How common Is fibromyalgia?

Fibromyalgia is a syndrome that affects 2% of the American population and is mainly found in women. Watch this Ask the Experts video to learn more from Dr. Randy P. Martin about fibromyalgia.

Transcript

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It's commonly diagnosed between the ages of 20 to 50. Although, it increases in its frequency as people age.

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It's estimated that about 2%-- some say even 4%-- of the American population have fibromyalgia. That translates to about 10 million people

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who have fibromyalgia. Interestingly, it's much more common in women, a 9-to-1 ratio. That means for every 10 people that have it, nine of them

00:38

are women. It tends to run in families.

00:45

As I've said, it's a genetic-- probably has a genetic incidence. And it's commonly diagnosed between the ages of 20 to 50.

00:52

Although, it increases in its frequency as people age.

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So what's the prognosis or the outlook as we speak in medicine? Well, it's not a degenerative disease. So it doesn't mean that you're going

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to get a lot worse with it. And fortunately, it's not fatal, but unfortunately there is no cure for fibromyalgia, but it can be managed.

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So it's more common in women. It does affect a lot of our population and can be managed.