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Fibromyalgia might be one of the most mysterious diseases that affect patients around the world. It is a painful condition that causes sensations of ache and stiffness all throughout our body and is known to cause several mental symptoms such as cognitive difficulties and even psychiatric disorders.<\/p>\n
The causes of this disease are yet to be discovered, and even if intense research is being conducted nowadays, doctors still don’t understand the mechanism of fibromyalgia. The most widely accepted hypothesis is that the disease is caused by an alteration in the way the nervous system perceives and processes pain.<\/p>\n
For this reason, there is no particular cause or group of causes that have been identified for fibromyalgia. However, a certain number of risk factors are linked to an increased probability of developing fibromyalgia. Here is a list of the top ten risk factors that put you at risk of developing this condition.<\/p>\n
Although the specific gene or group of genes linked to an increased risk of developing fibromyalgia haven’t been identified, some signs indicate that there must be a genetic factor influencing the probability that a certain individual will develop fibromyalgia at some point in their lives. It is widely accepted among the medical community that there is a hereditary factor in this condition.<\/p>\n
Fibromyalgia<\/a> has been reported to run in families; in other words, people with antecedents of the condition among their ancestors or close relatives are more likely to develop the condition than those with no family history with the disease. This is often indicative of some level of genetic influence.<\/p>\n Scientists hypothesize that the cause might be found in a gene or group of genes that regulate the nervous system’s sensibility to pain and the way it processes painful signals, even how many pain receptors are developed in the body. Arthritis. Arthritis isn’t a condition but rather a group of disorders that affect the joints in the body. There is more than one type, and the most widely known and most frequent to find are<\/p>\n Both of these cause pain in the joints and difficulty to move, among other symptoms. In the case of osteoarthritis<\/a>, which is common among elderly people, the constant wearing of the joints due to effort, movements, and carrying weight, erodes the soft tissue between the bones.<\/p>\n As a result, bones can bump into each other with movement and cause pain. Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease, where the cells of our own immune system attack the soft tissue of the joints. This tissue becomes inflamed and tears, causing pain and difficulty to move. Both rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis are known to increase the chances of developing fibromyalgia, although the actual connection between these conditions isn’t yet unveiled.<\/p>\n Lupus<\/a> is an autoimmune disease, popularized a few years ago by the hit television show House M. D., that can affect a large number of systems and tissues in your body. Basically, the pathological mechanism behind lupus is an alteration on how your immune system works, causing your immune cells to attack your own tissues. Lupus is difficult to diagnose because symptoms vary widely from case to case, and most of them are very similar to many other conditions.<\/p>\n Perhaps its most characteristic symptom is a butterfly-shaped red rash appearing on the face of the patient, covering the nose and both cheeks. Other symptoms may include fever, joint pain, and swelling, fatigue, chest pain, headaches, and confusion. Just as it happens with arthritis, even if there is no linking mechanism that has been identified by the medical community, it has been observed that people with lupus are more likely to develop fibromyalgia in the future.<\/p>\n There are many recorded cases of people who develop a persistent condition of fibromyalgia after an infection. It is still unclear whether infection can cause fibromyalgia to appear in the first place, or if there was an asymptomatic<\/a> underlying condition,<\/p>\n like mild fibromyalgia or at least a predisposition due to genetic and\/or historical factors, which got worse after the infection. Many doctors believe there is an autoimmune component to fibromyalgia, so it does make sense to think that any event that triggers the immune system might also awake this condition.<\/p>\n In many cases, the beginning of fibromyalgia goes undetected, because many of its symptoms are very similar to the flu (pain, fatigue, bowel problems), and people only seem to realize something strange is going on when they see their \u201cflu\u201d isn’t going away after a reasonably long time. The immune hypothesis seems to be the stronger possible explanation for this.<\/p>\n There is a significant number of patients with fibromyalgia that report a personal history of abuse. They have lived in one or more extremely stressful situations. The abuse reported is sometimes physical, like being victims of domestic violence, or having been involved in some sort of sustained situation of physical pain or attacks.<\/p>\n In other cases, they report psychological abuse, such as being the object of continuous denigration, bullying, discrimination, or personal attacks. And sometimes, they have experienced both physical and mental abuse. Scientists believe that the constant exposure to abusive situations might increase the likelihood of developing fibromyalgia because it could influence the way the nervous system processes pain, especially since the same circuits process physical and mental suffering.<\/p>\n The same happens with stress. Constant and early exposure to violence and painful experiences might increase the sensibility of the nervous system<\/a> to future experiences of pain or misery.<\/p>\n PTSD<\/a>, or posttraumatic stress disorder, is a mental condition developed as a result of the exposure to intense mental trauma. It is considered an anxiety disorder, along with other mental conditions such as phobias and panic disorder.<\/p>\n It always happens as a consequence of an event in the patient’s life where they experience intense emotional and physical anxiety. For example, it is common among war veterans and people who were involved in catastrophes. The most common symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder include restlessness, anxiety, constant worries, problems sleeping, nightmares, neurovegetative alterations, and the infamous flashbacks (involuntary, dream-like episodes where people relive the situation that caused them the posttraumatic stress as if it was happening all over again).<\/p>\n Just as it happens with experiences of abuse, that are traumatic in their own right, posttraumatic stress disorder increases the risk of developing fibromyalgia at some point in life.<\/p>\n One of the most widespread emotional disorders of today’s times is anxiety<\/a>. The term is used in common language as a vast expression to name a diffusely defined group of negative feelings and sensations regarding fear, worries, and nervousness.<\/p>\n However, in the world of psychiatry and psychology, anxiety is seen as a mental disturbance that causes powerful, negative experiences of even the smallest of events. The main symptoms of anxiety are constant and exaggerated worrying and fear about situations, people, and the future.<\/p>\n People with anxiety have neurovegetative responses of fear such as increased heartbeat and sweating, abnormal bowel movements (either too much or too little), alterations in appetite, and trouble sleeping. Anxiety has been positively linked to the apparition of fibromyalgia symptoms. Some say that anxiety increases the probability of developing fibromyalgia, while others think that the physical problems that the condition causes might increase the probability of developing an anxiety disorder.<\/p>\n Common sense dictates that anxiety and depression<\/a> are very different mental conditions and, for that reason, there is no particular link between them. Anxiety is a dysregulation of fear while depression is mostly pathological sadness and demotivation.<\/p>\n However, clinical evidence as well as advancements in the neurochemical understanding of emotional disorders show that both depression and anxiety are deeply connected. Any of the two can turn into the other and they frequently coexist in a person’s life. And, for the same reason, depression is as heavily linked to fibromyalgia as anxiety is. People with depression often have less tolerance for pain, which could be connected to the increased sensibility to pain characteristic of fibromyalgia.<\/p>\n Depression interferes with the natural mechanisms of pain mitigation in the brain. Inversely, the symptoms of fibromyalgia, that often make people feel powerless before their own pain, exhaustion, and lack of sleep, can push patients towards developing depression.<\/p>\n Some experts are starting to point out the relation between a sedentary lifestyle and the tendency to develop a series of physical conditions, including fibromyalgia. Regular exercise is very well known to improve our overall health.<\/p>\n Our muscular fibers develop and our ligaments stay flexible and strong for a longer time. Also, exercise makes the brain release certain chemicals, such as endorphins and endogenous opioids, that act as natural painkillers, regulating our perception of tiredness and pain. Lack of enough exercise is believed to increase our risk of developing fibromyalgia.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/besthealth.guide\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/back-problem.jpg\")
2. osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis <\/strong><\/h3>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/besthealth.guide\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Lupus.jpg\")
3. Lupus<\/strong><\/h3>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/besthealth.guide\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Sinus-Infection.jpg\")
4. Infections<\/strong><\/h3>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/besthealth.guide\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Spasms.jpg\")
5. Abuse<\/strong><\/h3>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/besthealth.guide\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/PTSD.jpg\")
6. Posttraumatic stress disorder<\/strong><\/h3>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/besthealth.guide\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Anxiety.jpg\")
7. Anxiety<\/strong><\/h3>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/besthealth.guide\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Depression.jpg\")
8. Depression<\/strong><\/h3>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/besthealth.guide\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Tenderness-of-the-skin.jpg\")
9. Exercise<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/besthealth.guide\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Gender_Fibromyalgia.jpg\")
10. Gender<\/strong><\/h3>\n