After 30 years of suffering with fibromyalgia syndrome I was blessed to find a treatment that actually eliminated the condition. It took patience and faith to see it through for although it wasn't difficult to do, it took time and forbearance (which is hard to come by in my life). I was impatient to get back control of my body and to get out and do stuff I hadn't done for years! But the healing did happen eventually and I got better. In the meantime I had to find ways of relieving the pain in my muscles which was becoming unbearable. Massage was really helpful in the short term but the relief was temporary. Gym work was much too challenging and walking was also unsuitable for me. Gentle exercise like swimming was very helpful and so it made me look at yoga which was also gentle and relaxing.

The reason I'm writing this today is that fibromyalgia syndrome sufferers need to recognise that even though we know the cause of the disorder and are undergoing treatment for it, we still need to manage the symptoms in the meantime. To this end I thought I would review a study published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 2007 called: "Effects of Yoga and the addition of Tui Na in patients with fibromyalgia syndrome". The aim of the study was to determine the relaxing effects of Yoga both with and without the addition of the touch therapy of Tui Na in fibromyalgia syndrome patients. It's always good to get good science research to find out what will work for us in relieving our FMS symtoms.

Tui Na is an ancient form of Chinese massage which works to release the blocked Qi or life energy in the meridians of the body. Yoga is an ancient Indian program of exercises and mental discipline combined. Altogether In the study being reviewed here there were 33 female participants who had been diagnosed with fibromyalgia. The women were divided into groups of 17 and 16. The group of 17 participated in yoga without the Tui Na therapy and the 16 performed yoga in addition to the Tui Na touch therapy. The results of the study showed that both groups had significant decreases in the score of the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire but there was no significant difference in results between the groups.

All in all, this study demonstrates that yoga is an effective method for reducing FMS symptoms but while the Tui Na touch therapy is relaxing and great for our state of mind at the time it does not do anything significant for most people to reduce pain in the long term. This correlates with my own experiences with various forms of touch therapy. If you want a massage or to be treated by some form of touch therapy, you will enjoy the experience and benefit greatly from the stress reduction that arises from it but don't expect dramatic results in reducing your muscle pain resulting from the FMS.

We can conclude then that one exercise that does help in fibromyalgia syndrome is yoga. I have included Part 1 of the video "Yoga Poses for Fibromyalgia Patients". This lady has a number of videos on You Tube and after you have seen part 1 then you can check out the rest of her videos (there are about 8 more at least.)