Womens Health Physical Therapy Alliance OH
Could Physical Therapy Provide Fibromyalgia Relief?
If you have fibromyalgia, simple movement may be the last thing you want to do. But simple movements through physical therapy may be just the right treatment for you. How does physical therapy provide fibromyalgia relief? The answer: With a hands-on approach to reduce fatigue, pain, stiffness and loss of strength that accompanies fibromyalgia. Fibromyalgia is a syndrome estimated to affect 5 million Americans (mostly women) with widespread aches and pains, fatigue, sleep difficulties, anxiety, and depression. Doctors don't know what causes fibromyalgia and there's currently no known cure. There are a variety of treatment options however that relieve patients' symptoms. Standard treatments include painkillers, antidepressants, cognitive-behavioral therapy, exercise and physical therapy. Physical therapy and exercise address the physical problems caused by fibromyalgia such as pain, fatigue, de-conditioning, muscle weakness, and sleep disturbances. Patrice Winter PTMS, physical therapist and spokesperson for the American Physical Therapy Association says, "Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) can be very debilitating. The fatigue associated with it varies from mild to overwhelming. Some patients can't get even out of bed. By the time many patients come to a physical therapist, they're often severely de-conditioned from lack of activity due and this compounds their fatigue." How can physical therapy relieve fibromyalgia? Physical therapists design individual treatment plans that use a variety of passive and active treatments. Passive treatments may include:
Active Treatment may include a variety of exercises to strengthen core (abdominal), back, arm and leg muscles and increase flexibility. Winter says, "Our best results come from addressing individual patients at the physical state they present in and working very gradually. We've seen a lot of success with developmental sequencing work, similar to the process a baby goes through in normal development.... rolling, crawling, balancing, sitting, standing. This helps reorganize the neurologic system to return it to more normal function. We address body pain and trigger points with soft tissue mobilization and manual stretching." Once patients have improved their... |
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