Re: Is Fibromyalgia a 'real' disease?

Fibromyalgia is very much real. In the past fibromyalgia was linked with chronic fatigue syndrome because they had similar symptoms and not much was understood about either condition. Recently, researchers have found that fibromyalgia has specific symptoms. The cause is still under debate and requires more research. Fibromyalgia has only been taught to medical students within the past few years, so not all doctors are as familiar with the condition as they should be. If you have any questions or concerns, you should seek out a fibromyalgia specialist who can make an accurate diagnosis and is familiar with the latest treatments. The way that fibromyalgia is diagnosed is by pressing on "trigger points", these are specific areas on your body that when touched are very painful and feel like a deep dark bruise that someone is pushing on. One of the issues with fibromyalgia is an increased production of neurotransmitters, which transmit pain throughout your body. These are over produced and sent out to specific or random parts of your body that stimulate pain when pain should not be there. Another problem with fibromyalgia is a sleep disorder called alpha delta sleep where bursts of alpha brain waves (waves that the brain produces when you are awake) are scattered throughout sleeping brain waves. Basically, if you think you have slept 5 hours, in actuallity you probably have slept about 3 hours, which is a cause of fatigue and sleepiness. Understanding the symptoms, and what treatments are availble is extremely important to feeling better and coping day to day. If your doctor is passing it off as an answer because there is nothing else, then you need a new doctor. There are specialists, find one. They understand and can help tremendously.