Relation Between Fibromyalgia & Headeaches

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Fibromyalgia is a muscle disease and it inflicts pain to a large part of the body. The main symptoms are a chronic widespread pain and a condition called allodynia, a painful reaction to pressure. Although these are the main symptoms, they are not the only one causing serious distress in the person. Some of the other frequent symptoms are: Stiffness, headaches, nausea, fatigue, sleep disorders, cognitive disfunctioning and widespread tenderness. This article will highlight a specific symptom in Fibromyalgia: headaches

Sleep disorders, nausea, fatigue and headaches are symptoms that cause even more discomfort in a person with fybromyalgia. The disease has a higher prevalence in women than men. Because of the muscle pains and stiffness it tends to produce chronic headaches. A chronic headache is diagnosed when a there are occurring headaches at least 15 days in a month. The commonly experienced headaches in fibromyalgia are migraine and tension headaches. Because this disease is not well treatable, the headaches are difficult to handle and occur on a regular base.

Fibromyalgia & Headaches

The cause of Fibromyalgia is still not clear. There are some possible triggers for the disease like infections, injuries or other diseases, but sometimes a person also develops this disease without these triggers. Serotonine plays a possible role in the development and stimulation. Although it is not quite sure how it works, there is a higher excitation of this chemical found in the brain. This is also common in chronic headaches and that is why researchers believe these conditions are related. The excitation causes a intensified stimulation that makes everything much more painful than it normally should be.

Treatment

Until now there is now effective treatment for this disease. Treatment is aimed at bringing some relief to the symptoms and make the pain acceptable. Your doctor will give you advice in lifestyle recommendations and some relaxations techniques like Yoga. he will also provide you with muscle relaxants against the headaches. He will also provide you with anti-depressant because a major depression is associated with fibromyalgia.

Another treatment option is psychotherapy. This will learn the individuals how to deal with their pain and how to accept it. Although it might not be suited for everyone, a non-medicative approach is always preferred above medication.

The disease is not fatal and most patients report that their symptoms stay stable. They learn in some way how to cope with the pain.