Are There Natural Yet Effective Treatments Fibromyalgia & Myofascial Pain?

Do you suffer from fibromyalgia, myofascial pain, or any other type of debilitating pain? The truth is there are a variety of treatments and lifestyle changes that can bring about relief without the need for invasive surgery.

Unfortunately, we’ve heard from numerous patients who were recommended surgical treatment before the doctor even touched them. Surgery all too often becomes the go-to fix it approach to a number of conditions, when simple exercise, massage, dietary changes can do wonders and eliminate the need for surgery.

In an article that appeared in the November 2018 Townsend Newsletter, Dr. Blatman recommends a number of natural therapies for treating myofascial and fibromyalgia pain. The key is finding the right diagnoses and treatment — and that requires a special medical touch many doctors traditionally don’t bring to the treatment center.

“Indeed, finding these clues of what causes pain requires a different kind of physical examination than what doctors and health care providers are usually taught,” Dr. Blatman explains. “It’s not the stethoscope, x-ray, MRI, or pin prick test, but rather a gentle and specific touch that provides many of the necessary clues.”

A New Approach to Pain

Pain can better be identified and remedied when we expand our understandings of the nature of the pain itself. Over years of experience diagnosing and treating severe and chronic pain, we’ve developed the Blatman Method-Five Rules of Pain CSI®:

You, as the patient, cannot believe the pain you experience comes from where you feel it.

You also cannot believe what you think the pain feels like, and the distinction is not diagnostically important.

The most significant thing you can believe is that where you are specifically tender, mm by mm, is where your fascia is tied in a knot, or where your fascia attaches to you, holds you together and is injured.

The specific sites where you are most tender are the locations of pain generators in your fascia that generate most of the pain you feel.

If you can get your body to heal the specific places that are this tender, a large amount of the pain you experience will go away.

This approach can be ascribed to a number of painful conditions, including migraines and headaches, neck and shoulder pain, arthritis and joint pain, lower back pain, leg and foot pain, interstitial cystitis, pelvic pain, plantar fasciitis, TMJ syndrome, and fibromyalgia. After all, the condition of fascia is the primary core of most injury and pain. By addressing fascia issues, you can achieve real healing, often without the need for opioid medications or invasive surgery.

The Benefits of Trigger Point Therapy

One way is to address the trigger points that affect fascia cords and muscle cells are directly responsible for much of the tightening that causes the pain in the first place.

A rubber ball is one way to effectively address these trigger points. Massaging the area with the ball can reduce the concentration of metabolic toxicity within a muscle, and also help untangle the wound up knots of fascia called trigger points. Dr. Blatman discusses these massage techniques in detail in his book Winners’ Guide to Pain Relief, Danua Press.

The Benefits of Yoga for Fibromyalgia

Yoga can be highly effective at easing the pain of fibromyalgia. Yoga has the unique ability to boost the nervous system out of the stress response and into the relaxation response — so important in helping to manage the discomfort of this disease. It relaxes the pain sources and kinks in the fascia. The physical act of yoga when coupled with meditation can help ease the mind and body effects of this disease, helping you reach “your happy place” in a way that makes the pain much easier to manage. Yoga provides a healthy beneficial activity that can ease the muscles. But be easy on yourself. Gentle stretches are key to getting the maximum benefit without overdoing it.

Dietary Relief: Limiting Gluten

Food is another issue that should be addressed in any pain relief plan. A gluten free non-inflammatory diet can bring about remarkable improvement.

“Where pain comes from interstitial nerves reacting to injuries in fascia, in my experience inflammation from food and environmental toxicity makes these injuries light up like a holiday tree for days to weeks,” Dr. Blatman explains. “According to our research, being able to sense pain from weather and barometric change implies a fascia-wide level of inflammation caused by some ingested food during the previous six weeks.”

Other trigger point injection treatments like acupuncture, PRP therapy, stem cell injections can also be effective.

At our Cincinnati clinic, we’ve used these techniques to help our patients reduce more than 50% of their pain by easing inflammation in their fascia and helping their body heal the injuries to their fascia that have occurred throughout their lifetime. It is an exciting new paradigm with great potential. Call our office to find out more.