When it hurts, your brain is the first to know. The nerve signals travel from the problematic point of your body through the spinal cord to your brain, which senses these signals as pain. It is a warning that something is wrong. As you heal, the pain improves and eventually disappears. But if you have signs and symptoms of fibromyalgia, it hurts completely even when you are not sick or injured. And the pain does not disappear. Some doctors believe they know why: a failure in the way the brain and spinal cord handle pain signals.
When you have signs and symptoms of fibromyalgia, you may have more cells that transmit pain signals than normal. And you may have fewer cells that decrease pain signals. This means that the volume of your pain is always loud, like loud music on a radio. The result is that small bruises and bruises hurt more than they should. And you may feel pain for things that should not hurt at all. Doctors are not sure why some people get fibromyalgia. Many things can make the pain signals of the body go wrong. In addition, different people report different things that seemed to trigger their condition
Mental concentration Symptoms and signs of fibromyalgia
Brain fog, often called “fibro fog”
Difficulty remembering simple things
Difficulty concentrating
Difficulty with mental math or other simple mental tasks; “I can not think”
Short or long term memory loss
Inability to multitask
Attention deficit disorder
Gastro-intestinal Fibromyalgia Symptoms and signs
Irritable bowel syndrome
Abdominal pain
Swollen nausea Alternating between diarrhea and constipation
Neurological fibromyalgia Symptoms and signs
Feeling of numbness or tingling in the face, hands, feet, arms or legs
Feeling as if the hands or feet were swollen, but without evidence of edema
High sensitivity of any of the following: bright lights, noise, cold temperatures, certain odors or food
Urinary urgency: feeling that the bladder constantly needs to be emptied
Migraine headaches
Tension headaches
Psychological fibromyalgia Symptoms and signs
Anxiety and panic
Chronic clinical depression
Post-traumatic stress disorder
Symptoms related to the fibromyalgia muscle
Constant or chronic pain in the muscles of the whole body, especially in the shoulders, neck, lower back and hips
Spasms or muscle cramps, including heart palpitations
Tense
muscles Muscles and joint stiffness upon awakening or after of sitting in a place during a prolonged period of time
muscular pains and sensitivity in the face, particularly the jaw.
Temporary mandibular joint disorder (TMJ)
Poor recovery after exercising or avoiding exercise altogether due to pain
Muscle weakness in the arms or legs
Energy-related fibromyalgia Symptoms and signs
Moderately to severely debilitating fatigue
Lack of complete energy, feeling of “disappearance” most of the time
Insomnia due to constant pain at night
Feeling exhausted, even after a good night’s sleep
Hypoglycemia or levels low blood sugar
Hormonal- Endocrine Fibromyalgia Symptoms and signs
Adrenal
gland dysfunction Pituitary gland dysfunction
Thyroid gland dysfunction
Low insulin levels
Symptoms and primary signs of fibromyalgia
Never get a good night’s rest. Electroencephalogram (EEG) tests have shown that people with fibromyalgia do not get enough “deep sleep,” where the brain emits slow delta wave patterns. Without the “delta” dream, a person never wakes up feeling refreshed. “ Wounded “: Although patients with fibromyalgia complain of generalized pain, doctors can not find a source of pain in the medical examination.
This often causes doctors and uninformed loved ones to claim that the disease is “all in the head”. Actually, there are abnormalities of the central nervous system in the body and brain of people with fibromyalgia. Each person experiences a feeling of anxiety and tension when they know they are about to experience pain. This anticipation, fear or “shudder” is called “liquidation”. In a patient with fibromyalgia, “liquidation” reaches extreme levels. Then, when the patient with fibromyalgia feels the pain, he experiences the pain in his mind with two to three times the intensity of a healthy person.
Endocrine system dysfunction: problems with low blood sugar levels, adrenal fatigue, thyroid malfunction and other problems with the endocrine system may be symptoms of fibromyalgia. and the symptoms are due to chronic long-term stress. The “fight or flight” signal is left “on” constantly, which disrupts the normal function of the pituitary and adrenal glands. This eventually inhibits the normal function of other glands and hormones.
Hyperactive nervous system: another definitive sign of fibromyalgia is a hyperactive sympathetic nervous system. The adrenal glands are so fatigued by hyperactivity that they hardly respond to stressors such as physical exercise and mental stress. Although physically depleted, people with fibromyalgia have a hard time “shutting down their brains” at night.
Cerebrospinal fluid abnormalities: When a sample of cerebrospinal fluid is taken from patients with fibromyalgia, a very common result is low levels of brain chemicals, serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine, and high levels of endorphins and enkephalins. The insomnia and severe fatigue experienced in fibromyalgia are related to the lower levels of these three neurotransmitters. There are also increases in excitatory amino acids, which appear in the body as pain signals.
Abnormalities in the brain: brain images of patients with fibromyalgia have shown a decrease in blood flow to the brain, abnormal responses to pain, abnormal levels of neurotransmitters and an acceleration and progression of brain atrophy. The brain in a person with fibromyalgia ages faster and becomes smaller at a rate ten times greater than that of a healthy individual.
