Fibromyalgia or RA?


With your physician's consent, you may find therapeutic massage very valuable. With fibromyalgia, clients may only need 6 sessions.

Rheumatoid Arthritis?
While massage is not a cure for RA, it can ease the symptoms associated with inflammation, and help improve the quality of life of someone affected by arthritis. Massage techniques can also increase circulation, increase flexibility and mobility, decrease pain and inflammation from arthritis, relieve muscle aches and stiffness and give the recipient a sense of overall relaxation and wellness.

In fact, a recent study conducted by the Touch Research Institutes (TRI) at the University of Miami School of Medicine has found that massage therapy is effective for reducing pain and increasing grip strength in patients with arthritis of the hand. The patients in this small study received massage therapy on the hand once per week over four weeks and were instructed in self-massage for the wrist and hand to be completed daily. Over that time, patients reported less pain and increased grip strength by the end of the study. They also had lower anxiety and depressed mood scores after the first and last sessions than the control group, who did not receive massage therapy.

Reflexology sessions include the hand and feet and are available to you for your recovery, or choose Swedish or Deep Swedish depending on preference.


Understanding Stress & Fibromyalgia

Some people think FM patients are emotionally incapable of dealing with stress, because a stressful situation will generally make symptoms worse.

The important thing to understand is that we respond to stress both emotionally and physically. A physical response, in everyone, includes a rush of adrenaline and other hormones that help kick your body into overdrive so you can deal with what's happening.

People with fibromyalgia don't have enough of those hormones, which makes stress very hard on their bodies and can trigger symptoms.

Also, when we talk about "stress" we usually mean the emotional kind, which can come from your job, a busy schedule, or personal conflict. A lot of things actually cause physical stress, such as illness, lack of sleep, nutritional deficiencies and injuries. Physical stress can have the same effect as emotional stress.

Related terms

Understanding the Fatigue of Fibromyalgia

Think of a time when you were not just tired, but really exhausted. Maybe you were up all night studying for a test. Maybe you were up multiple times to feed a baby or take care of a sick child. Maybe it was the flu or strep throat.

Imagine being exhausted like that all day while you're trying to work, take care of kids, clean the house, cook dinner, etc. For most people, one or two good night's sleep would take that feeling away.

With fibromyalgia, though, comes sleep disorders that make a good night's sleep a rarity. A person with fibromyalgia can have anywhere from one to all of the following sleep disorders:

Fibromyalgia In a Nutshell

A lot of illnesses involve one part of the body, or one system. Fibromyalgia, however, involves the entire body and throws all kinds of things out of whack. As bizarre and confusing as the varied symptoms may be, they're tied to very real physical causes.

Fibromyalgia can take someone who is educated, ambitious, hardworking and tireless, and rob them of their ability to work, clean house, exercise, think clearly and ever feel awake or healthy.

  • It's NOT psychological "burn out" or depression.
  • It's NOT laziness.
  • It's NOT whining or malingering.
  • It IS the result of widespread dysfunction in the body and the brain that's hard to understand, difficult to treat, and, so far, impossible to cure.

The hardest thing for patients, however, is having to live with it. Having the support and understanding of people in their lives can make it a lot easier.