It's estimated that 5-10 million Americans suffer from fibromyalgia, and the majority of them are women.Fibromyalgia is the existence of chronic fatigue, muscle pain, joint pain, and other unexplainable pains in the body. Oftentimes, these symptoms lead to others, like migraines, depression and chronic fatigue. The effects of this disease often illicit diagnosis very similar to osteoarthritis, tendinitis and bursitis. If you experience problems like the one listed above, always consult your physician.
While there is a blood test some doctors use to determine if a patient has this disease, not much is known on the treatment and possible cure for fibromyalgia. Most treatments resort to treating the symptoms. There are only a few medications FDA approved to treat this illness. 1 is used as a general pain reliever for several different disorders. The other two might fall under the category of "anti-depression" medication. Always consult your doctor for a professional opinion.
Similar to migraine headaches, and chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia is sometimes shrugged off and not taken seriously by friends, family, and even some physicians. If you read around on some blogs and forums however, it seems many people are experiencing debilitating pain and discomfort, to the point of needing to quit jobs and drop out of school.
Some experts have noticed that many additional health conditions are affecting fibromyalgia patients. These are gluten intolerance, gout, and restless leg syndrome. This leads some to believe that removing the following foods from our diets could help relieve the symptoms of fibromyalgia: