If you suffer from fibromyalgia, you know for sure that life is 10 times harder. This chronic pain condition affects every part of your day, leaving you extremely fatigued, achy, and unable to think properly.
What’s worse is that every symptom of fibromyalgia, from brain fog to severe pain, fatigue, and depression, hurts not only yourself but also other life aspects. These include relationships, work-life, and physical, emotional, and mental health. Fibromyalgia is an incurable disease, meaning you simply have to learn how to live with fibromyalgia-related pain and take steps to relieve its symptoms.
Effective treatment of fibromyalgia includes a combination of medication and some lifestyle changes. So how can you overcome it? Let’s look at seven good ways to tame symptoms that work:
1. Get quality sleep
Pain, stress, and anxiety caused by fibromyalgia can do a number to your sleep. Talk to your healthcare provider to see whether sleep medications will help you. You should also try to practice good sleep habits.
2. Consider trying supplements and herbs
Many doctors recommend taking magnesium and acetyl-L-carnitine as these supplements might help relieve symptoms. Magnesium lowers nerve pain and reduces muscle tension. People who lack this mineral, often experience more pain. Your body also needs magnesium to make ATP, an energy molecule, which can help overcome fatigue.
Your body needs acetyl-L-carnitine to make another hormone, acetylcholine, that’s used in the brain to boost mood, memory, and concentration difficulties, which often occur due to fibromyalgia.
3. Try different therapies
People with fibromyalgia experience more severe pain than people who don’t suffer from fibromyalgia. They might feel it all over their body or in multiple tender points.
But things like water therapy, light aerobics, lymphatic drainage massage, acupuncture, and osteopathic or chiropractic manipulation are successfully used to relieve fibromyalgia pain. The specialists in a pain management clinic may also recommend physical therapy. It can improve mobility, increase physical function, and limit pain.
4. Exercise regularly
Although regular exercises are recommended for everyone, they can be especially beneficial to people with fibromyalgia, who often experience stiffness and restless leg syndrome.
Regularly exercising regularly will improve your mood, relieve pain, boost sleep, decrease fatigue, improve circulation, and strengthen your heart. Physical activities like stretching, walking, yoga, cycling, swimming, water aerobics, and strength training are especially good for fibromyalgia sufferers.
But you should be careful since sometimes exercise can be counterproductive and lead to fatigue. You need to know your limit and consult your healthcare provider before starting or changing an exercise program.
5. Follow a healthy and nutritious diet
Consuming plenty of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, lean meats, and dairy will boost your energy levels, help you lose extra pounds, and improve overall health. Try eliminating the foods that might worsen fibromyalgia, such as food additives like MSG and nitrates, aspartame, and sugar.
6. Lower your stress levels
Fibromyalgia can impact your memory and provoke fog that’s characterized by an inability to think clearly. This can be particularly frustrating when you’re trying to perform simple tasks. Constant stress can affect the endocrine function and change hormone levels, which might be the reason for fibromyalgia.
To combat stress, you can try relaxation techniques (meditation, aromatherapy, and biofeedback) and visit a cognitive behavioral therapist to examine how your thinking influences the way you feel and what you do.
7. Pay attention to your sex life
Women who have fibromyalgia normally experience pain during menstruation and during intercourse. Pain or joint/muscle stiffness might interfere with their ability to enjoy sex.
Plus, negative changes in self-perception, such as feeling unattractive, uncomfortable, or simply not feeling sexy, might lead to a loss of desire.
Your sexual health is equally as essential as your physical, mental, and emotional health. Your physician will help you solve the problem and recommend ways to increase your libido and self-esteem, and help you control the pain.
