Lesser Known Fibro Symptoms
Most people who suffer from fibromyalgia are familiar with the condition’s many common symptoms. These include pain, fatigue, fibro fog, depression, anxiety, stiffness and irritable bowel syndrome. It’s likely that if you suffer from fibromyalgia, you will suffer from most – if not all – of these symptoms.
However, unfortunately, the list of symptoms doesn’t stop there. There are many other effects – mental and physical – that fibromyalgia patients experience, some more common than others.
Which of these less common fibromyalgia symptoms do you suffer from? How do you cope?
1. Chest Pain
Sharp pain in your chest is a worrying feeling and shouldn’t be ignored as it can often be an unrelated health issue. However, it’s often associated with fibromyalgia, as the chest is one of the trigger points where fibro patients experience pain.
Sometimes this can lead to a shortness of breath, but more commonly it is a sharp pain in the chest area without any other side effects. Gentle exercises and deep breathing can help ease this pain, as can heat and gentle massage.
2. Dry Skin and Itching
Dry skin and itching is another symptom some fibromyalgia patients experience. Often skin can appear flaky and dry and those dry areas often become itchy. If you scratch at your skin, a fibromyalgia rash can then appear or the skin feels bruised.
Apparently the itchiness may be a result of pain signals being misunderstood by the brain, so it’s important to keep your skin moisturized and try to avoid scratching.
3. Tingling and Numbness
I think this is one of the more common lesser known symptoms. Tingling and muscle numbness, also known as paresthesia, commonly exists in the hands and feet as a result of extensive use, and rest or massage can sometimes help this.
However, your tingling can be caused by anxiety as a result of shortness of breath causing reduced blood flow. Deep breathing can often be found to improve fibromyalgia paresthesia.
4. Excessive Sweating
This occurs as a result of an autonomic dysfunction in the area of the brain that controls sweating, bowel movements and other body functions. It can occur as a side effect of fibromyalgia and therefore requires fibro patients to carefully control their body temperature – something we are often used to as many fibro sufferers find heat/cold impacts our pain.
