Fibromyalgia is a chronic illness and a well-recognized disease that affects around 3 to 5 percent of the population of the whole world. The symptoms of this illness are severe muscle and body pain, poor sleep quality, trouble concentrating on things, memory loss, and significant tenderness and fatigue. In other words, it is an auto-immune disorder. The symptoms of this disease vary from patient to patient.
If you are a patient of fibromyalgia and you feel pain in the chest, you need to see a doctor, make sure that your heart is healthy. There are many different causes of chest pain. This pain can be occurred due to heart disease or can be a reason for other chronic illness such as fibromyalgia. The pain in the chest occurred due to fibromyalgia is called costochondritis, the most harmless disease. Costochondritis is also known as musculoskeletal or non-cardiac chest pain. This pain is related to the muscles and there is no involvement of any heart problem in this pain.
According to a study, 30 percent of the patients with a complaint of chest pain have costochondritis. This disease caused the pain around the rib cage, sternum, and breastbone due to the inflammation.
Symptoms of Costochondritis
There are a few symptoms of costochondritis that are given below:
- Pain like stabbing or feeling of intense sharpness.
- Burning sensation or inflammation.
- Chronic or mild chest pain.
- Stretched muscles.
- Tightness in the chest.
- Stomach Pain comes and go.
- Heart Pain reduced with steady and shallow breathing.
- Pain gets worse with the deep breathing, movement or with pressure.
- Pain starts from one place and rotates outward affecting a large area.
Although the costochondritis is a common problem in the patients of fibromyalgia, do not ignore it and must consult with the doctor. It can be a possibility that this chest pain caused by the heart problem so, do not take it lightly. Must visit the doctor to confirm the cause behind the pain.
Causes of Costochondritis
As there is a debate going on, on the causes and factors behind the fibromyalgia, costochondritis reasons are also unknown. The researchers believed that there are some elements that are becoming a cause of this illness or pain. These elements are discussed under:
Inherited:
One reason suggested by the researches is a heredity factor. They believed that the reason behind the fibromyalgia, costochondritis or other such diseases is inheriting some genes causing this disease from the family.
Trauma or injury:
When our muscles are weak or we have a vitamin deficiency, we can become a patient of fibromyalgia. If we had an accident which damaged our neurological system or muscular system that can also lead us to the fibromyalgia or costochondritis.
Infection or illness that affects the nervous system:
When the nervous system does not work properly, you can become a patient of costochondritis. With the damage of the nervous system, your pain controlling system stops to work properly. It does not control the pain as efficiently as it should do. You should consult your doctor as soon as possible so that you can secure yourself from the in reparable damage to your nerves.
Grief or stress:
If you are in stress or depression, the chances of fibromyalgia or costochondritis are more. It will trigger the body and muscular pains and can also cause the costochondritis.
Treatment
The basic objective behind the treatment of the fibromyalgia or costochondritis is to reduce the pain, controlling the seriousness of the symptoms and giving the training to the patient to deal with his illness on his own.
Pain relievers:
The patients of fibromyalgia or costochondritis suffered from severe or chronic pain, thus, pain relievers are given to the patients by the doctors to reduce the pain temporarily. Keeping in view the discomfort and the pain level of the patient, the doctor prescribed the strong pain killers.
Physical therapy:
Exercise is a very effective treatment to deal with the fibromyalgia or chest pain caused by it. The exercise helps you to build your stamina and gives you the strength to deal with the chronic pains caused by the fibromyalgia disease.
Counseling:
Your chronic illness can lead you towards depression. You can take the help of a psychiatrist and can get the counseling. You can share your discomfort with your psychiatrist. The psychiatrist will help you to learn to live with this disease in a healthy way and will help you to deal with your depression and stress.
Bottom line
Fibromyalgia caused chest pain by affecting the muscles of the chest area. When the cartilage that joins the sternum to ribs are affected by the fibromyalgia then it becomes a cause of costochondritis disease. Although, costochondritis is not a dangerous disease but then too it is important to take it seriously. In case of chest pain must go to see your physician and let him diagnose whether the reason for the pain is costochondritis or something else.
