Helping Fibromyalgia with Active Release Techniques, Chiropractic & Manual Therapy Part 1

A multi-disciplinary approach to the puzzling and frustrating condition of fibromyalgia can be the best approach to take for both the patient with fibromyalgia and the treating health care providers.  Many patients naturally go down a path seeing multiple health care providers that specialize in conventional medicine and more "natural healers" that offer complimentary care.  In some circumstances the conventional medical approach is not helpful enough, and improved health and function starts to happen when the patient with fibromyalgia beings utilizing natural approaches.  Thus the natural healer is no longer considered ‘complementary’; they are now the patient’s primary resources for help.

When I first entered practice and moved from understanding fibromyalgia as it was written up in text books and journals to what fibromyalgia patients presented with, I was dumbfounded as to how misunderstood fibromyalgia is in academia.  The old thought of fibromyalgia was still very prevalent in my academic setting.  To summarize the general thought then, fibromyalgia was more or less a fictitious condition that a collection of weak, unmotivated, and emotionally unstable people created in their own heads.  It earned equal respect from many health care providers, as chronic fatigue syndrome did.  We were lead by the majority of our professors to believe that there was little that we could accomplish with "the fibromyalgia patient".

Fibromyalgia, or fibrous muscle pain when translated from medical terminology, is a pretty accurate name for the condition considering the symptoms experienced by those who have it.  On examination, it is easy to feel with your hands where the patient's ‘hot spots’ are because they’re extremely knotted up and tight.  The patient usually confirms where they are by withdrawing and responding to the pain they receive when these spots are touched.  The more I see fibromyalgia the more I wonder how the providers that discount the level of empathy miss the patient’s "hot spots" or cannot feel them with their hands.

Initially in practice, I thought that massage therapy would be the best treatment for fibromyalgia.  I was seeing patients with diffuse muscle pain accompanied by stress and fatigue.  It seemed like relaxation massage from head to toe would make the person feel wonderful.  My recommendations for massage, however, were usually volleyed back with a, “no way” or “that hurts”.  I soon learned that too thorough massage and keeping a patient with FMS stay in one position for too long creates more tension on hot spots and often aggrevates their condition. 

I imagined there had to be the right balance between treating the patient’s hot spots without causing more trouble for them before they presented.  Personally, I didn’t achieve satisfactory results until I had thoroughly studied Active Release Techniques® (ART).  ART is a patented soft tissue treatment for muscles, tendons, ligaments and nerves that has achieved a good reputation for muscle and joint injuries and conditions.  ART has also been poorly generalized as a technique that only achieves results when it is painful.  Sadly, that is not the truth.  The founder of ART and his most experienced teachers stress ART treatments are only painful when they’re not applied correctly.  With experience and the ability to adapt their tension and pressure, ART providers can drastically help patients with fibromyalgia.  ART helps reduce the stress in the patient’s muscles comfortably, without aggravating hot spots.

More to come on these subjects in the near future.  If you have any questions, please contact me! 

Bryce E Christianson, DC & certified ART provider