Olbia turns purple for World Fibromyalgia Day

Initiatives in Olbia for Fibromyalgia Day

Also on May 12th Olbia celebrated its 32nd Health Awareness Day fibromyalgia. For this reason, the AISF – Italian Association of Fibromyalgia Syndrome ODV – has re-proposed the initiative throughout the national territory “No longer invisible” in order to shed light on this painful and disabling pathology. The goal is to raise public awareness of a treacherous disease that is not institutionally recognized as such. The initiative consisted of illuminating monuments, squares or buildings with purple/lilac lights, which is the color chosen for this disease.
Demonstrating the great sensitivity of the Olbia administration, the overhead lights turned purple, making support for the fight against fibromyalgia concrete. The city united in a symbolic but significant gesture, showing solidarity and support for people living with this disease and their families.

What is fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia, or FM, is a chronic condition that affects a small percentage of the world’s population, particularly young and middle-aged women. It presents a wide range of symptoms, including muscle and bone pain, sleep disturbances, tiredness, prolonged muscle and joint stiffness, headaches, and sensations of numbness and tingling in the limbs. Fibromyalgia is often confusing as some of its typical symptoms can be found in other clinical conditions. Fibromyalgia was previously thought to be inflammation, but now we know there’s much more to it. Fibromyalgia mainly affects the muscles and their insertions on the bones but has nothing to do with osteoarthritis and other bone pathologies.

Unfortunately, fibromyalgia syndrome lacks laboratory alterations that allow its rapid recognition, so the diagnosis must be made on the symptoms. For this reason, the fibromyalgia patient was sometimes considered an imaginary patient and did not receive the necessary care, even just to alleviate the pain. In the last ten years, however, some guidelines have been cataloged that allow the recognition of the disease and therefore the diagnosis. One of these is the discovery of some “tender points” or points sensitive to acupressure which are always present in the fibromyalgia patient and absent in other pathologies.

The AISF association thanks the administrations who wanted to support the initiative for having contributed to making fibromyalgia visible. Thanks to gestures like these, it is hoped that more and more people will be aware of the reality of those who struggle with the symptoms of fibromyalgia on a daily basis.
The importance of raising awareness on the topic is fundamental to ensure greater understanding and support for those affected by this pathology. Initiatives such as “No longer inVISIBLE” are crucial to give a voice to those who suffer who are not listened to and to break the taboos that still surround fibromyalgia. Thanks to the commitment of all those who participated, fibromyalgia becomes less and less invisible.