Fibromyalgia Is Difficult to Diagnose

In the last four years , 18 operating a chiropractic practice in Merritt, I tried an increasing number of patients with a wide range of symptoms that meet the criteria of a syndrome called " fibromyalgia " . Patients with this syndrome are more and more every year. This is due in part to the fact that many health professionals are more educated about what exactly it is and make the most frequent diagnosis .

The average patient suffers from fibromyalgia years and spent thousands of dollars in medical or other before receiving an accurate diagnosis treatments. Typically , patients are given an incorrect diagnosis , resulting in more than half of them are subjected to unnecessary surgery . Have patience with health professionals ; is very difficult to make an accurate diagnosis. Patients may come with different symptoms at each visit , which often seem unrelated to each other. These can range from headaches, irritable bladder / bowel , dysmenorrhea , cold sensitivity , restless legs, numbness or tingling , exercise intolerance , weakness , sleep problems , chronic fatigue , morning stiffness, multiple tender points , blurred vision, drooping , itching , pelvic pain , hearing loss , muscle aches and pains. The most common symptom is pain described . This is by no means an exhaustive list of symptoms a patient may experience fibromyalgia as there are many more. To make things even more confusing, the signs and symptoms can, and often do fluctuate from hour to hour and day to day.

It is important to understand that fibromyalgia is not a catch-all diagnosis " garbage." This is a private , non- chronic degenerative diseases , not progressive ; non-inflammatory pain condition - a real truly systemic SYNDROME . It is not a disease. The disease has a known cause and understanding the mechanism for the production of symptoms. For example , rheumatoid arthritis is a specific type of arthritis that can be distinguished from other types of arthritis through x-rays , blood tests and signs / symptoms specific . We know much about how it is produced and there are specific forms of treatment that often help . In comparison , fibromyalgia is a syndrome . It has a specific set of symptoms and signs that professional health care can identify all occurring at once patient experiences . No blood tests or other laboratory tests that allow an accurate diagnosis.

To be diagnosed with fibromyalgia, their professional health care should be able to identify 11 of the 18 specific points on the body that are abnormally sensitive . The official definition requires that tender points must be present in all four quadrants of the body - the upper right , upper left , lower right and lower left parts of the body . You also need to have widespread , almost constant pain and some of the above symptoms for at least three months.

Patients can sometimes be misdiagnosed with fibromyalgia. For example , patients may have pain only on one side of the body and not necessarily in the upper and lower extremities. Unfortunately , some patients with fibromyalgia can be diagnosed by a health professional , simply because he or she can not understand what is really bad. The safest bet is to take the initiative to learn about it so that you can work with your health care professional to determine what course of treatment to follow . Personally, I found that regular chiropractic treatment can help reduce the severity of symptoms of fibromyalgia in progress. If you have questions about how a chiropractor can help you with your fibromyalgia, or any other physical problem , please contact your dealer or a chiropractic physician provider .