Fibromyalgia

Find Help Managing Your Pain

Do you suffer from pain throughout your body? Are you tired all the time? You may have fibromyalgia. We understand how debilitating it can be. But you don’t have to live in pain for the rest of your life. We believe one of the first steps in finding relief from fibromyalgia is understanding your pain.

What Is Fibromyalgia?

Fibromyalgia is a chronic condition that causes widespread pain throughout the body. People with fibromyalgia have abnormal pain perception processing, meaning they are more sensitive to pain than other people. Fibromyalgia affects about 2% of adults in the US, or about 4 million people.

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Fibromyalgia Symptoms

The main symptoms of fibromyalgia include:

Chronic, widespread pain throughout your body. It’s an aching, burning, or throbbing pain.
Fatigue, or an overwhelming tiredness.
Trouble sleeping.
Joint and muscle stiffness.
Exquisite tenderness to touch.
Tender points on the back of your head, neck, shoulders, elbows, knees, and hips.
Numbness and tingling in your arms and legs.
Digestive issues including bloating, diarrhea, and constipation.
Increased sensitivity to light, smells, temperature, and noise.
Problems with memory and concentration (sometimes called fibro fog).

You may experience all of these symptoms in one day, or a few at a time.

Fibromyalgia FAQs

Q: What causes fibromyalgia?

A: Unfortunately, the exact cause of fibromyalgia is unknown. But we can treat it and help you effectively manage the pain and fatigue. The National Fibromyalgia Association is a good resource for information on research, treatments, and other resources.

Q: Who gets fibromyalgia?

A: Anyone can get fibromyalgia, but it’s more common in women than it is in men. Children can also have fibromyalgia. Your chances of having it increase as you age. There are certain risk factors beyond being a woman. They include having:

Rheumatoid arthritis
Lupus
Osteoarthritis
Ankylosing spondylitis
Chronic back pain
Depression or anxiety
Endometriosis
Irritable bowel syndrome
A family member with fibromyalgia

Q: How is fibromyalgia diagnosed?

A: Because of the wide range of symptoms that mimic other conditions, fibromyalgia can be hard to diagnose. It will start with taking a health history and doing a physical exam. Your doctor may also order blood tests and x-rays or scans to rule everything else out.

If your doctor cannot find another cause for your symptoms, they will then use the fibromyalgia scoring system to determine if you have fibromyalgia. It asks questions about your widespread pain, duration of pain, and fatigue to confirm the suspicion of fibromyalgia.

Q: Is there a cure for fibromyalgia?

A: While there is no known cure for fibromyalgia, there are many ways to help reduce the pain and fatigue, and prevent flareups.

How Cima Health Can Help

Cima Health provides restorative, lifelong solutions that target your fibromyalgia pain. Your fibromyalgia treatment will start out with a comprehensive evaluation to assess your pain. We will also ask questions about your work and home life, lifestyle, and habits before making recommendations for an integrative plan of care. Together, we come up with alternative and non-invasive treatments that can help you achieve whole-body wellness and live a healthy life. Treating and preventing fibromyalgia pain involves several treatment modalities, all of which you can receive in one location. They include:

Let’s take a look at how each of these areas works together to provide you with natural pain relief and inspires you to make lifestyle changes to reduce fibromyalgia pain in the future.

Chiropractic Care

Chiropractic care for fibromyalgia has been shown to greatly reduce the pain you are feeling. Chiropractic adjustments and manual therapy can reduce the pain in your neck, shoulders, back, and legs. You should feel pain relief after your very first session. In addition to providing pain relief, chiropractic for fibromyalgia can help increase your range of motion and improve the quality of your sleep. You may also benefit from trigger point injections/dry needling. Dry needling can reduce pain, spasms, and the need to take medications. We evaluate patients on a case-by-case basis. Our Palm Beach Gardens chiropractors are all highly trained professionals and include:

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Working with fibromyalgia

The chronic pain and fatigue that come with fibromyalgia make it difficult for many people to work. Still others manage to continue to work full or part-time. If you wish to continue working, you’ll need to discuss your diagnosis and symptoms with your boss, and possibly coworkers, to let them know that you will have good days and bad days. Ask if you can take work home, or come in on a weekend to make up work you missed during the week. You can also ask for a cot in your office or a quiet room where you can take a nap during your lunch hour. And, if your work is conducive to it, consider working from a home office where you have the flexibility to take time off when you need it and work odd hours as needed.

Platelet-Rich Plasma Injections

Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) therapy is another treatment where we help your body heal itself. Using your own plasma, we can help reduce your fibromyalgia pain naturally. PRP therapy is supervised by our medical care doctor, and is an especially attractive fibromyalgia treatment option if you want to avoid prescription medications.

Physical Therapy (PT)

Physical therapy, when combined with other treatments can also help with fibromyalgia pain. We may use manual therapy, laser therapy, and other treatments to address your fibromyalgia pain. We will develop an exercise and stretching program tailored to your needs and abilities to help you get fibromyalgia pain relief as well as increase your range of motion and build strength. You will be able to do many of these exercises and stretches at home as part of fibromyalgia self-care as well as with your physical therapist at Cima Health.

Massage Therapy

Massage therapy is another modality we offer that can complement the other treatments. Targeted, therapeutic massage can reduce inflammation, pain, and stiffness. Reducing muscle tension through massage can be especially helpful for patients with fibromyalgia. And of course, massage will also relax you and improve your mental wellbeing.

Physical Fitness

The last component of reducing fibromyalgia pain is becoming physically fit. Our physical fitness team of personal trainers can help develop an exercise and weight loss regimen tailored to you. This will consist of strengthening, conditioning, and endurance exercises. We will start slowly to avoid injury, and help you gradually build your strength and endurance. Pilates may be part of your regimen to help you strengthen your core muscles that support your spine. You’ll feel better and sleep better as a result. The entire team at Cima Health works together to provide you with coordinated care and restorative, lifelong solutions.

See What Our Patients Have to Say

They've always gone above and beyond! The staff has always been so welcoming & everyone up to the Dr is very, very knowledgeable which is a comforting feeling. Corin S.

Book an Appointment

Fibromyalgia can make it hard to do simple things like walk down the stairs or take your dog for a walk. If you’re looking for a conservative treatment for knee pain, book an appointment today. One of our chiropractors will do a comprehensive examination to get to the root cause of your pain and develop an integrative plan of care to relieve your pain and inspire you to achieve whole-body wellness.