Yoga for Fibromyalgia (FMS)
Yoga, when practiced appropriately, can help people with fibromyalgia (FMS). Evidence suggests that people with FMS have an overactive sympathetic nervous system, which is turned on most of the time. Fibromyalgia manifests as pain in the fiber of the muscles, often throughout the body. Other symptoms of FMS are fatigue, headaches and sleep disturbances.
Yoga can teach those with FMS to switch the stress response to a relaxation response mediated by the parasympathetic nervous system. Learning to modulate your stress response can not only diminish your symptoms but help you deal with the stress of having a disorder that is poorly misunderstood by both the medical community and the public.
Yoga’s ability to shift the nervous system out of the stress system and into the relaxation response is vital to people with central nervous systems that are hypersensitive. Yoga also acts directly on the very muscles where Fibromyalgia pain occurs.
How does Yoga Help?
Yoga will bring awareness back into the body through Pranayama (breathing techniques) and Asanas (yoga exercises).
Yoga improves the ability to sleep soundly.
Yoga will decrease chronic pain and muscle stiffness.
Yoga will return muscles to their normal length and out of a shortened position from the pain.
Symptoms become less frequent and less intense over time if Yoga is practiced routinely.