Fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia – or fibromyositis – has a number of synonyms. It is a very frustrating condition for those people suffering from it. It also is difficult for their family and co-workers. care providers. Typically it primarily presents with multiple areas of pain in the body – and they vary in location, character, and intensity. Often it is accompanied by Chronic Fatigue. Additionally, patients do not respond as favorably to the standard medications or physical therapy as one would expect.

Personally I believe fibromyalgia to be a real syndrome – a cluster of symptoms that result from a number of causes. Another example is migraine headaches which are real and probably are the final manifestation of a dozen different disease states. For example, for some people caffeine will trigger a headache – yet for other headaches caffeine helps alleviate it – implying different causality of the headache.

Fibromyalgia is definitely NOT a psychological condition. However, sufferers will have real psychologic stresses secondary to their physical distress. An analogy is the well known fact that sufferers of chronic pain will be depressed. Depression does not cause the pain, it is the other way around. Treatment of the underlying condition improves the afflicted person’s outlook on life and psyche as well.

It is speculated that fibromyalgia results from the body’s exaggerated response to either a virus, food or environmental toxin. That makes it either an auto-immune condition or a malfunctioning autonomic system. Both can be fairly easily treated – particularly with techniques developed by French neurologists.

One of the traps that physicians typically get into is treating symptoms rather than the underlying conditions when they encounter a patient with fibromyalgia. No sooner is one symptom suppressed when another rises to take its place. That frustrates everyone.

I have had excellent success and find it far better to assist the body in healing itself by removing blockages. At the same time, it is important to build up the person’s energy which has been depleted through fighting itself (auto-immune) or ineffectively responding to stimuli (autonomic dysfunction.) Numerous techniques work, amongst them several approaches commonly used in medical acupuncture.

“Specializing in Difficult-to-Treat Medical Conditions”