Friday Fact: Hypermobility

Loose limbs allow for gymnastic flights of fancy but can bring you back down to earth with feelings of pain and fatigue. Joint hypermobility is sometimes a symptom of Marfan syndrome. Read on.

Some people with Marfan syndrome and other connective tissue disorders can present with hypermobile joints.

Put simply, this means that an individual has an unusually large range of movement in some or all their joints.

Some people with hypermobile joints have no symptoms but for others they can experience issues such as:

-       Pain or stiffness in the joints

-       Recurrent joint dislocations

-       Fatigue

-       Recurrent injuries

The Beighton Scoring System assesses 5 joints with a 9-point scoring system

-       Pinkie fingers

-       Base of the thumb

-       Elbow

-       Knee

-       Spine

Some people may experience joint hypermobility as part of a range of symptoms related to their connective tissue disorder. There is an overlap in the symptoms seen in these conditions, so it is important that individuals are reviewed by a specialist familiar with these conditions that can also include Hypermobility Spectrum Disorders (HSD) and Hypermobile Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (hEDS).