Obesity Linked to Worse Fibromyalgia Symptoms

I have fibromyalgia, got it as result of auto accident damaging brain. I was not obese at the time, speed walked at least 30 miles a week, rode horses, scuba dived, was extremely active. Since the advent of symptoms which includes a sleep disorder, I have had to severely limit my activities. I cannot get insurance co. to pay for necessary meds, so I am in extreme pain the next several days with any activity. Is it any wonder I am obese now? Only family member who is. So why blame fibromyalgia on the obesity? Fibromyalgia causes it! I also now have Hashimoto's Disease (thyroid disappearance) because of all the X-rays!!! Thyroid doctors are wrong in prescription levels too. I have learned I have to fight for my health. I only have one ally, my new GP. Specialists are usually too egotistical to pay attention to what I say.

I was thin until I started taking the drugs that they give for fibro. Then I gained 30 pounds. Even after I quit taking all meds I still can't lose the weight! Maybe they should take that into consideration before labeling people.

Obesity makes any disease and the symptoms worse. This doesn't say anything about the cause, pathophysiology nor a cure for fibromyalgia.

Maybe the pain creates a situation where you become obese because exercise is so painful you want to throw yourself off a tall building to get away from it...hmmm. Or it's a side effect of the medications that people are put on when they are diagnosed? This is just another fascinating way for the medical field to create prejudice against people with weight problems. (i.e. "If you weren't so fat you wouldn't have these problems.") Maybe we need to consider that obesity is a symptom, not a cause. I was 125 lbs when I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia for the first time at the age of 25. Now, it's a completely different story. Fibromyalgia is a devilish problem that sometimes feels better if you exercise, but makes you feel so bad you couldn't possibly exercise. This is an uninformative and irresponsible article/research project. There is not enough information here for this to be science.

I have had FM/Lupus/RA/Degenerative spine disease for years. I started gaining weight almost immediately and I can tell you from experience that it is very difficult to live a "normal" life when you are exhausted all the time...dieting only adds more stress to the pkg. if you are the only person in the house who is doing the dieting !!! When you cannot stand on your feet for more than 30 min. w/o being ready to collapse...it makes it very stressful. I have had further complications from medicines the different doctors prescribed, such as dry mouth so bad that all of my teeth fell out and I was forced into dental implants only to discover that due to my immune system being gone, my gums would not heal and grow to the posts they put in ...so I have been able to eat very little of salads, etc. ..so I am eating only soft foods and juices with almost "no help " from the so called specialists out there available to me. Very stressful and expensive. I know my medical problems contributed to my divorce and later to strokes and heart attacks. My life is over as compared to a few years of medical problems !

There's an associaion all right, Fibromyalgia and other chronic pain issues put one at high risk for obesity. People with Fibro are more likely to be fat because it hurts to move and they're too exhausted all the time to add exercise to a necessarily slim movement routine.

I wonder if any of these researchers checked out some of the side effects of the medication that fibro patients have been given. Let's see Lyrica - side effect WEIGHT GAIN... Predizone - side effect WEIGHT GAIN. Now that the feds do not want percocet or morphine used for pain they are pushing anti depressants for the control of pain - side effect WEIGHT GAIN..I am still trying to lose the weight these pills have caused. I have come to the conclusion that chemical weight gain is harder to lose than weight gain caused by food.
. Now I do have fibro and thanks to my 2 dogs I walk every day for 2 miles. I come home and I am totally useless. The fibro according to the foot Dr. is also effecting my feet which makes it hard to walk when I return home. BUT I WALK EACH DAY ANYWAY!!!! Every morning I wake up gritting my teeth. My job is trying to walk! Now would you like to prescribe a med that does not cause weight gain but actually gets rid of the pain I would be the first to use it.

As a person living with the rare Palindromic Rheumatism...Your idea of exercise, and weight loss plan only makes it worse to move muscles,and joints that don't want to move...that the smallest amount of stress can send a person into flare ups from hell? do these doctors know what that pain feels like? Have they forgotten that some people have thyroid issues which (omg) can cause obesity. It's bad enough doctors still pass people off as being crazy when they mention the symptoms.

"The study, published in the February issue of Arthritis Care & Research, noted that the higher rate of obesity among people with fibromyalgia may be due to chronic pain and inactivity, resulting in poor quality of life and a rise in disability." This is pretty much the only relevant statement in this article.

Though my weight went up my fibro symptoms improved as I learned to take it easy, not overexercise, eat more often, etc. My fibro symptoms were definitely worse when I was thin and working on keeping my weight down. They should do more research and figure out which came first, the chicken or the egg, before making such broad generalized recommendations as they have done here. I think dieting and overexercising are probably two of the worst things for fibro...though eating healthy is a win-win!

Well, duh.
People who are in pain don't move much, and they gain weight. It's a vicious circle that is very hard to interrupt, especially when so many physicians don't care and don't help.

What magic wand is proposed for curing obesity, particularly if one finds it painful to move? If it were as simple as thin people's suggestion to "just" eat less and exercise more, everybody would do it and nobody would be obese. It's a national epidemic for a reason, or more likely several reasons, and medical science has little intelligent to offer in combating it.

I must disagree. I have a friend with fibro and I also have it. She was the epitome of health, worked out every day, no fat on her and her symptoms are infinitely worse than mine. I got fibro 22 years ago after chemo, she got it after a car accident.

Do these researchers read their own notes? Fibro leads to inactivity and weight gain. If you are in pain 24 hours a day, there is no cure and you have no pain management; guess what? This condition makes you unable to do your activities of daily living and exercise. Now wouldn't it be wiser to keep working on an effective treatment, offer pain management, and then insist on a weight loss and exercise plan?

This one lady- 52 years old was told that she had fibromyalgia- when in fact her fatigue and achiness was from a hidden heart problem from which she died after ignoring chest pains - next day or so a Doctor sent her home with medicine, and when this didn't work and she was stricken again, she died on operating table at 52 years old. I have it too- check out sleep apnea, as well. I used Cymbalta, and now mostly 1/2 tablet of Cyclobenzaprine/Flexeril around 8 pm for the pain, muscle spasms
and sleep problems and a Hot bath whenever the weather and soreness make me ache all over.
I am about 30 pounds overweight, but with low blood sugar problems, I snack in between meals so its hard to lose it.

If you have chronic pain, Google Aspartame poisoning, it just might help you out. I had chronic shoulder pain for six years. Spent thousands on visits to my doctor and chiropractor and neither could help me. Then I was made aware of Aspartame poisoning. I've been pain free for over two years. Doctors don't know everything.

I gained weight because of medication for depression. I've had severe fibromyalgia pain even when I was skinny and I had exercised daily. Yes, I am no longer exercising daily due to other ailments, and surgeries, but this seems as if it is another one of those one sided studies. It appears that when the "Mayo Clinic" comes out with a study, doctors do not question the studies, but push it on to their patients who do have fibromyalgia. Where do they find these people? I am in just as much pain now, as I was when first diagnoised. How about a treatment that doesn't involve exercise, nor has drug interaction. Right now each individual aliment is treated by a different doctor. The so called "experts won't take insurance, so unless you are rich, you are SOL. I do know that weather and stress plays a big part in how bad my pain is, but hey, I've been living with this pain for almost twenty years, what do I know.

What ever you call it, (a disease or a syndrome) it has debilitating and relentless symptoms.

I assure you that it is not made up disease. I used to suffer for it greatly, but now have it under control. It is not a disease, it is a condition. A disease is when there is a chronic problem that they know specifically what the cause was. A condition is where a chronic condition exists, but they do not know the specific origin or cause, only speculation. It does not mean though it if fictitious. If you give a brain scan to a person with Fibro, you can actually see a difference to one who doesn't suffer from this condition. If you do research, you can understand the complexity of this condition. They test you first for MS, Lupis and other things that mimick the symptons. Once the other diseases are ruled out, Fibro is often the diagnosis. If anyone out there would like more information, please contact me. I also have it under control, and if anyone would like info on how to regain their health back, please contact me.

I Went on a sugar and gluten free diet, lost 20 lbs in 2 months, pain eased up, could move more easily, have reached best weight for my size. Massage out the sore spots on the body, that helps ease the pain. maintaining the diet and exercise as much as possible. Taking mucinex helps cleanse the body. Going sugar free is most important

I had 'fibro' for years...until I was finally diagnosed with celiac disease. I just expected my IBS (very severe) to go away. Imagine my surprise when within a couple of months not only was my fibro in remission so was my cripplingly painful arthritis.
If you have any tummy trouble and fibro DEMAND they check you for celiac. Not all celiacs are thin, as most doctors think, many are overweight. NIH figures state 1 out of 100 Americans are celiac...95% are misdiagnosed with something else.