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The Alexander Technique is a method of conditioning your body to move in a way that reduces stress to your muscles and skeleton. This fact has led many people to suggest that it could be a good way to treat fibromyalgia. After all, fibromyalgia is a classified as a musculoskeletal disease. Logically, a treatment that reduces musculoskeletal pain should help reduce the pain of fibromyalgia as well. But does that theory work out in practice? Let’s talk about the Alexander Technique and whether it can help with fibromyalgia pain.
What Is The Alexander Technique?
The Alexander Technique was created in the 1890’s by a man named Frederick Alexander. Alexander was a theatre actor who found one day after years of reciting Shakespeare on the stage that he could no longer speak as loudly. Doctors examining Alexander could find no physical cause for the damage to his voice, leaving Alexander’s future as an actor in serious doubt.
Refusing to give up his dream, Alexander set to figuring out how to fix the problem himself. He theorized that the problem was rooted in the way he used his muscles. Alexander examined his posture in mirrors from every angle and realized that when he spoke, he was subconsciously tensing his muscles and shifting his posture in an unnatural way. By imitating the artificial way that other actors move, Alexander had abandoned the way the body is naturally designed to function.
So, Alexander began to consciously unlearn all the artificial movements he was used to and simply let the body work the way it was designed. By doing so, Alexander managed to cure the damage to his voice. Then, he set out to teach others how to cure themselves. His technique grew over the following decades and helped a number of famous people like Aldous Huxley and George Bernard Shaw.
Today, the technique is still in use, and many people swear by it as a way to help with a wide variety of pain. Basically, the technique works like this:
- You seek the help of a trained instructor who will observe your posture and movements.
- The teacher then makes adjustments to your motions and trains you to be conscious of these movements and perform them more naturally.
- This more natural way of moving puts less stress on the muscles and skeleton, thus relieving pain.
Proponents of the Alexander Technique argue that it can cure a number of health problems like breathing difficulties or back pain. But can it work for fibromyalgia? Let’s look at the evidence.
Can It Help With Fibromyalgia?
There’s significant debate about whether or not the Alexander Technique is actually effective for treating different health problems. Most of the problem lies in the fact that the technique hasn’t really been studied as a medical treatment. There are not many good, peer-reviewed trials testing the technique for conditions like asthma or fibromyalgia. As a result, most established medical authorities consider it an experimental treatment.
But that doesn’t mean that they don’t recommend it. There are many doctors and health organizations that do suggest using the Alexander technique for people who suffer from musculoskeletal pain. And there is some evidence that the technique can benefit patients who suffer from chronic pain.
One of the most recent studies of the technique from the UK NHS Choices organization found that it can be effective for treating long-term neck or back pain and Parkinson’s disease. But that same study found that there was little evidence to suggest it works for other conditions like asthma, headaches, or osteoarthritis.
So does it work for fibromyalgia? The truth is that there just isn’t a lot of scientific evidence to suggest it does. But that situation is familiar to anyone with fibromyalgia. It seems like everyone with the condition has a treatment that they swear by that simply isn’t recognized by the medical community. Many people with fibromyalgia say that things like CBD oil are effective for people with fibromyalgia, but not many scientists haven’t taken the time to seriously investigate it.
So, while there just isn’t enough evidence to say that the Alexander Technique is definitely effective for fibromyalgia, it might still be worth a try. Many people who try the technique believe that it does help their fibromyalgia. The good news is that it costs little to arrange a few sessions and try it out for yourself, and there are really no risks associated with the method. And if it doesn’t improve your fibromyalgia, you may find that it provides other benefits.
Let us know, have you tried the Alexander Technique for your fibromyalgia? What did you think? Tell us in the comments.
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