Hypothyroidism can be treated with thyroid hormone pills. Hyperthyroidism can be treated with pills that block thyroid hormone synthesis. If the thyroid gland dysfunction is from interferon treatment and is caught early, the thyroid gland will return to normal once interferon is stopped. Today, fibromyalgia is recognized by medical organizations as a genuine and serious problem. The symptoms of fibromyalgia typically include pain in many muscles, and around ligaments and tendons, persistent fatigue, waking up feeling tired even after a full night's sleep, headaches, bouts of constipation and diarrhea, abdominal pain, painful menstrual periods, sensitivity to cold, numbness or tingling, and difficulty exercising.
Symptoms vary widely among patients and tend to wax and wane over time.
An illness, injury, cold weather or emotional stress may trigger a fibromyalgia episode or make ongoing symptoms worse. This study is the first to show a link between the two illnesses. In two patients, fibromyalgia arose simultaneously with the hepatitis C infection. It is unknown why the hepatitis C virus and fibromyalgia may be linked, but the authors suggest that hepatitis C causes chronic activation of the immune system that leads to muscle aching, fatigue, mental changes, sleep abnormalities, and alterations of the neuroendocrine system. The patients with both hepatitis C and fibromyalgia could be distinguished from most other patients with fibromyalgia alone because they had symptoms unusual to fibromyalgia.