What is Fibromyalgia?
Fibromyalgia is a long-term, chronic health condition that causes pain all over the body. Symptoms include muscle pain and stiffness, heightened sensitivity to pain, extreme fatigue, sleep disturbances, digestive issues, and cognitive difficulties such as poor concentration and brain fog (“fibro-fog”).
An estimated 4 million adults in the US are affected by fibromyalgia (Office on Women’s Health, 2025). It is more common in women than in men. The average age for diagnosis is 35-45 years, although most people with the condition have symptoms for a long time before this.
What Causes Fibromyalgia
The exact cause of fibromyalgia remains unknown, but it’s linked to changes in the way the brain and nervous system process pain signals. With fibromyalgia, the brain misunderstands normal signals, and people become more sensitive to pain and other sensory inputs like touch, temperature, and noise. Inflammation, poor mitochondrial function (mitochondria are the tiny “energy batteries” inside cells), and low levels of certain nutrients are also part of the picture.
For some people, fibromyalgia develops after a stressful event like an injury, illness, or surgery. For others, the symptoms gradually build up over time with no clear trigger.
Who is at Risk
Fibromyalgia affects more women than men. It’s also more common if you have (Walitt et al., 2015):
A close relative with the condition.
Obesity.
Another condition affecting the joints, such as Rheumatoid arthritis or lupus.
Have had a brain or spinal cord trauma.
However, fibromyalgia can occur without any of these risk factors.
What Are the Symptoms
The symptoms of fibromyalgia include:
Widespread muscle and joint pain.
Heightened sensitivity to pain and other sensory inputs like touch, temperature, noise, and light.
Difficulty sleeping.
Memory and mental processing problems.
Brain fog known as “fibro-fog.”
Fatigue and extreme tiredness that isn’t relieved by rest or sleep.
Irritable Bowel Syndrome and other digestive issues.
Headaches.
More painful periods.
Anxiety, low mood, and/or depression.
Dizziness.
Difficulty regulating your body temperature.
Restless legs.
Numbness, pins and needles, or tingling sensations, often in hands, arms, legs, or feet.
Not everyone with fibromyalgia has all these symptoms. The symptoms can flare up or improve with no predictable pattern, making it difficult to manage work and other life commitments.
How is Fibromyalgia Diagnosed
There isn’t a lab test or imaging scan for fibromyalgia. It can be difficult to diagnose because the symptoms overlap with other conditions such as Rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
A doctor may diagnose fibromyalgia if these conditions have been excluded and you have had widespread pain, fatigue, and cognitive issues (e.g., brain fog, poor concentration, and memory problems) for more than three months.
How is Fibromyalgia Treated with Regenerative Therapies
Conventional care for fibromyalgia focuses on medications like pregabalin (an antiepileptic medication) and duloxetine (an antidepressant) that are used to manage pain. These drugs can be useful for short-term symptom relief, but they don’t address the root causes.
Your healthcare provider may also recommend an exercise therapy programme and self-care activities like relaxation and meditation. Exercise training is known to help reduce fibromyalgia pain and depression, but the type and intensity of the exercise programme needs to be tailored to each individual to avoid worsening symptoms (Busch at al., 2011).
You can use regenerative therapies alongside mainstream care to help address some of the underlying causes of fibromyalgia, such as inflammation, poor mitochondrial function, and nutrient imbalances. They can also support better quality sleep, which is essential for improving cellular recovery and heightened pain sensitivity.
Nutritional Therapy
As a clinical nutritionist, I’ve seen how powerful foods can be for managing fibromyalgia. Often, people with the condition have limited energy to plan and prepare food, but a nutritionist can help you maximize the nutrient quality of smaller, easy-to-prep meals and healthy snacks.
In some cases, food sensitivities contribute to the gut issues and widespread pain of fibromyalgia. Common sensitivities include wheat, dairy, aspartame, gluten, and monosodium glutamate (MSG). But cutting out foods can skew the nutrient balance of your diet, so it’s best to work with a nutritionist to manage this and to optimize digestive health.
Nutrients for energy production and managing inflammation include vitamins C, E, and D3; magnesium, B-vitamins, iron, COQ10, and zinc (Liska et al., 2004). Food sources are the best for your body, but some people may benefit from supplements, which a nutritionist can advise on.
Low-Level Laser Therapy
Low-level laser therapy (LLLT) is an emerging treatment for muscle, joint, and nerve pain. It’s also known as photobiomodulation (PBM) or cold laser therapy because it doesn’t use heat like a normal laser. Instead, it uses low-power red or near-infrared light to stimulate cell function and tissue repair and reduce inflammation.
There isn’t a huge weight of evidence for LLLT in managing fibromyalgia. But a systematic review and meta-analysis of 9 randomized controlled trials showed that LLLT significantly improved symptoms of pain, fatigue, stiffness, depression, and anxiety in fibromyalgia patients, compared to treatment with a placebo laser. The authors conclude that LLLT is an effective, safe, and well-tolerated treatment for fibromyalgia (Yeh et al., 2019).
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is an evidence-based talking therapy that can help you manage fibromyalgia by changing how you think and behave. It can reduce negative thoughts and a sense of hopelessness, and improve coping skills, sleep quality, and pain perception.
These effects are backed by research. A meta-analysis of 29 high-quality RCTs (randomized controlled trials) shows that CBT is effective for pain relief, negative mood, fatigue, and disability in fibromyalgia patients (Bernardy et al., 2018).
Limbic Neurofeedback
Limbic neurofeedback is a non-invasive way of monitoring parts of the brain that regulate emotions and behavior. Sensors are placed on the head to provide feedback on electrical activity in the brain. The users can consciously modulate their brain activity to improve symptoms.
The evidence for limbic neurofeedback and fibromyalgia is limited but promising. A small scale, randomized controlled trial with 47 participants found that limbic areas in the brain are intimately involved in fibromyalgia, and neuromodulation offers a novel way of managing the symptoms (Or-Borichev et al., 2025). The effects were long-lasting too, with participants still seeing benefits after 10-12 months.
Oxygen-Ozone Therapy
Oxygen-ozone therapy involves the introduction of ozone gas into the body. This triggers the body’s defenses and stimulates oxygen metabolism.
There is very little evidence for using oxygen-ozone therapy for fibromyalgia, but the available research suggests it is safe. A small study of 65 people with fibromyalgia (55 women, 10 men) found the treatment provided a significant improvement in more than half of the symptoms in 70% of the participants (Tirelli et al., 2019). No one reported important side effects. However, the FDA considers ozone to be a toxic gas with no known medical benefits, and has not approved its use as a treatment.
Repetitive Transcranial Motor Stimulation
Repetitive transcranial motor stimulation (rTMS) is a non-invasive technique that uses magnetic pulses to stimulate nerve cells in the brain and provide pain relief. The process is considered safe and doesn’t require any sedation.
A randomized controlled trial of 101 women with fibromyalgia found that rTMS effectively reduced pain and improved function within 8 weeks, with some improvements lasting until 16 weeks later (Silva et al., 2025).
What Are Possible Complications
Fibromyalgia can be very difficult to live with, particularly if it’s undiagnosed or misdiagnosed. It’s often called an "invisible" illness because, from the outside, people can look fine — even when they’re not. Symptoms like pain and exhaustion can come and go without warning, which makes day-to-day life hard to plan. This can impact mental well-being and lead to increasing isolation.
Can Fibromyalgia Be Prevented
Because there isn’t a clear cause of fibromyalgia, it’s not a preventable condition. You can reduce the risk of flare-ups by:
Managing stress levels as well as possible. Make time for daily relaxation and downtime, doing activities you love.
Pacing yourself on the better days. It’s tempting to do a lot when you feel well, but over-exertion can trigger fatigue the next day.
Getting outdoors into natural morning light. This helps regulate the body’s sleep/wake cycle, which is often disrupted with fibromyalgia (Sabião et al., 2025).
Practicing good sleep hygiene: stick to a regular bedtime and wake-up time, keep your bedroom dark and cool, and minimize screen use before bed.
Eating as well as you can.
If a flare-up happens, don’t try to push through. Allow yourself to rest and use these strategies to help manage the symptoms.
Fibromyalgia is a chronic condition that causes widespread muscle pain and stiffness, severe fatigue, sleep problems, and digestive issues. It’s not known what causes fibromyalgia, but it is linked to nerve inflammation, nutrient imbalances, and changes in the way your brain processes pain signals.
There is no known cure. Medical treatment options include exercise therapy, self-care techniques, and medications to manage pain. Regenerative therapies like nutritional therapy and CBT can help you manage the condition long-term and are safe to use alongside any conventional treatments.
