When you live with fibromyalgia (or fibro), there are good days and bad, and this roller coaster ride can be frustrating, to say the least. Just when you can string together a few good days, your fibro flares, reminding you that this condition constantly lurks in the background.
There are around 4 million Americans who are living with fibromyalgia, and the condition tends to favor females — fibro is diagnosed in twice as many women as men.
No matter your gender, fibromyalgia flare-ups are wreaking havoc on your quality of life, and you want solutions. To help, our team of board-certified pain management specialists at Pain Medicine Consultants wants to present four effective strategies that can help take the teeth out of your fibro.
When a condition is characterized by widespread musculoskeletal pain and a heightened sensitivity to pain, you know that pain is the chief complaint with fibro.
As a pain management practice, we know our way around addressing tough pain, and we have a complete arsenal at your disposal. For fibromyalgia, some of the frontline medications include:
The list goes on, but our point here is that there are many options for dealing with the uncomfortable side effects of fibromyalgia using pharmacological solutions.
We know that exercising is often the last thing you feel like doing when you have fibromyalgia, but it’s one of the most effective strategies for combating this condition.
We’re not talking about going out for a long run, but gentle exercise that gets your body moving, such as walking, yoga, and swimming. This last one is especially nice as the water takes the weight off of your joints and allows you to exercise more freely.
You can start slowly — just a few minutes a day — and work up to at least 30 minutes of daily exercise, which can alleviate pain by reducing inflammation, improve sleep, and elevate your mood.
Have you ever wondered why fibro tends to flare at the worst times? That’s largely because the condition responds to stress, like many other health conditions.
So to prevent flare-ups, it’s an excellent practice to relieve stress in your life. The aforementioned exercise will help in that regard, as will:
Whatever works to calm your mind, you should make it a daily practice.
Lastly, talking through your fibro experiences with a therapist can be very helpful. Through psychotherapy, you can learn some behavioral techniques that will remove pain from the center of your attention.
When people say that the pain is in your head, they’re absolutely correct — all pain is — so working on improving your thought patterns can help you better weather fibro flare-ups.
To come up with a more detailed and tailored plan for managing your fibromyalgia, please contact us at one of our offices in Pleasant Hill, Corte Madera, or Pleasanton, California, to schedule an appointment today.
