The triggers of EDS flare-ups are environmental stress, hormonal shifts, joint instability and physical overexertion and can range in duration from a few days to as long as several weeks.
Common triggers of EDS flare-ups are physical strain like overloading muscles, overexerting your joints, heavy lifting, repetitive tasks, or maintaining awkward positions for extended periods.
Hormonal changes, as many people with EDS experience increased symptom severity during puberty, ovulation, the premenstrual period, pregnancy and menopause.
Stress, like mental and emotional stress causes your nervous system to tension and raise baseline inflammation levels, which can trigger EDS flare-ups.
Changes in weather, like fluctuations in barometric pressure, humidity and sudden drops in temperature are also widely reported to increase muscle pain and joint pain, especially in people with EDS.
And minor infections or viruses can cause systemic inflammation and stress on your body and worsen existing symptoms of EDS and many people with EDS also have mast cell activation syndrome, where environmental allergens, specific foods, heat or cold trigger systemic chemical releases, which can lead to EDS flare-ups.
An EDS flare up is a body wide escalation of symptoms and does not look the same for everyone with EDS.
Although EDS flare ups often result in an overwhelming combination of severe, widespread joint and muscle pain as well as soul crushing fatigue and neurological or digestive issues that can also appear suddenly.
During an EDS flare up, you may experience joint and muscle pain, which is often intense and a sudden increase in aching joints, frequent subluxations or partial dislocations and stiff, tight muscles as they overwork to stabilize unstable joints.
Extreme fatigue is also another symptom of EDS flare ups and results in a debilitating feeling of exhaustion or crash days which sleep does not fix and severe brain fog, dizziness upon standing or new/worsening headaches, which are often linked to neck instability and systemic issues.
The systemic issues with EDS flare ups include gastrointestinal flares, like nausea or bloating or sudden difficulty with body temperature regulation.
The four symptoms of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome are joint hypermobility, stretchy skin, easy bruising and abnormal scarring.
Joint hypermobility is when you have loose, unstable joints that are able to move far past their normal range of motion, which often leads to frequent sprains, strains and dislocations.
Stretchy skin is when you have fragile, elastic skin, which is also much softer and more extensible than usually and the skin may easily pull and stretch and then snap right back into place.
And easy bruising in Ehlers-Danlos syndrome is when you have skin that bruises very easily and often for no apparent reason, even from minor pressure or minor bumps.
And abnormal scarring can result in thin, crinkly scars which take a long time to heal and everyday cuts or scrapes may not heal well and leave widened or irregular marks.
The red flags for Ehlers-Danlos syndrome are easy bruising, abnormal scarring, stretchy hyperextensible skin and severe joint hypermobility.
The joint and muscle red flags of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome include.
Chronic fatigue and pain, like unexplained, widespread joint pain and muscle pain, that is often diagnosed as growing pains in childhood and are often accompanied by severe, lingering exhaustion.
Frequent dislocations and subluxations, where joints pop out of place easily or frequently.
And extreme joint hypermobility, where joints easily bend far past the normal range of motion.
The wound and skin red flags for Ehlers-Danlos syndrome include.
Easy and unexplained bruising like heavy bruising with little or no impact.
Abnormal scarring, where you have scars that are wide, thin and crinkly and often are described as having a pizza dough texture or cigarette paper texture to them.
Poor wound healing, where cuts and scrapes take an unusually long time to heal or wounds which tear back open after they are stitched closed.
And stretchy and velvety skin, where you have skin that can be pulled abnormally far away from the body but snaps back when it's released.
The critical and vascular red flags for Ehlers-Danlos syndrome include.
Unexplained aneurysms or artery dissections.
Spontaneous organ rupture or bowel perforation.
A family history of sudden death or vascular complications and distinct facial features like having a thin nose, thin upper lip, prominent eyes that are combined with very thin, translucent skin where your veins are easily visible.
And other systemic red flags for Ehlers-Danlos syndrome are frequent hernias, due to weakened connective tissues, severe digestive or bladder issues, like unexplained IBS or irritable bowel syndrome, recurring acid reflux or pelvic organ prolapse at a young age and vision abnormalities, like severe myopia (nearsightedness), retinal detachment or extremely thin cornea..
The age that Ehlers-Danlos syndrome is usually diagnosed is by age 20s to 40s, although some cases of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome are diagnosed by around 12 years old.
Although most people wait until their 20s to 40s to get an official diagnosis of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.
For hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, the symptoms often show up in childhood, although diagnosis is commonly delayed into adulthood, but is partly a result of the subtlety of the signs and because adult diagnostic tools also require meeting specific hypermobility thresholds.
Classical Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, the symptoms often start in childhood or adolescence with highly elastic skin and joint issues, although the diagnosis often gets delayed due to milder presentations.
And vascular Ehlers-Danlos syndrome is a more severe type of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and is often diagnosed in adulthood after severe, acute complications, but it can also be diagnosed earlier if vascular fragility is suspected.
The age that EDS or Ehlers-Danlos syndrome usually starts is from birth, but the symptom onset of EDS or Ehlers-Danlos syndrome is often in childhood or adolescence ages.
EDS or Ehlers-Danlos syndrome often also emerges during puberty.
The actual age of onset of EDS or Ehlers-Danlos syndrome varies.
EDS or Ehlers-Danlos syndrome is a genetic condition that is actually present from birth.
And for some subtypes of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, the signs may be noticeable as early as infancy, or remain mild enough that the symptoms or signs of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome are not noticed until adulthood.
For Vascular EDS or (vEDS), it's a rarer and more severe subtype of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and initial symptoms of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome or vascular Ehlers-Danlos syndrome like severe, unexplained bruising might appear in childhood or even adolescence.
Although the most severe signs of vascular EDS or vascular Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, like arterial or organ ruptures are usually the first major indicators and are frequently present in adulthood.
For hypermobile EDS or hEDS and Classical EDS, the signs like hypermobility or double jointedness, frequent joint dislocations and easily bruised, soft or stretchy skin will often appear in early childhood or puberty.
Although, these are also frequently dismissed as being growing pains or clumsiness, which is also why the diagnosis is often delayed until the person is in their 20s, 30s, or even their 40s.
Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) is not a type of autism. EDS is a group of genetic connective tissue disorders that affect the skin, joints, and blood vessels.
In contrast, autism (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition that affects how a person communicates, interacts, and perceives the world.
While they are entirely distinct conditions, clinical research shows a strong overlap and co-occurrence between EDS (particularly the hypermobile type, hEDS) and autism.
Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) can be passed down by either parent.
Because Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) is an autosomal condition, the gene is not tied to a specific sex chromosome, meaning both mothers and fathers can carry and transmit it equally.
Autosomal Dominant Inheritance: The faulty gene only needs to be inherited from one parent to cause the condition.
If one parent has this type, each child has a 50% chance of developing EDS.
This applies to the most common type, Hypermobile EDS (hEDS), as well as Classical and Vascular EDS.
Autosomal Recessive Inheritance: The faulty gene must be inherited from both parents for the child to develop the condition (e.g., Kyphoscoliotic EDS).
If both parents are carriers, there is a 25% chance of the child having EDS in each pregnancy.
Spontaneous (De Novo) Mutations: It is also possible to be the first person in your family to have EDS due to a spontaneous gene change that was not inherited from either parent.