When you come to RPI Therapy Services for fibromyalgia, your therapist will work with you in a partnership towards your well-being. We take a holistic approach and review your doctor’s prescription for treatment, learn your medical history, ask you about your perceptions and combine this information with the results from our tests to determine the best course of treatment for your condition. These include, muscle strength, flexibility, conditioning, range of motion, reflex testing, and functional abilities. We then work with you to establish a clear set of obtainable goals that are based upon your particular needs and abilities.
Fibromyalgia is a chronic pain condition which can affect every muscle in the body. Several hands on, or touch therapies, such as physical therapy, are now being used, in addition to other conventional treatments, to treat fibromyalgia. Physical Therapy (PT), also known as Physiotherapy, has been in wide use since World War I. Medical clinicians are widely recognizing the effectiveness of physical therapy as studies and clinical trials resoundingly validate its place as a treatment.
Medical practitioners specializing in areas involving treatment of chronic pain and related illnesses like fibromyalgia concur that a multidisciplinary approach is imperative in improving quality of life and reducing pain. Physical therapy for fibromyalgia performs a vital part in dealing with chronic pain, lack of energy, depression, insomnia and other sleep disorders, gastrointestinal (GI) conditions, lack of concentration, anxiety, irritability, restlessness, headaches, and restless leg syndrome.
Medicine can aid patients in masking and coping with the symptoms of fibromyalgia, however, physical therapy promotes and speeds healing while helping to restore body functions. Research involving adults with fibromyalgia and the effects of touch therapies showed lowered stress and anxiety coupled with better mental outlook as a direct and immediate result. Massage and touch therapies also resulted in better sleep, more energy, and reduction of fibromyalgia symptoms such as aches, pain, tiredness, muscle and joint stiffness as well as tiredness and fatigue. It has been demonstrated through research that massage and touch therapies result in changes to one’s patterns of sleep by increasing serotonin production while decreasing transmission of pain signals released as chemicals within the brain.
Physical Therapy for fibromyalgia uses passive modalities alongside therapeutic exercises as means to restore health and mobility to the musculoskeletal systems. Intertwining these methods provides therapeutic rehabilitation. There are a variety of techniques used in passive modalities with some of the most common being joint mobilization, ultrasound, heat and cold thermal therapies, electrical pulse stimulation, and massage. Passive modalities must be coupled with active therapies to effectively manage fibromyalgia. These active therapeutic exercises involve posture modification, strength building, and judicial stretching techniques. The passive modalities work to lessen pain by manipulating affected areas, while active therapies strengthen, condition, and help the body to become more supple.
Many of these techniques are beneficial to other types of patients as well, and are often times prescribed for post surgical rehabilitation for spinal injuries, inflammation in joints and nerves, injuries affecting soft tissue, arthritis, muscle spasms, headaches, plantar fasciitis and others.
Our goal is to reduce your pain in the immediate term while building strength, endurance and flexibility to rehabilitate and keep pain away in the long term. At RPI Therapy Services we have, on our staff, specialists in this area who are able to help patients with fibromyalgia to regain or obtain an active lifestyle as speedily as possible with minimal hardship. This is accomplished through strengthening, conditioning, stretching, and posture correction as means to relieve pain and suffering brought on by fibromyalgia.
Additionally, we seek to educate our patients to help them understand their disease, its causes, conditions and treatments. By showing you how things like posture, body or physiological mechanics, fitness, and flexibility all relate to your condition, we are able to help you develop better habits and make changes to improve your well being and reduce pain.
For more information please call (314) 644-1978 (Clayton) or (314) 991-1978 (Creve Coeur office). A physicians referral is required for treatment.