What Are Fibromyalgia (Fibrositis) Causes?

Fibrositis is the alternative name for fibromyalgia. Medically, it is used to describe a condition of generalized muscular pain & fatigue. This disease is not fully understood yet. Even there is still no answer about the exact cause of the problem, but there are some theories for the possible causes.

Many experts talk about genetics to speculate the cause of this disease. But when talking about this issue, this doesn’t mean fibrositis is passed /inherited directly from parent to children. It is thought that the tendency to have the disease may be sometimes inherited.

Some studies showed that the odds of developing this disease are greater in the immediate families of people with fibrositis than others in which no one has fibrositis.

This suggests that genetics may play a key role in triggering and causing the disease.

Other studies have looked at the DNA of people with family history of pain syndromes and fibrositis. They found a number of genes that may be helpful to start the observation of why these health conditions seem to run in families.

Each gene of this finding is thought has a role in the mechanism of nervous system in responding to hurt such as heat or pressure. Several of the same genes may play a role in the way of how we can get anxiety and depression – which may also answer the question of why some symptoms of fibrositis improve with certain antidepressants.

Another interesting issue, there may be a link between specific genes and different levels of pain that we feel. Some studies are continuously going to explore this issue by connecting particular variants of certain genes and the differences of pain’s threshold levels in different individual.

Another possible cause is sensitisation (oversensitivity to the signals of pain in the brain). This may be linked to minor changes in brain chemicals. But the reason of why these changes occur is not fully understood.

There are numerous chemicals in the brain and one of them is neurotransmitters (responsible to transmit signal /message between brain cells and between nerves). The level of this brain chemical (specifically a chemical called serotonin) is lower than average in some people with fibrositis.

Serotonin has numerous functions to help your brain work properly. It can affect the way of how you feel your mood, the perception of pain, and even the way of how you fall asleep.

Studies also find that the level of substance P (a chemical can be found in the spinal cord and brain) in people with fibrositis is higher than average. Researchers speculate that this substance may affect the way of transmitting the message’s pain, causing increased sensitivity of pain.

ANS (the autonomic nervous system) has function to regulate the way of how some internal organs work. Some of these internal organs are intestines, stomach, and heart.

ANS is also crucial for some muscles. It is also one of essential units in your peripheral nervous system.

Since it works reflexively and involuntary, you are often unaware to its function. For instance, you often don’t realize when your heart beat slower /faster or when the size of your blood vessels changes.

What is the possible link between ANS and fibrositis? Another function of ANS is to help release some hormones that affect the way of your body in responding stress.

Some experts have opinion that the way of the hormones released by ANS to respond stress goes differently in people with fibrositis, which then may affect the perception of pain.