Treatment of fibromyalgia arthritis
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Loading ...The symptoms of fibromyalgia arthritis differ from patient to patient, and so a customized treatment regime must be designed for each patient to make sure that it effectively manages all of the symptoms. There are several different categories that the treatment is broken down into, patient education, stress reducing, exercise and medications.
Patient education actually teaches the patient how to cope with their fibromyalgia arthritis, it is important for the patient to know what they can do to help themselves. Unfortunately many of the doctors do not know enough to inform patients, and so people can turn to community support groups.
This disorder can cause a great deal of stress to patients; it actually prevents them from living a normal life sometimes. Stress management can be a great asset in the treatment of fibromyalgia arthritis. Obviously everybody deals with stress in different ways, and so this stress management part of the treatment must be tailored to the individual patient. Anything that causes stress can aggravate the symptoms of fibromyalgia arthritis.
Exercise is helpful to fight fibromyalgia; a sport like swimming is brilliant as it exerts no pressure on the joints. A low impact sport such as walking or cycling could be considered. If it’s too cold outside then why not try walking on a treadmill? Exercising promotes a better night’s sleep, so elevating some of the symptoms. A fibromyalgia sufferer should steer clear of anything containing caffeine or alcohol as these will increase their sleep depravation.
Medication is the next step in the treatment of fibromyalgia; the medications normally used are antidepressants. The tricyclic antidepressants are usually taken at bedtime, but in very small doses. The dosage is much lower than the dose to treat depression. These antidepressants are believed to interfere and do something with a chemical in the brain known as serotonin, these help by removing the symptoms of pain, and also promoting a good night’s sleep. Recent studies have shown the use of Prozac in small doses along with other medicines to be useful.
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