Fibromyalgia ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease linked

Fibromyalgia and Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Quick Look

Why is fibromyalgia common among those with Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis?

Science: Bowel and fibromyalgia symptoms are both associated with elevated pro-inflammatory cytokine levels, the two conditions often arise at the same time and improve or worsen together.

Conclusion: Observations regarding the onset and progression of inflammatory bowel conditions and fibromyalgia can be explained if they share a common cause – excess pro-inflammatory cytokine activation.

Fibromyalgia is common among those with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.

Three observations suggest the possibility of a single underlying mechanism of disease.

1. 25% of those with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) develop symptoms or disease that does not directly affect the intestinal tract. This is a very high percentage.

2. These symptoms can occur before or at the same times as the IBD – not just after it. This suggests that whatever is causing the IBD is also causing the other symptoms or disease – not simply that IBD causes the other manifestations.

3. The severity of IBD and the other manifestations seem to move in parallel.

A fourth observation – that controlling the IBD controls the related symptoms/disease could be taken to mean either that the IBD causes the other symptoms/disease, so controlling IBD controls the other symptoms/disease, or that in treating IBD we are simultaneously treating the other conditions.

According to one theory, most of these inflammation-related disease conditions spring from a common underlying dysfunction of the immune system – primarily its inability to turn off. Since treatment for IBD is primarily directed against inflammation, the findings observed in the study summarized below are consistent with that theory.

The idea that fibromyalgia is related to (or results from) inflammation has been generally dismissed. But there is no other rational theory by which to account for this and numerous other inflammatory conditions with which fibromyalgia is frequently co-morbid (occurring together with.)

April, 2009

Musculoskeletal manifestations of inflammatory bowel disease.

Summary of the abstract

Musculoskeletal manifestations develop in approximately 25% of those with inflammatory bowel disease, the most common of which are arthritis and fibromyalgia. These symptoms can come before the onset of IBD or at the same time as its development. Most often, symptom severity of the fibromyalgia tracks with that of the IBD. Also, it has been noted that successful treatment of the inflammatory bowel disease often results in remission of fibromyalgia.

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