FIBROMYALGIA results from energy congestion in the meridians.

The meridians carry primal energy to all the cells, tissues, organs, and other structures of the body, like electric wires bring electricity to all the outlets in your house.  Without electricity, your appliances, lights, heat/air conditioner, entertainment centers, and computers won’t work.  So it is with the body:  no primal energy, no life.

Electric wires malfunction when they become frayed, twisted, loose, or compressed.  The same happens to the meridians.  The fascia (a form of connective tissue) envelops every structure of the body, including blood vessels, nerves, lymph vessels, and meridians.  Its consistency varies from soft as gel to hard as bone.

With physical trauma, illness, inflammation, and just plain living, the fascia may become harder, lumpy, and sticky, loosing its elasticity and resilience.  Consequently, all the structures within it (down to the individual cell) become restricted, similar to being in a straight jacket, resulting in restricted movement, stiffness of joints, decreased blood and lymph flow, inconsistent nerve conduction, and impaired energy flow.

The tender points associated with fibromyalgia are actually acupoints on the lung, small intestine, gallbladder, bladder, stomach, spleen, and triple warmer meridians.  When energy becomes stuck, we can feel it as tenderness or pain in the acupoints.

The tender points correspond to the following acupoints and associated symptoms:

STOMACH MERIDIAN

• St 10 — on the sternocleidomastoid muscle (SCM) in the front of the neck — sore, swollen throat, difficulty breathing (dyspnea)
• St 15 — between the first and second rib — cough, difficulty breathing, chest pain, chest distention

LUNG MERIDIAN

• Lu 5 — by the elbow on the side of the thumb — cough, coughing blood, asthma, fullness in chest, tightness of elbow (hypertonicity of muscles attaching to the humerus above the elbow), elbow pain, tidal fever

SPLEEN

• Sp 10 — inner aspect of the knee — irregular menses (periods), pain on inner aspect of the thigh

TRIPLE WARMER

• Tb 15 — shoulder and arm pain, stiff neck, fever, chills, heat without sweating

SMALL INTESTINE

• SI 12 — pain in shoulder blade
• SI 13 — stiff neck, neck pain
• SI 14 — as above
• SI 15 — cough, asthma, shoulder and back pain

BLADDER

• Bl 9 — at the back of the head (occiput) where the neck starts — headaches, eye pain and redness, nasal congestion, stiff neck
• Bl 53 — at the dimples in the low back (sacroiliac joint) — abdominal bloating, back pain
• Bl 54 — right below Bl 53 — lumbosacral (lower back) pain, hemorrhoids

GALLBLADDER

• Gb 30 — at the hip joint — lumbar (low back) pain, hip pain, weakness of legs

Chinese medicine uses acupressure and acupuncture to re-establish and rebalance the flow of energy.

Craniosacral therapy and energetic unwinding of the spine, joints & muscles help the body to release the restrictions within the fascia, thus opening up the meridians and letting the energy flow again.  These therapies are extremely gentle, noninvasive, and very effective.