Fibromyalgia - what you need to know

"Women are more likely to develop chronic illnesses that overlap like migraines, irritable bowel syndrome and pain disorders," says Goldenberg. Researchers suspect that estrogen

and other hormones may play a part, but so far no one has found clear biological reasons why women may be more susceptible. "We do know that women are more likely to complain of

conditions and to go to physicians earlier than men do," he says. Among children, it turns out, what used to be thought of as "growing pains" may in fact be undiagnosed

fibromyalgia. 6. FACT: FIBROMYALGIA IS NOT A PSYCHOLOGICAL CONDITION "Depression and anxiety are about four to five times more common in people with fibromyalgia than in normal, healthy

people," says Goldenberg. "But that doesn't mean that depression and anxiety are the same thing as fibromyalgia. Almost all pain disorders have links to depression and

anxiety." People with a genetic disposition to fibromyalgia likely have a predisposition to disorders such as depression as well, he adds. 7. FACT: TREATMENT INVOLVES ANTIDEPRESSANTS

AND ANTISEIZURE DRUGS The notion that people with fibromyalgia have a predisposition to both pain and depression led to the idea that antidepressants might help. Antiseizure drugs are

thought to improve brain neurotransmitter issues in fibromyalgia, Goldenberg says. But opioids don't work, says Clauw: "The body's opioid system may be driving part of the

underlying [development] of the disease, so giving patients opioids may make their fibromyalgia worse." In a 2013 Stanford study, when 31 women with fibromyalgia took low doses of

naltrexone, a drug which blocks the body's opioids, they saw a 29 percent reduction in pain compared with an 18 percent reduction in those that took a placebo. 8. FACT: PEOPLE WITH

FIBROMYALGIA NEED EXERCISE — BUT NOT TOO MUCH "Exercise is the most effective 'drug' for fibromyalgia," Clauw says. "It works like the drugs for fibromyalgia,

raising chemicals in the body that are connected to feeling good. But as with drugs, if you 'take' too much exercise, your fibromyalgia symptoms may become worse. Start at a low

level of exercise and increase slowly." Clauw's not suggesting that you sign up for sweating sessions in the gym. "Just get up and move, walk, take the stairs instead of the

elevator. It will improve all your symptoms — pain, fatigue, sleeplessness — in part because it alters the levels of neurotransmitters that affect pain and mood." _Dorothy Foltz-Gray is

a freelance writer._ _MEMBER DISCOUNTS! SAVE ON EYE EXAMS, PRESCRIPTION DRUGS, HEARING AIDS AND MORE_