Feel Better Despite Fibromyalgia

Making it through the Holidays with Fibromyalgia can seem to be a daunting task. Try to follow this easy list of helpful points, you will also find related articles on each of these topics in the archives. 

• Try to get between seven and eight hours of good, restful sleep each night.
• Exercise regularly. Walking and other non-strenuous activities are a good way to begin.
• Adjust your hours at work if your schedule is too demanding.
• Get a chair that's comfortable at work, and talk to your boss about avoiding activities -- including lifting -- that are too challenging.
• Have your spine checked and aligned by your Chiropractor.
• Eat a healthy, balanced and nutritious diet.

Fibromyalgia Update

Following on from two recent studies dealing with how best to help a patient with FM, it has been suggested that along with behaviour therapies a gentle form of exercise is also recommended. This could be tailored to suit the individual. All the studies so far show positive results for FM patients.

The key points raised were.

 With the help of behaviour therapy patients can get help with their fear of pain and help set realistic goals to increase their level of daily activity. Gentle exercise done frequently helped in the management of stress and anxiety levels

 With patients that tended to overdo it, an exercise plan was set out to work at a much more reasonable level .Thus not falling into the pitfalls of doing too much and then not being able to do much at all. Working on a program that focused on frequently doing some form of exercise, but choosing from a low impact range of activities was more beneficial.

 Not only were the patients better able to cope, but it was reported that they shown signs of improvement in areas of depression and anxiety up to 6 months after the trials were completed.

 Tai chi was used with a group of patients as the form of exercise and the results proved that they had experienced a decrease in pain and an increase in the ability to do daily tasks without pain and with less fatigue.

Water walking is an excellent choice of exercise also. Low impact and helps to strengthen the core muscles.Unlike walking on an even soft surface like grass, walking in water allows the joints in the lower half of your body to be used, but not stressed. Allowing you to use the whole body in its correct form and posture allows the body to regain some of its tone and flexibility

Management was the aim behind all of these studies.

Understanding Fibromyalgia.

The National Institute of Health describes Fibromyalgia as

“Fibromyalgia makes you feel tired and causes muscle pain and "tender points." Tender points are places on the neck, shoulders, back, hips, arms or legs that hurt when touched. People with fibromyalgia may have other symptoms, such as trouble sleeping, morning stiffness, headaches, and problems with thinking and memory, sometimes called "fibro fog."

No one knows what causes fibromyalgia. Anyone can get it, but it is most common in middle-aged women. People with rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases are particularly likely to develop fibromyalgia.”

This is a debilitating problem for anyone.

New studies have now shown that a patient’s brain activity can help to unlock the mystery why sufferers seem to experience more pain than other. Vitaly Napadow PhD found that the brain of the FM sufferer was more likely to have an increase in the connection between areas of the brain that sensed and processed pain. Therefore the FM patient had a higher response to pain than an average person would.

That is a great relief to the FM patient, because for so long they have been labeled unfairly. The pain they feel is real, they are just more likely to feel a greater range of pain as opposed to someone who had less connections.

In the text -Fibromyalgia and Chronic Myofascial Pain: A Survival Manual (2nd Edition) it is discussed that FM should renamed Central Nervous System Sensitization due to the fact that is primarily a CNS issue and not a muscular issue. The muscle fibres are originally healthy and only after a prolonged period of time would the exhibit changes due to long term stress created by the pain experienced.

The typical areas of trigger points that FM patients experience are

Managing the high level of pain messages that the brain receives and dealing with the trigger points makes a dual directional approach to the FM patients care plan. Chiropractic care can play an important part of this plan. Our focus on the whole body and the neurological integrity of the central nervous system allows us to help in the overall functioning of the patients’ body.