Fibromyalgia
Fibromyalgia is medical term for pain in muscle fibre. Lady Gaga has recently announced she is suffering from this condition and she postponed her live tour due to fibromyalgia. This is not known as common disease but I find it more prevalent than we think so I decided to blog about this.
This is the condition people feel widespread and chronic pain in the body, muscle stiffness, fatigue and stress.
The study *2 shows that more than 5 weeks of massage improved pain, anxiety and depression. However, there was no improvement on sleep disturbance.
The study *3 shows that active trigger points are positively related to fibromyalgia pain. Therefore, therapists can use trigger point technique or dry needling more than myofascial release or cupping to improve fibromyalgia pain.
Aetiology
- No clear causes
- Might associate with cancer and chemotherapy
- Physical trauma or spinal injury can trigger FM
- Surgery, childbirth and chemical exposure
- Depression and stress
- Family history
Body starts change the way to tell the information with brain and spinal cord. Levels of proteins and brain chemicals may change, which makes feel more painful than you used to feel.
Sign and symptoms
- Pain in muscles, joint and ligament-chronic pain, numbness, tingling, twitching muscles, muscle cramps, muscle weakness, headache, migraine, dizziness
- Loss of concentration, short term memory loss, difficult to do multi-task
- Sensitive to the light (photophobia)
- Sleeping issue such as Insomnia, nocturnal awaking and restless leg syndrome
- Stiffness in the body
Treatment
- Massage as FM patients tend to have tight and stiff muscles. Massage also helps to relax you and manage the pain
- Medication to manage pain, reduce stress, or help sleep
- Exercise light exercise such as walking, hydrotherapy and yoga to keep healthy and manage the pain
- Something relaxes you and hobbies as stress can aggravate your condition
- Eat healthy foods
There is no diagnostic test for FM, MS, ALS, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease
FM is likely to happen with other condition such as chemotherapy, depression, cancer, childbirth and some trauma.
Reference
- Victoria University Harvard Referencing: journal articles http://libraryguides.vu.edu.au/harvard/journal-articles
- Yan-hui Li, Feng-yun Wang, Chun-qing Feng, Xia-feng Yang, and yi-hua Sun 2014 Massage Therapy for Fibromyalgia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials PLOS one 9 (2) e89304
- Ge HY, Wang Y, Danneskiold-Samsoe B, Graven Nielsen T and Arendt-Nielsen L 2010 The predetermined sites of examination for tender points I fibromyalgia syndrome are frequently associated with myofascial trigger point The journal of pain 11(7): P644-651
- Gunilla Brattberg, Connective tissue massage in the treatment of fibromyalgia 1999, Department of Research and Development, County Council of GWeborg, Gdvle, Sweden and Department of Social Medicine, University Hospital, Uppsala, Sweden
