What is Fibromyalgia ? – National Fibromyalgia Education and Awareness Day (part 1 of 4)

May 12th is Fibromyalgia Education and Awareness Day. Sponsored by the National Fibromyalgia Association (NFA), a Non-Profit Health Organization, whose mission is to “Develop and Execute Programs Dedicated to improving the Quality of Life for People with Fibromyalgia.”

Since Fibromyalgia is such a Complex Condition, instead of trying to fit all of this information in Just a Single Post around the 12th of May, I’ve decided to Write a Series throughout this Entire Month. So, This Will Be a Four Part Series Posted Weekly Throughout the Month of May to Help inform You About this Chronic and Debilitating Condition called Fibromyalgia.This First Part, Will Define What Fibromyalgia is. The Second Part, Will Discuss What the Symptoms of Fibromyalgia are, and Will Be Posted Sometime Next Week. Followed by, The Third Part, That Will Discuss What You Can Do to Ease the Symptoms of Fibromyalgia, and Then the Final Fourth Part, That Will Answer the Question: How Can Chiropractic Care Help Fibromyalgia? The Following Couple of Weeks After That.

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So What is Fibromyalgia?

Since Fibromyalgia is Such a Complex Condition that is Still Not Completely Understood, so instead of Writing some long Post that Tries to Describe What Exactly Fibromyalgia is, and because a Google or similar Search Engine search for the Term Would Pull up a Very Good List of Resources and More information then I Could Ever Write About, I’m Going to Try and Break it Down in Very Simplified Way so it’s Not Only Much Easier to Understand but also That Way if You or Any One You Know is Suffering from this Terrible Debilitating Condition, You Can then Do Something About it.

It has been estimated that anywhere between 2% to 4% of the general US Population suffers from Fibromyalgia. It affects about 9 Women for every 1 Man, and is Most Commonly diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 50, although it can occur in childhood.

Simply put, the word “Fibromyalgia” literally means Connective tissue= fibro, Muscle tissue= myo, Pain= algia, and that is exactly what it is a Chronic, Widespread, Condition of Painful Muscle and Connective tissue.

Many names, such as ‘Muscular Rheumatism’, ‘Fibrositis’, ‘Psychogenic Rheumatism’, and ‘Neurasthenia’ were applied to symptoms resembling those of Fibromyalgia. However, since these were misleading terms for this Condition they have been dropped since the term Fibromyalgia was originally coined by a research scientist by the name of, Dr. Mohammed Yunus, and was first used in a scientific publication in 1981.

Next week I will discuss exactly What the Symptoms of Fibromyalgia are, which for this Condition is Very important since Fibromyalgia has No Clinical Tests to Detect it so a History of Specific Symptoms and Specific Physical Examination Findings are the Only Way to Diagnose it.

I Hope You Found this Post Useful and Welcome any of Your Thoughts on this Subject.

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