LA TIMES– For more than a decade, Cheryl Clark has
lived with the
chronic pain
that accompanies fibromyalgia.
After
years of suffering with severe flu-like aches and pains, she finally
found some
relief — but it didn’t come from a pill or a shot. It came from
exercise.
Several times a week, Clark heads to the warm-water pool and the gym at
Casa
Colina Centers for Rehabilitation in Pomona. Her pain, she says, has
gone from
a six or seven on a 10-point scale scale down to a one or two.
“It would kill me to walk from the car to the doctor’s office. I was
using
a cane. I didn’t have the mind-set that moving is the key … I really got
my
life back.”
Movement-based
therapies such as yoga,
tai chi, qigong and more
mainstream forms of exercise are gaining acceptance in the world of
chronic
pain management. Many pain clinics and integrative medicine centers now
offer
movement-based therapy for pain caused by cancer and cancer treatments, rheumatoid
arthritis,
fibromyalgia, multiple
sclerosis,
and other diseases and conditions. And Loyola Marymount University in
Los
Angeles offers a three-year yoga therapy course as part of the school’s
yoga
studies program.
Several small studies in peer-reviewed journals attest to the
effectiveness of
these therapies.
Continue reading about Movement Therapies May Reduce Chronic Pain.
© LA Times, 2010
Photo by flickr user DVIDSHUB
