What is the cause of generalised body aches?
Q: I have always have been very small for the first 7 years of my life. I couldn't grow hair on my head. I drank ensure with my meals and still remained underweight. I finally lived out at 13 and became bulimic. I threw up my food for years and didn't understand why. Now at 19, I do well with food, but I have severe headaches every day. They developed when I started having lower back pain about three years ago, then the pain travelled down my legs and arms into my hips. It felt like the pain travelled up my spine into my head. I was dependant on painkillers every few hours. Some days I feel, I couldn’t move my body. I was so scared that I quit my job and now it's hard for me to see a doctor. Please advise.
A:Your symptoms suggest that you have generalised body ache (migratory type), headache with past history of eating disorder. Generalised body aches usually suggest metabolic (like calcium deficiency etc), connective tissue disorders (like lupus etc), hereditary painful muscle disorders (like getting pain while doing exercises etc) and pains due to unknown reasons (fibromyalgis and myofacial pains). Your complaint of not able to get of bed needs clarification. Is it due to pain? Or you just don't feel like getting out of bed out of anticipation of pain? You haven't provided any information regarding the nature of your headache but going by the chronicity of your symptoms, it is likely to be a variety of Primary headache. Bulimia and anorexia nervosa are eating disorders, which need specialist attention. Mood, emotion and affect have important effects on pain perception as well as on headache and eating disorders and these must also be looked into your case. So, I will advice you to seek a good consultation from an Internal Medicine specialist.