There is currently no known cure or remedy for fibromyalgia. However there are steps that you can take for better management of your disease. These steps are focused upon managing your pain, fatigue, depression, and other such common symptoms.

It is important to understand that since each person is unique, each person will respond differently to the fibromyalgia treatments that their specialists may prescribe. Both traditional medical and alternative or natural remedies are commonly prescribed by doctors for treating their patients with firomyalgia. Keep in mind that fibromyalgia treatment centers are mainly concerned with helping their patients limit their pain and stress while improving their sleep. This can be done in a combination of ways.

Medical Treatments

Medication fibromyalgia treatments include low dosages of medicines such as antidepressant drugs, pain medications, and anti-inflammatory drugs. Of course, none of these medications that is being used for fbromyalgia treatment was actually developed for this condition, nor were they approved by the FDA for the treatment of fibromyalgia.

The latest studies have shown that Human Growth Hormone (HGH) and Methylsulfonylmethane (MSM) levels are low in people with fibromyalgia. Therefore, some doctors and clinics have begun prescribing these supplements for their patients.

Alternative (or Natural) Treatments

Quite a few alternative remedies can be used for the treatment of fibromyalgia. These include such things as:

• An active exercise program can help with fibromyalgia treatment. However, many people who suffer from chronic pain tend to not want to exercise because they think that their pain will only increase. This does not have to be the case! A water based exercise program actually lowers the impact upon your joints while allowing you to do many of the same exercises that you would do outside of the water.
• Acupuncture has received varying opinions as to whether or not it is actually a beneficial ibromyalgia treatment. However, in 2005 a Mayo Clinic study did show that acupuncture significantly improves fibromyalgia symptoms, especially in the areas of pain, anxiety, and fatigue. Therefore, many specialists believe that acupuncture may actually be an extremely useful addition to fibromyalgia treatment efforts.
• Natural fibromyalgia treatment may also include massage and physical therapy. A physical therapist can design an exercise program that is manageable for a person who suffers from ifbromyalgia. Such a program may include yoga. Another fibromyalgia treatment that is offered by physical therapists is a “spray and stretch” treatment wherein the physical therapist sprays the sore region with ethyl chloride, anesthetizing the area before proceeding to stretch those muscles.
• Fibromyalgia treatment may also include supplements such as herbs and vitamins. If you choose to go this route, you must truly investigate what you are taking before starting your treatment. Above, we mentioned some positive results with HGH and MSM.
• Changes in your diet and nutrition are oftentimes also highly recommended in fibromyalgia treatment. However, it is important to understand that there have been no conclusive investigations in this area as of yet. Still, doctors often advise their patients to completely eliminate chocolate, carbonated beverages, coffee and alcohol from their diet. Other foods that it is advisable to avoid include high fat dairy foods, white sugar, white flour, fried foods, preservatives, junk food, salt, red meat (especially if it is “cured”), nutrasweet, and saccharine.
  

  More Water Therapy

  Many clinics strongly urge their patients who suffer from fibromyalgia to drink eight or more glasses of water per day. Other good choices are fresh juice and herbal teas. Drinking plenty of these things is important since they will help flush toxins out of your body. On the other hand, caffeine and carbonated drinks are to be avoided since they cause a loss of calcium and add to the stress levels of your adrenal glands and liver.

  More Help

  You can also find plenty of group support to help you live with ffibromyalgia. There are numerous forums (also known as message boards) and chat rooms where those who suffer from fibromyalgia meet to network and help one another live with this disease. The best way to find these is to go to your favorite Search Engine (e.g. Google) and type in “fibromyalgia forum” or “fibromyalgia message board.” You can also find chat rooms, by typing in “fibromyalgia chat room.” Look at the forum to see just how active it is. If the forum isn’t showing activity, find another forum to use instead.

  Good luck.

Today more and more doctors are diagnosing people with this disorder called fibromyalgia. However, nobody knows the true cause of fibromyalgia. There is no routine laboratory testing or any X-rays that can be used to reveal anything about this condition. For this reason, many doctors initially thought that the problems suffered by FMS patients were all “in their heads” or that patients who had ibromyalgia actually had a form of masked depression or hypochondria. These doctors then thought that they should run extensive psychological tests on their patients.

However, after years of research, doctors have learned that fibromyalgia is a real condition. Physicians have found they have to take a careful history in order to look at the many different signs that may indicate that a patient has fibromyalgia. The basic symptoms checklist for fibromyalgia include…

PAIN! A person with fbromyalgia has pain in the upper chest, neck, back, shoulders, joints or overall pain and achiness, which is similar to a bad case of flu. The pain is often described as burning or gnawing and feeling achy and stiff in the morning. In fact, some level of pain is constant, but its severity may vary from day to day.

The pain’s intensity may be increased by exercise, stress, poor sleep or bad weather. A person must have this feeling in at least eleven of eighteen points for a period of three or more months for the ifbromyalgia diagnosis to be made. This pain must also be located on both sides of the body, both above and below the waist.

Trigger Points

There is often a trigger point for the pain that a person with fibromyalgia suffers. This is a tender, painful place, which is sensitive to touch. These points are tender to palpation and they may feel somewhat hardened whenever that muscle is stroked. Frequently, pressure over this one area (you may have more than one area) will cause pain to radiate outwards, hence the term trigger point. In some people, a trigger point may form from an injury to the upper spine or a viral or bacterial infection.

Fatigue

A diagnosis of ffibromyalgia also includes fatigue, which fluctuates from moderate to severe and lasts for at least six months. This may be due to non-restorative or non-refreshing sleep because of either insomnia or multiple awakenings throughout the night. This means that you often wake up tired and un-refreshed even though you’ve seemingly gotten enough sleep. Therefore you have an extreme lack of energy. A person with fibromyalgia may also suffer from night sweats and drooling in their sleep.

Depression

The combination of pain and fatigue can lead to depression. It is not yet clear whether depression causes firomyalgia or if it is a consequence of it. Nevertheless, numerous people with fibromyalgia are clinically depressed at some point in time. This may turn into a major bout with depression at some point.

Weight Gain or Loss

Many people with fibromyalgia have a history of extreme weight gain or weight loss. This may be due to irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) which is yet another symptom of fibromyalgia. Irritable bowel syndrome is a gastrointestinal disorder of unknown cause. It consists of any of the following symptoms: diarrhea, gas pains, bloating, and constipation.

Of course, there are many more symptoms, which go hand-in-hand with this disease. Some of these other symptoms may include: a history of multiple ailments (i.e. hypoglycemia, seizures, headaches, migraines, toothaches, mouth ulcers, allergies, asthma, restless leg syndrome, muscle twitching, tendonitis, numbness, tingling or swelling in hands or feet, carpal tunnel syndrome); heightened sensitivity to odors, noises, bright lights, various foods and changes in weather; trouble concentrating; short-term memory problems; and problems with vision.

However, those symptoms that have been listed in detail above are the main points that your doctor will consider when diagnosing you with fibromyalgia. More symptoms are being discovered all of the time since doctors and specialists are still working to perfect what the definition of fibromyalgia should truly be. Nevertheless, if you feel that you may have this disability, you are encouraged to seek out more information from your doctor to help live with this disability.