Multiple Sclerosis and Fibromyalgia are the two diseases one might come across on the internet while searching for weird symptoms. Although fibromyalgia patients think that they have MS, these two are not related. Physicians do not confuse them because they are like apples and pears. Well, why do patients then?
What is Multiple Sclerosis?
Multiple Sclerosis is a cerebrospinal inflammatory. First, myelin, the thing that communicates the brain with the spinal cord gets sick. Then the brain sees this myelin as an intruder and begins attacking it.
This mostly cause a half or full dysfunction in something that either the brain or the spinal cord controls. Also, it can go both ways: worse or better.
What is Fibromyalgia?
Wandering muscle pain in the body and fatigue. The name is the combination of “fibro-collagen tissue”, “myo-muscle” and “algia-pain”. There is no inflammatory that can be seen or detected with the scans but the muscles hurt like there is. Also fatigue, depression, hormonal disorders, and digestive system problems like gas and distention accompany.
Multiple Sclerosis Findings
- Numbness, tingling, prickling,
- Loss of strength, spasm, muscle stiffness, cramps, pain. Loss of strength might be just on the limbs on one side or both.
- Visual loss, double vision,
- Urinary incontinence,
- Constipation,
- Speech disorder,
- Sexual dysfunction,
- Loss of balance, nausea,
- Fatigue,
- Depression,
- Temporary memory problems,
- Dysphagia…
Fibromyalgia Symptoms
You can find all the things listed for MS above in the descriptions of fibromyalgia as well. This is because while describing something the body is going through, one may use broad concepts like pain, speech disorder, loss of balance, weakness, visual loss, memory problems, etc.
However those words do not necessarily mean the same thing. For example, a patient with an MS lesion in the speech center of the brain cannot talk, like a paralyzed person. But for a fibromyalgia patient, this is more like not finding the energy to talk or get the words together. As you can see, two very different things may be described using the same words.
Likewise, MS weakness is like paralysis while the one in fibromyalgia is like low energy and fatigue. More examples can be found.
The Differences Between MS and Fibromyalgia
- MS is something that directly affects the nerves in the brain and the spinal cord.
- Fibromyalgia is resulted from the brain.
- MS is a central nervous system disorder while fibromyalgia is more related to the autonomic nervous system, in other words the body.
- MS is diagnosed with positive examinations, scans and x-rays. Fibromyalgia does not have any findings except the ones the patient told and the painful spots in the body. Patients are told that they have fibromyalgia when nothing else can be found to explain the complaints.
- MS comes in attacks while fibromyalgia takes at least 3 months.
What Should Patients Do?
Firstly, one should not forget that if it were possible to be a physician just by reading stuff, medical schools would not require a 60-70% practice for students to pass the classes. This occupation develops the ability of interpreting the articles in a broad scale.
Do research online. Just as you read this. However do not adapt the things you read to yourself. Those words mean more broad things in practice.
Every med student thinks in their first year that he/she has each disease he/she has learned. Because it is possible to relate ourselves to some symptoms of every disease. The key here is to find what is caused by what disease and when. Physicians learn to distinguish these things in the long years of education. You do not interpret the things you read. You may share what you think about with your physician or go to see a specialist of the field. There are physicians working on MS (neurology) and fibromyalgia (rheumatologists and physiotherapists).