August 13th, 2010 | Posted in 2 Pain, Injuries, Sports
Fibromyalgia What it is
Imagine aching all over your body and having muscles that are too sore to be touched, or waking up after 12 hours sleep still feeling exhausted with a cloudy head and irritable bowels. This is the reality of people who have fibromyalgia. Because of its wide range of symptoms, it is quite difficult to diagnose.
In fibromyalgia, sensory messages to the brain are intensified, making even a warm bubble bath, cotton sheets, friendly handshakes feel like torture. Counter-vailing messages from the brain are too weak to shut off the pain response. The combined effect is to ‘turn up the volulme on pain’.
It runs in families and genetic variations may play a role, but lifestyle and temperament also play a part. Often sufferers are workaholics or people who push themselves to the limit, despite years of escalating pain. Then a trigger—a car accident, a viral infection—pushes them over the edge and knocks their nervous systems out of whack.
Fibromyalgia is a condition involving pain throughout the body, heightened sensitivity to touch and fatigue— characterised by generalised pains in the connective tissues of the body and specific area of knotted muscle fibre – called “trigger points” – which are especially painful. It is generally treated with a combination of analgesics and vigorous massage.
There is no obvious source of pain—no injuries, worn joints or pinched nerves. Instead it is one of a number of poorly understood disorders, such as chronic fatigue and gulf-war syndromes that are caused by ‘central sensitization’ or imbalances of chemicals and hormones in the nervous system.
Symptoms of Fibromyalgia include:
Acupuncture is well known for its pain relieving effects and can have a great effect on the symptoms of Fibromyalgia.
However, fibromyalgia, unfortunately, is often not observed by the patient until it becomes a major problem in their lifestyle and consequently is not diagnosed until some significant time after its initial onset and thus a lapse in its treatment occurs, which ultimately means that it will take longer to effect a recovery. In fact, many months or even years will have elapsed with much use of pain killers—with or without a diagnosis—before a sufferer decides to seek acupuncture help and consequently, patience and perseverance are necessary to rebalance the energetic system and to effect a recovery. Acupuncture can “work wonders”, but it is not “miraculous”. Some effects will be felt immediately, which give relief, but effecting a cure will require regular treatment for a period of time.
Acupuncture and Chinese medicine provide relief of symptoms by balancing yin and yang, and adjusting the circulation of qi and the blood. Local measures such as heat, therapeutic massage, cupping, moxibustion in specific regions also help to reduce the pain. A regular plan, with long-term, consistent integrative treatment is necessary in patients with fibromyalgia.
An acupuncturist will treat the presenting symptoms of pain and discomfort but will also treat the underlying causes of energetic disharmony which are the origin of the dis-ease. The individual’s symptoms – as each person’s combinations of symptoms are unique – are assessed and a treatment plan specific for each individual, including sleep improvement and low-impact exercise, is arrived at through in-depth discussion and examination between the patient and acupuncturist.
There is no set way of treating Fibromyalgia as it depends on what symptoms are present and what works for the person. The best way to treat it is by using a combination of different methods.
