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Could Fibromyalgia Be Because of Hormone Loss?

By Kristin Gabriel

Republish: EasyPublish™ Published: 26Feb2010 Word count: 632 Viewed: 1191 time(s) Get Free Content For Your Site

This is a really good question, which comes up regularly among women over 50. Most of the women who thought they had fibromyalgia, once they went on bioidentical hormones, no longer experienced the symptoms they were having that are associated with fibromyalgia.

What is fibromyalsia? Common symptoms of fibromyalgia -- also known as fibromyalgia syndrome or FMS include many of the very same symptoms of menopause or hormone imbalance.

Widespread pain is the most common symptom of fibromyalgia, according to research, which states this is said by 97 percent of patients with fibromyalgia.

Currently one of the most common yet complex chronic pain disorders, fibromyalgia syndrome, affects an estimated 10 million people in the U.S., physically, mentally and socially. Fibromyalgia is not a disease, but a syndrome - a collection of signs, symptoms, and medical issues that typically occur together, but are not related to one identifiable cause.

The challenge is that women in menopause are confusing the many symptoms of hormone imbalance with those of conditions like chronic fatigue or fibromyalgia. The good news is that women taking bioidentical hormone replacement therapy are finding relief for their fibromyalgia symptoms.

About 75-90 percent of the people who have fibromyalgia are women, although it also occurs in men and children of all ethnic groups. This disorder is often seen in families, among siblings or mothers and their children. Diagnosis is usually made between the ages of 20 to 50 years, but the incidence rises with age so that by age 80, approximately 8 percent of adults meet the American College of Rheumatology classification of fibromyalgia. Severe fibromyalgia can be debilitating as it interferes with basic activities of everyday life.

The condition is often characterized by abnormal pain processing, multiple tender points, fatigue, psychological distress and sleep disturbances. Whereas hormone imbalance symptoms are primarily caused by the incorrect relationship between progesterone and estrogen levels in the body, and can have a dramatic effect on health, resulting in a number of the symptoms of hormone imbalance that are similar to those of fibromyalgia.

But the primary symptom of fibromyalgia is chronic widespread body pain, and most people with fibromyalgia also experience sleep disturbances, moderate to extreme fatigue, cognitive difficulties, and sensitivity to touch, light, or sound. Many individuals also experience a number of other symptoms and overlapping conditions, such as lupus, arthritis and irritable bowel syndrome. Symptoms also include poor stamina and profound exhaustion. However it is important to note that fibromyalgia symptoms may vary widely from one person to the next.

Recent research shows that women on bioidentical hormones have experienced relief from symptoms like insomnia, muscle aches and pains, chronic fatigue, depression, and many other typical fibromyalgia symptoms.

Once such example is from a woman talking about her sister who takes bioidentical hormones. She said, "She has recently run out and has been suffering the consequences of not having the hormones in her system. (Her fibromyalgia is acting up; she has osteopenia in all her joints - her pain levels are highly escalated when she's not on the bioidenticals)."

"It's actually diminishing hormones that are the cause of the classic lower back pain common in middle-age people," said author T.S. Wiley. "The backache of old age is really just a case of threadbare sciatic nerves. Scientists found that natural progesterone increased in the expression of the gene that remyelinates the nerves in the rats lower back. At the main nerve junctions of communication, like the heart and brain stem, wires start to fray when hormones levels fall off.

Without estrogen to peak and cause ovulation, there's no progesterone. Without progesterone to remyelinate nerves, peripheral nerve bundles that are farthest from the brain fray first. The biggest ones, farthest down, after the one in the base of your neck, is at your tail bone area in the lower back."

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