Celeste Cooper
Rheumatology
Bio:
Celeste Cooper is the author of Integrative Therapies for
Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and Myofascial Pain: The
Mind-Body Connection, (co-author, Jeff Miller,
PhD)
She is a retired advanced trained registered nurse. She cared
and mentored others, and practiced as a clinical educator who
wrote and implemented continuing education programs.
She has
...Credentials:
Education
- Legal Nurse Consultant, Kaplan University
- BSN, Webster University
Board Certifications
- Emergency Nursing, Board of Certified Emergency Nursing, 1993 - 2003
- Author Nursing CEUs, Missouri State Board of Nursing, 1993-1997
Jack Backwards, Fibromyalgia, the stress response what you can do about it.
Stress is the body’s protective response to bullying. It threatens our homeostasis (balance and well being) and initiates the fight or flight response, elevating vital signs, and preparing the body for battle. However, once the challenge is met, it has outlived its usefulness as the body’s gate keeper. This sustained stress has a reverse affect, elevating blood pressure, heart rate when it is not needed, burdening the body’s ability to achieve balance.
Stress causes cognitive, emotional, physical, and behavioral symptoms, and is particularly important to control in fibromyalgia. Cortisol, the stress hormone, rises in response to being bullied and when its effect is achieved, this rise normally triggers the relaxation response. However, in fibromyalgia, “reduced adrenal reactivity has been noted, particularly lowered cortisol release, even though free cortisol is unaltered, suggesting we somehow adapt to the reduced cortisol. … Because release of cortisol is low in some FM patients, it may not trigger the relaxation response that should follow, meaning the “stress state” never lets up.” (Cooper and Miller, 2010).
Mindfulness, creative visualization, guided meditation, biofeedback, Qi Gong, Yoga, and T’ai Chi (discussed in length in Chapter 5 of our book “The Power of Mind, Body, and Spirit”) are all good ways of learning how to turn down the volume on your stress meter. Identify known stressors and try to particularly avoid them when you are having a flare in symptoms.
This blog is in response to the question, “ How does understanding stress help with treating fibromyalgia? Celeste, Fibromyalgia Expert at ShareCare.com
View other questions answered at my profile, Celeste Cooper
All blogs, posts and answers are based on the work in Integrative Therapies for Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and Myofascial Pain: The Mind-Body Connection by Celeste Cooper, RN, and Jeff Miller, PhD. 2010, Vermont: Healing Arts press and are not meant to replace medical advice. http://www.thesethree.com
Resources:
Cooper, C. and Miller, J. (2010) Integrative Therapies for Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and Myofascial Pain: The Mind-Body Connection. Vermont: Healing Arts Press
K. Wingenfeld, C. Heim, I. Schmidt, D. Wagner, G. Meinlschmidt, and D. H. Hellhammer, “HPA Axis Reactivity and Lymphocyte Glucocorticoid Sensitivity in Fibromyalgia Syndrome and Chronic Pelvic Pain,” Psychosomatic Medicine (December 2007).
