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Writer's pictureBen McKerrell

What Does Fibromyalgia Mean Anyway?

You walk into your doctor's office. You say "I've got pain in my shoulders, in my neck, in my back and in my hips. What's going on?"


Doc does a few tests, sends you to a few specialists, and in the end says to you, "you have Fibromyalgia and it's causing your muscle pain".


You begin to think you have a serious physical syndrome. You start researching everything you can about it. You perhaps feel a little overwhelmed and confused, trying to understand you newfound diagnosis.


But what's wrong with this diagnosis?


What's wrong is your were diagnosed in Latin with a symptom you said you had in English.


Fibro = Fibre

Myo = Muscle

Algia = Pain


Fibromyalgia is Latin for muscle fibre pain, or simply muscle pain.

You told your doctor you have muscle pain, and Doc turned around and (in Latin) diagnosed you with muscle pain, which is akin to saying muscle pain causes muscle pain.


Doleur Musculaire is French for muscle pain. Jīròu téngtòng is Chinese for muscle pain.


There are roughly 6500 languages in the world, and you can be diagnosed with muscle pain in every single one of them.


Unfortunately, this is what the diagnosis fibromyalgia amounts to. It's diagnosing you in Latin with a symptom you said you had in English. It's unhelpful and often leaves people more confused and more overwhelmed than before.


After all, what follows is "now, we're not sure what causes Fibromyalgia".


We don't know what causes muscle pain, but we know muscle pain causes muscle pain.


The only resolution offered is meds and cream.


But what if there's another issue causing your muscle pain? An identifiable issue that can be resolved? One that can be explained to you in a simple and straightforward way, and, not to mention - in the English language.


I’ve seen many people who are in chronic whole body pain and have been given the diagnosis Fibromyalgia. They all have something in common:


Poor movement patterning.

When the body is not moving in a state where the muscular system is balance, integrated and functional, then muscles become tight, the axial skeleton changes shape, weakness in some areas leads to compensation in others, and overtime the body begins to feel pain. Depending on the extent of the dysfunction, many sites on the body can be sore.


This results in the widespread muscle pain and “fibromyalgia”.


The pain is a symptom - an intelligent feedback mechanism so the body can let you know something is wrong. If you want the pain gone, you need to resolve the problem. You resolve the problem by giving the body what it needs - fluid, functional and integrated movement. When the problem is solved, pain is no longer necessary. Pain goes when the problem goes.


I don’t treat pain. I correct movement patterning. When proper movement is restored, the pain takes care of itself.


Chasing pain and trying to fix pain rather than addressing the underlying problem means both pain and problem remain. It means you will forever walk around with this "Fibromyalgia" diagnosis, taking meds and using creams that can only ever temporarily take away symptoms of an underlying problem.


Address the underlying problem.

Address movement patterning.

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