Treatment of Fibromyalgia – Not so Clear-Cut

Unlike diseases with clear-cut diagnosis, the treatment of fibromyalgia is not definitive. This stems from the very nature of the disease which is compounded by different symptoms in different people. For some, the symptoms include stiff joints, sleep disturbances and fatigues. Other patients suffer from cognitive dysfunction, numbness, bowel abnormalities and tingling.

The most common symptom amongst fibromyalgia sufferers is chronic pains all over the body and pain in all pressure points in the body. These include the back and front lower parts of the neck, hip joints, elbows and knees. Doctors also draw a relation between psychiatric conditions like anxiety, depression or stress-related conditions with fibromyalgia.

Like other diseases which lack an accepted universal diagnosis, treatment of fibromyalgia aims at managing the symptoms rather than curing the condition. As such, a combination of modern and complementary medicines, as well as behavioral therapy and exercise are all used to relief the intense chronic pains that patients experience.

Recently, the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) approved two drugs: Cymbalta and Lyrica, for treatment of fibromyalgia.  Cymbalta is an anti-depressant that increases the nor-epinephrine and serotonin in the patient’s nervous system since most fibromyalgia sufferers have low levels of the two neuro-chemicals. Lyrica on the other hand is an anticonvulsant that reduces pain levels in Fibromyalgia patients by calming damaged nerves through binding specific proteins within affected nerve cells.  Other medicines used in the treatment of fibromyalgia include sleep initiators, analgesics, stimulants and muscle relaxants.

Natural Treatment of Fibromyalgia

Since most fibromyalgia suffers are sensitive to contemporary medicine, the use of supplementary and herbal treatments gives them a healthy and helpful alternative. Consumption of vitamin D rich foods is for example recommended for patients who suffer from multi-skeletal pains. Acupuncture is also another supplementary treatment of fibromyalgia conditions, which is known to relief symptoms such as depression, irritable bowel syndrome, sleep disorders and pain.

Bodywork therapies are also used for the treatment of fibromyalgia. Such include myofascial-release therapy, therapeutic massages and energy medicines. The latter are practices that maintain balance in the body’s energy fields. Although such have little scientific backing, most patients claim to experience a measure of health restoration once the energy medicine is administered.

Regular exercise is also recommended as a viable option for treatment of fibromyalgia. However, most patients find this hard to accept especially because body movement in fibromyalgia patients is met with pain. No matter the level of discomfort suffered by the patients, doctors advise them to desist from too much rest since that only leads to stiffening of muscles and joints, and more severe symptoms.  Regular excercise combined with diet and supplementation can be effective in the treatment of fibromyalgia.

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Why Are You Sleeping Too Much?

You may read article after article about the importance of getting enough sleep. Sleep is vital to the body regenerating cells each night, and also helps keeps our brains sharp and fresh. It is essential to good health and mental well being to get enough sleep each night. But, did you know that you could be sleeping too much. You may be doing this by choice, or perhaps you are not sure why you are suddenly sleeping more than you normally do. This is something that you should really pay attention to.

Sleeping too much can mean that you are depressed. This sign alone does not mean that you are suffering from depression, but it is a major sign along with some others. Those that are depressed often lose interest in daily life, may gain or lose weight abnormally, and often sleep far too much. They can have the feeling that there is really no reason to get up and no one cares if they are up or not anyway. If you have been feeling sad and feel worthless, and are sleeping more than usual, it is in your best interest to go to talk to your doctor about possible depression. It is nothing to be ashamed of as it is a medical condition like diabetes or cancer. It needs treatment.

Causes of Sleeping Too Much

One of the most common reasons for sleeping too much is insomnia. You may toss and turn or stay up way too late because you simply cannot wind down to fall asleep. Once you do fall asleep, you may sleep later and longer than usual. Remember that though you can make up for some lost sleep, sleeping extra all the time is not the answer. You should find out why you are having problems with insomnia. It could be a condition like Fibromyalgia or it could be that you are far too stressed and anxious.

You could be just off on your sleep schedule. In college, you may have been able to stay up late, sleep in, and then attend your classes in the afternoon. This is fine if it works then, but when you have to start working each morning, sleeping too much in the AM becomes problematic. You have to slowly start going to bed earlier each night, and forcing yourself to get up at the same time each morning. Soon enough, you will be tired at a decent hour and you will wake up refreshed when you need to do so. Just don’t go about sleeping in too much on the weekends as just those two morning can mess you up all over again.

Lastly, sleeping too much could mean that you have a medical condition that has yet to be diagnosed. Some diseases and conditions can cause you to sleep more than usual. If this over sleeping happens out of the blue, you should talk to your doctor about your sudden change in sleep habits and the energy drain that is making you tired. You may just be aging and need to start taking a vitamin, or it could be something else is going on. See your doctor if sleeping too much continues.

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Trying to Help Fibromyalgia Patients Help Themselves

The inexplicable pain of fibromyalgia can be difficult enough to deal with. There are a few mistakes that you can make in dealing with this condition though. It would be a good thing if people could learn from their mistakes well enough to not make them again. Unfortunately, it never occurs to people that there is a pattern to the mistakes they make; and they end up making them over and over again. Fibromyalgia can be hard enough to live with without having to act in a self-defeating way making the same mistakes repeatedly. Let’s look at what some of these mistakes are, and how staying clear of them can help fibromyalgia patients.

Fibromyalgia is a condition that follows a unique logic in every patient. Yes, there is a logic, a schedule that the pain follows. And no two people are the same. What you need is to know when exactly your pain comes and goes. And you need detailed logs of this. Only then can you actually begin to understand the bigger picture of how it seems to work in you. Once you know the general pattern your pain follows, you’ll be able to predict things and find out what causes them. The first rule of trying to help fibromyalgia as a condition would be to make sure that a detailed pain log is always at hand. You need to turn into a scientist and a detective all at once.

Medicines That Help Fibromyalgia

Now there are three kinds of drugs that the FDA has approved of to help fibromyalgia sufferers: Lyrica , Savella and Cymbalta. Just the fact that there are drugs specifically aimed at your condition is not to lull you into thinking that they have a cure. To begin with, these drugs are expensive and they have side effects like depression. And then, these drugs don’t even work reliably. They are just an attempt at treating fibromyalgia. The mistake sufferers make is of believing that just because the drug is on the market, that it will actually work. And then, some patients will not explore a few alternatives. Some doctors will prescribe off-label medications to help fibromyalgia pain in some patients. If they feel that they make good candidates for those particular off-label drugs. When patients see that they are being prescribed medicines that were originally intended for other purposes  – for depression or something else – they believe that they are going down an unproven path; and just refuse them. Freedom from fibromyalgia pain comes with a willingness to experiment, and a willingness to change your whole lifestyle and not just depend on drugs for release.

You go through fibromyalgia pain every day. It’s a terrible reality in your life. What do you do if you go to your doctor, and he refers you to a psychiatrist because he thinks that you are just imagining the pain? You are looking for a doctor who’s truly engaged in your condition – and doing things like finding off-label drugs for you for instance. What you’re not looking for is a doctor who is so unfamiliar with the latest developments in this field but he doesn’t even know enough to take fibromyalgia seriously. It may be difficult to believe, but these doctors really are out there and want to help fibromyalgia patients.

Like this article? Find more great information at Fibromyalgia Blog.