There are an estimated 10 million Americans who suffer from fibromyalgia and in the range of up to 20% of those who seek the advice of a rheumatologist suffer from fibromyalgia. Fibromyalgia is a condition that involves painful muscles, ligaments and tendons. While it isn\’t disfiguring or life-threatening, it does create life altering pain and discomfort for the individual who suffers from it.
Similar to migraine headaches, fibromyalgia affects mostly women who were middle-aged and less often affects children and the elderly. The pain can occur in four or more distinct areas of the body and are related to \”trigger points\”. These trigger points or tender points can affect pain and muscle thousands when pressure is applied and are definitive diagnostic tools. Trigger points are often found in the elbows, shoulders, back and head, knees and the sides of the breastbone.
Many people who suffer from fibromyalgia also suffer from migraine type headaches. Researchers currently believe that fibromyalgia may be the result of a disturbance in the brain\’s \”pain center\”. In fact, there are many researchers and physicians who believed that several chronic pain disorders can arise from the same type of disturbance. Although the pain of fibromyalgia is found throughout the body it is also associated with a variety of other symptoms including sleep disturbance, depression, anxiety and headaches. Individuals who suffer from migraine headaches also find that these symptoms are associated with their condition as well.
Individuals who suffer from fibromyalgia also find that a chronic primary headache, including tension type or migraines, are common. Some experts believe that both of these conditions share the common defect in the system that regulates certain neurotransmitters, including serotonin and epinephrine.
Women who find relief using magnesium as a supplement for their migraines may also get the same relief for fibromyalgia. This is because some research has indicated that low levels of magnesium is present in individuals who suffer from both fibromyalgia and migraines. Researchers have also noted that some migraine sufferers who fail to benefit from the usual therapies to prevent or control the pain of migraines may also suffer from fibromyalgia.
There are several different types of migraine headaches but most of these are characterized by severe pain that occurs on one or both sides of the head. Individuals will also suffer from nausea, dizziness and visual disturbances as well as vomiting and hyper sensitivity to noise, lights and sounds.
Physicians know that more than 50% of people who suffer from fibromyalgia will also experience tension type or migraine headaches. There are a number of theories as to why so many fibromyalgia patients will suffer from headaches and many of those theories rest on the idea that the same dysfunction which causes fibromyalgia also causes migraine headaches. However, individuals who have fibromyalgia also have other symptoms which may be the trigger for migraines, including sleep disorders, temporomandibular joint disorder, levels of serotonin and low levels of magnesium.
Recent advances have shed some insight into the pathophysiological mechanisms of both fibromyalgia and migraine headaches-especially in those individuals who suffer from the chronic form. In a growing body of evidence researchers are able to support the involvement of peripheral and central sensitization disturbances of pain related processes in both disorders. This involvement has an increased glutamate transmission through interaction in metabolic receptors.
The findings of these researchers from Italy have implications for future therapies directed against glutamate receptors but because the limited clinical experience there is no additional mechanism contributing to the maintenance of pain that can target therapeutic approaches and both disorders.
There are similarities in the underlying medical conditions of both fibromyalgia and migraine headaches. And, because of this, some treatment modalities are also similar are effective. If you have migraine headaches that have been unsuccessfully treated or you have fibromyalgia with chronic migraine headaches consider the possibility that you may have both diagnosis with your neurologist or physician in order to effectively choose a treatment protocol which will enhance the chance of success.
RESOURCES
Michigan Headache and Neurological Institute: Fibromyalgia & Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Current Pain and Headache Reports: Sensitization, glutamate, and the link between migrain and fibromyalgia
Fluid Essential: New Opinion on Fibromyalgia: Link Between Fibromyalgia and Migraine Headaches
National Headache Foundation: Comorbidities of Migraine
Medscape CME: Prevalence, Clinical Features, and Potential Therapies for Fibromyalgia in Primary Headaches: Possible Causes of Comorbidity Between Fibromyalgia & Primary Headaches
National Headache Foundation Head Wise: The Fibromyalgia and Migraine Comorbidity