How Stress Affects Fibromyalgia

The condition of fibromyalgia is becoming more and more widespread throughout the United States. What is "fibromyalgia"? It is a widespread pain condition that produces muscle tenderness throughout the body, stiffness (particularly in the morning), fatigue, soreness, and a "flu-like" ache all over. While it is more common in women, there is a rise in men being diagnosed with fibromyalgia.

The cause of fibromyalgia is not fully known. Studies have linked the cause to heredity, previous automobile accidents, and various chemical abnormalities in the central nervous system. While these items are believed to contribute to the disease, no single item has been pinpointed to the cause.

How does stress affect a fibromyalgia patient? We first need to see how stress affects the body in general. There are different types of stress reactions from wanting to run and hide to just being nervous and tense all the time. Whatever your stress reaction is, the body reacts the same way in different levels. Stress increases several things in the body: heart rate, blood pressure, breathing and even blood sugar levels. Chronic stress takes this one step further and increases the sensitivity to pain, your muscles become permanently tensed, which results in fatigue and disturbs sleep. For the fibromyalgia patient, these chronic stress reactions just amplify the problems they are already experiencing. Their muscles, already in a hyper-tensed state, become tenser. This increases the pain already present, which in turn increases their heart rate, blood pressure and increases their fatigue level.

A part of the management of the disease is to teach the patient how to handle their stress levels and learn to relax not only their minds, but their bodies as well.