What is the Difference between Fibromyalgia and Polymyalgia?

What is the Difference between Fibromyalgia and Polymyalgia?

| Monday, Jul 10, 2017
tags: Guest Blogs

Are you having problems with your muscles, stiffness or weakness? Maybe you have no idea what’s the problem you are suffering from? Fibriomyalgia and polymyalgia could be the culprit, two health conditions with very similar symptoms.

Educating yourself about polymyalgia rheumatic vs. fibromyalgia ahead of your doctor's appointment can prepare you better to communicate with your physician about what you are faced with.

Symptom similarities:

Polymyalgia and Fibromyalgia are muscle pain diseases that are highly similar. In polymyalgia rheumatic, people suffer from stiffness and pain in their upper arms, shoulders and hips. This mostly occurs when the patient wakes up from sleep and starts working, remaining idle for long time.

With fibromyalgia, muscle issues can occur in the same parts of your body and the pain is even more extreme. Those who are suffering from fibromyalgia may experience have other issues as well, like:

 

  • Exhaustion
  • Sleeping issues
  • Remembrance problem
  • Bowel and bladder problems

 

Who Gets What?

Anyone can suffer from fibromyalgia, but it is more commonly found in women than man and it could occur at any age.

It is quite difficult to describe who has a greater risk of having either condition. However, some definite risk factors aspect give some intimation. According to research done by the Mayo Clinic, older adults over the age of 65 are more used to be diagnosed with polymyalgia. It is very less shown in people under the age of 50 years.

Causes:

Polymyalgia is mostly detected in some certain seasons, and no exact reason of polymyalgia has been discovered yet. Some believe that environmental changes, such as a virus, may play a role. There are 2 primary causes that are involved in the development of this condition:

Genetics: Certain genes and gene variations may increase your susceptibility.

Environmental exposure: New cases of polymyalgia rheumatic have a tendency to come in cycles and might expand seasonally. This indicates that an environmental trigger, inclusive of a pandemic, might play a function. However, no unique virus has been proven to cause polymyalgia rheumatic.

Diagnosis and medication:

There is not any specific test for testing fibromyalgia, but some doctors use a check list that has 18 particular trigger points often found in the patient who may be suffering from the fibromyalgia. Your physician might also ask you for some blood tests to determine the exact stage.

Some of these tests incorporate physical exams and therapeutic history survey, blood tests for finish blood check and swelling parts, imaging tests to recognize polymyalgia from different conditions with comparable manifestations, and observing for giant cell arteritis by giving careful consideration to the nearness of cerebral pains, jaw ache, sentimental, blurred or double vision, and scalp tenderness. 

Treatment options for fibromyalgia and polymyalgia:

Fibromyalgia

To treat fibromyalgia, there are medications, elective cures, and way-of-life propensities that may help manage pain and enhance better sleep. Your clinician may prescribe pain medicine or antidepressants to help treat the ache, exhaustion, dejection, and tension that accompanies the sickness. Moreover, your specialist may prescribe physical workout, moist heat, daily aerobic workout, relaxation, and stretching to better manage your symptoms.

Polymyalgia:

Physicians coordinate with their therapeutic treatment of PMR toward decreasing pain and irritation. While a few patients with mild manifestations can be treated with non-steroidal calming drugs (NSAIDs) for example, headache medicine or ibuprofen (Motrin, Advil), most patients react best to low measurements of corticosteroids, (for example, prednisone or prednisolone). Not rarely, a single day of cortisone pill or injection facilitates a considerable lot of the indications! In fact, the fast, satisfying results with low measurements of corticosteroids is normal for the condition.