Living with Fibromyalgia
Take care of your body.
Sam keeps the pain and symptoms you log, plus sleep and resting heart rate. You take the history to your next appointment.
Step by step: what fibromyalgia is, which five body regions the 2016 criteria use and how it shows up day to day.
Fibromyalgia
Fibromyalgia is a long-lasting condition with pain in many parts of the body. Fatigue, poor sleep and trouble concentrating often come with it. Research discusses altered pain processing.
A human figure, seen from the front at an angle. Nothing is highlighted.
The criteria
The 2016 criteria count each shoulder and arm, each hip and leg, plus neck and back. Doctors weigh pain in four or more, generally present for at least three months, with how strong fatigue, waking unrefreshed and trouble thinking are.
Neck and back / Hip and leg / Shoulder and arm
The figure, seen from behind. Five soft violet areas cover each shoulder and arm, each hip and leg, and the neck and back: the five regions of the 2016 criteria. The two leg areas touch at the inner thigh.
Day to day
The pain can vary from one day to the next, in how strong it is and where it is felt. There are phases with more pain and phases that are almost symptom-free.
Worth discussing with your doctor.
The view pulls back to the whole figure, from behind at an angle. The five violet areas stay and slowly brighten and fade, for pain that varies in strength; nothing flashes.
Own simplified illustration based on the sources above.
The picture shows a reference body without organs. The five coloured areas mark the body regions that the 2016 criteria use for the four-of-five rule: each shoulder and arm, each hip and leg, and the neck and back. They mark where pain is counted for that rule, not where one person feels it. Jaw, chest and abdomen do not count toward that rule, although they still count in the pain index, so they are not painted and the neck-and-back region is painted on the back; the front of the neck is left out as a simplification. Borders are approximate: the two leg areas touch at the inner thigh, and so that they cover the buttock from behind, they reach a few centimetres above the groin at the front. Hands and feet are not painted. The areas show neither a cause nor a measurement. In the last step they slowly brighten and fade to stand for pain that varies in strength; the tempo is not a time scale. The tender points of the 1990 criteria are no longer used by the 2010 and 2016 criteria and are not shown, nor is any brain structure. Adult male reference model; not to scale.
What Sam keeps for you
For people living with fibromyalgia who want a record for their appointments. Sam is not a medical device. It keeps what you and your wearable already produce and puts it in one place.
Your Apple Watch, Oura, Whoop or Garmin already records them, and you add what you log. Sam reads them from Apple Health and shows you how they shift against your personal baseline.
Check in on most days, and once a month it becomes a PDF for your appointment.
Pain, fatigue and trouble thinking are outside what a smartwatch can record. Sam keeps your own account.
Sam reads the data your wearable already writes to Apple Health and compares it to your personal baseline - understandable, not a wall of numbers.
Sleep duration and sleep times from Apple Health sit next to your own average, week by week.
Your daily activity sits next to your own average. You take the ups and downs between good days and exhaustion to your visit.
The free monthly report puts sleep and activity into a PDF. You don't have to report from memory.
Sam is a wellness companion, not a medical device. The app does not diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any illness and does not replace medical advice. Consult a qualified healthcare professional for medical decisions.
Sam shows your values next to your entries. What they mean is something to talk through with your doctor.
You ask a question, Sam answers with your own numbers. For example:
The monthly report sums up your weeks - for appointments, applications, or simply your own record.
Monthly Report - June
Your Health Overview
Sleep
Health status
Example values. Your report is based on your own data.
Further reading: what wearable data can show about everyday life with Fibromyalgia - and where its limits are.
Fibromyalgia and ME/CFS overlap significantly - up to 70% meet criteria for both. The critical difference is post-exertional malaise (PEM), and it determines whether exercise helps or harms.
How to set up Sam for fibromyalgia, which metrics matter, and how to prepare a report for your next pain management appointment.
Aerobic exercise is one of fibromyalgia's best-supported treatments - unless post-exertional malaise (PEM) is also present. How to tell the difference and what the research says.
Non-restorative sleep is a core symptom of fibromyalgia. Here is what sleep medicine research shows about the link between deep sleep, pain, and exhaustion - and how to interpret your wearable data.
Yes, as your own record in the symptom diary. You log body aches or joint pain with how strong they were, mild to severe. Sam keeps those entries next to your sleep, activity and resting heart rate from Apple Health. Sam does not measure pain and does not assess it; that stays with you and your care team.
Comparing yourself to population averages rarely helps with fibromyalgia. Sam compares you to yourself instead: how was your sleep this week compared to your last few weeks? That makes changes visible that would otherwise get lost in everyday life.
No. Sam is a wellness companion, not a medical device, and it doesn't replace therapy. Sam can help you understand your habits and bring structured observations into your care.
The core symptoms of fibromyalgia include chronic pain in multiple areas of the body, non-restorative sleep, and pronounced fatigue. Sam measures nothing itself; it shows what you log next to your sleep, activity and resting heart rate trends from Apple Health.
No. Fibromyalgia is diagnosed by a doctor, not by a smartwatch or wearable. Sam measures nothing itself; it shows what you log next to your sleep, activity and resting heart rate trends from Apple Health, compared with your personal baseline.
No. Fibromyalgia is not classified as an autoimmune disease or an inflammatory rheumatic condition, even though it's often confused with rheumatism and many people with fibromyalgia are cared for by a rheumatologist. Its cause is not fully understood; research discusses altered pain processing in the nervous system.
Partly. There is no separate flare entry for fibromyalgia, but you can log symptom days with aches, fatigue or brain fog and how strong they were. Sam adds sleep, resting heart rate, HRV and activity from Apple Health, and the monthly report shows your symptom days and most frequent symptoms alongside pages on sleep and activity.
Download Sam for free, connect Apple Health, and see what your data says about everyday life with Fibromyalgia - compared to your own baseline.
Sam is a wellness companion, not a medical device. Sam does not diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any illness and does not replace medical advice. For health questions or concerns, always consult a qualified medical professional.