Alternative modalities

[Annie savin]

Is there research that tells if red light therapy is helpful ?

 

[sunkacola]

I don't know of any legitimate research into this, and doubt that there will be any because the concept is flawed to begin with. There's no scientific reason that aiming a red light at some part of your body or sitting in front of or under a red light, (or any other color of light), would make a difference in how a person feels or in the level of disease in a person. If it helps someone to do that, then that's great, but it would be purely a placebo effect. (Nothing wrong with placebos, mind you, if they somehow help a person).

 

[jacqfedup39]

I am really suffering from alot of fibro pain.I know that there no magic treatment. But nobody recommend anything because we are all different, and somethings will work and some will not .
There are drugs that have been tested but still in end stages of become on the market privately or nhs will not ok them because the price?
Because no-one help ,we stay in pain and life is ticking by.
PLEASE CAN ANYONE TELL ME WHAT KIND OF LIGHT THERAPY AND WHAT MAKE AND LEVEL ?
AND DOES CANNABIS WORK?
We all have a duty to each other be more active on finding treatments and testing them if possible.
One treatment might help 20% of fibromyalgia suffers have other options to try help.
Sorry but am in so much pain, it makes me mad that there is not many items approved by NHS.
Ask for nhs mediqi catalogue and its all for chronic illness or old age.And nhs chronic pain management don't know what to say.
Thanks
Love
Jacqueline x

Jacqueline

 

[sunkacola]

Hi Jacqueline,

There's no light therapy that is known to work. But if you want to try it, there's no chance that it will make things worse either. Do some research on it online and give it a try if you want to, but don't get rooked in to some scam site that is going to charge you hundreds for a flashlight with a red bulb in it.

As for cannabis........that's another thing you just have to try.
The thing is, no one can tell you what will work for you, only what has worked for them.
I use medical grade cannabis regularly in tinctures and gummies (not smoke) and I find it helps in some ways with some kinds of pain and not in other ways with other kinds of pain. I also use CBD but for me it only works if it is combined with THC.

People can tell you what drugs work for them, but for every person who says this particular drug works well for them there will be another who says that it gave them terrible side effects or else did nothing at all. So, again, you just have to try things for yourself.

this is very frustrating, to be sure. But unfortunately, none of us can do any better that just to tell each other of our own experience and then each of us has to find out for ourselves.

 

[BlueBells]

Hi @jacqfedup39

I understand how you feel frustrated, you are certainly not alone there. I'm sure you've browsed the forums and realise that.

PLEASE CAN ANYONE TELL ME WHAT KIND OF LIGHT THERAPY AND WHAT MAKE AND LEVEL ?
AND DOES CANNABIS WORK?
We all have a duty to each other be more active on finding treatments and testing them if possible.

Light therapy. to my knowledge, the post by @Annie savin is the first I've heard of it. That being the case, just be patient and wait for this thread to grow.

I find your comment :

We all have a duty to each other be more active on finding treatments and testing them if possible.

rather inappropriate. This whole site is people with fibro supporting each other. Not one of us has a "duty of care" to be more active on finding treatments. You have a Duty Of Care to do that for yourself. I find your tone rather demanding on the rest of us, and you do not have that right, and we do not have that obligation.

Cannibis. Exercise your personal Duty of Care. There is more than one thread on that topic if you care to search. Recently posted on, as well.

@sunkacola Apologies if I've come across harsh. The demanding tone just didn't sit well with me on a site where we are all doing our best for ourselves and supporting others as best we can.

 

[johnsalmon]

by light therapy I assume you might be talking about laser therapy - if so I cannot see how laser treatment could affect fibromyalgia as it is either a cns or autoimmune response not a muscle problem

 

[sunkacola]

by light therapy I assume you might be talking about laser therapy - if so I cannot see how laser treatment could affect fibromyalgia as it is either a cns or autoimmune response not a muscle problem

While it is still unknown what Fibro really is, I agree with this.

I have heard that some laser therapies can help with injured muscles, but that's not the issue with fibromyalgia. And, of course, even if a person were to do laser therapy it would require specialized equipment, not just a red lightbulb.

There are apparently some red light therapies, mostly for skin disorders, utilizing a LED bulb, but it has to be the correct light frequency to work, (if it even does) and most of what is available to purchase for home use is either a scam (just a red lightbulb that will do nothing) or is not strong enough to actually work.

There's no evidence that either of these would help with a condition like fibromyalgia.

On the other hand, if a person really believed that it would help and used it, there's always the possibility that the placebo effect would occur and a person might feel temporarily better. Nothing wrong with placebos, in my opinion. Whatever works.

 

[OldKarz]

Although I am lucky and most of my Fibro is controlled with the Tadalafil pills I sometimes push too far and the Fibro beaks through. When this happens I add TENS therapy for a few days. With the right placement and settings many of the bodies natural 'drugs' can be triggered - Dopamine etc. For some reason it works very quickly however I have to continue with it for a few days to drop to levels the Tadalfil can contain. I tried numerous places for the pads but found repeatability to be a problem. Looking to get a consistent placing I wanted an easy location point. There are two places I find guarantee placement - nipples. I am like many males that do not have a lot of feeling there, however the TENS can produce the required pulses.
Putting pads there IS NOT RECOMMENDED, since it is directly over the heart. You would have to decide whether the risk is worth it. I have run the settings much higher than needed without any negative reaction - however everyone is different.
I may be the only one this works for- Who knows.

 

[sunkacola]

TENS machine works for me for certain kinds of pain, especially in my legs.
Other kinds of pain in other areas, it doesn't help at all. It is definitely a therapy worth trying, though, if a person has not yet. Many physical therapy places have them, so you might be able to get an appointment to try one out before you spend the money to buy one, although they are not necessarily that expensive. I think mine cost about $50, although that was a few years ago now.

 

[johnsalmon]

Although I am lucky and most of my Fibro is controlled with the Tadalafil pills

I cannot see how Tadalafil (Cialis) would affect fibromyalgia it might give you a "happy" time for 36 hours with a partner which I agree could make one totally forget they had fibromyalgia. As to the placemen of the tens pad this could lead to a very short life span - I use tens for spinal problems but pain from say a pinched nerve in l5/l4 is totally different to the pain of fibromyalgia and I would doubt placing the pads any where along the spine would affect the pain of fibromyalgia

 

[sunkacola]

@johnsalmon your post has been edited to remove the outside links.
Please do not put outside links in your posts. This is against the forum rules, as I believe you already know.

 

[johnsalmon]

@johnsalmon your post has been edited to remove the outside links.
Please do not put outside links in your posts. This is against the forum rules, as I believe you already know.

there were no outside links !!!!

 

[sunkacola]

there were no outside links !!!!

Actually, there were.
I definitely wouldn't just make that up.

I understand from this post that you did not intend for them to be there, and that is good,
and I apologize to you for reminding you of rules since this was an error!

But I will always have to remove any part of a post that is an outside link.
I don't know how that happened since you did not put them there.....but it did.
computers are basically aliens to me, so I can't help there.

 

[OldKarz]

I cannot see how Tadalafil (Cialis) would affect fibromyalgia it might give you a "happy" time for 36 hours with a partner which I agree could make one totally forget they had fibromyalgia. As to the placemen of the tens pad this could lead to a very short life span - I use tens for spinal problems but pain from say a pinched nerve in l5/l4 is totally different to the pain of fibromyalgia and I would doubt placing the pads any where along the spine would affect the pain of fibromyalgia

Obviously you have not looked into the other uses for Tadalafil. It is used for many other things than the one you are limiting it to - it has no effect for me with regard to the 'normal purpose'. I started to use it to relieve leg cramps - which it does a good job of for me. For whatever reason it also reduced the Fibro symptoms and usually keeps it in check unless I 'overdo it'. Like all drugs to help with Fibro it works for some and not others. Its aid in blood flow is what I think may be beneficial.
As I noted the TENS placement is risky for some and not recommended - other locations may work as well if trials are done. None standard positions need to be tried. Placing on the pain points has no effect in my case.

 

[johnsalmon]

if it helps you then take it - it does have other off script uses main to do with the heart and blood flow for high altitude pilots - are you sure its tadalafil and not Tramadol. Tens works by blocking the signal from the nerve and or the returning pain signal from the brain. It appears that in fibromyalgia the brain simply sends out a pain signal to the muscle without any request from the muscle ie no actual pain action) ie it pains for no reason. Thus the problem is where to place the tens pads to intercept the pain signal;. more important is there an actual pain signal sent to the muscle or does it all occur in the brain. The nerve system related to the upper body positions of fibromyalgia come out of the spine high up the spine so the tens pads would be placed each side of the spine near the upper neck putting them on the front of the body would have no effect on the brachial plexus
I lived with a tens machine attached to m y belt for many years due to spinal problems and the first thing I did when told it was fibromyalgia was to try to use the tens machine to stop the pain - it was totally unsuccessful if fibromyalgia is an auto immune condition then tens will be no help if it is cns condition it could be a help however I believe the pain is totally with the brain ie the muscle does not send a signal to the brain that it is injured in some way thus no signals thus the tens can't help