The top 10 things you need to know about fibromyalgia
May 13, 2010
• It produces chronic, body-wide pain which migrates and can be felt from head to toe.
• Fibromyalgia can often be traced to an environmental or external trigger that caused trauma to the body, like a car accident.
• Fibromyalgia is diagnosed based on pain sensitivity at 18 tender point sites above and below the waist. The patient must report pain at a minimum of 11 of the 18 sites for a minimum of three months.
• A physician exerts 4 kilograms of pressure with the thumb at specific pressure points throughout the body that include: shoulder, hip, spine, buttocks, knee, chest, inside the elbow, collarbone and neck.
• Based on 2005 numbers, 106,000 Ontarians suffer from fibromyalgia.
• 80 per cent of fibromyalgia sufferers are women.
• People who suffer from fibromyalgia also commonly suffer from myalgic encephalomyelitis, or chronic fatigue syndrome — there’s significant overlap. CFS is characterized by a pathological exhaustion that can’t be reversed by rest. Some also suffer from a third “sister illness” multiple chemical sensitivities.
• Symptoms include sleep disturbances/disorders, morning stiffness, irritable bowel syndrome, anxiety, cognitive problems or “brain fog,” headaches, reduced coordination and decreased physical endurance.
• Fibromyalgia is not recognized as a chronic illness by the province of Ontario.
• Fibromyalgia and its sister illnesses are relatively new. Fibromyalgia, for example, was added to the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseases in 1992. Advocates complain there’s a lack of specialists and a lack of physician training. Misdiagnoses are common.
Compiled by Vivian Song
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