What is Fibromyalgia?
Fibromyalgia is a disorder that can cause immense musculoskeletal pain along with a host of issues such as fatigue, insomnia, trouble remembering things and sharp mood changes. While there is no clear-cut cause for the disorder, the symptoms are sometimes noted after physiological events such as surgery, a severe infection, or physical trauma such as a car accident or falling off a ladder. Often the symptoms coincide with severe psychological stress like divorce or death of a loved one. In other cases, symptoms progressively grow worse over time with no defining physical or mental stress.
While men do get fibromyalgia, the vast majority of sufferers are women.
What are the Symptoms of Fibromyalgia?
Extensive Pain
Patients describe he pain of fibromyalgia to be a constant dull ache that persisting for at least three months. Widespread pain occurs on either side of your body and both above and below the waist.
Debilitating Fatigue
People living with Fibromyalgia often feel like they haven’t slept, even though they report sleeping for extended uninterrupted periods. People with with the disorder wake often at night due to pain. It’s not uncommon for doctors to diagnose fibromyalgia in addition to other sleep disorders, such as restless legs syndrome and sleep apnea.
How Can Chiropractic Care Help to Treat Fibromyalgia?
Chiropractic care is often used to treat fibromyalgia because traditional treaments often offer little relief. A chiropractor focuses on the whole body and understands the most sensitive trigger points. Their holistic approach yields some very positive results. In particular, a Mayo Clinic study of chiropractors treating fibromyalgia with traditional adjustments in combination with a technique called ischemic compression showed highly favorable results.
Ischemic compression is a non-invasive technique that chiropractors use to treat muscle pain. This technique is widely used since the late 1950s. It uses sustained applied pressure to trigger points until they become inert. Around 60% of patients who underwent this combination of treatments reported a significant reduction in their pain levels and just as dramatic improvements in energy and stamina.
Another hopeful sign for people living with fibromyalgia is that the same patients in a one month follow up reported that the benefits of the treatment had not faded. Another study from a chiropractic clinic in Canada shows that approximately 30 chiropractic treatments could improve pain by over 70%. Treatments also improve sleep quality for people living with fibromyalgia by over 60% and decrease fatigue by over 70%. These studies show that people with fibromyalgia who undergo therapy by a chiropractor on a regular basis have the potential to keep their symptoms under control and have an improved quality of life.
How do Chiropractic Treatments for Fibromyalgia Work?
The core concept of how treating fibromyalgia with chiropractic techniques is relatively straightforward and easy to comprehend. By reducing pain in joints and muscle tissue, a chiropractor can improve a patient’s mobility. A wealth of medical research for the last sixty plus years shows that increased mobility will reduce muscular and joint pain. Whereas the opposite is also true, inactivity and lack of movement in joints and muscle tissue will result in an increase in discomfort for someone with joint and muscle pain.
Chiropractic adjustments can help increase the range of motion in joints, resulting in more movement and thereby a reduction in pain. Spinal and musculoskeletal adjustments are made from head to foot. These adjustments reduce pain caused by fibromyalgia in a variety areas.
Chiropractic care is also a preventative treatment. It promotes awareness and practices that contribute to a healthier lifestyle, such as diet, use of supplements, keeping a proper body weight, and regular exercise. In this way, the treatment along with personal health maintenance may help reduce the progression of the fibromyalgia condition. Without chiropractic treatment it is unlikely a patient could deal with an exercise regimen without the aid of painkillers; this brings us to the next benefit of a chiropractor treating fibromyalgia.
Chiropractic treatment is a great option for managing your condition. Traditional treatment is rarely enough to combat the ongoing struggle. For too many years the standard treatment for fibromyalgia involved prescription medications to help deal with the discomfort. Many of the pills prescribed to treat the condition are habit-forming or addictive such as opiates or non-opiates like tramadol. By putting a chiropractor at the center of your treatment plan, you may decrease the dependency on addictive drugs that compound the symptoms of the disorder.
We Can Help
If you are tired of your pain forcing you to live life on the sidelines call the experts at A Family Chiropractic Clinic. One of our friendly and compassionate staff members will be happy to assist you. We will schedule a time for you to come in and meet with us.
We will then construct a plan to treat your fibromyalgia based on your individual needs. Our team of specialists will coordinate to find the best course of treatment to improve your standard of living. Don’t deal with fibromyalgia alone for another minute; contact us today.
