Fibromyalgia is characterized by chronic widespread pain and also a heightened and painful response to pressure. These symptoms are not restricted to pain and include debilitating fatigue, sleep disturbance, and joint stiffness some patients also reported difficulty swallowing, bowel and bladder abnormalities, numbness and tingling, and cognitive dysfunction. Not all people with fibromyalgia experience all associated symptoms.

Fibromyalgia is estimated to affect 3 to 6,000,000 people in the United States. It is linked to Lupis and chronic fatigue syndrome. You can think of these three conditions as laying on a continuum with fibromyalgia on one end, Lupus on the other and chronic fatigue syndrome in the middle.

Chiropractic care is critical for those suffer from fibromyalgia in order to keep the spine and muscles from losing too much movement because it causes the muscles to tighten up and lose some of their natural pliability, it results in a global loss of movement in the spine, which can lead to increased pain, increase muscle tightness, a loss of movement, more difficulty sleeping, and the development of more and more trigger points.

The only option is to continually adjust the spine and keep it moving. It is important when seeking chiropractic care to make sure that the doctor is familiar with the muscular changes that occur with fibromyalgia so that they can adjust their treatment accordingly.

Other things to consider for fibromyalgia include getting enough sleep, exercising, making changes at work, eating well, and taking nutritional supplements.