Fibromyalgia is a symptom wherein you feel chronic pain in certain parts of your body; it is a muscular pain especially around the joints. There can also be centralized pain felt in the spinal chord, brain, neck shoulders etc. People with fibromyalgia generally complain of pain in the joints, but it actually is the muscles and the tendons around it that cause the pain. It can be excruciating sometimes and can be a continuous throbbing pain. People suffering from Fibromyalgia also show symptoms of depression, sleeplessness, irritable bowel syndrome, stress and many others which are caused due to the pain suffered by them.

Fibromyalgia patients are very sensitive to heat, light and sometimes touch. Their skin feels tender and they may feel the painful parts to be inflamed, but in reality there would be no swelling. Poor concentration and extreme mood swings are another symptom they might display. Usually women above 30 are affected by Fibromyalgia, but even children and men are sometimes affected. There is no known cure for fibromyalgia; however you can overcome this symptom over a period of time with natural cures like herbs and dietary supplements that help with the condition.

There no known specific cause for fibromyalgia. It is found that there is a deficiency of the brain nerve chemical serotonin in patients suffering from fibromyalgia and the pain nerve cells in the brain of such people is extra sensitive, elevating the pain levels in them. Fibromyalgia is still a relatively unknown syndrome, making it a very difficult illness to treat. This can be because the symptoms are varied and not all the tests and research concludes on anything specific, leaving the origins of fibromyalgia still unknown. Another reason for this lack of knowledge is that this illness affects people of all ages and gender that find it difficult to point a finger at anything specific. One of the causes may be by the malfunctioning of the autonomic nervous system, which is responsible for a number of body functions. When this is out of gear the normal functions are interrupted causing, the symptoms found in fibromyalgia. It can also be the sleeplessness suffered by these patients causes constant discomfort.

Patients who suffer from firbromyalgia complain of restless sleep, a fact that leaves them feeling tired and with a constant feeling of fatigue due to which stress levels increase significantly. They can be devoid of the restorative sleep, which restores the injured muscles to life thereby leaving them with constant pain that they have to live with. Another possible reason could be that some of these patients are known to have been in an accident or suffered from severe muscle injury that might have triggered the onset of fibromyalgia.

Fibromyalgia could also be classified as a genetic illness as most of the patients are women and studies have found that patients suffering from Fibromyalgia usually have an immediate family member who also has the same symptoms. Sometimes certain infectious illness due to a particular strain of virus can have affected the central nervous system stopping the cells from producing the neurotransmitters which control the pain. These viral infections can also cause muscle problems and trauma causing the chronic pain that is felt by these patients. The reason could also be due to the increased activity of the immune system. The immune system protects our body from various viral and bacterial infections that can cause diseases. When this immune system is over active it can have a negative effect and can cause inflammation and affect the nervous system causing severe pain. This could be a likely factor contributing to the onset of fibromyalgia.

Infections, sickness or even a traumatic event are known to trigger fibromyalgia in some cases. It also could take abnormal functioning of kidneys, poor diet or hypoglycemia to bring on the onset of fibromyalgia. The one thing that is similar in all reports of fibromyalgia patients is the fact that the symptoms were triggered by a disturbing or traumatic event in their lives, causing certain neurological changes and enhancing the already present abnormality in the person.

Copyright (c) 2008 Hailey Harris