Polymyalgia – Fibromyalgia
A 57 year old woman presented with a wide range of problems but mainly came for the pain and inflammation caused by her polymyalgia. She also suffers from thyroid, liver, digestive problems, high cholesterol and poor sleep patterns. She was also suffering with lower back and hip pain and was waiting for an MRI scan. Her ESR levels (inflammation) were above 90-100 (normal is 20) and had been tested for rheumatoid arthritis but came back negative. As a method of pain control she was taking steroids over a prolonged period which in turn was causing side effects. She initially came for 4 weekly treatments which she started to notice effects after the first and by the forth the back pain was gone with just a little ‘twinge' in her hip, in general the pain and inflammation in her body had dramatically improved, her energy levels were up, she was sleeping well without any sleeping tablets, headaches had almost gone along with other improvements. We then started to extend the time between treatments to very 4 weeks and after another 3 monthly treatments we extended it further to 6 weeks as she was still feeling well within the month. Her doctors had decided to reduce her steroids by 1mg since she was doing well. After 4-5 weeks her inflammation did start to creep back but after just one treatment the inflammation and swelling in her hands and ankles went done within hours of treatment. Due to the complexity of her case she will continue to go for regular treatments but we are hoping we can keep extending the period between each visit more and more. Even with regular treatments she is very happy to continue if it will help her reduce her medications in time.
Rheumatoid Arthritis
36 yr old woman with rheumatoid arthritis found regular treatments every 3-4 weeks helped reduce her need for extra pain medications and within one session she went from being unable to open and close a jar to being able to after 5mins of work on her forearm. This held for quiet some time.