Recognizing Fibromyalgia Symptoms

“It’s All in Your Head:”” Fibro Symptoms

Fibromyalgia syndrome can be a very difficult condition to have to deal with. After all, not only does it cause relentless fatigue and muscle pain, but it is also associated with dozens of other symptoms, including depression, dizziness, and nausea. If you have been suffering with fibromyalgia for a while now, then you may have noticed that your symptoms tend to get worse during certain seasons and weather changes. A large percentage of fibromyalgia sufferers claim that weather directly affects their symptoms and pain levels, but can this really be true?

How Does the Weather Affect Fibromyalgia Symptoms?

Many fibromyalgia patients claim that changes in the weather directly affect many of their symptoms. In fact, many fibromyalgia sufferers claim that their symptoms vary according to temperature changes, changes in air pressure, and changes in precipitation in their part of their world. Most fibromyalgia sufferers claim that they experience changes in:

• fatigue
• sleep patterns
• headaches
• muscle pain
• the number of symptom flare ups

Who is Affected by Weather Changes?
According to a study performed in 1981, a large percentage of fibromyalgia sufferers may actually be sensitive to changes in the weather. In this particular study, 90% of patients claimed that weather was one of the most important influences on their fibromyalgia symptoms. And fibromyalgia sufferers aren’t the only ones to experience weather-related symptoms. You may also find that the weather exacerbates your symptoms if you have:

• rheumatoid arthritis
• multiple sclerosis
• osteoarthritis

What Weather Factors Affect Fibromyalgia Sufferers?

There are five major weather factors that appear to affect fibromyalgia symptoms. These include:

• Temperature: Rapid changes in temperature can sometimes trigger a fibromyalgia flare or help to ease fibromyalgia pain. Cold weather tends to make fibromyalgia symptoms worse, while warmer weather tends to ease those troublesome symptoms.
• Barometric Pressure: Barometric pressure is a measurement of the weight that is exerted by the air all around us. On beautiful sunny days, barometric pressure tends to be quite high, but during a storm or similar weather front, barometric pressure drops suddenly. Fibromyalgia sufferers often find that these changes in barometric pressure can trigger muscle aches and pains.
• Humidity: Absolute humidity is a measurement of the amount of water vapor present in each unit of air. When absolute humidity is low, fibromyalgia sufferers often report headaches, stiffness, and flares in widespread pain.
• Precipitation: Precipitation is the term used to refer to any type of water that falls to the ground from the sky, including rain, sleet, snow, or hail. Precipitation is often accompanied by a change in barometric pressure, and therefore may exacerbate your symptoms of pain and fatigue.
• Wind: Whether it’s a light wind or a gale-force wind, wind generally causes a decrease in barometric pressure. This means that wind can trigger fatigue, headaches, and muscle aches in fibromyalgia sufferers.

According to a study published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, many people who suffer from fibromyalgia also suffer from a baffling condition called restless legs syndrome. The study, which appeared in the Oct 15, 2010 issue of the journal, says that 33 percent of people diagnosed with fibromyalgia also have restless legs syndrome. Only 3.1 percent of people without fibromyalgia also had restless leg syndrome.

In a press release related to the study, Dr. Nathaniel F. Watson, an associate professor of neurology at the University of Washington in Seattle and one of the authors of the study, said that a “substantial portion of sleep disruption in fibromyalgia is due to restless legs syndrome.”

What Is Restless Legs Syndrome?

Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is a nervous system disorder that causes uncomfortable sensations in the legs and the impossible to ignore urge to move them around.

Those with this condition also sometimes feel similar uncomfortable sensations in their arms and other parts of the body. These uncomfortable sensations are difficult to describe, according to some RLS patients. The sensations have been described as pins and needles, a creepy crawly feeling or even an itchy feeling. These feelings are worse when lying or sitting which means the condition can lead to significant sleep deprivation.

Its Impact on Fibromyalgia

Sleep deprivation is often already a symptom of fibromyalgia because the pain and discomfort of the condition makes it difficult to get a good night sleep. Restless legs syndrome exacerbates the other symptoms of fibromyalgia, according to researchers, by making the body even more fatigued and unable to deal with the physical and mental stress of fibromyalgia.

More About the Study

Test subjects in the study included 172 fibromyalgia patients, 93 percent of whom were women, and 63 people who did not have fibromyalgia and reported feeling free of fatigue and pain. The fibromyalgia patients tended to be older, with a mean age of 50, than the control group that had a mean age of 41.

The sleep quality of each person in each group was monitored and assessed. It was noted that sleep disturbances were more common among those with fibromyalgia. Restless legs syndrome was determined to be a deciding factor in the cause of sleep disturbances in more than 30 percent of the fibromyalgia patients.

Treatment

The Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine study concluded that doctors should routinely ask fibromyalgia patients about symptoms of restless legs syndrome. The sooner treatment can be started, the sooner the patient can get a better night’s sleep and begin improving the quality of his or her life.

RLS can be treated medically and some of the symptoms can be alleviated by ice packs or heating pads applied to the legs, leg massage or hot baths.

If you think that there’s a link between your fibromyalgia symptom flare-ups and your menstrual cycle, you’re probably right, and you’re certainly not alone. Many women who suffer from FMS report an increase in headaches, body pain, memory problems and sleep difficulties, in the period leading up to, and during the first half of, their menses.

What to Expect
While fibromyalgia sufferers may experience a variety of symptoms just before menstruation and during their period, some fibromyalgia symptoms can become particularly worse during this time. Among those symptoms most commonly noted to flare up around the time of menstruation:

• Dysmenorrhea
• Fatigue
• Sleep disorders
• Fibrofog
• Widespread pain

Sleeping Patterns
One possible explanation for the increase in fibro symptoms during menstruation, and the pre-menstrual period is the increased production of hormones, particularly estrogen and progesterone, during a woman’s time of the month. While the exact cause of fibromyalgia is not known, one popular theory is that the primary problem is “abnormal hormone regulation”. If this were the case, the hormonal shifts that occur during a woman’s menstrual cycle could be directly linked to FMS.

Other theories about the cause of fibromyalgia include abnormal regulation of the stages of sleep. In a study conducted at the University of Virginia in 2000, researchers looked at the effects of a woman’s menstrual cycle on her sleep patterns. While the 10 patients in the study were rheumatoid arthritis patients, the results are applicable to fibromyalgia patients.

The participants were asked to rate their quality of sleep during the first and second half of their menstrual cycles. The majority rated their sleep during the first half of their cycle, when pain levels were lower, as worse than during the second half. Sleep tests – in which a movement-monitor was attached to the participants’ wrist while they slept – revealed that, despite what the women thought, they were most restless during the second half of their cycle. The researchers suggested that the increased sleep disturbances were associated with incidences of heightened pain during the second half of the menstrual cycle, when progesterone levels are highest.

Even though the study’s participants suffered from rheumatoid arthritis, not fibromyalgia, their reports of feeling worse during the week leading up to their period are constantly echoed by female FMS patients. More research into this phenomenon is obviously needed, but until then it might offer an explanation as to why FMS patients perceive their sleep to be more restful towards the end of their menses, despite the fact that they are actually experiencing more pain.

What You can do About Menstrual Pain
If premenstrual pain is a problem for you, try allowing for extra time to rest, or increasing the dosage of your nighttime sleep medication during that phase of your cycle. You might also want to check out our section on how to improve your sleep. Other methods of pain relief that you may find helpful for pain management include:

• Heat therapy
• Mediatation
• Light stretching
• Getting a massage
• Hydrotherapy
• Aromatherapy

While the connection between fibromyalgia and the menstrual cycle are not yet clear, one thing is: in order to gain a better understanding of the symptoms, we need to gain a better understanding of the underlying causes of fibromyalgia. Only then can the connections between the body’s natural cycles and the symptoms of FMS become apparent.

Fibromyalgia: Understanding Sleep

It’s common for those who have fibromyalgia to suffer from a variety of sleep problems. The sleep problems can contribute to their overall pain and fatigue.

As one fibromyalgia sufferer said, “Sleep is something you take for granted until it’s something you can’t do anymore.” She went on to explain the mental and physical toll lack of sleep was putting on her body. “I would go to bed feeling anxious because I wasn’t sure if I would be able to sleep at all that night,” she said.

For many non-fibromyalgia sufferers, sleep is simply a matter of lying down and closing your eyes. It seems like a simple, natural process. But the process of sleeping may be natural, but it’s surprisingly complicated.

Here’s a closer look at sleep and what happens to your body when you sleep. Understanding sleep might help you understand how to improve your sleep.

What is Sleep?

Sleep is a period of time where your mind and body shuts down to repair and restore itself. According to the Sleep Research Society (SRS), an organization of scientists that study sleep, sleep is “a naturally recurring state characterized by reduced or absent consciousness, relatively suspended sensory activity, and inactivity of nearly all voluntary muscles.”

Sleep does not really conserve energy, says the SRS. It decreases a person’s metabolism by just five to ten percent.

The Stages of Sleep

There are four stages of sleep.

· The Drifting Off

· Stage 2 Non-REM Sleep

· Stage 3 Non-REM Sleep

· REM Sleep

REM sleep refers to the state of sleep where you become temporarily paralyzed, your breathing becomes more rapid, your eyes rapidly jerk (where the acronym REM comes from meaning rapid eye movement) and your breathing becomes more irregular, shallow and rapid. It’s the dream stage of sleep.

The average healthy person getting a good night’s sleep will go through three to five intervals of REM sleep a night.

The Drifting Off Stage (Stage N1)

This stage is also called Stage 1 Non-REM Sleep or Stage N1 according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM). In most sleepers this stage lasts up to ten minutes. Someone in Stage 1 Non-REM sleep can easily be woken up. If you’re caught drowsing, you’re in non-REM sleep even if you deny having slept.

General characteristics of this stage of sleep include:

· Decrease in brain temperature

· Little or no body movement

· Reduced blood flow to the brain

· Slow, even breathing

· A decrease in blood pressure

· Regular heartbeat

You’ll lose most conscious awareness of your surroundings. Sudden twitches and jerks are common. Alpha brain ways reduce to 4 to 7 Hz from the awake frequency of 8 to 13 Hz.

Stage 2 Non-REM Sleep (Stage N2)

At this point you’ll fully lose conscious awareness of what’s going on around you. In the average adult, this stage takes up between 45 to 55 percent of total sleep.

General characteristics of this stage of sleep include:

· Inability to see anything even if your eyes are open

· Larger brain waves

· Easily awakened

Stage 3 Non-REM Sleep (Stage N3)

This is the stage where a person might experience problems like sleep walking, sleep talking or night terrors. If someone were to wake you up at this stage, you would feel very groggy.

It’s much more difficult to wake someone up from this stage of non-REM sleep.

REM Sleep

About 20% to 25% of total sleep time is REM sleep. Memorable dreaming happens in this stage. Characteristics of this stage include:

· A drastic increase in blood pressure

· Irregular and increased pulse rate

· Large muscles are paralyzed

· Irregular breathing and the need for more oxygen

· Rapid eye movement

· Twitching of face, fingers and toes

Fibromyalgia sufferers often report that they have trouble breathing or taking deep breathes. Combined with the many other fibromyalgia symptoms commonly experienced, like chronic headaches having a hard time breathing is just one more thing you don’t want to deal with.

But why can it be difficult for fibromyalgia patients to breathe and why does it affect your other symptoms? Learning the answers and how to alleviate breathing problems can help you breathe easy again.

Why You Have Difficulty Breathing

Studies have shown that shortness of breath, or feeling a strong need for more air, is common in fibromyalgia patients. A 2001 study in the Journal of Musculoskeletal Pain found that 50% of FMS patients reported feeling short of breath, a condition called dyspnea.

Yet, the study also found that the volume of inhaled air was the same for the 35 female FMS sufferers and the 20 healthy controls participating in the study. This was true while the study participants were both exercising and at rest.

The authors speculated that the feeling of being out of breath despite having a normal amount of oxygen could be related to chest wall pain. However, there is no evidence to back this hypothesis up.

Another theory as to why FMS patients report perceiving a lack of breath when they are not actually experiencing one was put forward in a 1989 report that appeared in the Journal of Internal Medicine.

The report suggested that brain stem abnormalities could account for dyspnea. Again, there was little evidence to support the theory, however, a 2000 report published in Arthritis and Rheumatism reported documented low blood flow in the brain stem region of patients with fibromyalgia.

Another idea behind dyspnea is that it could result from a lack of thyroid hormone regulation. This results in weakness of the respiratory muscles, including the diaphragm and the phrenic nerves, which regulate the contractions of the diaphragm.

The nerves might not be sending strong enough signals to the diaphragm, impairing its ability to contract normally.

Chaotic Breathing

Chaotic breathing is one of the vicious cycles that fibromyalgia patients can experience. There are reports claiming that more than 50% of patients with fibromyalgia experience disordered breathing patterns.