According to the American College of Rheumatology, fibromyalgia affects between 3 and 6 million Americans, or one in every 50 Americans. While the disease can affect men and children, primarily 80 to 90 percent of those diagnosed with fibromyalgia are women.
Fibromyalgia is a chronic disorder characterized by widespread muscle pain, fatigue and multiple tender points. Tender points are precise places on the body, such as on the neck, shoulders, back, hips and upper and lower extremities, where people with fibromyalgia feel pain in response to light pressure.
While fibromyalgia sounds similar to an arthritis-related condition, it is not deemed to be a form of arthritis because it does not cause inflammation or damage to the joints, muscles or other tissues.
Fibromyalgia is referred to as a syndrome rather than a disease because, unlike a disease that has a specific cause or causes and identifiable signs and symptoms, fibromyalgia is a compilation of signs and symptoms that occur together but does not have a specific or identifiable cause.
 |  |
 | |  |
| | | | | | | |
Fibromyalgia test
Exercises that affect brain chemistry have positive effects on fibromyalgia symptoms.
 
| | |
| | | | | |
|
Patients with fibromyalgia may experience: sleep disturbances, stiffness in the morning, headaches, irritable bowel syndrome, uncomfortable menstrual periods, a feeling of numbness or tingling in the extremities, a sensitivity to temperature, and memory problems.
Electric activity emanating from the brain is displayed in the form of brainwaves.
The faster the electrical signals are, the more effective and
efficient the brain is, according to Myra Preston, a neurophysiologist at Siber Imaging.
However, the slower the electrical signals, the less useful the electrical activity is. This makes the body prone to more problems such as memory loss, cognitive dysfunction, gastrointestinal distress and sensitivity to pain.
While it is not a cure, neurocognitive feedback therapy is an
alternative to medications for treating fibrolmyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome.
"When you correct the electrical activity in the brain, you influence the blood flow and the neurochemistry in the brain, and the changes become permanent and continue spontaneously over time without further treatment," Preston said.
By correcting the function of the brain, you can affect all of the body systems, she said.
"We need to look to the brain instead of the body to treat some of these mysterious illnesses," Preston said.
Neurocognitive feedback is a form of operative conditioning that corrects the electrical functions of the brain by having it work to earn "rewards." In order to retrain the brain, doctors place electrodes on the brain of the patient, and a computer records the electrical activity of the brainwaves. Patients concentrate and work toward earning rewards in the form of sight and sound on a video game or graphic display on the computer screen. The brain is trained to work to receive the positive response.
"Causing it to happen over and over and over, we build upon that, just like rehabilitating a weak muscle. And, over time, the neurons begin to communicate correctly," Preston said.
Each session is designed to continually change the chemistry of the brain.
In a study published in the Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation, patients undergoing neurofeedback had more than a 60-percent improvement in memory.
