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Exercise May Ease Pain of Fibromyalgia, Study Suggests
Posted 8 days ago by Drugs.com
FRIDAY, May 10 – Exercise won't exacerbate the pain associated with fibromyalgia, and it may actually improve it, a new study suggests. Researchers from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C., found that engaging in light to moderate physical activity over time could ease symptoms of the condition. "For many people with fibromyalgia, they will exercise for a week or two and then start hurting and think that exercise is aggravating their pain, so they stop exercising," study senior author Dr. Dennis Ang, associate professor of internal medicine at Wake Forest, said in a Wake Forest news release. "We hope that our findings will help reduce patients' fears and reassure them that sustained exercise will improve their overall health and reduce their symptoms without worsening their pain," Ang added. In conducting the study, which was published online May 2 in the journal ... Read more
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Fibromyalgia Diagnosis Often Missed in Men: Study
Posted 27 Dec 2012 by Drugs.com
THURSDAY, Dec. 27 – Many people with fibromyalgia, especially men, go undiagnosed, according to a new study. Fibromyalgia is a disorder that causes symptoms such as pain and tenderness, fatigue, and sleep and memory problems. Many of these symptoms can overlap or be mistaken for other conditions, the Mayo Clinic researchers noted. They examined data from people in Olmsted County, Minn., and estimated that 6.4 percent of people aged 21 and older had fibromyalgia but only 1.1 percent of them had been diagnosed with the condition. The researchers also found that 20 times more men had fibromyalgia symptoms than had been diagnosed, while three times more women had fibromyalgia symptoms than had been diagnosed. The study was published online Nov. 30 in the journal Arthritis Care & Research. More research is needed to determine why many people with fibromyalgia, particularly men, go ... Read more
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Health Tip: Help Ease Fibromyalgia Symptoms
Posted 11 Sep 2012 by Drugs.com
-- If you've gone to the doctor complaining of widespread aches and pains without an obvious cause, it's possible you've been diagnosed with fibromyalgia. The womenshealth.gov website provides these suggestions to help manage this often-misunderstood disorder: Get plenty of quality sleep each night. Be physically active. Perform gentle exercises, if possible. Make adjustments at the office, such as cutting back on hours to adjusting the type of work you do. Eat a healthy, balanced and nutritious diet. Read more
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Health Tip: Living With Fibromyalgia
Posted 30 Aug 2012 by Drugs.com
-- Fibromyalgia is a little-understood disorder that causes pain and other symptoms throughout the body. The womenshealth.gov website offers these suggestions for better living with fibromyalgia: Get plenty of sleep. Exercise as much as you can. Try to be physically active as much as possible if fibromyalgia pain prevents you from exercising. Make adjustments at work to help you better manage fibromyalgia. Examples could include reducing your hours or switching to a less demanding job. Eat a nutritious, balanced diet. Talk to your doctor about ways to control pain. Seek emotional support from friends and family members. Read more
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Fatigue Not a Factor in Fibromyalgia Pain, Study Says
Posted 26 Apr 2012 by Drugs.com
THURSDAY, April 26 – Poor sleep is not a significant predictor of pain intensity and duration in patients with fibromyalgia, a new study says. Fibromyalgia patients often have difficulty sleeping, and University of Florida researchers wanted to determine whether lack of sleep is associated with higher levels of pain in these patients. The study included 74 adults with fibromyalgia who were followed for 14 days. The patients kept sleep diaries describing each night's sleep, and rated their pain every evening. The results showed that the four measures of sleep used in the study failed to predict pain levels. The effects of impaired sleep, such as fatigue and inactivity, may play more important roles in fibromyalgia patients' pain levels than sleep duration or insomnia, the researchers said. The study appears in the current issue of The Journal of Pain. Previous research has shown that ... Read more
Related support groups: Pain, Fibromyalgia, Fatigue
Obesity Linked to Worse Fibromyalgia Symptoms
Posted 8 Feb 2012 by Drugs.com
WEDNESDAY, Feb. 8 – Obese people are not only at greater risk for fibromyalgia, they are likely to experience more severe symptoms of the condition, such as chronic pain, fatigue, sleep disturbance and mood disorders, according to a new study. The findings suggest that weight-loss strategies should accompany treatment plans for overweight patients with fibromyalgia, a syndrome characterized by widespread musculoskeletal pain that mainly affects women and has no known cure, according to researchers from the Mayo Clinic. "We see an association between body mass index with symptom severity and quality of life in patients with fibromyalgia," study author Dr. Terry Oh, of Mayo Clinic's department of physical medicine and rehabilitation, said in a news release from the clinic. "This was the first study to look at distinct groups of obese patients and determine how weight correlates with ... Read more
Related support groups: Fibromyalgia, Obesity
Spouse's Reaction May Affect Pain Management
Posted 16 Dec 2011 by Drugs.com
FRIDAY, Dec. 16 – Chronic pain can hinder communication between spouses, which, in turn, can impair the affected partner's ability to cope with the pain, according to a new study. Previous research has shown that validation of a spouse's emotions (showing respect and acceptance) promotes emotional control, trust and closeness, while invalidation of emotions (showing hostility or no interest) increases emotional distance and is associated with poor adjustment within the marriage and depression. This new study included 78 U.S. adults with chronic pain and their spouses. Women accounted for 58 percent of the spouses with pain. Low back pain was the most common type of major pain and the leading diagnoses were osteoarthritis, disc problems and fibromyalgia. The participants were interviewed for three hours, with the final 15 minutes focused on a difficult topic, such as family finances. ... Read more
Related support groups: Pain, Fibromyalgia, Osteoarthritis
Poor Sleep May Lead to Fibromyalgia in Women
Posted 14 Nov 2011 by Drugs.com
MONDAY, Nov. 14 – Sleep problems are associated with an increased risk of fibromyalgia in women, especially those who are middle-aged and older, a new study says. Fibromyalgia is a chronic musculoskeletal pain condition that affects more than 5 million adults in the United States. Women account for up to 90 percent of people with fibromyalgia, which typically begins in middle age. Previous research has found that insomnia, nighttime awakening and fatigue are common symptoms experienced by fibromyalgia patients, but it wasn't known if sleep problems contribute to the development of fibromyalgia. Norwegian researchers enrolled 12,350 healthy women, 20 years and older, with no musculoskeletal pain or movement disorders and followed them for 10 years. At the end of that time, 327 (2.6 percent) of the women had developed fibromyalgia. The study found that the adjusted relative risk of ... Read more
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Study Suggests Exercise May Help Memory of Fibromyalgia Patients
Posted 14 Nov 2011 by Drugs.com
SUNDAY, Nov. 13 – Fibromyalgia patients who stopped taking medication and then exercised regularly for six weeks reported improved memory function and less pain, according to a small, new study. While the finding is encouraging, it does not suggest a potential change in clinical care for fibromyalgia patients, the study authors stressed. Senior author Dr. Brian Walitt, director of the Fibromyalgia Evaluation and Research Center at Georgetown University Medical Center, is scheduled to present the findings Sunday with co-researcher, Manish Khatiwada, at the Society of Neuroscience annual meeting, in Washington, D.C. Fibromyalgia is a disorder marked by widespread pain, fatigue, sleep and cognitive problems. It has no apparent cause and the pain is real, Walitt said, and likely originates from the central nervous system. It typically affects women more than men. Exercise has long been ... Read more
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Daily Record-Keeping May Boost Fibromyalgia Care
Posted 3 Feb 2011 by Drugs.com
THURSDAY, Feb. 3 – Daily electronic records of symptoms can help fibromyalgia patients and their doctors better understand the condition, a new study shows. Researchers gave 81 women with fibromyalgia a personal digital assistant (PDA) device. The patients used their PDA to report pain, sleep problems, emotional distress and other issues three times a day for 30 days. The researchers at the University of Utah and University of Washington believed that this ability to immediately report symptoms would prove more effective than asking patients to recall symptoms at their periodic visits with their doctors. The study is published in the January issue of The Journal of Pain. The results showed that being able to analyze several measures of multiple symptoms over time can help clarify relationships among symptoms, the researchers said in a news release from the American Pain Society. For ... Read more
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Study Links Obesity to Greater Pain, Weakness in Fibromyalgia Patients
Posted 7 Jan 2011 by Drugs.com
THURSDAY, Jan. 6 – Obese fibromyalgia patients suffer more severe symptoms such as pain, reduced flexibility and sleep disturbances than those of normal weight, a new study indicates. But the good news is that losing weight may bring a modicum of relief, other research suggests. Noting that pain issues are common in obese people, researchers from the University of Utah analyzed 215 patients with fibromyalgia, a chronic musculoskeletal pain disorder afflicting between 3 percent and 5 percent of Americans, most of them women. Nearly half of the study participants were obese, and another 30 percent were overweight, with the obese patients experiencing much greater pain to the touch in lower body areas, according to the research. One of the cardinal features of fibromyalgia is extreme pain upon palpation of at least 11 of 18 so-called tender points across the body. The obese fibromyalgia ... Read more
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Tai Chi May Provide Arthritis Relief
Posted 24 Nov 2010 by Drugs.com
WEDNESDAY, Nov. 24 – Arthritis patients may gain physical and emotional relief from the ancient Chinese art of Tai Chi, finds a new study, the largest of its kind. Patients with osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia felt better and moved more easily after taking twice-weekly classes in Tai Chi, a system of meditative exercise, researchers found. "It reduced pain, stiffness and fatigue, and improved their balance," said study lead author Leigh F. Callahan, an associate professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine. Smaller studies have also linked Tai Chi to similar benefits for people with arthritis, but colleagues had questioned the applicability of the findings to a larger population. In this study, in addition to evidence of mild to moderate relief from Tai Chi, participants reported gaining a better sense of physical ... Read more
Related support groups: Fibromyalgia, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Osteoarthritis
Restless Legs Syndrome, Fibromyalgia Linked in Study
Posted 17 Oct 2010 by Drugs.com
FRIDAY, Oct. 15 – People with fibromyalgia are 11 times more likely to have restless legs syndrome (RLS) than those in the general population, according to a new study. Fibromyalgia is a condition that can cause significant pain and fatigue. Women account for 80 to 90 percent of patients diagnosed with fibromyalgia. Its cause is unknown. The findings suggest that treating RLS – which is characterized by an unpleasant urge to move the legs, usually at night – may improve sleep and quality of life for people with fibromyalgia, the researchers said. RLS is often treated with drugs such as pramipexole or ropinirole. In this study, U.S. researchers compared 172 fibromyalgia patients, average age 50, with a control group of 63 healthy people, average age 41. The prevalence of RLS was about 10 times higher in the fibromyalgia group (93 percent of whom were female) than in the control group ... Read more
Related support groups: Fibromyalgia, Restless Legs Syndrome
Yoga May Combat Fibromyalgia Symptoms
Posted 14 Oct 2010 by Drugs.com
THURSDAY, Oct. 14 – Yoga that includes gentle stretches and meditation may help alleviate the symptoms of fibromyalgia, a small study finds. Twenty-five women diagnosed with fibromyalgia, a chronic pain syndrome, were enrolled in a two-hour yoga class that met once a week for eight weeks. Another group of 28 women diagnosed with the condition were put on a waiting list and told to continue their normal routine for dealing with fibromyalgia. After eight weeks, the yoga group reported improvements in both physical and psychological aspects of fibromyalgia, including decreased pain, fatigue, tenderness, anxiety and better sleep and mood. "The women were somewhat apprehensive when we started, but once they got into the rhythm of it they found it to be very helpful," said lead study author James Carson, a clinical psychologist and pain specialist at Oregon Health & Science University in ... Read more
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Tai Chi May Help Ease Fibromyalgia
Posted 18 Aug 2010 by Drugs.com
WEDNESDAY, Aug. 18 – Fibromyalgia sufferers may find relief from the chronic pain condition by doing tai chi, new research finds. Researchers divided 66 people with fibromyalgia into two groups: one group did hour-long sessions of tai chi twice a week for 12 weeks; the other had a twice-weekly wellness education class followed by gentle stretching. At the end of 12 weeks, the tai chi group reported improvements in their scores on questionnaires regarding both physical and mental fibromyalgia symptoms. That included decreased pain and increased ability to do daily tasks without pain; less fatigue, depression and anxiety; and an overall better quality of life. Patients also reported better sleep quality and improved physical conditioning. The improvements were still evident at 24 weeks, according to the research reported in the Aug. 19 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. "It ... Read more
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