There is no doubt that Fibromyalgia syndrome is a serious illness and not just “something going on only in the head” of the patient. As with other illnesses people suffering from Fibromyalgia syndrome will need a lot of rest in the first place, preferably on a daily base.
It is also proven beyond doubt that at least an hour of light to medium physical exercise every day is quite beneficial to the patients well being.
There is a theory, which says that increased muscle tension as a result of FMS inhibits the transport of nutrients and oxygen through the muscle and therefore increasing this tension. A vicious circle that at least can partially be broken by such exercises.
The more so as case studies show very clearly that the overwhelming majority of FMS victims has a history of anxiety, obsession or depression – almost all of them have avoided healthy physical exercise before FMS was finally diagnosed.
Which in turn leads us to the psychological component of FMS and treatments to relief the symptoms. As already mentioned above, stress relief and stress avoidance are of crucial relevance for any progress, as stress itself most likely is among the triggering factors for the clinical manifestation of FMS.
We do see very rare cases though in which the therapeutical target of a stress free life is achieved by means of teaching behavioral modification only. In most cases this learning process should be assisted by or even based upon an effective drug therapy which helps the patient to regain the full ability for deep phase four sleep, alleviate pain and above all help the patient to find a way to a brighter mood. Medication with these combined effects is still in the experimental stage, but beside the “classical” antidepressants is has been shown that marihuana and mitragyna speciosa (kratom) can be very helpful. Both of these natural plants have been well known for a long time to combine exactly these properties: relief pain, improve sleep and help against depression. Especially mitragyna speciosa is still popular among plantation workers in South East Asia as a very effective stimulant and motivation enhancer.