chronic pain in your muscles and joints without having any history of trauma or injury? This may have left you wondering what’s behind this widespread pain? Well, you are not alone in your dilemma and if you’ve been experiencing this pain for 3 months or more it may be worth asking your doctor about diagnosing fibromyalgia.

Fibromyalgia is condition, which is characterized by widespread, chronic pain throughout various points in the body. Sometimes, the pain will come and go or move from one area to another, puzzling the person as to where it comes from.

In addition to the widespread pain that can be felt in the body's muscles, joints and tendons, fibromyalgia is also often accompanied by a sleeping disorder called alpha wave. This disturbs the sleep through increased brain activity that is similar to wakefulness.

This results to fatigue and tiredness because people with fibromyalgia do not experience the kind of restorative deep sleep that they should have. There will also be an increased sensitivity to the way pain is felt.

Most patients with fibromyalgia feel pain easily even with just a slight pressure. They are more sensitive to pain compared to other individuals. This is the reason why some experts believe that the condition is caused by a dysfunction in the way the brain sends pain signals to the receptors.

People afflicted with fibromyalgia may also experience mood swings, and depression.

As mentioned before, fibromyalgia is one of the harder conditions to diagnose perhaps because the cause is unknown and there can be so many symptoms that mimic other conditions.

The approach that doctors take is to conduct several tests and rule out other possibilities for the symptoms. Among the possible conditions that have similar symptoms are rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. This is why it is vital to tell your doctor about all the symptoms you’re having because what may be unrelated to you could in fact be very important.

Due to the difficulties over diagnosis, the American College of Rheumatology drew up diagnosing guidelines that can help physicians in diagnosing fibromyalgia. Some doctors however do not follow these to the letter because they feel that the guidelines are too strict.

Still, it is worth looking into especially when determining if you have fibromyalgia or not. According to the criteria set up, fibromyalgia may be diagnosed if widespread pain reaches a period of three consecutive months or more.

There should also be a minimum of 11 out of 18 specific different points in the body that are tender and painful when touched with light pressure (4kg of pressure).

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Diagnosing fibromyalgia may take some perseverance so try keeping a diary to record all your symptoms so that you’re prepared when you visit the doctor. This will ensure you don’t forget any during your consultation and secondly, find a doctor that is sympathetic to your symptoms.

Article Source: http://www.healthandwellnesscentral.com

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