Fibromyalgia

There has been quite a lot of noise in the media and medical offices these past few years about a condition called fibromyalgia. You have almost certainly seen commercials for drugs designed to alleviate symptoms for this condition. One of these commercials features a woman talking about her pain. She says, “My doctor diagnosed me with fibromyalgia. I found out that there are nerves throughout my body.” The commercial leaves you hanging at this point, making the vague assertion that nerves are the problem. This makes me chuckle, just a bit, because it is like saying, “I have legs. That’s the problem.” Everybody has nerves, and nerves are a normal anatomical feature in your body. In fact, nerves are absolutely necessary for your survival.

Other sources claim that fibromyalgia is caused by overactive nerves, or by depression. Many people diagnosed with the condition are given a prescription for anti-depressants. Diagnosing fibromyalgia is tricky and vague. If you complain of pain “all over,” and if you have several specific “trigger points” (these are small spasms in the muscle), then you have fibromyalgia. The cause is uncertain in the medical community. From my own clinical experience, patients who have this condition almost always have other conditions, and are often depressed. I know for sure that mental depression will almost always manifest in physical pain, just like physical pain can cause mental depression. 

Chiropractic care and a natural, holistic mindset can help the symptoms of fibromyalgia. The most difficult part of the healing process is breaking the cycle. It hurts to move, exercise, walk, take care of your family…but do it anyway. Force yourself to conquer your own pain, and you will gain self esteem and self motivation. Whose body is it, anyway? 

Chiropractic adjustments can also give a measure of relief. Wait, some might ask, isn’t chiropractic all about the bones of the spine? If you have been reading my columns regularly, you’ll be able to understand why chiropractic can help fibromyalgia, even though it is a condition that shows up as muscle pain. A sensitized nervous system is a subluxated nervous system. Subluxation happens when one or more bones of the spine misalign slightly and stop moving properly, causing irritation, swelling, and pain around the joint and in the muscles. The disruptive symptoms do not have to be right at the site of the subluxation. Nerve roots branch from the spinal cord and travel to every body part, down to your toe nails and hair follicles. Even your internal organs take their instruction from the nervous system. 

Imagine someone poking and prodding you all day. After a while you would be irritated. It might hurt at the site of the poking. Your temper might be short. You might lash out at that person, or at someone unrelated to the situation. Think about symptoms of fibromyalgia in this way; your body is letting you know that something is not right with it. Getting to the root of the problem with chiropractic care and other life changes will help.

Get Rid of Stress, Get Rid of Pain

Imagine this conversation in my adjusting room: “Doc, what is causing me to feel this pain?” “According to your health history and my exam, I’d say stress is causing your body to react this way.” “Stress…is that all?”

This is a conversation I have on a weekly basis. What many people fail to realize is that stress is a major factor in how your mind and body react to disease, pain, personal relationships, even your ability to reason through a situation. There are times when stress is a fantastic motivator. Marathon runners, stock traders (the Wall Street kind, not the kind that hears “moo” all day,) even college students all perform wonders when the stress of competition and survival is bearing down on them like a semi-truck. There is a breaking point, though, and if you follow those who thrive on stress, you’ll find that Wall-Street traders have a high rate of heart attacks, marathon runners have bodies that break down in middle age, and even college students—those kids stuck between childhood and the real world—have a high rate of sickness in the week after exams. The fact is that an excess of stress breaks us down.

Stress comes in all kinds of categories, but for our purposes please realize that your mind and body cannot be separated. Here is the main point that I try to drive home for every stressed-out patient that I adjust: physical pain is a manifestation of mental stress, and mental stress is absolutely tangled up in physical pain. I have seen people who, by all counts, should be laid up in bed with crippling pain. I know men who have broken their vertebrae multiple times, and women who naturally give birth with no medical intervention. I have observed these people enduring and living their lives with full function, because (and here is the crux) they deal with their stress! They do not ignore their stress or their symptoms. They take the time to understand their situation, instead of using avoidance techniques to run away from the situation. People who have a loving, nurturing home life and a strong sense of will come through physically painful situations with success. Notice I didn’t say “with ease.” Dealing with stressful situations is not easy.

For the record, I am a holistic, natural doctor, and I consider popping pain pills on a daily basis to be an avoidance tactic. Slapping duct tape over the “check engine” light will help you forget it’s there, but it won’t help you fix the problem. Pain pills are just duct tape for your nervous system. Getting chiropractic adjustments can help you break the stress-pain cycle. Realigning your spine to get your nervous system fully functioning is a healthy step toward recovering. If you are having a hard time getting through a sickness, ask yourself this question: what, in your life, is causing you to hang on to your stress?