As this month (May) is EDS awareness month I thought I'd put together a post explaining what EDS is and how it affects its sufferers.
As an EDS warrior myself this is a very important month for me as raising awareness is so important as this condition is rare and is often missed by doctors so patients often go undiagnosed for many years!
EDS (Ehlers Danlos Syndrome) is a rare connective tissue disorder that causes the body to produce faulty collagen. Collagen is the 'glue' that holds our body together and is found all throughout our body. In our ligaments, muscles, joints, organs, eyes... This faulty collagen weakens the tissue that supports the skin, bones, blood vessels, arteries, internal organs and more.
There are 6 'main' types of EDS (these are the most common types). These are; Hypermobile Type, Classical Type, Vascular Type, Kyphoscoliosis Type, Arthrochalasia Type and Dermatosparaxis Type. Though I've only listed the names of 6 types of EDS there's actually 12 known types of EDS that have been discovered (so far) though the other 6 are extremely rare.
Symptoms vary depending on which type of EDS you have and no two people have exactly the same symptoms but the most common symptoms are; Hypermobile joints, soft velvety skin, easy bruising, poor wound healing, abnormal scarring, joint dislocations/subluxations, chronic pain, stretchy skin and many more.
Common comoribities are; Chiari Malformation, TMJ, POTS, Dysautonomia and CCI.
