Please forgive the corny title. In the books I read on blogging, I was told that idiosyncrasies are encouraged (everything from corny humor to bad grammar)!
Researchers have consistently found high levels of Substance P (a pain chemical) in fibromyalgia patients. Sleep quality is also usually awful. Fibromyalgia patients have few hours of sleep and also tend to have trouble getting into the deepest stage of sleep.
In addition to this the pain and anxiety areas of the brain are “souped-up” also. Many researchers think that these extra-sensitive brain regions are the only problem in fibromyalgia sufferers. Though, this is controversial.
With this background, I want to share the results of a research study comparing massage therapy to relaxation treatment. This study, from the Journal of Clinical Rheumatology, followed patients for 5 weeks. During this time half got massage 30 minutes twice per week and half got relaxation group therapy twice per week.
The results are pretty interesting. I will let them tell the rest:
only the massage therapy group reported an increase in the number of sleep hours and a decrease in their sleep movements. In addition, substance P levels decreased, and the patients’ physicians assigned lower disease and pain ratings and rated fewer tender points in the massage therapy group.
Posted by spinacare 