Ask the doctors.
Question My friend was recently diagnosed with fibromyalgia, but appears to be imagining her symptoms. Is fibromyalgia an actual condition?
Oh The short answer to your query is yes. Fibromyalgia is an actual condition that affects nearly 4 million Americans. It is a chronic pain syndrome that experts consider could also be brought on by a malfunction of the nervous system. Using magnetic resonance imaging to look at the brains of individuals with fibromyalgia, researchers have found abnormalities within the a part of the brain that processes pain signals from the body. This a part of the brain appears to be primarily amplifying normal pain signals, possibly causing the body to feel pain with out a physical cause.
People with fibromyalgia experience muscle pain and tenderness throughout their body, together with other symptoms, including extreme fatigue, mood disturbances (akin to anxiety and depression), headaches, and sleep and memory problems.
Although doctors don't know what causes fibromyalgia, it sometimes runs in families, which can indicate an underlying genetic predisposition to the disease.
There are treatments for individuals with fibromyalgia. Symptoms may be managed using medications, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and lifestyle interventions akin to exercise and stress reduction.
