Natural Treatment for Fibromyalgia in Torrance

Written by Dr. Brad Barez, CCSP, QME, IDE.

Looking for pain relief from fibromyalgia in Torrance? Contact Back to Healthcare Chiropractic today to find out how they can help you get the relief you need.

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What is Fibromyalgia in Torrance?

For many years, fibromyalgia was a very confusing diagnosis. Most Doctors would excuse this condition as a mentally/emotionally sick patient. Yes, these patients have mental and emotional stress, but it is due to the fact that the problem is not being resolved. In addition, medical doctors did not know how to classify these chronic pain patients, so they put them into the arthritic category. Today, medicine has recognized these patients, but the treatment for the cause is far from being corrected.

According to the National Institute of Arthritis, Musculoskeletal, and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), around five million aged 18 years or over in the United States experience fibromyalgia, and 80 to 90 percent of fibromyalgia patients are women.

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What are the Symptoms of Fibromyalgia?

Below are some of the symptoms associated with fibromyalgia:

• arms/hands and possible leg/feet numbness
• chronic fatigue
• Crohn’s Disease
• difficulties with memory and concentration, known as “brain-fog”
• dizziness
• headaches
• irregular sleep patterns, insomnia
• irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
• jaw pain and stiffness
• pain and tiredness in the facial muscles and adjacent fibrous tissues
• painful menstrual periods
• sensitivity to cold or heat
• stiff joints and muscles in the morning
• tingling and numbness in the hands and feet
• widespread pain

The following are also possible:

• breathing problems
• chest symptoms
• cold or flu-like symptoms
• dizziness
• nausea
• pelvic and urinary problems
• problems with vision
• skin problems
• weight gain

Symptoms can appear at any time during a person’s life, but they are most commonly reported around 25-45 years of age.

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The Cause of Fibromyalgia:

Most doctors today will drum straight to treatment for the multitudes of symptoms of fibromyalgia. In Western medicine today, most doctors are not treating the causes of symptoms rather treating the symptoms themselves. This problem has been going on for decades in America. A patient with fibromyalgia is in chronic pain and usually is seen by a variety of doctors. It is very important to understand what really causes fibromyalgia. The word fibro means fiber and the word myalgia means painful muscle. Fibromyalgia is classified as painful muscle fibers. The cause of these painful muscles needs to be unfolded.

First, let us understand, when you have pain, enough pressure needs to build on a sensory nerve to elicit a symptom. In the muscle fibers, this is tight or hypertonic muscles and fascia compressing directly on the muscle fibers. Most doctors will stop here and just treat the tight muscles with muscle relaxants and inflammatory drugs. However, there is a much larger cause. When these muscles get tight and cause the joints compress causing vertebral subluxations in various levels of the spine. It is as if someone is turning off the breaker circuits to the body.

Therefore, the question is what came first the vertebral subluxation complex or the tight muscle fibers. The answer is nervous system stress. When the nervous system is stressed physically, chemically/nutritionally, this will lead to emotional stress. We call this the trifecta in our office.

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There are three types of stress that affect the nervous system.

• Emotional Stress: The first type of stress is emotional stress. We are all way too familiar with the emotional stresses of life. Stress affects the neuro-emotional hormones in our brain. The three large stress hormones are epinephrine, norepinephrine, and cortisol. When stress is encountered in our lives, these hormones run rampant in our nervous system causing headaches, and many other symptoms.
• Chemical: The next stress on the nervous system is chemical. Chemical stress can be caused by the hundreds and even thousands of chemicals that invade our lives. These chemicals can come through our foods, liquids, and even the air we breathe. One of the largest toxins in our nervous system is sugar. This chemical stress in the body causes the nervous system to work too hard and even overload, therefore causing headaches.
• Physical Stress: The last form of stress on the nervous system is physical stress. Today, this is a very common cause of headaches. When the nervous system is interfered with, the brain’s stress hormones are set off to high levels.

One of the most common causes of physical stress on the nervous system is direct pressure on the spinal nerves, spinal cord, and even the brain. The most common physical interference or compression of nerves is called a subluxation complex. The subluxation complex is a physical compression of the spinal nerves, compressing either efferent or afferent nerves, therefore decreasing the mental impulse to the brain or the tissue cells. With the subluxation complex, patients may experience with or without symptoms.

Usually, the subluxation complex is caused when the vertebra in the spine compresses directly on the nerves, or the misaligned/ subluxated vertebra is causing the intervertebral disc to compress the nerve fibers that are controlling the body's normal function. When this vertebral subluxation complex happens the same chemical stress hormones in the brain are released causing a variety of symptoms over time.

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Forms of Treatment for Fibromyalgia:

Treatment may include some or all of the following:

• chiropractic care
• exercise program
• acupuncture
• psychotherapy
• massage therapy
• physical therapy
• low-dose anti-depressants, anti-inflammatory, and pain killers

People with fibromyalgia need to work with their doctor to determine a treatment plan that provides the best results.

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The Hidden Danger of Fibromyalgia Pain Treatment:

When we see a patient who has Fibromyalgia symptoms, they have already been misdiagnosed and are spiraling downward in their health. Some of the misdiagnosed conditions are Multiple Sclerosis, Lupus, and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. We have had patients with over 200 subjective symptoms. The scary thing is that many of these patients are taking multiple types of drugs for their multitudes of symptoms. It is very important to know what is causing the symptoms rather than just treating the symptoms themselves.

Most people know when a sensory nerve is compressed beyond their pain threshold because they will feel symptoms. When spinal nerves are compressed, most of the compression of these nerves control “autonomic function.” For example, when patients compress one or more of the spinal nerves in the lower spine, immediately this shuts down function to the organs such as the reproductive organs, bladder, and prostate of a male. Patients may or may not ever feel the effects of these organs functioning less until it is too late.

The danger of treating fibromyalgia pain with pain medication is that the inhibition of these nerves is dangerous to the body. When a spinal nerve is compressed physically, the solution should be to physically decompress these nerves. Medications inhibit the spinal nerves, therefore allowing a patient to feel better, but the problem remains the same and will get worse over time. The real solution is to physically decompress these nerves as much as the body will allow. This will not only make patients feel better but will restore normal function back to the body.

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The Best Treatment Solution for Treating Fibromyalgia:

When treating Fibromyalgia it is important to know that there is more than one nervous system stress or interference going on at the same time. We use a three-phase approach to treating fibromyalgia. First, we do a complete nutritional analysis, or as we call it, foundational nutritional testing analysis of your diet to see if your system is malfunctioning nutritionally. Then we help you clean up your diet.

This process is all done by the patient when they have the knowledge to make needed changes. Next, we detect where the physical stress from vertebral subluxation is in the body. When treating vertebral subluxation at our office we are gently decompressing nerves using Chiropractic Adjustments, but also working with proprietary physiotherapy techniques and functional stretching techniques that help the nervous system heal.

We know when we remove these physical and chemical stresses from the body, a patient can emotionally cope with the stress of life better. Since 1994, our office has treated hundreds of patients with fibromyalgia with great success. Some patients completely gave up in life, as fibromyalgia can do to patients.

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The New Patient Offer

To see if we can help you, use the new patient offer in the link provided. This new patient offer is made for patients that are unsure if we can help them get well and stay well. Most patients with insurance use this offer due to the high deductibles and limitations they have with their insurance plans. If you do have insurance, we will complimentarily verify your benefits for you. However, if your insurance does not cover our care, we will make getting healthy affordable to you. Hope to see you soon.