Acupuncture, Massage, And Chiropractic For Fibromyalgia
By Brian B. Carter, MS, LAc, Thu Dec 8th

Q: Can accupuncture help with pain of fibromyalgia? About howmany treatments can it take to see results and is it helpedalong if you combine it with massage therapy and chiropracticcare? How do I find a reliable one in my area? Thank you, Debra

A: Thanks for the question, Debra.

There's just one 'c' in the spelling of acupuncture. I'm notsure where this double-c misspelling came from.

Acupressure & Tui Na The massage that acupressurists do may ormay not be Chinese medicine. If you ever go that route, checkinto how many years they were formally trained inacupuncture/meridian theory. The standard "real" massage ofChinese medicine is called Tui Na, which means "push and grasp."More about massage below.

Acupuncture & Chinese Medicine is just one therapyyou can get from Chinese medicine practitioners, who aregenerally called acupuncturists. “Acupuncturist” isn't a greatname, since most of us also are trained in Chinese herbalmedicine, cupping, moxibustion, food selection, lifestyleadvice, etc. All of these therapies are based on the Chinesemedical system.

Accurate Fibromyalgia (FM) Diagnosis I want to make sure you'vehad a doctor spend enough time with you to get you a proper FMdiagnosis according to the standardized criteria. Too manydoctors just toss this term around without using the criteria(which is unethical - imagine the negative emotional impact -worry, fear, etc. – that it has on patients!) Who knows how manypeople think they have it, when they really have something elseentirely? And so long as they try to treat the wrong thing,they'll use the wrong remedies, and whatever condition orproblem you do have will remain untreated. This is one reasonwhy I advocate seeing health professionals instead of self-care;misdiagnosis leads to the wrong treatment and perhaps evenfurther harm. Read about the criteria for the FM diagnosis here,and make sure they've been applied to your case. If theyhaven't, get a second opinion!

The Chinese Medicine Treatment of Fibromyalgia I will defer tothe experience of my wife, Dr. Lynda Harvey-Carter, since shehas helped hundreds of FM/CFS sufferers get better. Thatinformation is covered in this Q &A.

The upshot is that 80% of patients experienced markedimprovement (decreased chronic fatigue and fibromyalgiasymptoms), and 50% said they had been completely cured. This isnot an instantaneous process, but most of the patients hadexperience significant improvement within 3-4 months.

Affordable Fibromyalgia Care I know all of this care costsmoney. Most patients want to do whatever's going to be mosteffective at the least cost. I can't see any other reason toworry about how many times you'd have to visit an acupuncturist,so I'm going to say more about FM treatment in terms ofcost-effectiveness.

Chiropractic for Fibromyalgia? To be quite candid, for the FMsufferer, I'm not convinced that chiropractic is the best way tospend your money. Many FM/CFS sufferers experience greater painand symptoms after an adjustment. This may be a neccesary partof healing, but if there's not an x-ray confirmed spinal issueto be addressed, I wouldn't do it. Though many of them are goodand honest, and though I am open-minded about their role in thetreatment of non-spinal issues, chiropractors are well-known fortheir aggressive marketing techniques, so be careful. To beclear: chiropractic may help you. This isn't my area ofexpertise.

Massage for Fibromyalgia? Massage can be nice, but I'm not sureit's the best for FM either. Deep techniques can make FMpatients feel worse. The light, soothing, circulatory/Swedishstyle can relieve stress, and lightening the load on yoursympathetic nervous system and adrenals, but there are lessexpensive relaxation methods. I think the best test is: how longdoes your relief last? If it's just a few hours, how much wouldit cost to maintain that benefit 24 hours a day, 7 days a week?

Acupuncture Treatment for Pain On the other hand, acupuncturehas proven its ability to relieve both new and old pain. It isthe safest pain relief technique. It is the only pain reliever Iknow of that can wipe out chronic pain. It works via the nervousand immune systems, which are two major

systems that FM/CFSaffects. It releases natural opioids that can relieve pain for1-3 hours (endorphins) and 1-3 days (enkephalins). It also, viasome other route, normalizes the way the brain interpretssensations, and erases the grooved in patterns of chronic pain.

Chinese Herbs Chinese herbs, like acupuncture, can worksystemically, and/or they can be targeted. Chinese medicinediscovers your particular constitution and patterns ofimbalance, and seeks to balance them, thus giving the body thestrength to restore normalcy.

Working With Medical Professionals Find health practitioners whoare qualified AND that you can trust, because they have thetraining and experience to make accurate diagnoses, chooseappropriate remedies, and make the best plan for your healing.Once you've found good practitioners, follow their advice.Trying to save money on alternative health care may tempt you toignore your practitioner's treatment plan and see them lessoften than they suggest. Or, you may try to avoid professionalsand get your information from magazines (whose number one goalis to sell advertising - thus, they do not go into complexmedical issues or therapies in the kind of depth needed for safeand accurate usage of natural medicines, nor do they printarticles that compete with or contradict their advertiserÂ’sproducts).

The Chinese Medicine Fibromyalgia Expert If there is a FM/CFSexpert in Chinese medicine, it's Lynda Harvey-Carter. I haven'theard of anyone else who's had as much success. To follow herprogram, you'll need to go to a Chinese medicine practitionerfor a good 12-16 weekly visits, get herbs and take themreligiously, do some counseling on any emotional issues you have(pre-FM, or just dealing with FM),change your diet, take certainnutrients, and get involved in spiritual growth that requiresgrowth of character, trust, surrender, hope, and faith. Thepatients who were most willing to make the most changes in theirlives were most likely to recover completely from their FM.

The other insight that Lynda had about recovery from FM is thatthe sooner you catch it and treat it, the better recovery youcan have. It's not unheard of for people newly diagnosed with itto get serious about treating it and completely recover. I meanit goes away. For good.

But if you only go halfway, or you wait too long to do somethingabout it, you may be ensuring that you have to put up with thispain for the rest of your life.

How to Find a Good CM Practitioner in Your Area Use my website'sacupuncturist-finding resource (see below). Most people end upat the National database. Remember, when you search your city orstate, that although some practitioners have not taken thenational herbs test, they may still be trained in, good at, andlegally allowed to prescribe Chinese herbs. Many states onlylook at the test, and include Chinese herbs in theacupuncturist's scope of practice.

A common question patients ask is "how many people have youtreated with my disease?" That's a sensible question, butperhaps not always the best one. Most CM practitioners treat alittle bit of everything. Some try to specialize, or end up getreferrals for a particular disease, but most are generalpractitioners. I'd say this is possible because, although CM isquite complex, it is not nearly as complex as most westernmedicine (WM) specialties. Also, WM specialization has becomethe norm, and because there are 800,000 of them in the U.S., themay have to specialize! However, there are only about 15,000acupuncturists here, so we need not, and perhaps cannotspecialize yet. Fortunately, we learn enough in school to begood general practitioners, and there are more and morereference books. Many experienced practitioners have sharedtheir successes with the rest of us, and translators areconstantly offering English-speaking acupuncturists new Chineseexperience or research on many topics.

About the author:Acupuncturist, herbalist, and medical professor Brian B. Carterfounded the alternative health megasite The Pulse of OrientalMedicine (http://www.PulseMed.org/). He is the author of thebook "Powerful Body, Peaceful Mind: How to Heal Yourself withFoods, Herbs, and Acupressure" (November, 2004). Brian speaks onradio across the country, and has been quoted and interviewed byReal Simple, Glamour, and ESPN magazines.