The FibroManual: A Complete Fibromyalgia Treatment Guide for You and Your Doctor

by Ginevra Liptan

First, Rest: give the body a break from the constant pummeling by a hyperactive stress response by purposefully enlisting a relaxation response and by restoring deep sleep. • Once the foundation of Rest is in place, we add Repair, both structural and nutritional. The stress response weakens the body’s ability to break down and absorb nutrients, so we fix digestion. Muscle pain is eased with gentle movement and myofascial release, a specialized manual therapy that targets painful connective tissue. • The next step is to Rebalance the problems with energy production, hormones, and inflammation caused by a chronic stress response. • Finally, Reduce any remaining pain, fatigue, or fibrofog by treating specific symptoms with targeted medications and therapies.

In 2014 researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University discovered a specific pattern of inflammatory chemicals in the blood of fibromyalgia subjects (Sturgill 2014). Other researchers found that certain types of white blood cells do not respond normally to chemical stimulation in patients with fibromyalgia. The results were so striking, in fact, that it was developed into a test for consumers, called FM/a, which they are calling “the first objective diagnostic test” for fibromyalgia (Behm 2012). More studies need to be performed before it is widely adopted, but we soon may finally have a way to diagnose fibromyalgia from a blood test.