Almost 28 million people in the UK are thought to live with chronic pain, with fibromyalgia accounting for around 5% of these cases. That means almost three million patients struggle with the condition each day.
Fibromyalgia, which famously affected former Desert Island Discs presenter Kirsty Young for four years and forced her out of her job, causes pain and tenderness in many areas of the body. But unlike conditions such as arthritis, this isn’t because there is a problem with the joints, bones or muscles.
Instead, the syndrome is thought to be triggered by changes in brain chemicals, known as neurotransmitters, which affect the way pain messages are processed. This means the pain signals that would normally indicate an injury occur in the absence of any form of trauma.
