Fibromyalgia Specialist

What is fibromyalgia?

Fibromyalgia is a chronic disorder with widespread pain that occurs on both sides of the body, above and below the waist. The condition is also known for causing tender points that may develop anywhere on the body. These points are quite painful when they’re touched.

People with fibromyalgia experience deep fatigue, which is partly due to the energy drain caused by living with pain, as well as sleep that’s frequently disrupted by pain. They also have trouble concentrating and often become depressed.

When you have fibromyalgia, you’re more likely to develop other health conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome and migraine headaches.

What causes fibromyalgia?

The exact cause of fibromyalgia hasn’t been discovered. Some think it begins with a repetitive injury, an illness, a traumatic event, or an extremely stressful situation. Others believe it occurs spontaneously.

While the cause is up in the air, there are known factors that increase your risk. For example, the condition runs in families and women have a much higher risk than men for developing fibromyalgia. If you have osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, or lupus, you’re also more likely to have fibromyalgia.

How does chiropractic treatment relieve fibromyalgia?

It’s hard to stay active when you live with constant pain, yet regular exercise diminishes the pain. Chiropractic treatment can help you keep moving by relieving pain and improving motion throughout your musculoskeletal system.

Spinal adjustment: As pain leads to inactivity, muscles become tight, and it’s harder to move the spine. The loss of movement in the spine leads to tighter muscles, creating a cycle that only increases pain. Chiropractic adjustment of the spine helps you maintain normal motion and relaxes muscles supporting the spine.

Ischemic compression plus spinal manipulation: When a soft tissue technique called ischemic compression, which manipulates blood flow, is performed together with spinal manipulation, patients may get relief from fibromyalgia-related pain and fatigue that lasts a month.

Trigger point therapy: In addition to the classic tender points associated with fibromyalgia, you may develop trigger points, or areas where there’s a muscle spasm. When trigger points are touched, they radiate pain to other areas of the body. By comparison, tender points only hurt at the point where they’re touched. Light trigger point therapy relieves the localized muscle spasm, so you can eliminate pain from trigger points.