Chronic Fatigue and Fibromyalgia

Understanding the difference between these conditions and the way they affect your energy.

Fibromylagia is chronic fatigue coupled with total body aches and insomnia. Both chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia are sometimes misunderstood by the most well-meaning doctors. It’s difficult to understand these aliments because we cannot measure energy levels.

Doctors used to hear these phrases and other things would come to mind, “it’s in her head... she’s a hypochondriac... it’s just a politically correct way of being lazy.” For years, people didn’t believe these conditions existed. Now, there’s not much debate that these are very devastating and real illnesses. They’re marked by aches and pain, loss of libido, fatigue, insomnia and occasional brain fog.

ThinkStock

The difficult part in diagnosing the two is that many causes trigger these conditions. The sources range from infectious to hormonal. But they all have the same effect: One little problem triggers a process where your entire system short circuits. Why? Because people with these conditions spend more energy on producing energy, so they have no extra energy for life.

This shortage especially plays out in the hypothalamus gland in your brain, which balances your body’s energy budget. This little gland links your nervous system to your hormonal system, using more energy for its size than any other part of your body. When the systems that produce energy falter, you feel exhausted, yet suffer from insomnia. This can also play out in your muscles, which seem to get stuck. This is the reason for the aches and pains associated with fibromyalgia.

QUIZ: Do You Have Healthy Sleep Habits?

How? When muscles don’t have energy, they get locked in a contracted position and you’re unable to relax them. So then, you can’t supply them with fresh oxygen and blood, or remove waste materials. This is what causes the pain—think of when you get a foot cramp. When the muscles unlock, the pain dissipates quickly. That decrease in usable energy means that you lose energy in your heart. Like other muscles, the heart struggles, too. When you waste energy all over the place, your body falls behind and you never really get going.