The Fibromyalgia – Upper Cervical Connection

More than 12 million Americans suffer from fibromyalgia, the second most common arthritis-related illness after osteoarthritis. Though so many people suffer from this debilitating condition, it is still heavily misunderstood and undiagnosed, primarily because there are no specific tests that can be conducted to determine if a person has it.

Those who have the condition frequently suffer from anxiety or depression, decreased pain threshold and tenderness, debilitating fatigue and widespread pain throughout the body. It is a frustrating, painful condition that can result in decreased sleep, an inability to concentrate and a general drop in quality of life.

Because diagnosing fibromyalgia is done through a test of exclusions, meaning medical doctors must rule out other conditions that can cause similar conditions, it can take months and even years to conclude what the problem is. And, even once a diagnosis is made, there is no cure or treatment that addresses all of the symptoms of fibromyalgia.

Due to the complexities of fibromyalgia, we have found that a lot of people who suffer from an array of symptoms including pain, tenderness and fatigue respond well to upper cervical chiropractic care. As a full-body wellness practice, upper cervical chiropractic is able to allow the body to treat its own symptoms with simple, frequent and pain-free adjustments, and because upper cervical chiropractors are not interested in diagnosing fibromyalgia per se, we don’t need long periods of time to run blood tests and laboratory screenings. Rather, we simply want to determine what the symptoms are, provide the appropriate adjustments and let our patients’ bodies heal themselves.

We aren’t interested in drawing out the painful process so many sufferers go through, and we find that we are able to help our patients in a more efficient and effective manner simply because of the laundry list of symptoms they have. The pain associated with this condition is widespread, and, in addition to the symptoms I noted above, people may suffer from chronic headaches, numbness or tingling in the hands and feet, painful menstrual cramps and stiffness. These symptoms occur all over the body, which means that when an upper cervical adjustment is made, the communication channels that lead everywhere from the head to the toes are opened and accessible to the body’s self-healing messages.

The body wants to naturally heal itself, and those suffering from fibromyalgia may find that gradually that numbness goes away and the joint stiffness begins to wane. Perhaps they don’t become as fatigued anymore, and their cramps and headaches slowly begin to diffuse over time. Sufferers may experience relief from one or two symptoms at first, but once the body reteaches itself how to send messages and begins to maintain alignment on its own, pain will decrease, movement will become easier and life before fibromyalgia can be resumed. And a happy and healthy life is what we as upper cervical chiropractors ultimately hope for in all of our patients.

REFERENCES

Levesque, Marc C., MD, PhD. What is Fibromyalgia? WebMD.com. (August 23, 2009) Retrieved April 28, 2011 from http://www.webmd.com/fibromyalgia/guide/what-is-fibromyalgia.