Helpful Information for People With Fibromyalgia: A Summary of the Talk at Generations

The fibromyalgia roundtable at Generations was a great event. I found out lots of helpful information from the other presenters, as well as from the attendees who shared their struggles and what has worked for them.

I am using the next few posts to summarize the information that I think could be helpful for people with fibromyalgia. Please share it with anyone who might benefit.

The first thing that all of the practitioners agreed on was how variable of an illness fibromyalgia can be. Chinese medicine, as with most holistic healing, focuses on treating each person as a unique individual. Patients with fibromyalgia especially need individualized treatment plans; although most have some combination of body pain, fatigue, and sleep disorders, the symptoms can vary in location and intensity. Even the same patient may get a different treatment from week to week, depending on his/her primary complaints.

Something else that we recognized is that there is no known cure for fibromyalgia. However, with the right kind of treatment and self-care, people with fibromyalgia may be able to reduce their symptoms to a very manageable level. In my practice, I find that my patients have more “good” days—days when the pain level is lower, energy level is higher, sleep is better, and they feel more like themselves—and “bad” days aren’t as bad as they used to be. As a result, quality of life is better.

I will write more about specific types of treatments and self-help techniques in the next post.

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