Monday, February 27, 2012

Does depression make fibromyalgia and chronic immune dysfunction symptoms worse?

Dealing with inadequate pain control, medication trials, exhaustion, fatigue, health care providers, family, friends, coworkers, self-esteem, stress, and medical and legal red tape, can lead to depression or anxiety.

We know that central nervous system chemical messengers are hijacked somewhere along the body’s information highway. Because neurotransmitter regulation is imperative to homeostasis (well-being) in the body, feelings of despair can have an effect.

Excerpt, Chapter 5 The Power of Mind, Body, and Spirit©

Every day you should spend all your available energy pennies, but not one more. One extra penny of effort today will cost the FM, CFID, CMP person a dollar tomorrow. Not smart! Make daily deposits in your well-being bank.

If you are not consistent at assessing your abilities, you can easily bankrupt your account…you need to do a balancing act with your unconscious process of self-accommodation and deceit, the permission we give ourselves to loaf, stall, or non-perform. This tendency to give up prematurely, surrender to dread, to drop our own ball at the first sign of difficulty is universal. That’s right, universal. Everyone knows the decision to let the Frisbee pass without diving to try to catch it…..
All blogs, posts and answers are based on the work in Integrative Therapies for Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and Myofascial Pain: The Mind-Body Connection by Celeste Cooper, RN, and Jeff Miller, PhD. 2010, Vermont: Healing Arts press and are not meant to replace medical advice. www.thesethree.com

Author of Chapter Five, Living with and Coping Effectively Through Fibromyalgia: Detecting Barriers, Understanding the Clues, in Fibromyalgia Insider Secrets: 10 Top Experts, 2nd Ed. Ebook complies by Deirdre Rawlings, ND, PhD

Thursday, February 16, 2012

What and Why: The role of complimentary therapies for improving fibromyalgia symptoms

Fibromyalgia is a centralization disorder, which means it begins in the central nervous system which has become easily over stimulated. We also know from many studies that what we think does affect the way our brain processes information. There are many good techniques that teach you how to calm our mind, and thereby lower blood pressure, heart rate, and the release of cortisol. Also important is addressing myofascial pain syndrome (AKA chronic myofascial pain) which is now known to be a common comorbid condition.

Addressing centralization, changing the way the brain thinks.

Anyone who has practiced biofeedback understands how our thoughts have the ability to change the way our body reacts. Because cortisol is already altered in FM, stressful emotional, mental, spiritual, or even physical events put us at higher risk for an upset in cellular metabolism putting micro-healing in jeopardy.

Mindfulness, creative visualization, guided meditation, biofeedback, Qi Gong, Yoga, and T’ai Chi (discussed in length in Chapter 5 of our book “The Power of Mind, Body, and Spirit”) are all good ways of learning how to turn down the volume on your stress meter. Identify known stressors and try to particularly avoid them when you are having a flare in symptoms.

The role of the myofascial and what can be done about it

If you have MPS/CMP, and most FM patients do, you have knotted up pieces of muscle fiber that shorten the muscle, radiate pain and cause dysfunction of the muscle. The only thing that will treat a myofascial trigger point (MTP) is direct stimulation. Bodywork in the form of MTP injections, specific MTP pressure therapy, active release therapy, and myofascial release are indicated. Some find TEN’s units effective in blocking the pain impulse from these significant peripheral pain stimulators.

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This blog is based on the question “What alternative therapies help with physical symptoms of fibromyalgia?” Visit my profile as expert, where you will find answers to many questions.

All blogs, posts and answers are based on the work in Integrative Therapies for Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and Myofascial Pain: The Mind-Body Connection by Celeste Cooper, RN, and Jeff Miller, PhD. 2010, Vermont: Healing Arts press and are not meant to replace medical advice. http://www.thesethree.com

Author of Chapter Five, Living with and Coping Effectively Through Fibromyalgia: Detecting Barriers, Understanding the Clues, in Fibromyalgia Insider Secrets: 10 Top Experts, 2nd Ed. Ebook complied by Deirdre Rawlings, ND, PhD

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Chiropractic and massage therapy in treating fibromyalgia

Prevalent in fibromyalgia is the comorbid condition myofascial pain syndrome (AKA chronic myofascial pain). If you have these knotted up pieces of muscle fiber that shorten the muscle, radiate pain and cause dysfunction, bodywork is indicated. These myofascial trigger points are called “neurological imitators” and help explain why so many fibromyalgia patients have neuropathies.

Soft tissue chiropractic therapies, such as active release therapy, are helpful in releasing myofascial trigger points, as does specific myofascial trigger point pressure therapy by someone trained in the work of Travell and Simons, see National Association of Myofascial Trigger Point Therapists.

The goal of treatment is to release myofascial trigger points, which restores the muscle to its normal resting length and restore joint function. This helps decrease painful stimulus that keeps the brain of the fibromyalgia patient in a phenomenon called wind-up.

All blogs, posts and answers are based on the work in Integrative Therapies for Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and Myofascial Pain: The Mind-Body Connection by Celeste Cooper, RN, and Jeff Miller, PhD. 2010, Vermont: Healing Arts press and are not meant to replace medical advice. www.thesethree.com

Author of Chapter Five, Living with and Coping Effectively Through Fibromyalgia: Detecting Barriers, Understanding the Clues, in Fibromyalgia Insider Secrets: 10 Top Experts, 2nd Ed. Ebook complied by Deirdre Rawlings, ND, PhD

Friday, February 3, 2012

Where do those dust bunnies come from? Brainfog in FM and CFID at its worst and best

Cognitive dysfunction, brain fog, is common in fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue immunodysfunction. It could be due to the centralization of pain found in FM or CFID (ME/CFS) or it could be due to one of the comorbid conditions such as, insulin resistance, reactive hypoglycemia, hypothyroidism, other hypometabolism, poor sleep regulation, or some type of organic brain syndrome. It is important that you discuss all of your symptoms with your doctor so that any comorbid condition can be ruled in or out and be appropriately treated.

I know only too well how frustrating brainfog can be, losing words midsentence, transposing words and numbers. I cannot be trusted to write down a phone number for instance. Short term memory loss can be affected too, and at a greater degree than that of your friends who say, “Oh, I do that too.” In fact, they probably do that too, but not EVERY time they walk into a room, look around, and wonder what they are doing there, if they do, I suggest they too have the above mentioned conditions investigated. Comments like this makes us want to ask them how many times they have driven to their doctor only to be lost in a parking lot, not having a clue as to where they are or how to get to a place they have been many times before, then wondering if someone will want to take their license away if we share that information. (I do suggest that if you are in a flare, have someone else drive if at all possible. Asking for help is ok.) Frustrating seems a simple word to describe this dilemma that has robbed many of us from our livelihood.

We have tried about every supplement available to regain our cognition, and that can be a dangerous thing too, because many interfere with other medications we take.

There is no cure for brain fog, but it is important to understand there could be underlying conditions contributing to this unwanted side effect. There are helpful tools, which we discuss in our book. Being organized and learning to manage time can be very helpful. Will these tips broom away the dust bunnies? Probably not, but they will help with the frustration that is created as a result. Deep breathes, and try to treat yourself with loving care, understanding that your brain is trying to function, despite the road blocks getting in its way. It is chugging along, and we should too. Try to turn the experience into something positive. I am certain if we wrote down each episode, we could put together a really good comedy book.

Things always look brighter when we can look back on it and laugh.

Healing, harmony and hope, Celeste, RN, author, FM expert at Sharecare.com


All blogs, posts and answers are based on the work in Integrative Therapies for Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and Myofascial Pain: The Mind-Body Connection by Celeste Cooper, RN, and Jeff Miller, PhD. 2010, Vermont: Healing Arts press and are not meant to replace medical advice. http://www.thesethree.com

Author of Chapter Five, Living with and Coping Effectively Through Fibromyalgia: Detecting Barriers, Understanding the Clues, in Fibromyalgia Insider Secrets: 10 Top Experts, 2nd Ed. Ebook complied by Deirdre Rawlings, ND, PhD

Celeste's Website

Celeste's Website
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