How Fibromyalgia and CRPS Patients Can Benefit from the Same Treatment Options

Fibromyalgia symptoms emerge in an individual for various reasons, some of which are still unknown to humanity.

Comparing fibromyalgia with Complex regional pain syndrome, we can see that CRPS starts in an individual before surgery or trauma.

Both fibromyalgia and CRPS share the exact mechanism as the brain responds to chronic pain in the body part. This pain is usually caused in an individual’s arms and leg regions. Sometimes, people also feel a hot or cold sensation with swelling.

In fibromyalgia pain, there are no external traces of the pain, making it difficult to diagnose the actual reason. Still, when it arises as a combination of fibromyalgia and CRPS, the symptoms are seen with the help of swelling. Other symptoms of CRPS are as follows:

  • Hypersensitivity is experienced when touching or during the cold condition
  • Continuous throbbing or burning pain experienced in individuals
  • Joints show swelling and stiffness
  • Nail and hair growth pattern is changed
  • Motor function is decreased, and disability occurs
  • The color of the skin is altered based on the changes in temperature

Causes and risk factors of CRPS

Causes and risk factors of CRPS

Producing the above symptoms, complex regional pain syndrome occurs in an individual due to various factors.

It can be a case when an individual is exposed to forceful trauma such as crush injury, fracture, or amputation to a limb, and CRPS occurs. Some of the other factors that can cause CRPS are as follows:

  • Surgery
  • Infections
  • Heart attacks
  • Emotional stress
  • Sprains
  • Cramps

Though all the same factors that induce CRPS are not yet identified, it is believed that the symptoms attack the nervous system creating dysfunction and inappropriate response.

Inflammation is also seen in some individuals. When the internal healing process in the body is disrupted, this can cause CRPS. The outcome can be warmth, swelling, and redness in the affected region.

Complex regional pain syndrome must be diagnosed and treated in the early stages with the help of a specialist.

This can create further complications in the body and lead to other dysfunction. The other risk facts include skin changes that occur when not appropriately treated.

There can also be cases where the person’s mobility is decreased, leading to disability.

The treatment should be started in the initial stages to get a good effect from the treatment.

Often in the later stages, the treatment for CRPS becomes difficult, and the healing procedure takes quite a lot of time.

CRPS is considered to be the first step for fibromyalgia symptoms. However, many similarities are observed between fibromyalgia treatment and CRPS treatment.

CRPS treatment and Fibromyalgia treatment

Many pain management treatments are available for CRPS and fibromyalgia in natural ways or with the help of medications.

To feel a good improvement in the pain and effects of fibromyalgia and CRPS, one can also choose therapies.

There are also many natural home-based remedies available to treat this condition.

However, suppose you are not finding any improvement in the natural methods that you are following to reduce the pain and symptoms. In that case, it is advisable to consult your doctor to get further medications. Some of the treating methods for CRPS are as follows:

Rehabilitative Yoga for fibromyalgia

Limb mobility therapy

For people with CRPS, gradual mobility of the affected part is decreased, causing disability. The limbs also become rigid, preventing movement. Some people find it very painful to move the affected part.

In such cases, limb mobility therapy involves creating a movement to the affected part that gradually helps in the condition of CRPS. This therapy can also be used in fibromyalgia patients.

Desensitization therapy

This therapy method relieves the affected part from the hypersensitivity exposed.

This can be due to a malfunctioning of the nervous system in the affected region creating hypersensitivity to touch or cold conditions.

This therapy uses a hot or cold application in the affected site to remove hypersensitivity. This will also give relief from the pain after good practice.

Neurostimulation therapy

This therapy is done for some specific cases and is not common for everyone with the problem of CRPS.

This treatment is done with the help of low-voltage electricity by safely delivering it for spinal cord stimulation.

The patients are first given a trial to see the condition of the pain relief they get.

If they get good pain relief from the therapy, they will be permanently implanted with a neurostimulator.

In many people, this has helped a lot in pain control, where the pain signals are replaced with the help of a soothing or tingling sensation.

acupuncture

Acupuncture

This is a natural way of treating problems with CRPS and fibromyalgia. In other words, this is also called Acupressure, where the pressure points in the body are treated with the help of wafer-thin needles.

This treatment usually gives no pain but helps heal painful conditions like CRPS or fibromyalgia. This is very popular in Asian countries.

Massage

This is one of the most common methods of treatment followed everywhere to treat body pain.

Though this is not considered a permanent solution for body pain, it is good against continuous pain syndromes.

It is also experienced that after a good massage, people get a good amount of sleep which helps them to be energetic the next day.

yoga for fibromyalgia

Rehabilitative Yoga

This type of Yoga is very effective for chronic pain symptoms usually experienced by CRPS and fibromyalgia patients.

With the help of Yoga, a parasympathetic system is activated, focusing on regulating the resting, healing, and digesting system in the body.

With a knowledgeable practitioner, anyone with chronic pain can start doing Yoga to get good relief.

If they are comfortable with basic Yoga, they can also advance to other forms that are usually difficult for beginners.

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4 Comments

  1. Fibromyalgia is such a painful ailment to have, I know a lot of people that suffer from it. I can attest to the benefits of massage as pain relief. Not only does it make you feel good at the time but it allows you to get a good nights sleep as well.

  2. When I was in Sri Lanka they have a lot of herbal medicines, some which are supposed to be good but pain. They called it ‘red oil’. I actually had a few people from Australia ask me to bring some red oil back for them because it worked as such as good pain relief. I’m not sure whether people suffering from fibromyalgia would find this oil helpful?

  3. Well, that’s great to see that massage therapy will work in those suffering from fibromyalgia….I was a massage therapist for about 10 years. Happy to know that I can still use that in my current job.

  4. The core problem with diagnosing fibromyalgia is that its symptoms are similar to a lot of conditions. Professionals still can’t accurately diagnose it. They have to eliminate other conditions. I have confidence that they will and soon now that it is recognized as an ailment. Treating it is a different story. Just like the common cold, you deal with the symptoms to make life bearable.

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