Fibromyalgia: New Insights Into a Misunderstood Ailment
Health experts recommend lots of sleep, nutrition goals for sufferers. By Holly VanScoy Fibromyalgia was once dismissed by many traditional medical practitioners as a phantom illness. But that view is changing rapidly. Not only is fibromyalgia accepted as a diagnosable illness, it is also a syndrome that researchers are finding more complicated as new information emerges. As recently as a year ago, many physicians still associated some of fibromyalgia's symptoms with emotional problems, but that's no longer the case. A simple description of fibromyalgia is that it is a chronic syndrome characterized by widespread muscle pain and fatigue. For still unknown reasons, people with fibromyalgia have increased sensitivity to pain that occurs in areas called their "tender points." Common ones are the front of the knees, the elbows, the hip joints, the neck and spine. People may also experience sleep disturbances, morning stiffness, irritable bowel syndrome, anxiety and other ...