dizziness - sleepiness - weight gain (15-20 lbs. the first month) - blurry vision
dry mouth - constipation - feeling "high" - swelling of hands and feet
balance problems - trouble concentrating - increased appetite - headache

Lastly, the studies said when patients stopped taking Lyrica all their symptoms came back.

Alternative treatments for fibromyalgia is a mixed bag. Chiropractic (alone) and massage give temporary relief, if the patient can tolerate it, because fibromyalgia symptoms are not caused by spinal misalignments or muscle problems. That's just where some of the symptoms occur. Acupuncture can help with many things, but not fibromyalgia. Besides, fibro patients have a healthy fear of needles. Vitamins and herbs are of little benefit by themselves. And what about those miracle juices? If it were only that simple…

Not to say that any of these treatments can't help. They might. But, like drugs, they don't get to the cause of fibromyalgia symptoms so any relief they might bring is almost always short lived.

Some patients who come to me have given up on everything. They don't take any drugs, except maybe over-the-counter pain meds, and they don't take any supplements. Can't say that I blame them, though, because nothing they tried helped.

At the risk of saying something terribly obvious, for any treatment to be effective it must address the causes of fibromyalgia symptoms. I believe that my treatment program does just that. Bold statement, I know, but I have statistics that say my treatment program is very effective at reliefing fibro symptoms.

You'll recall that fibromyalgia is a syndrome, or collection of symptoms. While pain is the symptom most patient really want fixed fast, it's not the only symptom. We track the top 13 symptoms of fibromyalgia as patient go through our treatment program. They fill out an analogue scale questionnaire every six treatments, rating themselves on a scale of 0-10.