Fibromyalgia
What is Fibromyalgia?
As many as 18 million Americans suffer from fibromyalgia, a little-understood disorder that causes chronic, widespread pain and hypersensitivity to pressure. Its effects also go far beyond pain, to symptoms including fatigue, sleeplessness, difficulty in concentration, bowel and bladder problems and many others. For many, fibromyalgia syndrome can be debilitating.
In the past, fibromyalgia patients were often called hypochondriacs. Many times they were referred to psychiatrists, and it was not uncommon for sufferers to be institutionalized.
Researchers estimate that fibromyalgia affects up to 6 percent of the population, with nine out of ten sufferers being women.
Medical practitioners don't know the cause of fibromyalgia, and while there has been an increasing amount of research over the past 30 years, there is little agreement on what fibromyalgia is and what to do about it. Aside from pressure tests - which themselves are disputed, there are no generally accepted, objective tests for fibromyalgia. In the end, most patients are diagnosed based on differentials - that is, a doctor reviews the history of symptoms and rules out better-known possibilities before determining that "fibromyalgia" is the best description.
Since the cause is unknown, there is no generally accepted treatment for fibromyalgia itself. Instead, doctors focus on relieving the symptoms, through a variety of medications, therapies and lifestyle changes.
Many doctors, in fact, question the existence of fibromyalgia as a distinct clinical entity. The failure of the medical profession to agree on the cause, treatment, or even existence of fibromyalgia has made it difficult for those suffering from the painful and debilitating symptoms to find answers.
We take a broader view of fibromyalgia; we believe fibromyalgia and other conditions are actually caused by compression of the meninges - the three-layered membranes that protect the central nervous system.
Our Technique for Relief of Neurological Symptoms
We do not claim to treat fibromyalgia pain and other neurological symptoms. We are moving on the premise that it is a condition of the cervical spine causing an uncontrolled firing of the nervous system.
The aim of our technique is simply to reduce the CSF pressure and/or meningeal compression that causes the symptoms of neurologic disorders.
The uncontrolled firing of the nervous system does not always come about from the same misalignment in every person. This results in different manifestations in different individuals, who understandably must be treated accordingly.
Our procedure involves relieving the meningeal compression. It is a series of techniques that are applied at the appropriate times.
Our objective is to free up the neurological structures that are being encroached upon, thus allowing the brain and spinal cord to return to normal function. In most cases, there is little or no pain associated with this procedure. Where there has been severe trauma and many years in which to develop arthritis in the neck, the treatments may take days or weeks to bring relief.
This is simply because it is in the nature of fibromyalgia and its causative mechanisms for the vertebrae to quickly return to the abnormal state where it has been for so long. And so it becomes of the utmost importance to hold the correction completely in place while the affected ligaments adjust and the body attempts to maintain this new position.