If you suffer from fibromyalgia you may find yourself more concerned with your memory and thinking problems than with the physical pain. After all, living in pain every day builds up a sense of tolerance. It's all the other symptoms that get in the way. Many fibro patients experience memory problems (both short-term and long-term) as well as difficulty with attention, trouble finding the right words (when your mouth lags with a thought), or other forms of cognitive impairment. Some refer to this as “Fibro Fog.”
Did you know fibromyalgia patients, in general, perform worse in cognitive testing against those with little education or age-related mental impairment. In one example, fibro patients were able to recall fewer words from a list. Other testing was done on vocabulary and verbal fluency, including one that monitored the groups ability to recall words beginning with a specific letter. The conclusion from the test results was that fibro patients do possess cognitive dysfunction. In fact, the cognitive abilities of the fibromyalgia patients studied were equivalent to the cognitive abilities of non-fibro patients 20 years older.
The only symptom of fibromyalgia that was found to relate to an individual’s cognitive ability was pain and how that pain influenced patients. More research needs to done before we know if pain management influences cognitive function or if a diminished cognitive ability makes it more difficult to manage pain.
The study also analyzed how much cognitive decline the participants were aware of, their awareness of cognitive ability. Patients with fibromyalgia generally felt as if they had experienced more cognitive decline than others in the study. Having to perform these memory tests also made those with fibro more anxious. Interestingly, those with fibromyalgia more accurately assessed their own level of decline.
It seems the cognitive complaints given by fibromyalgia patients are not due to a psychiatric disorder or to most of the other fibromyalgia symptoms. The study shows that when doctors are able to determine the exact relationship between pain and cognitive function, it will change the way we treat these two fibro symptoms.
By following this blog you've already made a health-conscious decision. Try as many natural therapies as you can to keep your body well-tuned and prohibit these nasty side effects of fibromyalgia.
Did you know fibromyalgia patients, in general, perform worse in cognitive testing against those with little education or age-related mental impairment. In one example, fibro patients were able to recall fewer words from a list. Other testing was done on vocabulary and verbal fluency, including one that monitored the groups ability to recall words beginning with a specific letter. The conclusion from the test results was that fibro patients do possess cognitive dysfunction. In fact, the cognitive abilities of the fibromyalgia patients studied were equivalent to the cognitive abilities of non-fibro patients 20 years older.
The only symptom of fibromyalgia that was found to relate to an individual’s cognitive ability was pain and how that pain influenced patients. More research needs to done before we know if pain management influences cognitive function or if a diminished cognitive ability makes it more difficult to manage pain.
The study also analyzed how much cognitive decline the participants were aware of, their awareness of cognitive ability. Patients with fibromyalgia generally felt as if they had experienced more cognitive decline than others in the study. Having to perform these memory tests also made those with fibro more anxious. Interestingly, those with fibromyalgia more accurately assessed their own level of decline.
It seems the cognitive complaints given by fibromyalgia patients are not due to a psychiatric disorder or to most of the other fibromyalgia symptoms. The study shows that when doctors are able to determine the exact relationship between pain and cognitive function, it will change the way we treat these two fibro symptoms.
By following this blog you've already made a health-conscious decision. Try as many natural therapies as you can to keep your body well-tuned and prohibit these nasty side effects of fibromyalgia.
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