Fibromyalgia is considered a chronic condition that causes pain throughout the body, fatigue, and other symptoms. In general, people with this disease tend to be more sensitive to pain than those who do not have it.
In addition, several researchers have considered that fibromyalgia significantly affects the brain and spinal cord, according to the Mayo Clinic.
According to a study conducted at the Federal University of São Paulo, in this condition, cognitive problems that affect memory occur in between 50% and 80% of patients. Likewise, people with fibromyalgia present lack of attention and loss of executive functions, that is, the ability to execute actions and adapt to a certain space.
In this sense, the NuevaSevas web portal has disclosed the symptoms that memory loss generates in people suffering from fibromyalgia:
- Pain and cognitive impairment: The general pain that fibromyalgia causes in the body can lead to depression and cognitive deficits, especially reduced associative learning, inattention, inability to make decisions, and memory loss. In addition, patients with this condition often have very slow reaction times and a greatly reduced ability to select important information.
- Anxiety and depression: In a study carried out at the Virgen de la Victoria Hospital, patients with this condition, who presented cognitive impairment, had symptoms of anxiety and depression. Likewise, the alteration of sleep quality is common in these patients, because emotional distress and stress considerably affect cognitive functioning.
- Lack of vitamin D: One of the factors that most intervenes in women with fibromyalgia is the lack of sun exposure, due to the reduced mobility caused by the disease. That is why they often have a vitamin D deficiency, which is related to mental confusion, mood disorders and short-term memory impairment.
However, fibromyalgia as such generates the deterioration of some cognitive functions that can harm the day-to-day life of the person who suffers from it. NuevaSevas explains that one of them is the functions of language, since the University of Michigan indicates that patients with fibromyalgia have impaired working memory and verbal fluency. Patients generally have poor vocabulary compared to people without this condition.
In addition to this, people with this condition often have difficulty managing distraction, which reflects concentration problems and the lack of optimal responses to complex difficulties in different environments.
Added to this is the lack of mental performance, as it is difficult for them to feel motivated to start tasks due to the constant presence of pain.
- Physical exercise in water: According to the University of Zaragoza, hot water exercises at least three times a week improved cognitive function and, in turn, reduced pain in fibromyalgia patients. It is worth mentioning that physical activities in water, such as swimming, increase blood flow, increase the availability of brain nutrients and stimulate neuronal growth.
- Healthy nutrition: For example, it is important to include foods such as lentils, chickpeas, beans and soybeans in the daily diet; These provide proteins, calcium, iron, iodine, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, folic acid and B vitamins. In addition, you can include white meats such as chicken, turkey, rabbit and eggs, which provide protein, without excess fat, and fish, especially blue fish such as salmon.