How to Soothe Fibromyalgia Trigger Points
Soothe Your Fibromyalgia Trigger Points
Individuals who suffer from fibromyalgia often experience several kinds of discomfort. In addition to suffering from widespread pain that’s felt deep in their muscles, many patients also experience tender or fibromyalgia trigger points.
In general, a trigger point is a painful area that’s located near a joint, but not in the joint. Trigger points are usually sensitive to touch, meaning they will cause pain if you press on them. Tender points aren’t felt deep in the body. Instead, they’re often described as if they’re just under a person’s skin. Trigger points can occur on a person’s neck, back, chest, elbows, knees, hips and rear end.
Trigger points are normally about the size of a penny. If you apply pressure to an individual’s tender point, it can cause so much discomfort that the person will pull away and/or flinch immediately.
What’s Behind Trigger Points?
Unfortunately, no one knows what causes fibromyalgia trigger points. What doctors do know is that these points don’t simply arise in random places along a person’s body. This means that fibromyalgia tender points occur in common parts of the body, which can be helpful when a doctor is trying to diagnose a patient’s condition.
What Can Make Trigger Points Worse?
There are a variety of factors that can make fibromyalgia trigger points and the condition’s other symptoms markedly worse. Here are some of the factors that may aggravate your fibromyalgia symptoms:
- Stress and anxiety
- Changes in the weather
- Depressed mood
- Tired state
- Hormonal changes
- Infections
- Poor quality sleep
- Emotional changes
- Lack of movement
Treating Trigger Points
Over the years, both conventional and alternative therapies have been developed to treat fibromyalgia. Antidepressants are sometimes used to mitigate pain and reduce fatigue in fibromyalgia patients, for example. For trigger points, the treatment often involves medication, stress management techniques, exercise, hydrotherapy and rest.
Some people may prefer to treat their tender points at home. Therapeutic massage, moist heat and deep breathing exercises help some patients manage their painful trigger points on their own.
If you suffer from trigger points, it’s important for you to go to bed at the same time every night. By doing so, you’ll give your body the chance to rest and repair itself overnight each day. Getting regular exercise well before bedtime will also help you manage the pain caused by your tender points as well as your other fibromyalgia symptoms.
Trigger Point Injections
If you haven’t been able to manage your trigger points successfully despite your best efforts, don’t give up hope. Pick up the phone and call Dr. Weight Loss of Atlanta instead.
With multiple locations in and around Atlanta, Dr. Weight Loss of Atlanta offers trigger point injections which can reduce or eliminate the pain your tender points are causing. These injections alleviate chronic pain, which will enable you to enjoy an improved quality of life and better, pain-free mobility.
We know how debilitating chronic pain can be, which is why we’re proud we’re able to offer fibromyalgia trigger point injections at our locations. To see if you’re a candidate for trigger point injections, schedule a consultation with Dr. Weight Loss of Atlanta today.
