Fibromyalgia – Deep Tissue Massage Can Help

Fibromyalgia causes widespread pain and extreme tiredness, the exact causes of this condition are not known.

Pain is a protection mechanism, often the site of pain is not the cause of the pain, but if you suffer with fibromyalgia you will know from experience that you will have an over sensitivity to pain.

What causes this?
The brain is always responding to messages that are being sent to it from the nervous system. If you suffer with fibromyalgia the sympathetic nervous system is dominant, this system produces the fight, flight or freeze mechanism and is responsible for making sure we survive. The brain will send messages and respond to the level of threat it feels it’s under.

The symptoms can look like:

Inflammation
Acute pain
Locked joints or muscles
Lost range of movement
Compression
Impingement

The nervous system is in a constant state of high alert, the blood is shunted from internal organs to muscles, fear increases flow to legs and arms, the bronchioles in the lungs dilate (widen) to try to get more air in and blood sugar rises which causes the above responses.

How will deep tissue massage help you?
The other side of the nervous system is called the Parasympathetic branch which slows everything down and controls digestion – your chill out system. It helps to restore the body to homeostasis (balance).

The techniques used in deep tissue massage encourages the muscles and connective tissues to release, breaking down adhesions to relieve pain and to start to ease tension in areas of tightness. This sends messages to the nervous system which produces this parasympathetic response. In turn this will start to restore normal movement in the muscles and joints, less anxiety and stress, improved sleeping and digestive patterns.

Will deep tissue massage hurt?

No is the short answer, depending on your sensitivity level and tender points it is important that the treatment be effective, we aim to work for shorter periods of time to enable you to see how you will react and respond to massage. The depth and speed of the massage is very important to ensure we encourage the right response of the soft tissues and not cause them any further damage.

For further advice or to book in for a deep tissue massage session please call 020 8316 5316