Detecting Fibromyalgia Symptoms

Fibromyalgia is considered to be a arthritis-related disorder where a patient feels widespread muscle pains and chronic fatigue. A patient diagnosed with this disorder might experience pain in tendons, ligaments and muscles.

Detecting fibromyalgia symptoms can be disconcerting to some professionals since this disorder does not present any physical signs. As a result, fibromyalgia is an often-misunderstood condition. Because the symptoms normally reported by patients are common and lab tests ordinarily generate no results, physicians in the past used to tell their patients that their was nothing wrong.

Nevertheless, medical research has shown that fibromyalgia symptoms actually do exist and the disorder was formally legitimized in 1990. Nowadays, people are diagnosed with this disorder once they exhibit the two major fibromyalgia symptoms - pain in eleven or more tender areas and generalized pain for more than three months.

When To Seek Medical Attention

When you find that your body often aches all over and you easily become fatigued, you might need to make an appointment with your physician to have some tests taken. If you find that many of the tests comeback without any particular conditions linked with your symptoms, then there is a big possibility you are experiencing fibromyalgia.

The most commonly described fibromyalgia symptom is wide spread, unrelenting pain. Many people describe the pain as deep muscular pounding, aching, jabbing or shooting. Several people feel severe burning sensations and many have reported that the pain, stiffness and inflammation is worse in the morning.

Another very common fibromyalgia symptom is chronic fatigue. Although a few patients live only with mild fatigue, many others suffer from severe fatigue that can cause them to become housebound. Several patients identify their fatigue as "brain-draining" since they find themselves so weak that they cannot focus or move their arms and legs. Sometimes, this weariness can be linked to a lack of "refreshing" sleep a patient experiences because of certain sleep disorders caused by fibromyalgia.

According to medical research, more than 50% of people with this disorder, experience additional fibromyalgia symptoms such as recurring migraines and tension-type headaches. These symptoms are among the major complaints of patients because they cannot perform their jobs, schooling or other day-to-day tasks.

Another fibromyalgia symptom that is commonly found in around 60% of fibromyalgia patients is Irritable bowel syndrome, which includes diarrhea, constipation, abdominal gas, persistent abdominal pains and nausea.

Additional fibromyalgia symptoms might include painful periods, morning pain and stiffness, temporary memory loss, chest pains, numbness or tingling sensations, dry mouth or eyes, dizziness, twitching muscles and other individual symptoms. If you experience most of these symptoms for more than three months, make an appointment with your doctor immediately so that you can get a proper diagnosis and treatment.