therapy help fibromyalgia

Due to the recent research done on fibromyalgia syndrome, fibromyalgia relief centers have begun springing up around the country to help millions of fibromyalgia patients deal with the syndrome.

It used to be though that fibromyalgia was only experienced by a few hysteric women. It was dismissed as a psychological disorder and the biological effects of the syndrome were not attended to, leaving the women to suffer in silence and in pain. In recent years, research has found that men, children and the elderly are also affected by fibromyalgia.

Fibromyalgia symptoms are not the same in any fibromyalgia patient, although there are some patterns and basic symptoms that commonly need relief. Pain is the over-riding symptom of all fibromyalgia patients, and is the symptom that fibromyalgia relief centers tend to focus on, thus allowing patients to resume their normal lives again. Fibromyalgia relief handbooks also give patients information on viable treatments and support groups that might help them in managing the symptoms of the incurable syndrome.

Variety of Patients, Variety of Treatments

Fibromyalgia relief centers focus strictly on the diagnosis and treatment of fibromyalgia. Many of these centers focus on psychological or chiropractic treatment of the syndrome, both of which have been proven effective for many fibromyalgia patients.

The benefit of going to such a center is that they are indeed specialists in the syndrome. Family doctors often misdiagnose fibromyalgia since they are not familiar with the syndrome and the fact that fibromyalgia mimics so many other diseases and illnesses in its variety of symptoms. For instance, fibromyalgia patients may feel fatigued, muscle weakness and nausea in addition to the widespread pain in their muscles. These symptoms mimic common flu symptoms and may be treated as such by the physician. Fibromyalgia symptoms also change on a daily basis, again making it a difficult syndrome to diagnose.

Fortunately, today fibromyalgia relief centers can use a more formal test to determine if an individual is suffering from the syndrome. The first test is whether the patient is experiencing pain in all four quadrants of the body. If this is the case, then the physician moves to the second test, which is the eighteen tender points of the body. A patient is determined to have fibromyalgia if she has eleven of the eighteen tender points. There are also some centers that use a chiropractic determination, doing an adjustment of the C-1 vertebrae. If the patient either worsens or is relieved of the symptoms of fibromyalgia, they are determined to have the syndrome and are given treatment.