New Drugs and Lifestyle Changes for Fibromyalgia

You’ve probably heard of fibromyalgia, but it wouldn’t be surprising if you hadn’t. The American College of Rheumatology did not recognize it as a syndrome until 1990. There are still no blood tests for fibromyalgia, no single test for it, no single traumatic event that can be linked to the cause of the illness. It is still largely misunderstood, misdiagnosed and under diagnosed. Fortunately, it is being studied and researched more and more and doctors are finding lifestyle changes and drugs that are giving hope to those with the disease.

Fibromyalgia is finally being recognized as a neurological condition. Doctors now know that it is linked to the central nervous system and that sufferers have an unusually high sensitivity to pain. Doctors are also realizing that there may be a hormonal component to the disease that causes it to affect more women than men.

Fortunately, two antidepressants are now approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for treatment of the disease: Lyrica and Cymbalta.

Lyrica was first used to treat pain caused by nerve damage due to diabetes and shingles infection, but is now showing promise as a pain reliever for fibromyalgia. Cymbalta was first used for anxiety and depression, as well as a pain reliever for those with diabetes nerve pain. It is a serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor that helps restore balance to the neurotransmitters in the brain. It also helps some people decrease nervousness and improve mood, sleep, energy level and appetite.

While these drugs don’t help everyone, they do help some and they are much more successful when paired with lifestyle changes such as a healthy diet, an adequate amount of sleep, stress reduction and regular exercise. Although these lifestyle habits are the normal habits of healthy people, they are even more important for those with fibromyalgia to follow. Taking care of oneself can dramatically improve symptoms, which include insomnia, chronic pain, mental fogginess and extreme exhaustion.

Currently, there are over 20 new drugs being tested for fibromyalgia treatment. As time moves on, there is a lot of hope in the medical community that the condition will be more understood, more widely accepted and treatable.







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