Fibromyalgia and the Weather Pain myth

Fibromyalgia and Weather Sensitivity: Debunking the Myths

Fibromyalgia syndrome can be a challenging condition to deal with. Its symptoms include relentless fatigue, muscle pain, depression, dizziness, and nausea.

Many people with fibromyalgia claim that weather directly affects their symptoms and pain levels, but is this true?

What is Fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia is a chronic disorder marked by widespread, unexplained muscle and joint pain. It’s not a disease, but a syndrome, a collection of symptoms that occur together.

Although many people think of it as an arthritic condition due to the symptoms, it’s not a type of arthritis. The condition is often associated with tender points, termed “trigger points.”

These are places on the body where even light pressure causes pain. According to standards published by the American College of Rheumatology in 1990, a person can be diagnosed with fibromyalgia if they have widespread pain and tenderness in at least 11 known 18 trigger points.

Common trigger points include:

  • The back of the head
  • Tops of shoulders
  • Upper chest
  • Hips
  • Knees
  • Outer elbows

According to the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), fibromyalgia affects around 5 million Americans.

Although it occurs in men and women, women account for between 80 and 90 percent of all cases.

According to the Mayo Clinic, people with a family history of the syndrome are more likely to develop it themselves. Also, those with rheumatic diseases like lupus or rheumatoid arthritis are at a greater risk.

Weather Changes That Affect Fibromyalgia

Many fibromyalgia patients claim that changes in the weather directly affect their symptoms. Many fibromyalgia syndromes (FM) sufferers claim that their symptoms vary according to temperature changes, changes in air pressure, and changes in precipitation in their part of the world.

Rapid temperature changes may trigger a fibromyalgia flare-up or help ease fibromyalgia pain. Cold weather worsens fibromyalgia symptoms, while warmer weather relieves troublesome symptoms.

Weather changes that have been reported to affect fibromyalgia are:

Barometric Pressure – Barometric pressure (a measurement of the weight of the air surrounding us) can trigger muscle aches and pains.

Humidity – Humidity, a measurement of the amount of water vapor in each air unit, causes headaches, stiffness, and widespread pain when humidity is low.

Precipitation – Precipitation (any type of water that falls to the ground from the sky) may exacerbate fibromyalgia pain and fatigue.

Wind–Wind generally causes a decrease in barometric pressure and can trigger fatigue, headaches, and muscle aches in people with fibromyalgia.

Pain Studies

Several studies have been dedicated to validating this claim of weather sensitivity. In one study, patients were given weather parameters like cloudiness, wind speed, barometric pressure, relative humidity, sunlight, and temperature and asked to rate their pain scores according to weather.

The actual pain scores in different climates and weather conditions were examined, and the fact that fibromyalgia pain could predict the weather the next day was evaluated for truthfulness.

The study found no association between weather changes and fibromyalgia pain on the same or the next day. The study also found that anxiety and depression exacerbated weather sensitivity pain.

Lastly, in this study, patients diagnosed with fibromyalgia for less than ten years had significantly greater weather sensitivity for pain.

A study done at Integrated Tissue Dynamics in New York has shown that the cause of fibromyalgia and weather pain is an abnormality in the palms of patients’ hands – literally!

The team found an enormous increase in the number of sensory nerve fibers within the blood vessels of the skin on the palms of fibromyalgia patients’ hands.

The discovery revealed clues to the cause of other fibromyalgia symptoms. In the hands and feet, the blood vessels act as shunts, helping to speed blood flow and regulate body temperature.

The shunts act like a radiator in a car, shutting down in warm conditions to radiate the head and opening up when it gets cold.

When it’s freezing out, your cheeks get rosy, and your fingers get all puffy and red. That’s because the AV shunts let in more blood to keep your extremities warm.

The increased activity of the fibers in cold weather explains why people living with fibromyalgia experience more pain during chilly times.

Other research has shown that abnormal body temperatures, an inability to adapt to changes in temperature, and a lower pain threshold to both head and cold stimuli mean that it takes less extreme temperatures to make you feel pain.

For example, sunlight shining through a car window onto your arm may cause burning pain in you but only mild discomfort in someone else.

Difficulties with the Fibromyalgia Diagnosis

Although the causes are unclear, fibromyalgia flare-ups can result from stress, physical trauma, or an apparent unrelated systemic illness like the flu.

Symptoms may result from the brain and nerves misinterpreting or overreacting to standard pain signals. This could be due to an imbalance in brain chemicals.

Outside of the weather pain, people living with fibromyalgia have a hard enough time with just the diagnosis alone. Because its symptoms are somewhat subjective and don’t have a clear known cause, fibromyalgia is often misdiagnosed as another disease.

This plays a role in some doctors questioning the syndrome altogether. Although it is more widely accepted in medical circles than in the past, some doctors and researchers don’t consider fibromyalgia a legitimate condition.

According to the May Clinic, this can increase the chances that someone with the condition will suffer from depression as they struggle to accept their painful symptoms.

Behavioral therapy can reduce the stress that triggers symptoms and depression that often goes with this disorder. A better diet and sleep habits can also lessen the symptoms of fibromyalgia.

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