Techniques for pain relief are a dime a dozen, kind of like fad diets and fashion. One moment you’ll hear about a new drug that can help you lose weight while increasing your brain capacity, and the next it’ll be that same drug that could be the cure for fibromyalgia. It takes truly trained professionals to know what techniques will actually make a difference for you, and which ones are just another passing fad.
Speaking of fibromyalgia and passing fads, have you heard the one about using a tanning bed to heal your fibromyalgia pain? A physician from Wake Forest University has been prescribing tanning bed treatments to his patients who suffer from extreme fibromyalgia pain. He claims that he has seen results from patients who use this pain relief technique for six weeks and more.
The problem with this treatment is obvious, just ask any dermatologist. Spending time in a tanning bed can increase your risk for melanoma by up to 75 percent. The physician from Wake Forest, who happens to be a dermatologist, has found that sun exposure releases endorphins, which can lighten a patient’s mood and ease some of the pain caused by fibromyalgia.
The report on these findings were originally published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine by Steven R. Feldman, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Center for Dermatology Research at Wake Forest Baptist. So, is this just a fad? According to Dr. Feldman, there are so little treatments for fibromyalgia pain that it was time to find something new and innovative.
“We decided to look at fibromyalgia patients because there is such a big need for treatment,” Feldman said. “We knew from the tanning addiction study that the UV light was doing something for participants beyond the obvious.”
While it is a proven fact that sunlight exposure does help to release endorphins within the body, and these endorphins can lighten your mood and help you to relax, the fibromyalgia tanning bed technique is still a bit controversial. But, according to Dr. Feldman, when these endorphins are released at such a level due to the tanning bed, increased relaxation eases muscle tension and relieves fibromyalgia pain.
For more information on this pain relief technique, be sure to speak with your physician or one of our pain consultants over at http://www.ThePainCenter.com.
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