Dr. Regina Gilliland of Birmingham recommends a comprehensive treatment regimen to alleviate all areas affected by fibromyalgia, including physical, spiritual and mental.
“A person is created with mental, physical and spiritual aspects so I develop a treatment strategy that encompasses the whole problem,” Gilliland said. “You can’t separate the physical body from the spiritual and mental.”
Gilliland, who is a member of Mountain Brook Community Church, Birmingham, said she feels that ministering to those who suffer from fibromyalgia is her missions field. “The Lord has given me empathy for patients with chronic pain. They need someone to hold their hands and tell them there’s hope,” she said.
For her patients, Gilliland offers this strategy that includes areas of treatment ranging from those usually prescribed by doctors to others that could be considered alternative medicine.
Better health strategy
1. Good treatment starts with a good diagnosis. Be sure you’re diagnosed properly.
2. Proper education
3. Medication, both commercial medicines and specially compounded medicines such as topical ointments and injectable medicines
4. Balanced nutritional plan
5. Exercise that begins gradually and builds to greater levels is the most important treatment, according to Dr. Louis Heck, a rheumatologist with Birmingham’s Kirklin Clinic. Gilliland recommends seeing a physical therapist or a rehabilitation specialist for exercises that target fibromyalgia-specific areas.
6. Therapies provided by specialized therapists, such as physical therapy, massage therapy and water therapy
7. Heat therapy such as heating pads and hot tubs for stiff and sore joints
8. Light therapy that uses full-spectrum light bulbs to keep the body’s circadian rhythms on time.
9. Avoid and learn how to manage stress
10. Prayer.
Heck recommended one patient, Beth Webster of First Baptist Church, Glencoe, to pray daily with her husband. “It’s really hard for people who have fibromyalgia to admit that we need prayer, but when I do, he stops and prays for me,” Webster said. “To hear someone else pray for your needs is encouraging, because it makes you feel like you’re not so alone. You feel supported and you know that they are your prayer warrior.”
Webster said she also developed a power card (see card below) to encourage her as she deals with fibromyalgia. “It’s just something the Lord gave to me when I really needed it,” she said. “It reminds me where my strength is coming from and that when I am weakest, then the Lord is strongest.”
That relationship with the Lord, along with a program of exercise, a balanced diet and taking medications for certain symptoms has helped Webster maintain a proactive approach that reduces the frequency of flareups of her symptoms. “The journey of living victoriously with fibromyalgia begins with my moment-by-moment submission to the Lord in every area,” she said. “If I manage it, I do better.”
Gilliland said because of their faith, many Christian patients may be wary of alternative treatments such as massage and acupuncture because of their association with Eastern mysticism and practices.
To alleviate anxiety about treatments that could be extremely helpful, Gilliland recommends patients thoroughly research the practitioners they may see.
“Patients need to be informed about the type of treatments they’ll receive and seek out alternate care providers whose beliefs are compatible with their own,” she said.
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