8 Ways to Ease Fibromyalgia Discomfort
Living with chronic fibromyalgia pain doesn’t have to feel unmanageable. There are numerous resources at your disposal to find relief at home. When you’re ready to explore more options beyond over-the-counter pain relievers, try these popular ways to manage fibromyalgia pain. You could discover the next game-changing way you’ll manage your daily comfort by trying something new.
1. Yoga
The stiffness and pain caused by fibromyalgia may become less of a daily challenge if you practice yoga. When researchers collected all of the available data on yoga as a fibromyalgia treatment, they found four specific yoga-centric interventions that were most helpful:
- Asanas: specific body posture poses that promote meditation
- Surya Namaskar: yoga that links all or some of the twelve asanas
- Mindfulness Meditation: thoughts that ground your mind in the present as you breathe deeply during a yoga routine
- Nadi Shodhana Pranayama: a breathing technique that clears spiritual energy to quiet the mind
Practicing yoga utilizing one or more of these methods could help you feel more comfortable in your body. Try adding it to your routine on days when stiffness doesn’t prevent you from stretching through yoga poses.
2. Self-Massage Tools
As you learn how to ease fibromyalgia discomfort, consider where you feel the most stiffness. Your muscle pain may relate to each muscle locking up for extended periods. A self-massage tool can target those specific areas in real time, creating the most instant pain relief.
Single-hand tools like the Myobuddy Massager Pro 2 make this fibromyalgia pain relief simple. It covers six inches of surface area while providing three strength levels, so you can customize your massage according to your muscle sensitivity. The quiet technology even ensures that it won’t bother anyone in your home when you need pain relief. Use it during a movie or while your little ones sleep to relax your muscles anywhere.
3. Antidepressants
People might not assume that antidepressants help with physical pain, but they’ve shown significant efficacy for individuals taking duloxetine or milnacipran. The ingredients in antidepressants activate neurotransmitters in various ways. They improve a person’s mood when they’re effective for the patient’s unique body chemistry and composition.
The change in neurotransmitter functionality also blocks pain receptors for people with chronic discomfort. If you’re interested in this medical treatment, talk with your primary care provider. It could take time to find an antidepressant that’s effective for your fibromyalgia, but it’s an option that your doctor could approve.
4. Improved Nutrition
You might reach for your favorite comfort foods whenever your chronic pain flares up, but that may not be good to do all the time. People taking nutritional supplementation alleviated their fibromyalgia symptoms by strengthening their body with optimal nutrient intake.
Increasing your vitamin D intake is one of the ways to manage fibromyalgia pain if you’re looking for a specific vitamin to start your nutritional upgrades. Experts found that fibromyalgia patients had vitamin D deficiency and experienced significant improvement in their pain levels when supplementing it daily through oral pills.
If you can’t swallow large vitamin pills, don’t worry. Banana bags deliver vitamins throughout the body even more effectively. A standard banana bag contains numerous vitamins and minerals to ease things like hangovers and provide immune support. If you use a banana bag containing vitamin D, you could boost your nutrient intake intravenously and eliminate the risk of your gag reflex.
5. Anticonvulsants
People who want to learn how to ease fibromyalgia discomfort with medications could talk with their primary care physician about anticonvulsants. These medications minimize chronic pain by blocking pain signals from reaching the brain.
It’s a direct way to improve your pain with medications, but this pain reduction method requires talking with your doctor about your personal risks regarding your health history. They might also not recommend it for long-term use due to the side effects of the medication that works best for your body. Combining medication with at-home treatments could be a more well-rounded approach to easing your fibromyalgia discomfort long-term.
6. Warm Baths
People often say that taking ice baths is their favorite way to relax if they’re filling their tubs. While water between 50–59 degrees Fahrenheit can provide some health benefits, hot water is much better for those already dealing with chronic pain.
Sitting in hot water soothes sympathetic activity that activates pain receptors throughout the body. As long as the water isn’t hot enough to harm your skin, you could reduce your pain in the time it takes to fill your bathtub. A bath would also double as a chance to utilize other pain relief tools, like a self-massager tool on the parts of your body above the water.
7. Physical Therapy
Even a small amount of exercise stimulates feel-good endorphins that make pain more manageable. When moving your body doesn’t hurt too badly, consider scheduling a physical therapy appointment. Someone trained in manipulating stiff muscles can show you how to stretch at home during and between bouts of pain. It’s a proven way to reduce short-term pain related to fibromyalgia.
8. Acupuncture
Letting someone stick tiny needles in you might not be among the first things you picture when imagining ways to manage fibromyalgia pain, but it’s a powerful resource. Researchers agree that collective evidence proves acupuncture helps, but they remain unclear about the direct reason. It likely reduces pain by creating skin stimulation that affects neuromodulation. This practice is a recommended pain relief management tool alongside other options your doctor suggests.
Manage Fibromyalgia Pain With Strategies Like These
Anyone can learn how to ease fibromyalgia discomfort at home with these tips. Talk with your doctor before seeing which strategies work best with your body. You’ll quickly find ways to experience greater peace each day, like with self-massage therapy. If you want to learn more about massage options like the Myobuddy Massager Pro 2, reach out to us to clarify your questions and get the pain relief you need.