Is massage therapy good for fibromyalgia?

Fibromyalgia comes with a myriad of debilitating symptoms for which, so far the medical community has found no cure. The main symptom of fibromyalgia is mild to severe pain that may be characterized as burning, deep, shooting or an unrelenting ache. For some, pain improves during the day and worsens at night, and for others, the pain remains at all times.

Sufferers of this disease often experience accompanying symptoms such as fatigue, cognitive issues, unrefreshing sleep, headaches, depression, and anxiety. While improvement can be found through prescription pain medicine, the accompanying side-effects of such chemicals often cause more suffering to the fibromyalgia patient.

Massage therapy has been shown to benefits fibromyalgia sufferers in many ways over and above what traditional medicine can do. A few of these ways include:

• Improved sleep through relaxation - Evening massage therapy sessions provide the patient with better sleep quality, which helps the body utilize its natural resources to repair and rejuvenate more efficiently.
• Improved muscle tone - Massage helps aid and tone lethargic muscles and restores strength and vitality to your body.
• Improved mental clarity - Relaxation through regular massage therapy sessions raises healthy awareness and relieves mental stress. Cognitive issues begin to improve in the very first session.
• Headache relief - by increasing healthy blood flow to your brain, massage therapy relieves the physical source of your headaches and helps your mind stay in a healthier space.
• Diminished anxiety and depression - anxiety and depression can be contributed to many factors including fluctuations in hormones, interference in appetite and constant fight or flight mode. Massage restores homeostasis in your body, thereby helping diminish the effects of anxiety and depression.
• Empathy and massage - fibromyalgia patients often discover that real compassion and support are difficult to find from practitioners and even friends and family who do not take the condition seriously. A good massage therapist treats each client with empathy and respect, holding the client’s feelings in high regard and without judgment, empathy alone offers the greatest impact and produces the most favorable treatment results.