Do you feel pain all over your body and feel tired all the time? You might be struggling with fibromyalgia, a multifactorial disorder. There are no specific causes of fibromyalgia. It is mostly confused with other diseases. For further insights, let’s learn about this condition, its symptoms, and its causes.

What is Fibromyalgia?

Fibromyalgia is a chronic medical condition that causes musculoskeletal pain. This disorder is characterized by widespread pain all over the body, tiredness, and mental, mood, and sleep problems.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, fibromyalgia affects around 2% of adults in the United States, likely 4 million individuals. People with fibromyalgia become more vulnerable to pain, known as abnormal pain perception processing.

Causes

Fibromyalgia is a multifactorial disorder. The following factors mainly trigger it:

• Physical and psychological events. Fibromyalgia can be caused by physical experiences such as surgery, accidents, etc. Moreover, chronic psychological stress or trauma can also trigger this health condition.
• Some ailments are found to aggravate or initiate fibromyalgia disorder, such as Lyme disease or Epstein-Barr virus.
• Researchers have found that fibromyalgia tends to run in families. So, there might be any genetic changes or mutations that lead to the development of this disorder in you.

Symptoms

The primary fibromyalgia symptoms are:

• Widespread pain. In fibromyalgia, patients usually feel constant dull pain all over the body for at least three months. Fibromyalgia pain occurs on both the right and left sides of the body and above and below the waist, therefore called widespread.
• Many patients feel tired in the morning, although they report having more extended sleep periods. However, their sleep is often unsettled by pain. Patients also suffer from other sleep issues, such as sleep apnea and restless leg syndrome.
• Cognitive problems. Many fibromyalgia patients report cognitive disruption, such as mental slowness, forgetfulness, and concentration issues.

Other signs of fibromyalgia include:

• Anxiety
• Depression
• Sleep issues
• Headache, including migraines
• Numbness or tingling in hands and feet
• Digestive problems include bloating, constipation, abdominal pain, and irritable bowel syndrome.

Risk Factors

Several risk factors can contribute to the development of fibromyalgia. Some imperative factors include:

• Rheumatoid arthritis or lupus disease. Individuals suffering from Lupus or rheumatoid arthritis are more prone to developing fibromyalgia.
• People of almost all ages can be affected by fibromyalgia disorder. However, primarily middle-aged people are diagnosed with it. Therefore, as you age, the possibility of acquiring the condition rises.

Some factors are weakly linked to the onset of fibromyalgia disorder, such as:

• Women are more likely to have fibromyalgia disordered than men.
• Researchers say that fibromyalgia is also linked to obesity. They found that around 28% of patients diagnosed with fibromyalgia are overweight, and 32-50% are obese.
• Family history. Fibromyalgia runs in families, so if your sibling or parent suffers from the disorder, you may also be susceptible to it.

Diagnosis

A doctor may ask you about your past medical history and your close ones to diagnose the fibromyalgia disorder. Moreover, there is no laboratory test available for diagnosis. Therefore, a fibromyalgia diagnosis is usually made based on symptoms and if necessary physical examination together with other tests to rule out other health conditions.