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scar tissue known as sclerosis as well as causing nerve impulses to slow down. This blockage or slowing is what leads to the disease's symptoms.

Symptoms are quite variable due to changes in the location and extent of each attack. Decreased ability to control fine movement, decreased attention span, loss of coordination and memory, depression, difficulty speaking, double vision, eye pain, fatigue, loss of balance, muscle spasms, and numbness and tingling are some of the possible symptoms of this disease.

Episodes lasting for varying periods of time (from days to months) alternate with periods of remission (symptom-free times). Relapse is common, but continuous progression without remissive periods can occur in some cases.

Since cases of MS are more common in higher northern and lower southern latitudes worldwide, there is some speculation that it is geographically related in an unknown environmental way. People with a family history of the disease or who live in geographically susceptible areas appear to be at higher risk. There is currently no known cure for Multiple Sclerosis.

Fibromyalgia is muscle, or soft tissue, pain. Once barely acknowledged by the medical profession, it is now recognized as a genuine physical condition rather than a figment of the sufferer's imagination. Part of the problem in diagnosing it is that imaging and lab tests do not readily identify the condition.

While fibromyalgia affects far more women than men, no identifying agent has been definitely singled out as the cause of this condition. At best at the moment it is thought to be initiated by abnormalities in brain chemistry levels. It is not, as once thought, a disease of the joints and although pain is the main component of fibromyalgia it may also present through fatigue, chronic sleep deprivation and mood disturbances such as anxiety and depression. The condition is considered episodic in that it can come and go over time with greater and lesser flare-ups.

Other conditions often commonly present along with, and perhaps related to, fibromyalgia are: Irritable Bowel Syndrome; Restless Leg Syndrome; Migraine headaches; Raynaud syndrome (in which bluish and whitish discolorations of the fingers and toes occur, along with numbness and tingling caused by cold) ; Urethral Syndrome (characterized by frequent urges to urinate without apparent cause); and TMJ or Temporal Mandibular Joint pain in the jaw.
There isn't any cure or preventive treatment for fibromyalgia at this time. However, symptoms can be treated. Pain killers, either over the counter or prescribed, may be used, as are non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as acetaminophen and ibuprofen. Antidepressants are sometimes employed as are benzodiazapines, a kind of tranquilizer. Caution should be used as dependency is quite possible with some medications, along with unpleasant side effects.

In 2007 the FDA approved the release of a new drug called Lyrica (Pregabalin) specifically to treat fibromyalgia. It can also be used to treat diabetic nerve pain and some types of seizures as well as post-shingles pain.

This has been a brief look at some of the many diseases and disorders which can afflict human beings. There are many more. Symptom types can overlap; just because one may have a collection of symptoms that would suggest the presence of one particular condition, those same symptoms can be indicative of an entirely different malaise. Rather than living in fear or making inaccurate self diagnoses, it is best to seek competent medical help to sort out what's happening.

Learn more about this author, William Beal.
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