Both MS and fibromyalgia may cause chronic pain and fatigue, they are very distinct conditions. A correct diagnosis is important to ensure proper treatment.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune neurological condition that destroys the protective coating (myelin) that surrounds the nerves. MS destroys the myelin and eventually causes the nerves to no longer be able to function as they should. 

Fibromyalgia is characterized by musculoskeletal pain that affects the entire body. In addition to chronic pain, fibromyalgia causes increased drowsiness and fatigue, as well as mood and memory issues. 

They are very different conditions, but they sometimes share similar symptoms.

Both conditions require a variety of medical tests for a diagnosis. Before you begin any tests, you may be able to distinguish your symptoms and decide if they’re signs of one of these conditions. Your doctor can help, too.

What are the symptoms?

While these two conditions share some symptoms, they also have distinct symptoms of their own. These include:

Fibromyalgia symptoms

Pain associated with fibromyalgia is chronic and widespread. It’s described as a dull, aching pain. To be classified as fibromyalgia, a person must experience the chronic pain for at least 3 months. Also, the pain must occur on both sides of the body, above and below the waist.

Other symptoms of fibromyalgia include:

• Memory issues: “Fibro fog” is a term applied to the confusion, difficulty focusing and concentrating, and changes in memory that people with fibromyalgia often experience.
• Mood changes: Depression is not uncommon in people with fibromyalgia. Also, people with fibromyalgia sometimes experience sudden shifts in mood.
• Chronic fatigue: Fibromyalgia causes a great deal of fatigue. People with fibromyalgia are prone to long periods of sleep and rest. However, many people with fibromyalgia also have sleep disorders, such as sleep apnea and restless leg syndrome.

MS symptoms

MS destroys the protective coating around your nerves and eventually the nerves themselves. Once damaged, the nerves may not be able to feel or experience sensations as well as healthy nerves.

The symptoms associated with MS vary depending on the amount of nerve damage and which nerves are affected. It’s common for people who have MS to have significant chronic pain, eventually experiencing numbness and weakness in affected areas. Tingling and mild pain can occur, too.

Other symptoms of MS include:

• Difficulty walking: You may develop an unsteady gait and have trouble walking. Coordination and balance are also challenged.
• Slurred speech: As the myelin is worn away, communication from the brain may slow down. This can make speech seem more difficult, and you may have a harder time speaking clearly.
• Vision problems: Vision disturbances like double vision and complete or total vision loss can occur. Eye pain is common, too.

Diagnosing fibromyalgia and MS

Diagnosing either condition can be difficult for doctors. In many cases, a doctor will come to one or the other condition after they’ve ruled out other possible causes for your symptoms.

Diagnosing fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia is diagnosed if your doctor can’t find any other explanation for your whole-body pain. The pain will also need to have occurred for at least 3 months.

There’s no specific test that can be used to diagnose fibromyalgia. Instead, a doctor will make a diagnosis off a group of symptoms, one of which is widespread pain. 

Doctors often also use “tender points” to diagnose fibromyalgia. What this means is that people with fibromyalgia feel additional pain when a doctor applies firm pressure to these sensitive points on the body.

Diagnosing MS

MS isn’t diagnosed with a single test or procedure. If other conditions are ruled out, an MRI can detect lesions on your brain and spinal cord. Additionally, your doctor may conduct a spinal tap. 

During this procedure, your doctor will remove a small sample of spinal fluid and test it for antibodies that are associated with MS.

The differences in treatments

Once a diagnosis has been made for either fibromyalgia or MS, your doctor will suggest different treatments to help treat symptoms and improve your quality of life. Just as the two conditions are different, treatment options for the two conditions differ.

Fibromyalgia treatment

There are a variety of different types of treatment options for fibromyalgia, including over-the-counter (OTC) drugs, prescription medications, and alternative treatments.

OTC solutions include:

• acetaminophen (Tylenol)
• ibuprofen (Advil)
• naproxen sodium (Aleve)

Prescription medications include:

• antidepressants, such as duloxetine (Cymbalta)
• antiseizure medications, such as pregabalin (Lyrica)

Alternative treatments include:

• acupuncture
• massage therapy
• yoga
• tai chi

Lifestyle changes include:

• getting enough sleep
• exercising regularly
• limiting caffeine intake
• reducing stress
• adjusting diet
• physical therapy

MS treatment

As with fibromyalgia, there are a variety of treatments available for those with MS. These prescription treatments can reduce the inflammation and slow or change the course of disease progression. 

Other treatments can help with symptom management and improve a person’s quality of life. These include OTC medications, alternative remedies, and lifestyle changes.

OTC medications, which are used to help relieve musculoskeletal pain, include:

• aspirin
• acetaminophen (Tylenol)
• ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin)

Prescription medications and interventions include:

• injectable medications, such as Avonex or Extavia
• oral medications, such as Aubagio and Tecfidera
• infused medications, such as Lemtrada
• high doses of Solu-Medrol (a steroid) for relapse management
• physical therapy for rehabilitation
• speech language pathology

Alternative treatments include:

• acupuncture
• stress management
• cognitive behavioral therapy

Lifestyle changes include:

• eating a nutrient-dense, well-balanced diet that includes omega-3 fatty acids and is high in fiber and low in saturated fat
• exercising regularly, including stretching

No matter what method of treatment you’re currently on, discuss any new changes in your treatments with your doctor before you start them, even if they’re considered “natural” or “safe.” These could interfere with treatments or medications you’re currently taking.

Outlook for each condition

Both MS and fibromyalgia are currently chronic, incurable conditions. Though treatments can alleviate symptoms and improve your overall quality of life, there are no cures available for either condition, and both tend to advance with time.

Fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia is not fatal. Because medications are limited, lifestyle and alternative remedies are an important part of treatment management.

In general, people with fibromyalgia who adapt to necessary lifestyle changes coupled with the help of medications can experience significant improvement in their symptoms.

MS

Most people with MS will have an equivalent or almost equivalent life expectancy to that of the average person without MS. However, this isn’t generally the outlook for rare cases of severe MS. 

People with MS may develop cancer or heart disease just like people without MS.

Symptoms in people with MS can be unpredictable, though most will see some amount of disease progression as time goes on. People with MS who experience more time between symptom attacks and relapses tend to do better and experience less severe symptoms.

Takeaway

Though they sometimes share similar symptoms, MS and fibromyalgia are two very different conditions. Understanding the differences can help you and your doctor start testing for the right condition earlier.

If you have unexplained symptoms that resemble one or both of these conditions, make an appointment with your doctor. They can begin investigating your symptoms to diagnose the cause and get you the treatment you need.

Both of these conditions are likely to be life changing. As is true with many other conditions, getting treatment as soon as possible can help increase your comfort and quality of life. It can also potentially slow down the onset or advancement of symptoms.

Melinda

Reference:

Joint pain may worsen during the night due to fluid buildup or chemical processes in your body that cause inflammation. But at-home treatments and adjustments to your daily and nighttime routines may help you get a good night’s sleep.

If you have a condition that causes joint pain, you may have found that the pain can be worse at night. Joint pain at night is not usually a medical emergency. But it can severely limit your ability to get a good night’s sleep.

Most joint pain is due to arthritis, inflammation of the joints. This includes:

• osteoarthritis
• rheumatoid arthritis (RA)
• psoriatic arthritis (PsA)
• ankylosing spondylitis (AS)

According to the Arthritis Foundation, 4 in 5 people with arthritis have trouble sleeping.

But other common conditions can also contribute to joint pain at night, such as:

• tendinitis
• bursitis
• fibromyalgia
• gout
• lupus
• Lyme disease
• infection
• bone cancer
• injury

Cytokines

At night, some of your cells release cytokines, small proteins that help activate your immune system. Some cytokines help to make you sleepy. But they can also generate inflammation, which can increase joint pain.

Body position

Your sleep position can put pressure on joints, making existing joint pain worse. For example:

• If you have hip or shoulder pain on one side of your body, try to avoid putting pressure on that joint by sleeping on your other side.
• You can worsen wrist pain if you sleep with your wrists bent.
• Neck pain may worsen if you’re a stomach sleeper and your neck remains twisted to one side for hours at a time.

Mattress and pillow

Your mattress and pillow may also be part of the problem. A too-soft, unsupportive mattress may not provide enough cushioning to support the proper alignment of your spine. This can put pressure on tender joints.

If your pillow is too high, too low, or lumpy, it may force you to hold your neck and shoulder joints in an unnatural position while sleeping. This can irritate your nerves and generate joint pain.

How can I manage joint pain at night?

The underlying cause of joint pain may determine how best to manage it. For example, if you have jaw pain due to a temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorder, wearing a night guard might be a good way to reduce it.

You can typically manage joint pain at night with at-home treatments. A trial-and-error approach may be needed before you learn what works best for you. Here are 10 things to try:

1. Exercise 

Strong, supple muscles help take pressure off of painful joints. Exercises like stretching and yoga can help people with conditions like rheumatoid arthritis or osteoarthritis. Other good choices include:

• walking
• running
• water aerobics
• tai chi

You may consider working with a physical therapist on exercises for specific joints and muscle groups.

2. Apply heat 

Some people find that using heating pads or compresses on painful joints before sleep provides nighttime relief. You may also find that taking a warm bath before bed reduces pain and provides relaxation.

When you apply heat to an aching joint, the blood vessels in that area increase in size. This increases blood and oxygen circulation in and around the joint, reducing stiffness and pain.

If your joint pain is due to an injury, check with a healthcare professional before using heat. For injuries, applying cold during healing may be a better choice.

3. Apply cold

Cold packs decrease blood flow to the joint, reducing swelling and inflammation. The numbing sensation caused by applying cold or cool compresses can also help reduce pain.

Try using a cold pack directly on the painful joint for 10 to 20 minutes before going to sleep. You can also try immersing yourself in a cold or cool bath for as long as you feel comfortable.

4. Try over-the-counter (OTC) pain medication

OTC pain relievers, including those that reduce inflammation, may be helpful. These include acetaminophen (Tylenol) and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like aspirin or ibuprofen. Look for extended-relief versions that last for 8 hours or more, so your pain doesn’t return during the night.

Make sure to follow package directions and don’t overuse. If OTC pain meds aren’t enough, talk with a healthcare professional about prescription drugs for pain.

If you have high blood pressure, heart disease, or kidney disease talk with a doctor about which OTC pain reliever would be best for you. Some may cause you to retain water, which can cause kidney problems or raise your blood pressure.

5. Use topical treatments

Topical treatments are medications you apply directly to your skin. Some ointments can provide targeted pain relief. Look for gels, sprays, and lotions that contain active ingredients such as:

• Menthol: Menthol can provide a cooling sensation to your skin, helping to mask pain.
• Camphor: Camphor can provide both cool and warm sensations to your skin and numb nerve endings.
• Arnica: Arnica has anti-inflammatory properties and supports enhanced circulation.
• Capsaicin: Capsaicin reduces the amount of a specific pain transmitter in your nerves.
• Salicylates: These plant-based chemicals can help reduce inflammation.

6. Consider glucosamine and chondroitin supplements

Glucosamine and chondroitin are compounds found in cartilage, the connective tissue that cushions and surrounds your joints. Research into their benefits for joint pain has produced mixed results. But some people find that taking these supplements as directed helps to reduce joint pain from osteoarthritis.

Since the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not regulate supplements, be sure to look for the “USP-verified” mark on these products. That means it’s from a trusted manufacturer.

7. Meditate

If joint pain wakes you up at night, it can be hard to go back to sleep. But research suggests that meditation may help you manage chronic pain of all types, especially during the night and before bed.

A 2018 review of studies found that meditation changes the way your brain processes pain signals, reducing your sensitivity to pain. It can also reduce anxiety and help you relax.

Many gyms and yoga studios offer classes and workshops in meditation. There are also meditation apps to guide you through long and short meditation exercises.

8. Upgrade your mattress and pillow

If your current mattress is too soft or older than 8 years old, consider getting a newer model suited for joint pain relief.

You may also benefit from a pillow designed to reduce knee or neck pain.

9. Create a soothing sleep environment

Proper sleep hygiene habits won’t necessarily reduce joint pain, but they will make it easier for you to fall asleep, despite it.

Ensure your room is dark, cool, and quiet. Turn off electronic devices at least 1 hour before trying to sleep. You may also benefit from listening to relaxing music, meditating, or reading a good book before you turn the lights out.

Aromatherapy may also be helpful for soothing sore joints and for promoting relaxation.

10. Move and stretch when you wake up

Morning stretches won’t necessarily help you with nighttime pain, but they may help relieve stiffness and pain when you first wake up. Moving right when you wake up helps to move fluids out of inflamed joints and reduces swelling.

Try stretching your arms and legs and flexing your fingers and ankles before you get out of bed. You can do this with your knees bent, lying chest-down, or sitting.

When to contact a doctor

Chronic nighttime pain can cause sleep deprivation and exhaustion. It may also significantly reduce your ability to partake in daily activities and enjoy life. Let a healthcare professional know if your joint pain doesn’t respond to at-home treatments.

See a doctor if you notice any of the following symptoms:

• You have intense joint pain that lasts for several weeks or longer.
• Pain is waking you up from sleep consistently.
• You experience sudden swelling or warmth around the joint or can’t move it easily.
• Your joint pain is accompanied by fever.

A doctor may prescribe oral, topical, or injected medications to help reduce your symptoms.

Takeaway

Joint pain at night has various underlying causes, from injuries to arthritis. It can be exhausting and debilitating. But you don’t need to live with pain.

Many at-home treatments, such as OTC medications and heat or cold compresses, can help. Lifestyle changes like exercising or improving your sleep hygiene can also help.

If your joint pain is severe or doesn’t respond well to at-home treatments, visit a healthcare professional. They can assess your symptoms and provide further treatment options.

Melinda

Reference:

March is not only the beginning of Spring but it is chocked full of awareness days, weeks and months. Due to the size of the list, I only included the monthly awareness days. At the bottom of the post there is a link where you can see the full list.

Women’s History Month

National Reading Month

Disability Awareness Month

Kidney Cancer Awareness Month

Red Cross Awareness Month

Self-Injury Awareness Month

Brain injury Awareness Month

Multiple Sclerosis Awareness Month

Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month

Melinda

Reference:

https://www.goodgoodgood.co/articles/march-awareness-days-months

Stress has been linked to cardiovascular disease, depression, and even the common cold.

Stress is all around us. And while some stressors certainly can feel overwhelming, it’s important to remember that not all stress we face is bad.

The National Institutes of Health says stress is “how the body and brain respond to an external cause that may be a one-time or short-term occurrence or happen repeatedly over a long time.” 

Our body’s response to stressors can sometimes be helpful — giving us a burst of energy to get away from danger or perform well under pressure, explains Michelle Dossett, MD, PhD, MPH, an internist and an integrative medicine specialist at the University of California in Davis.

Anxiety about a doctor’s visit or a performance review at work, for example, or even something scary, like a car heading right at you, are all examples of short-term stressors. 

Long-term stressors have a different effect. “Stress that lasts years or a long time is usually the worst kind of stress,” says Bert Uchino, PhD, a professor of psychology at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City who studies stress in aging populations.

If you’re in a job you hate or you’re a caregiver for a family member with Alzheimer’s disease, for instance, says Dr. Uchino, you may suffer from high levels of chronic (or long-term) stress. That’s where your body “never receives a clear signal to return to normal.”

It’s this type of chronic stress that causes changes in the body that can do damage and contribute to disease in some cases, says Uchino. Blood tests can reveal inflammation, changes in blood pressure, and elevated levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which can all be signs of chronic stress.

9 Illnesses That Stress May Cause or Make Worse

Chronic stress certainly doesn’t help or promote healing in any disease or health problem. Here are some common illnesses that can be caused and made worse by stress.

1. Depression and Other Mental Health Conditions

The exact reason why some people experience depression and anxiety as clinical mood disorders and others do not is still unknown, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Many factors are potentially in play, including genetic, environmental, and psychological conditions, as well as major stressful or traumatic experiences.

Research shows, however, that chronic stress left unmanaged is linked to serious mental disorders like anxiety and depression. Persistent or prolonged stress leads the body to produce certain hormones and chemicals that perpetuate an ongoing state of stress that can have adverse effects on key organs.
Around 20 to 25 percent of persons who experience major stressful events will go on to develop depression, according to a commentary and review of research published in JAMA.

2. Insomnia

An informal APA survey from 2013 on stress and sleep found links in both directions. Forty-three percent of the nearly 2,000 adults surveyed reported that stress had caused them to lie awake at night at least one time in the past month. When they didn’t sleep well, 21 percent reported feeling more stressed. Among adults with higher self-reported stress levels (8 or higher on a 10-point scale), 45 percent said they felt more stressed when they didn’t get enough sleep. Finally, adults with lower self-reported stress levels claimed they slept more hours per night on average than adults with higher self-reported stress levels, to the tune of almost an hour less sleep (6.2 versus 7.1 hours a night).

3. Cardiovascular Disease

Chronic stress has long been connected to worsened heart health outcomes. While there’s limited conclusive evidence to say that stress alone can trigger heart disease, there are quite a few ways stress contributes to it, according to a JAMA review. Part of the stress response is a faster heart rate and blood vessel constriction (or vasodilation for some skeletal muscles to help the body move in a fight or flee response), thanks to the stress hormones adrenaline, noradrenaline, and cortisol, according to research. If the body remains in this state for a long time, as in chronic stress, the heart and cardiovascular system may be damaged, according to other research.

Another means by which stress can contribute to heart disease: You might cope with your stress by eating or drinking too much, which in turn can contribute to cardiovascular disease, also according to APA.“Negative emotions and stress can contribute to a heart attack,” Dr. Dossett says.  One meta-analysis, for example, found a 50 percent increased risk of cardiovascular disease associated with high levels of work stress.

4. Common Cold

Stress can also weaken your immune function, which can make you more susceptible to infectious diseases like colds, Uchino explains. Researchers conducted an experiment in which they exposed a group of 420 volunteers to the common cold virus and then quarantined them to see if they got sick. The data revealed that participants who suffered from greater overall stress at the start of the study (measured via surveys on stressful life events, perceived stress, and mood) were more likely to become infected with a virus after exposure.

5. HIV and AIDS

Stress does not cause HIV (the virus that causes AIDS, which is sexually transmitted or passed through blood, which can happen when needles are shared). But there is some evidence that stress can worsen severity of the disease. A study of 177 HIV-positive patients found that the stress hormone cortisol (associated with chronic stress) was linked to a higher HIV viral load over four years and accelerated disease progression in people living with HIV. For the study, cortisol levels were measured via urine samples every six months.

Another review, published in 2016, concluded that while the link between stress and clinical outcomes is unclear, higher stress was linked to lower disease-fighting white blood cell counts, higher viral load, and disease worsening. Studies also linked stress with worse treatment adherence, per the review.

6. Gastrointestinal Disease

“Stress can affect gastrointestinal motility,” says Dossett, which is how food moves through your digestive system, increasing your chances of irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowel conditions, gastroesophageal reflux, constipation, diarrhea, and discomfort. “All those things can be impacted by stress,” she says. Research supports this as well.

7. Chronic Pain

Some chronic pain conditions like migraine and lower back pain can be caused, triggered, or worsened when body muscles tense up. A lot of chronic low back pain is related to stress, says Dossett. “Very often it’s muscle tension and tightness that is pulling or creating strain, and then contributing to this sensation of pain.”

A study published in 2021 confirmed a strong relationship between the degree of stress and chronic lower back pain. The researchers concluded that clinicians who treated patients with chronic low back pain should also evaluate a patient’s stress levels.

“Pain is inherently stressful. When the pain does not appear to be remitting or getting better, the concern regarding the pain can turn into fear, anxiety, and hopelessness,” says Joel Frank, PsyD, a psychologist in private practice in Sherman Oaks, California. 

A review published in 2017 examined the overlap between chronic stress and chronic pain, finding that both conditions triggered similar responses in the brain, particularly in the hippocampus and amygdala. The researchers also noted, however, that because of the wide variety of ways humans experience chronic pain and stress, these two conditions do not always overlap.

8. Cancer

What causes cancer is a particularly challenging question to answer, says Uchino. Because most patients are diagnosed only after years of cancer cell growth, it’s difficult if not impossible to pinpoint a specific cause. And it’s likely that several factors (someone’s genes, plus an environmental trigger like smoking, air pollution, or stress, for example) contribute.

But there is some evidence in human studies that stress plays a role in the onset of cancer, Uchino says. (It’s also worth noting that some studies have found no link.)

One possible reason why stress might contribute to some cancers: Stress can activate your brain and body’s inflammatory response, as well as stimulating your adrenal glands to release stress hormones called glucocorticoids, among many other downstream effects. Some research suggests that too much of this type of inflammation from chronic stress is the connection with cancer (as well as some autoimmune diseases — see below), Dossett explains.

9. Autoimmune Conditions

“Many inflammatory conditions are exacerbated by stress, and that includes autoimmune conditions like multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, psoriatic arthritis, and psoriasis,” says Dossett. A Swedish population-wide study published in the June 2018 issue of JAMA found that patients with a stress disorder were more likely to develop an autoimmune disorder (9 per 1,000 patients per year compared with 6 per 1,000 among those without stress disorders). Another extensive review on the role of stress in autoimmunity emphasized that this is a relationship that medicine often overlooks.

Summary

The good news is there are many effective ways to manage stress, says Dossett, including yoga and mindfulness. These types of interventions don’t undo or change whatever situation is causing stress (financial woes, a family argument, or a busy schedule), but they can retrain the body’s central nervous system’s response and help dial that response down if it’s been triggered.

But some conditions, such as cardiovascular disease, develop years before they are diagnosed, so more research into interventions is desperately needed, says Uchino.

All things considered, if you want help with your chronic stress or other psychological issues, it’s best to ask your doctor or a trained mental health provider to evaluate and support you based on your needs.

Melinda

Reference:

National Blood Donor Month

Cervical Health Awareness Month

Glaucoma Awareness Month

National Eye Care Month

National Stalking Awareness Month

Self-Love Month

Walk Your Dog Month

New Year’s Day – January 1

Martin Luther King Jr. Day  3rd Monday of January

National Human Trafficking Awareness Day – January 11

International Holocaust Remembrance Day 1/27/25

NASA Day of Remembrance – January 27

If you would like to see the complete list, click here.

Thank you for the positive feedback on this monthly post.

Melinda

Reference:

https://www.goodgoodgood.co/articles/january-awareness-days-months