Thursday, April 22, 2010

Five Tips To Support Your Loved Ones With Fibromyalgia

Living with Fibromyalgia can be debilitating both physically and emotionally. Most of us are living in pain without a real clear solution to pain relief. Fibromyalgia is an overactive nervous system. The pain is often described as achy or flu-like. Imagine that achy feeling you experience when you hit your funny bone, except it is throughout the entire body. On top of that your muscles are tight and pulling. Your muscle fibers are throbbing. You experience headaches, low back pain, sciatica, repetitive motion type pain, IBS, fatigue, insomnia and fogginess.

And on top of it our loved ones either watch on helplessly or do not believe the pain is real.

Believe they are in pain. People with Fibromyalgia feel unsupported, misunderstood, lost and frustrated.

Develop an action plan of how you can support them day-to-day to help avoid flare-ups and another action plan of how to support them during a flare-up.

When they are in a flare-up immediately implement the action plan or ask what you can do to help them be more comfortable and do it. This is not the time to problem solve why they are in a flare-up. Asking them if they didn't exercise or if they were stressed is not supportive at this time and it is blaming. It is not their fault. They are in pain and want to be in less pain as soon as possible. If you had slammed your hand in a car door, most of us would want bandages and ice, not an assessment as to what we did to slam our hand in the car door.

Learn as much as possible on Fibromyalgia - read information on the internet, attend support groups, participate in online forums and Facebook groups on Fibromyalgia.

Make the lifestyle habits to decrease Fibromyalgia pain a lifestyle for the entire family. Fibromyalgia is managed through exercise, nutrition, stress management, massage, good sleeping habits and some medications.

Lisa Meloche is president of Bodywork Alternatives Massage Therapy and Founder of the FibroMasters program which includes coaching programs and self-help DVD's and books such as the Fibromyalgia Self-Massage and Stretch DVD.

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

The Fibromyalgia Body and Pain Cycle

So many times I've heard the description of the pain of Fibromyalgia to be similar to the flu. I've always thought the pain was more similar to the dull pain radiating down your arm after you hit your funny bone (which is actually a nerve) and that pain makes sense since Fibromyalgia is an overactive nervous system.

On top of that pain, our muscles are full of trigger points and our fascia is tight providing an additional layer of pain. We also have IBS, severe menstrual cycles, thyroid issues, etc. Stress creates additional irritation to the nerves, which tightens muslces and fascia resulting in more pain. In addition, we research about what we can do to reduce our pain and try new things only to find that flares up our pain further. We start thinking that doesn't help either.

This what I call the Fibromyalgia Pain Cycle which is a cyclical effect of being in pain, the pain creates additional stress creating more pain, we start to make lifestyle changes which sometimes results in more pain.

I've found the best way to master our Fibromyalgia pain is to slowly incorporate all changes into my life. Including an exercise program including stretching, walking and weight training. In addition to make nutritional changes so we eat less sugar and white flour and more proteins. And most importantly to ensure I receive a good night's sleep, practice stress management, and to become more in tune with my body so I know what my body needs to master my Fibromyalgia pain through the management techniques that work for me.