MIGRAINE HEADACHE

What is a migraine headache?

A Migraine Headache is a form of vascular headache. Migraine Headache is caused by vasodilatation (enlargement of blood vessels) that causes the release of chemicals from nerve fibers that coil around the large arteries of the brain. Enlargement of these blood vessels stretches the nerves that coil around them and causes the nerves to release chemicals. The chemicals cause inflammation, pain, and further enlargement of the artery. The increasing enlargement of the arteries magnifies the pain.
Migraine attacks commonly activate the sympathetic nervous system in the body. The sympathetic nervous system is often thought of as the part of the nervous system that controls primitive responses to stress and pain, the so-called "fight or flight" response, and this activation causes many of the symptoms associated with migraine attacks; for example, the increased sympathetic nervous activity in the intestine causes nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.

• Sympathetic activity also delays emptying of the stomach into the small intestine and thereby prevents oral medications from entering the intestine and being absorbed.
• The impaired absorption of oral medications is a common reason for the ineffectiveness of medications taken to treat migraine headaches.
• The increased sympathetic activity also decreases the circulation of blood, and this leads to pallor of the skin as well as cold hands and feet.
• The increased sympathetic activity also contributes to the sensitivity to light and sound sensitivity as well as blurred vision.

Nevertheless, migraine still remains largely underdiagnosed and undertreated. Less than half of individuals with migraine are diagnosed by their doctors. Don’t ignore yours. No oral Medication is given at OPTM Health Care.

SCHIZOPHRENIA

What is Schizophrenia?

Schizophrenia is a chronic, severe, and disabling brain disorder that has affected people throughout history. About 1 percent of Americans have this illness.
People with the disorder may hear voices other people don't hear. They may believe other people are reading their minds, controlling their thoughts, or plotting to harm them. This can terrify people with the illness and make them withdrawn or extremely agitated.
People with Schizophrenia may not make sense when they talk. They may sit for hours without moving or talking. Sometimes people with Schizophrenia seem perfectly fine until they talk about what they are really thinking.
Families and society are affected by schizophrenia too. Many people with Schizophrenia have difficulty holding a job or caring for themselves, so they rely on others for help.
Treatment helps relieve many symptoms of Schizophrenia, but most people who have the disorder cope with symptoms throughout their lives. However, many people with Schizophrenia can lead rewarding and meaningful lives in their communities. Researchers are developing more effective medications and using new research tools to understand the causes of Schizophrenia. In the years to come, this work may help prevent and better treat the illness.

What are symptoms of Schizophrenia?

The symptoms of Schizophrenia fall into three broad categories: positive symptoms, negative symptoms, and cognitive symptoms:-


Positive symptoms-
Positive symptoms are psychotic behaviors not seen in healthy people. People with positive symptoms often "lose touch" with reality. These symptoms can come and go. Sometimes they are severe and at other times hardly noticeable, depending on whether the individual is receiving treatment. They include the following:


Hallucinations are things a person sees, hears, smells, or feels that no one else can see, hear, smell, or feel. "Voices" are the most common type of hallucination in Schizophrenia. Many people with the disorder hear voices. The voices may talk to the person about his or her behavior, order the person to do things, or warn the person of danger. Sometimes the voices talk to each other. People with Schizophrenia may hear voices for a long time before family and friends notice the problem.
Other types of hallucinations include seeing people or objects that are not there, smelling odors that no one else detects, and feeling things like invisible fingers touching their bodies when no one is near.


Delusions are false beliefs that are not part of the person's culture and do not change. The person believes delusions even after other people prove that the beliefs are not true or logical. People with Schizophrenia can have delusions that seem bizarre, such as believing that neighbors can control their behavior with magnetic waves. They may also believe that people on television are directing special messages to them, or that radio stations are broadcasting their thoughts aloud to others. Sometimes they believe they are someone else, such as a famous historical figure. They may have paranoid delusions and believe that others are trying to harm them, such as by cheating, harassing, poisoning, spying on, or plotting against them or the people they care about. These beliefs are called "delusions of persecution."


Thought disorder are unusual or dysfunctional ways of thinking. One form of thought disorder is called "disorganized thinking." This is when a person has trouble organizing his or her thoughts or connecting them logically. They may talk in a garbled way that is hard to understand. Another form is called "thought blocking." This is when a person stops speaking abruptly in the middle of a thought. When asked why he or she stopped talking, the person may say that it felt as if the thought had been taken out of his or her head. Finally, a person with a thought disorder might make up meaningless words, or "neologisms."


Movement disorders may appear as agitated body movements. A person with a movement disorder may repeat certain motions over and over. In the other extreme, a person may become catatonic. Catatonia is a state in which a person does not move and does not respond to others. Catatonia is rare today, but it was more common when treatment for schizophrenia was not available.


Negative symptoms
Negative symptoms are associated with disruptions to normal emotions and behaviors. These symptoms are harder to recognize as part of the disorder and can be mistaken for depression or other conditions. These symptoms include the following:

• "Flat affect" (a person's face does not move or he or she talks in a dull or monotonous voice) 

• Lack of pleasure in everyday life

• Lack of ability to begin and sustain planned activities

• Speaking little, even when forced to interact.

People with negative symptoms need help with everyday tasks. They often neglect basic personal hygiene. This may make them seem lazy or unwilling to help themselves, but the problems are symptoms caused by the Schizophrenia.

DEPRESSIVE DISORDER

What is a Depressive Disorder?
Depressive disorders have been with mankind since the beginning of recorded history. In the Bible, King David, as well as Job, suffered from this affliction. Hippocrates referred to depression as melancholia, which literally means black bile. Black bile, along with blood, phlegm, and yellow bile were the four humors (fluids) that described the basic medical physiology theory of that time. Depression, also referred to as clinical depression, has been portrayed in literature and the arts for hundreds of years, but what do we mean today when we refer to a depressive disorder? In the 19th century, depression was seen as an inherited weakness of temperament. In the first half of the 20th century, Freud linked the development of depression to guilt and conflict. John Cheever, the author and a modern sufferer of depressive disorder, wrote of conflict and experiences with his parents as influencing his development of depression.
In the 1950s and '60s, depression was divided into two types, endogenous and neurotic. Endogenous means that the depression comes from within the body, perhaps of genetic origin, or comes out of nowhere. Neurotic or reactive depression has a clear environmental precipitating factor, such as the death of a spouse, or other significant loss, such as the loss of a job. In the 1970s and '80s, the focus of attention shifted from the cause of depression to its effects on the afflicted people. That is to say, whatever the cause in a particular case, what are the symptoms and impaired functions that experts can agree make up a depressive disorder? Although there is some argument even today (as in all branches of medicines), most experts agree on the following:

1. A depressive disorder is a syndrome (group of symptoms) that reflects a sad and/or irritable mood exceeding normal sadness or grief. More specifically, the sadness of depression is characterized by a greater intensity and duration and by more severe symptoms and functional disabilities than is normal. 

2. Depressive signs and symptoms are characterized not only by negative thoughts, moods, and behaviors but also by specific changes in bodily functions (for example, crying spells, body aches, low energy or libido, as well as problems with eating, weight, or sleeping). The functional changes of clinical depression are often called neurovegetative signs. This means that the nervous system changes in the brain cause many physical symptoms that result in diminished participation and a decreased or increased activity level. 

3. Certain people with depressive disorder, especially bipolar depression (manic depression), seem to have an inherited vulnerability to this condition.

4. Depressive disorders are a huge public-health problem, due to its affecting millions of people. About 10% of adults, up to 8% of teens and 2% of preteen children experience some kind of depressive disorder.

• The statistics on the costs due to depression in the United States include huge amounts of direct costs, which are for treatment, and indirect costs, such as lost productivity and absenteeism from work or school. 

• Adolescents who suffer from depression are at risk for developing and maintaining obesity.

• In a major medical study, depression caused significant problems in the functioning of those affected more often than did arthritis, hypertension, chronic lung disease, and diabetes, and in some ways as often as coronary artery disease.

• Depression can increase the risks for developing coronary artery disease, HIV, asthma, and many other medical illnesses. Furthermore, it can increase the morbidity (illness/negative health effects) and mortality (death) from these and many other medical conditions.

• Depression can coexist with virtually every other mental health illness, aggravating the status of those who suffer the combination of both depression and the other mental illness.

• Depression in the elderly tends to be chronic, has a low rate of recovery, and is often undertreated. This is of particular concern given that elderly men, particularly elderly white men have the highest suicide rate.

5. Depression is usually first identified in a primary-care setting, not in a mental health practitioner's office. Moreover, it often assumes various disguises, which causes depression to be frequently underdiagnosed.

6. In spite of clear research evidence and clinical guidelines regarding therapy, depression is often undertreated. Hopefully, this situation can change for the better.

7. For full recovery from a mood disorder, regardless of whether there is a precipitating factor or it seems to come out of the blue, treatment with medication and/or electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) (see discussion below) and psychotherapy are necessary.

PSYCHOSOMATIC DISORDERS

Depression can strike anyone. Often a case of the “blues” can lead to depression. There are various types of depression, elderly depression, post partum depression, situation depression, and depression caused by chemical imbalances in the brain. 

The symptoms of depression include new sleeping habits, new eating habits, a sense of hopelessness, disillusionment, pessimism, worthlessness, changes in behavior, changes in mood patterns, or a sullen and withdrawn attitude. The patient needs to express 5 or more of these symptoms for at least two weeks to be considered to have major depressive disorder, but having any two symptoms for a week or more may be a sign of mild to moderate depression. Severe depression can lead to irrational thoughts and behavior, including thoughts of hurting oneself or suicide. 

Depression can be brought on by a multitude of causes. A chemical imbalance in the brain is responsible for less than 25% of depression. Situational depression, depression caused by the death of a loved one, an unhealthy living environment, a loss, a change, or other variable factors. Depression can be brought on by some medications. The long term use of pain relieving narcotics such as morphine can lead to severe depression as can the long term use of other medications. Hormonal changes, particularly those after giving birth, can bring on post partum depression. Heredity may play a factor in depression, but it is not necessarily a determining factor.

There are few risk factors for depression, as anyone can experience depression if the circumstances are right. Women are more likely to be depressed than men, and depression can sometimes run in families. People who come from disruptive or abusive homes or have experienced abuse in their past are more likely to become depressed. People who have experienced a severe depression once are more likely to experience it again. 

Untreated depression can lead to serious consequences, such as the loss of a job, illness, the loss of family, and in some cases self inflicted death. Even treated depression can lead to self inflicted wounds and in the worst case scenario, death. Depression is serious and needs to be remedied as early as possible. Post partum depression can lead to the mother harming herself or her baby. 

SCIATICA

If the sciatic nerve gets trapped or inflamed anywhere along this route, you may feel pain. This is called sciatica. There are several ways that a low back injury may press on the sciatic nerve and cause sciatica. Two common reasons are a herniated disk and spinal stenosis (narrowing of the spinal canal).
Sciatica can also result from a sudden injury. For example, if a buttocks muscle is injured from running too hard or lifting too many weights, it may swell or tighten and put pressure on the sciatic nerve causing pain.
Sciatica causes pain anywhere along the route that the sciatic nerve travels (your buttocks, the back of your thigh, the back of your calf, and even your foot). The sensation may be only a slight tingling or dull ache or it may be severe enough to decrease your ability to move. Sciatica almost always affects one leg or the other. Sometimes, however, you may have symptoms in both legs.

 Sciatica occurs when there is pressure or damage to the sciatic nerve. This nerve starts in the spine and runs down the back of each leg. This nerve controls the muscles of the back of the knee and lower leg and provides sensation to the back of the thigh, part of the lower leg, and the sole of the foot.

Common causes of sciatica include:

• Piriformis syndrome (a pain disorder involving the narrow piriformis muscle in the buttocks)
• Slipped disk
• Degenerative disk disease
• Spinal stenosis
• Pelvic injury or fracture
• Tumors

Sciatica pain can vary widely. It may feel like a mild tingling, dull ache, or a burning sensation. In some cases, the pain is severe enough to make a person unable to move.
The pain most often occurs on one side. Some people have sharp pain in one part of the leg or hip and numbness in other parts. The sensations may also be felt on the back of the calf or on the sole of the foot. The affected leg may feel weak.

The pain often starts slowly. Sciatica pain may get worse:

• After standing or sitting
• At night
• When sneezing, coughing, or laughing
• When bending backwards or walking more than a few yards, especially if caused by spinal stenosis

HERNIATED DISC

Herniated disks are most common in the lumbar spine -- the part of your backbone between the bottom of your ribs and your hips. Disks are like soft cushions between the bones of the spine. The disks in the spine let you move your backbone.

When a disk between two bones in the spine presses on the nerves around the backbone, it's called a herniated disk. The word "herniate" (say: her-nee-ate) means to bulge or to stick out. Sometimes this is called a ruptured or slipped disk.

How does a disk become herniated?

As you grow older, your disks become flatter -- less cushiony. If a disk becomes too weak, the outer part may tear. The inside part of the disk pushes through the tear and presses on the nerves beside it. The drawing to the right shows how a disk looks when it gets pushed through the tear and presses on a nerve. Herniated disks are most common in people in their 30s and 40s.

What are the signs of a herniated disk?

When part of a disk presses on a nerve, it can cause pain in the back and the legs. The location of the pain depends on which disk is weak. How bad the pain is depends on how much of the disk is pressing on the nerve. In most people with herniated disks, the pain spreads over the buttocks and goes down the back of one thigh and into the calf. This is known as sciatica because the pain travels along the path of the sciatic nerve. Some people have pain in both legs. In some people, the legs or feet feel numb or tingly.

The pain from a herniated disk is usually worse when you're active and gets better when you're resting. Coughing, sneezing, sitting, driving and bending forward may make the pain worse. The pain gets worse because these movements put more pressure on the nerve.

People with painful herniated disks often try to change positions to reduce the pain. You may have found that holding yourself up with your hands while you are sitting helps the pain. Shifting your weight to one side may also help. Don’t Ignore your pain

DEGENERATIVE DISC DISEASE

Degenerative disc disease is part of the natural process of growing older. Unfortunately, as we age, our intervertebral discs lose their flexibility, elasticity, and shock absorbing characteristics. The ligaments that surround the disc called the annulus fibrosis, become brittle and they are more easily torn. At the same time, the soft gel-like center of the disc, called the nucleus pulposus, starts to dry out and shrink. The combination of damage to the intervertebral discs, the development of bone spurs, and a gradual thickening of the ligaments that support the spine can all contribute to degenerative arthritis of the lumbar spine.

Degenerative disc disease is as certain as death and taxes, and to a certain degree this process happens to everyone. However, not everyone who has degenerative changes in their lumbar spine has pain. Many people who have "normal" backs have MRIs that show disc herniations, degenerative changes, and narrowed spinal canals. Every patient is different, and it is important to realize that not everyone develops symptoms as a result of degenerative disc disease.

When degenerative disc disease becomes painful or symptomatic, it can cause several different symptoms, including back pain, leg pain, and weakness that are due to compression of the nerve roots. These symptoms are caused by the fact that worn out discs are a source of pain because they do not function as well as they once did, and as they shrink, the space available for the nerve roots also shrinks. As the discs between the intervertebral bodies start to wear out, the entire lumbar spine becomes less flexible. As a result, people complain of back pain and stiffness, especially towards the end of the day.

CALCANEAL SPUR

A bony spur projecting from the back or underside of the heel bone (the calcaneus) that often makes walking painful. A calcaneal spur is also called a heel spur.

Spurs at the back of the heel are associated with inflammation of the Achilles tendon (Achilles tendinitis) and cause tenderness and pain at the back of the heel that is made worse by pushing off the ball of the foot.

Spurs under the sole (plantar area) are associated with inflammation of the plantar fascia (the "bowstring-like" tissue stretching from the heel underneath the sole) and causes  localized tenderness and pain made worse by stepping down on the heel.

Not all heel spurs cause symptoms. Some are discovered on X-rays taken for other purposes.
Heel spurs and plantar fasciitis can occur alone or be related to underlying diseases which cause arthritis (inflammation of the joints) such as Reiter's disease, ankylosing spondylitis, and diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis.

A plantar calcaneal spur is an outgrowth from the bone at the back of the foot known as the calcaneus. This outgrowth is the cause of severe discomfort on the sole of the foot (plantar surface) and pain and is commonly known as heel spur pain. These spurs may develop over a long period of time and are initially unidentifiable, even upon x-ray, although the symptoms are present. Calcaneal spurs may be mistaken for plantar fasciitis, which is the inflammation of the thin fibrous layer between the skin on the sole of the foot and the bones of the foot.

Tennis Elbow

Tennis Elbow Overview

Tennis elbow is a condition caused by inflammation of the tendons on the outside (lateral side) of the elbow at a bony prominence (lateral epicondyle) of the upper arm. Certain repetitive movements of the wrist can cause this condition. It is not limited to tennis players.

Tennis Elbow Causes

• Any repetitive motion of the wrist, including tennis, hedge clipping, excessive use of a hammer or screwdriver, painting, or any activity that requires excessive constant gripping or squeezing can cause the condition known as tennis elbow.
• In the game of tennis, the following maneuvers can lead to tennis elbow:
• One-handed backhand with poor form
• A late forehand swing resulting in bending the wrist significantly
• Snapping and turning the wrist while serving with full power

FROZEN SHOULDER

Frozen shoulder is characterized by pain and loss of motion or stiffness in the shoulder. It affects about two percent of the general population. Frozen shoulder most commonly affects patients between the ages of 40 and 60 years, with no clear predisposition based on sex, arm dominance, or occupation

Cause:-

The process involves thickening and contracture of the capsule surrounding the shoulder joint.

Frozen shoulder occurs much more commonly in individuals with diabetes, affecting 10 percent to 20 percent of these individuals. Other medical problems associated with increased risk of frozen shoulder include: hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, Parkinson's disease, and cardiac disease or surgery.
Frozen shoulder can develop after a shoulder is immobilized for a period of time. Attempts to prevent frozen shoulder include early motion of the shoulder after it has been injured.

Symptoms:-

Pain due to frozen shoulder is usually dull or aching. It can be worsened with attempted motion. The pain is usually located over the outer shoulder area and sometimes the upper arm.
The hallmark of the disorder is restricted motion or stiffness in the shoulder. The affected individual cannot move the shoulder normally. Motion is also limited when someone else attempts to move the shoulder for the patient.
Some physicians have described the normal course of a frozen shoulder as having three stages:

·  Stage one: In the "freezing" stage, the patient develops a slow onset of pain. As the pain worsens, the shoulder loses motion. This stage may last from six weeks to nine months.

·  Stage two: The "frozen" stage is marked by a slow improvement in pain, but the stiffness remains. This stage generally lasts four months to nine months.

·  Stage three: The final stage is the "thawing," during which shoulder motion slowly returns toward normal. This generally lasts five months to 26 months.

SLIPPED DISC

What is a slipped disc?

A slipped disc occurs when the outer part of your disc ruptures, allowing the gel inside to bulge and protrude outwards from in between your vertebrae. The damaged disc can put pressure on your whole spinal cord or on a single nerve fibre. This means that a slipped disc can cause pain both in the area of the protruding disc and in any part of your body that is controlled by the nerve the disc is pressing on.
A slipped disc is most common in the lower back, but it can also occur in the neck and upper back.

Causes and risk factors

Pain-Pain is an unpleasant physical or emotional feeling that your body produces as a warning sign that it has been damaged.

Tissue-Body tissue is made up of groups of cells that perform a specific job, such as protecting the body against infection, producing movement or storing fat.

Spine-The spine supports the skeleton, and surrounds and protects the delicate spinal cord and nerves. It is made up of 33 bones called the vertebrae.

Spinal cord-The spinal cord is a column of nervous tissue located in the spinal column. It sends messages between the brain and the rest of the body.

Ruptures-A rupture is a break or tear in an organ or tissue

Slipped Disk Symptoms

The nerves of the body exit the spine at each spinal level. A herniated disk can therefore produce symptoms anywhere along the course of that nerve, though the injury and irritation of the nerve are at the spine itself (this is known as referred pain). A slipped disk can produce varying degrees of pain in the back or neck along with numbness or weakness.

• For slipped disks in the neck - Numbness, tingling, weakness, or pain in the shoulder, neck, arm, or hand
• For slipped disks in the lower back
• Numbness, tingling, weakness, or pain in the buttocks, back, legs, or feet
• Numbness and tingling around the anus or genitals
• Pain down the back of each leg from the buttocks to the knee (this is called sciatica)
• Pain with movement, straining, coughing, or doing leg raises
• Difficulty controlling bowel movements or bladder function

FIBROMYALGIA

What is Fibromyalgia?

Fibromyalgia produces widespread pain, disturbed sleep, and exhaustion from head to toe. Fibromyalgia means pain in the muscles, ligaments, and tendons—the soft fibrous tissues of the body. Although the muscles hurt everywhere, they are not the only cause of the pain. Instead, the diffuse, body-wide symptoms are greatly magnified by malfunctions in the way the nervous system processes pain.

Regional muscle pain not related to arthritis or the nervous system also occurs in the majority of people with fibromyalgia.Patients describe this as firm knots in the belly of muscles, often causing restricted movement and radiating pain.⁵ These muscle nodules

are myofascial trigger points and we suspect that these painful areas overlap with the tender points used to diagnose fibromyalgia.
The symptoms of fibromyalgia are unpredictable and most patients are frustrated by their physical limitations and inability to make plans. You may feel as though you have to "push yourself" to get things done.⁷
Most patients with fibromyalgia say that their muscles feel like they have been pulled or overworked, and sometimes they twitch or cramp. Even the skin may feel badly sunburned. To help your family and friends relate to your fibromyalgia symptoms, have them think back to the last time they had a bad flu. Every muscle in their body shouted out in pain. In addition, they felt devoid of energy as though someone had unplugged their power supply.
Given that the symptoms may be similar to a viral flu, experts in the field of fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome believe that these two illnesses may be one and the same.Gulf War syndrome also overlaps with these two conditions.

Common symptoms:

Pain - Fibromyalgia pain has no boundaries. People describe the pain as deep muscular aching, throbbing, shooting, stabbing, or intense burning. Quite often, the pain and stiffness are worse in the morning, and muscle groups that are used repetitively may hurt more. In addition, the severity of regional pains (particularly those in the head, neck, shoulders and lower back) are a strong predictor of a person's overall pain rating. The muscles in these painful areas can feel tight, knotted and rope-like. Pressing on the firm, knotted region hurts and often causes the pain to shoot to other muscles when a myofascial trigger point is present.
Sleep Disorders - Patients report trouble falling asleep and more importantly staying asleep, but the unrefreshing quality is what makes the disorder much worse than insomnia. Repeat arousals prevent patients from reaching deep, restorative sleep.¹⁶ As a result, the night is spent in "quasi-sleep" and patients wake up feeling as though they have been run over by a Mack truck. An overnight sleep study will likely show repeat arousals with bursts of awake-like brain activity occurring throughout the night, but a specific sleep disorder may not be identified
Fatigue - This symptom can be one of the most incapacitating for people with fibromyalgia. Patients may feel as though concrete blocks weight down their arms and legs and their bodies may be so drained of energy that every task is an effort.
Memory and Concentration - Difficulty concentrating and retaining new information may seriously interfere with everyday mental tasks. This symptom is referred to as "fibro fog" and may hinder job opportunities. In particular, fibromyalgia patients have serious difficulty retaining new information if they are distracted.
Exercise Difficulties - Moderate intensity exercise activates a powerful pain-relieving system in healthy people, but it makes the pain of fibromyalgia worse. This is why initiating an exercise program may make you achy and tired. However, if you do not exercise on a regular basis, the performance of normal daily living activities will start to cause more pain. Rather than give in to the increased pain sensitivity related to exercise, patients are advised to do mild exercise in short intervals (such as five minutes at a time) to keep the muscles fit while not over-taxing them. A study in Sweden revealed that half of the fibromyalgia patients found it impossible or difficult to climb stairs and a majority of patients could not run. Just standing for five minutes was extremely taxing to one-fourth of the patients.¹⁹
Irritable Bowel Syndrome - Constipation, diarrhea, frequent abdominal pain and bloating, abdominal gas, and nausea represent symptoms commonly found in roughly 40 to 70 percent of fibromyalgia patients.
Chronic Headaches - Recurrent migraine or tension headaches are experienced by 50 to 70 percent of fibromyalgia patients. Most headaches are rated as severe, occur at least two times per week, and often have a migraine component. Referred pain from myofascial trigger points in the shoulder, neck, and head muscles are suspected to be responsible for most tension-type headache and also play a role in migraines.
Jaw Pain - Temporomandibular joint dysfunction causes tremendous jaw-related face and head pain and affects one-quarter of fibromyalgia patients. Typically, the problems are related to the muscles and ligaments surrounding the jaw joint and not necessarily the joint itself.²³
Other Common Symptoms - Non-cardiac chest pain, acid reflux, irregular heart beat or palpitations, shortness of breath, numbness and tingling sensations, the feeling of swollen extremities, chemical sensitivities, nasal congestion, premenstrual syndrome and painful periods, irritable bladder, interstitial cystitis, vulvodynia (vulvar pain), difficulty focusing eyes, dry or burning eyes and mouth, dizziness or feeling faint, profuse sweating, muscle weakness and balance issues can occur.^24,25,26 Fibromyalgia patients are often sensitive to odors, loud noises, bright lights, some foods, and often the medications that they are prescribed.
Aggravating Factors - Changes in weather, cold or drafty environments, hormonal fluctuations (premenstrual and menopausal states), stress, depression, anxiety, and over-exertion can all contribute to fibromyalgia symptom flare-ups.

Cervical & Lumbar Spondylosis

Spondylosis
A very common disorder of the spine is spondylosis. It is primarily a condition of age. The condition reduces mobility of the intervertebral joints and there is a consequent development of abnormal bone around the vertebrae. What happens is that projections called osteophytes appear from the vertebral margins. Osteophytes are small, bony spurs and they cause the bone to become denser and the disks to degenerate. The degenerated disk extrudes both forward and backward. When the extrusion is backward, the spinal canal is narrowed.

Cervical Spondylosis:-

Cervical Spondylosis is also known as Cervical Osteoarthritis. Cervical Spondylosis is characterized by chronic degeneration of the bones of the neck and the vertebrae discs. Degeneration of the facet joints, spinal nerves and spinal cord also causes Cervical Spondylosis.
It is observed that age, sports injuries and accidents are the most common causes that lead to wear and tear of bones around the neck region. Cervical Spondylosis is known to affect people above 40 years of age. Men are susceptible to Cervical Spondylosis at an earlier age as compared to women.

Symptoms:-

The common symptoms associated with Cervical Spondylosis are:

• Severe pain in the neck region
• Neck pain leads to pain in shoulders and arms
• Loss of sensation in neck, shoulders, arms and fingers
• Instability
• Lack of bowel or bladder control

If Cervical Spondylosis is left untreated it can cause severe damage to the spinal cord and spinal nerves which can impair mobility and the ability to function normally.

 
Lumbar Spondylosis and Cervical Spondylosis:-
 
When there is a marked narrowing of the canal over a few segments and when the bone, disk and the ligaments protrude into it, the condition is called lumbar spinal stenosis. Here the nerve roots of the cauda equina are compressed. When the misalignment of the vertebrae causes stretching of the joint capsules at sites where the vertebrae are adjacent, there is pain.
A more common occurrence in the event of backward protrusion of an intervertebral disk is distortion of the local ligaments. In this case, the emerging nerve root is compressed and there results pain, weakness and numbness in the area.

       Spondylosis usually affects men more than women. Usually, the lumbar and cervical spine are more frequently affected than the thoracic spine, because the curvature of the latter prevents spondylosis from impinging on the spinal cord. Another important point is that lumbar and cervical spondylosis frequently occur simultaneously in the same individual. The onset of the symptoms is generally very slow and gradual. However, if ignored, spondylosis may lead to disabling tingling pain, limited motion, and partial paralysis in affected areas of the body.

Spondylolisthesis and other conditions
Another condition that can affect the spine is spondylolisthesis. It is a condition where there is a slipping forward of one vertebra onto another. It is usually a congenital deformity or it may be caused due to trauma.
Besides spondylosis and spodylolisthesis, infections, tumors and bone diseases may also cause vertebral disorders, causing pain and signs of damage to the roots and perhaps to the cord as well. Direct infections of the spinal cord are very rare. Tumors are usually secondary to such malignancies as lymphomas or carcinomas of the breast, prostate or kidney. Benign or non-cancerous tumors may also occur.