Alternative Treatments for Fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia is a disease long misunderstood and in fact, its symptoms were discounted and dismissed for years as a product of the patients' imagination, or hypochondria. The disease was not named until 1976, although the symptoms of fibromyalgia have been chronicled since Biblical times. The symptoms include an increased sensitivity to pain and touch, generalized muscle and nerve pain, body aches, fatigue, depression, sleeplessness, dizziness, numbing, headaches, sensitivity to light and sound, memory lapses, and sometimes even irritable bowel syndrome. Fibromyalgia patients do not always report all of the same symptoms, and will report them to greater and lesser degrees.

Medical science still has discovered no one proven cause for fibromyalgia. Many potential factors have been cited as possible reasons for this disease. These factors have included a weakened immune system, toxic buildup in muscle tissue, food allergies, nutritional imbalance, chemical imbalance in the brain, low serotonin levels, repetitive stress injuries, whiplash injuries, or viral infection. Some theories promote a conclusion of genetic defect.

A person suffering with fibromyalgia faces a life of often debilitating or disabling pain and discomfort. While the disease is not terminal, it is definitely life-altering. Fibromyalgia quite often affects its victim mentally as well as physically, especially when considering how difficult it is to diagnose. There is no test for it, so it simply has to be diagnosed through ruling out all other possible illness.

Because there is not yet a definitive cited cause for fibromyalgia, there is no cure and treatments for it vary widely.

Conventional medicine has had a tough time with treating fibromyalgia. Physicians commonly prescribe antidepressants and pain medications, as well as muscle relaxants, anti-inflammatory medicines, and sleep aids.

Alternative medicine must approach fibromyalgia by treating the individual symptoms as well.