Fibromyalgia & Chronic Pain

Chiropractic Treatment of Fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia causes muscles to tighten and lose their natural pliability, which triggers the spine to decrease its own flexibility, which leads the muscles to tighten even more. It is a vicious cycle that can get worse and worse,
causing ever greater pain. Therefore, chiropractic care is essential as it ensures that sufferers do not lose too much movement from their spine and muscles. The spine must be properly adjusted and kept moving to counter the insidious creep of fibromyalgia. Treatments should happen three to four times per month. These sessions will be gentler than normal to take into account the muscles’ susceptibility to injury and their lack of healing ability. When seeking a chiropractor, you need to ascertain that they fully understand how the condition affects the muscles.

Trigger Point Therapy to Treat Fibromyalgia

Trigger points are tint knots in the muscle fibers, and they can easily be confused with “tender points.” They
are not the same, though.

• A trigger point is painful under firm pressure, whereas it takes only very light pressure on a tender point to elicit pain.
• Trigger points refer pain to in other areas of the body, where tender points do not.
• Trigger points can be painful without any pressure exerted on them, as they refer to pain elsewhere.
• Trigger points are comprised of knotted muscle fibers that have gone into spasm, whereas tender points are knots filled with ground substance.
  

People living with Fibromyalgia will almost always have both trigger and tender points. They can benefit greatly
from trigger point therapy, albeit in a lighter form, to ensure that the muscles are not injured.

Self-Care for Fibromyalgia

Sufferers should not forget that lifestyle choices play a key role in how fibromyalgia affects them. Those who take care of themselves show hugely better outcomes than those who don’t. They suffer far less pain and manage to stay much more active, both of which greatly impact the quality of life. If you have fibromyalgia, the following advice should help:

• Get sufficient sleep
• Exercise
• Look at your working life
• Eat well
• Supplement your nutritional intake (1)

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