Fibromyalgia
By Dr Mercola
When I started my medical practice over two decades ago, fibromyalgia was so commonly missed that by the time the average person was finally diagnosed, they’d been seeing various physicians for nine or ten years. Today, the pendulum seems to have swung the other way, and it’s likely that a lot of people are being misdiagnosed with this condition. It has unfortunately become a convenient catch-all for a variety of complaints.
However, there’s no doubt that fibromyalgia is a very real, painful, and sometimes debilitating health condition.
It’s estimated that 2 percent to 4 percent of the U.S. population has fibromyalgia, and nine out of 10 are women. As more research like the study above comes out, it should put to rest the controversy over whether or not fibromyalgia is “real.”
And, yes, fibromyalgia is a real, sometimes debilitating illness. People who suffer from it often report pain all over their bodies -- including in their muscles, ligaments and tendons -- along with a feeling of exhaustion. There are also typically “tender points,” or places on your body where even a slight pressure causes serious pain.
Physical Proof of Fibromyalgia
The causes of fibromyalgia are still unknown, although some experts, such as Dr. Frederick Wolfe, the director of the National Databank for Rheumatic Diseases and the lead author of the 1990 paper that first defined fibromyalgia’s diagnostic guidelines, believe fibromyalgia is mainly a physical response to mental and emotional stress, depression, and anxiety about economic and social issues.
I would have to agree with his assertion, as nearly every person I have seen with fibromyalgia has suffered from an underlying emotional component.
This does NOT mean that fibromyalgia is “all in your head.” As the study above showed, SPECT imaging found that women with fibromyalgia had blood flow abnormalities in their brains. Specifically, an increase in blood flow was found in the brain region known to discriminate pain intensity.
A similar study conducted several years ago had nearly identical results. In it fibromyalgia patients underwent a type of detailed brain scan known as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while an instrument intermittently applied different levels of pressure to their left thumbnail.
When all study participants received the same level of mild pressure, blood flow increased much more in the brains of patients with fibromyalgia than among those in the control group. As in the more recent study, the increased blood flow -- which is a "surrogate measure" for nerve activity -- occurred in areas of the brain known to be associated with pain.
In addition, when study participants were subjected to different levels of pressure, fibromyalgia patients reported pain at half the level of pressure that caused the same feelings of pain among the healthy controls. So something appears to be awry with the way the central nervous system processes painful stimuli in fibromyalgia patients.
A Brief Warning About Lyrica
The pain of fibromyalgia can be severe, and most people do not respond to conventional painkillers. So it’s easy to see why there was such fanfare when the FDA approved Lyrica, the first medicine approved to treat fibromyalgia pain.
Lyrica is a drug originally designed for diabetic nerve pain that was rejected because of its unimpressive results and many side effects, including weight gain, edema, dizziness and sleepiness.
One of the primary concerns surrounding Lyrica is the tendency for this drug to cause substantial weight gain, especially considering that many fibromyalgia patients are already overweight. In three-month trials of the drug, 9 percent of patients had a weight gain of more than 7 percent, and their weight kept rising steadily over time.
And, as you may already suspect, this is a steep risk, considering that fibromyalgia cannot be cured with a pill.
Unfortunately, there is still no specific diagnostic test that is conventionally appreciated to diagnose someone with this condition. Rather you will have to meet certain clinical criteria -- the most common one being hypersensitivity to pain.
Signs and Symptoms of Fibromyalgia
One of the most important criteria to determine whether or not you may have fibromyalgia is significant pain in very specific areas of your body, including:
People also frequently report pain all over their bodies -- including in their muscles, ligaments and tendons -- along with a feeling of exhaustion, as well as a variety of other nebulous conditions, such as:
In fact, part of an effective treatment program is to make sure you’re sleeping better.
The typical treatment strategy you’ll be offered, if seen by a conventional physician, is some form of pain medication, and perhaps psychotropic drugs like antidepressants. I don’t recommend either of them because they do not address the cause of your problem in any way shape or form.
Additionally, many fibromyalgia sufferers do not respond to conventional painkillers, which can set in motion a vicious circle of overmedicating on these dangerous drugs.
Easing Fibromyalgia Pain and Symptoms the Natural Way
A natural treatment program for fibromyalgia should involve a three-pronged approach:
1. Emotional Repair
Bioenergetic normalization of previous emotional traumas is the single most effective treatment I know of for fibromyalgia at this time.
There are many different techniques that can be used here, but the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) is still my favorite. EFT is a procedure that borrows from the much-heralded discoveries of Albert Einstein (everything, including your body, is composed of energy) AND from the ancient wisdom of Chinese acupuncture.
For a look at the sometimes spectacular results EFT has with Fibromyalgia read this article from the EFT Web site – “Fibromyalgia Patient—“I forgot what pain is all about.”
In essence, EFT is an emotional version of acupuncture except that needles are not involved. Instead, certain release points are stimulated by tapping them with your fingertips. Further, the basics of EFT can be learned by anyone and can be self-applied (usually in minutes).
2. Dietary Changes
People with fibromyalgia may experience reductions in their symptoms by eliminating one or more foods from their diet, including:
• Corn
• Wheat
• Dairy
• Citrus
• Soy
• Nuts
Following my nutrition plan, including identifying your nutritional type, will help you in eliminating these foods. One study showed that nearly half of the patients reported “significant reduction of pain” after two weeks without eating any of the potential food allergens, and more than 75 percent reported a reduction of other symptoms such as headache, fatigue and bloating.
3. Exercise
People suffering from fibromyalgia pain tend to shy away from exercise, and understandably so. However, research shows that a combination of aerobic activity and strength training can improve fibromyalgia symptoms.
In one study by Harvard researchers, after exercising for 20 weeks, women with this condition reported improved muscle strength and endurance, and lessening of their symptoms including pain, stiffness, fatigue and depression.
If you or someone you love has fibromyalgia, I highly recommend working with an exercise specialist who can teach you exercises that will safely facilitate your healing process.
Finally, as you work to normalize your emotional traumas the following therapies can further help to reduce pain and get you back on track to optimal health:
• Neurostructural Integration Technique (NST) -- NST is a series of gentle massage-like techniques that have profound and amazing muscle normalization effects. Unlike massage, or most manipulation or adjustments, the benefits seem to be long lasting; generally 3-10 minute sessions are all it takes for permanent relief -- assuming you have addressed problem foods and previous emotional traumas.
You can go to our NST therapist page to find a therapist close to you.
• Chiropractic Care -- Especially the disciplines in chiropractic that address the emotional components, like TBM, NET and BEST. Dr. Kent provides some excellent recommendations on how to locate a good chiropractor if you don’t currently know of one.
• Acupuncture -- Western studies have shown that the use of acupuncture on pain-relief points cuts the blood flow to key areas of your brain within seconds, which may explain how this ancient technique might help relieve pain. It’s also been suggested that acupuncture may help support the activity of your body's natural pain-killing chemicals, and studies have found it to provide relief from fibromyalgia pain for up to 16 weeks.
.
Effective Drug-Free Treatment Strategies for Fibromyalgia
Get Proper Sleep -- Sleeping well should be first on your list of essential treatment strategies. It’s important to realize that even if you lead a very healthy lifestyle – which includes getting appropriate sun exposure to optimize your vitamin D levels, eating organic, locally grown food, exercising and having low amounts of emotional stress – if you’re not sleeping properly you will definitely experience negative health consequences, despite all your other efforts.
Implement a regular exercise regimen -- One of the most important strategies to help you sleep better is regular exercise.
Unfortunately, people suffering from fibromyalgia pain tend to shy away from exercise, and understandably so. But research shows that a combination of aerobic activity and strength training can actually improve fibromyalgia symptoms.
In one study by Harvard researchers, after exercising for 20 weeks, women with fibromyalgia reported improved muscle strength and endurance, and lessening of their symptoms including pain, stiffness, fatigue and depression.
Now, it’s important to remember that tolerance is a key point if you suffer from fibromyalgia. You don’t want to do exercises that will worsen your condition.
If you perform an exercise that aggravates your pain within a few hours or the next day, it’s a good gauge that you’ve done too much and need to back off, or switch to something else. You’ll need to slowly but surely progress into a program that will make you better.
Ideally, you’ll want to get up to an hour per day, varying your exercise routine so that you’re not doing the same exercises each day.
You’ll want to strive for a combination of aerobic, anaerobic, burst-sprint type exercises and strength training, preferably supervised by an exercise professional. But again, always take into account your own tolerance to each exercise.
Optimize your vitamin D levels -- Interestingly, some of the new research in vitamin D shows it is very effective for muscle pain, so I strongly encourage you, not just for fibromyalgia but for numerous other reasons as well, to make sure you have your vitamin D levels tested.
And, if you are deficient, follow my recommendations on how to optimize your levels, as this could make a significant difference in your overall health. For more information, I recommend you watch my free one-hour lecture on vitamin D.
Eat right – “Eating right” includes avoiding processed foods, and concentrating on fresh, whole foods. Ideally foods that are both organic and locally-grown. You’ll also want to eat foods that are appropriate for your nutritional type because we all have an ideal mixture of proteins, fats and carbohydrates that we were designed to eat based on biochemistry and genetics, and this varies from person to person.
There are, however, several food items that can aggravate fibromyalgia symptoms and should be avoided as much as possible, including:
• Corn
• Wheat
• Dairy
• Citrus
• Soy
• Nuts
Address your emotional challenges – In my experience, nearly all fibromyalgia sufferers have some form of underlying emotional challenge that contributes to their condition.
There are many ways to address your emotional issues, including meditation and prayer. In my practice, we like to use the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) as it is a very powerful, effective, and rapidly useful method to resolve emotional blocks on an energetic level.
For a look at the sometimes spectacular results EFT has with Fibromyalgia read this article from the EFT Web site – “Fibromyalgia Patient—“I forgot what pain is all about.”
If you start applying these techniques you likely will not need to rely on conventional drug therapy to help relieve some of the symptoms associated with fibromyalgia.
When I started my medical practice over two decades ago, fibromyalgia was so commonly missed that by the time the average person was finally diagnosed, they’d been seeing various physicians for nine or ten years. Today, the pendulum seems to have swung the other way, and it’s likely that a lot of people are being misdiagnosed with this condition. It has unfortunately become a convenient catch-all for a variety of complaints.
However, there’s no doubt that fibromyalgia is a very real, painful, and sometimes debilitating health condition.
It’s estimated that 2 percent to 4 percent of the U.S. population has fibromyalgia, and nine out of 10 are women. As more research like the study above comes out, it should put to rest the controversy over whether or not fibromyalgia is “real.”
And, yes, fibromyalgia is a real, sometimes debilitating illness. People who suffer from it often report pain all over their bodies -- including in their muscles, ligaments and tendons -- along with a feeling of exhaustion. There are also typically “tender points,” or places on your body where even a slight pressure causes serious pain.
Physical Proof of Fibromyalgia
The causes of fibromyalgia are still unknown, although some experts, such as Dr. Frederick Wolfe, the director of the National Databank for Rheumatic Diseases and the lead author of the 1990 paper that first defined fibromyalgia’s diagnostic guidelines, believe fibromyalgia is mainly a physical response to mental and emotional stress, depression, and anxiety about economic and social issues.
I would have to agree with his assertion, as nearly every person I have seen with fibromyalgia has suffered from an underlying emotional component.
This does NOT mean that fibromyalgia is “all in your head.” As the study above showed, SPECT imaging found that women with fibromyalgia had blood flow abnormalities in their brains. Specifically, an increase in blood flow was found in the brain region known to discriminate pain intensity.
A similar study conducted several years ago had nearly identical results. In it fibromyalgia patients underwent a type of detailed brain scan known as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while an instrument intermittently applied different levels of pressure to their left thumbnail.
When all study participants received the same level of mild pressure, blood flow increased much more in the brains of patients with fibromyalgia than among those in the control group. As in the more recent study, the increased blood flow -- which is a "surrogate measure" for nerve activity -- occurred in areas of the brain known to be associated with pain.
In addition, when study participants were subjected to different levels of pressure, fibromyalgia patients reported pain at half the level of pressure that caused the same feelings of pain among the healthy controls. So something appears to be awry with the way the central nervous system processes painful stimuli in fibromyalgia patients.
A Brief Warning About Lyrica
The pain of fibromyalgia can be severe, and most people do not respond to conventional painkillers. So it’s easy to see why there was such fanfare when the FDA approved Lyrica, the first medicine approved to treat fibromyalgia pain.
Lyrica is a drug originally designed for diabetic nerve pain that was rejected because of its unimpressive results and many side effects, including weight gain, edema, dizziness and sleepiness.
One of the primary concerns surrounding Lyrica is the tendency for this drug to cause substantial weight gain, especially considering that many fibromyalgia patients are already overweight. In three-month trials of the drug, 9 percent of patients had a weight gain of more than 7 percent, and their weight kept rising steadily over time.
And, as you may already suspect, this is a steep risk, considering that fibromyalgia cannot be cured with a pill.
Unfortunately, there is still no specific diagnostic test that is conventionally appreciated to diagnose someone with this condition. Rather you will have to meet certain clinical criteria -- the most common one being hypersensitivity to pain.
Signs and Symptoms of Fibromyalgia
One of the most important criteria to determine whether or not you may have fibromyalgia is significant pain in very specific areas of your body, including:
- Inside of your elbows
- Your collar bones
- Inside of your knees
- Your hips
People also frequently report pain all over their bodies -- including in their muscles, ligaments and tendons -- along with a feeling of exhaustion, as well as a variety of other nebulous conditions, such as:
- Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
- Depression
- Ringing of the ears (tinnitus)
- Headaches
In fact, part of an effective treatment program is to make sure you’re sleeping better.
The typical treatment strategy you’ll be offered, if seen by a conventional physician, is some form of pain medication, and perhaps psychotropic drugs like antidepressants. I don’t recommend either of them because they do not address the cause of your problem in any way shape or form.
Additionally, many fibromyalgia sufferers do not respond to conventional painkillers, which can set in motion a vicious circle of overmedicating on these dangerous drugs.
Easing Fibromyalgia Pain and Symptoms the Natural Way
A natural treatment program for fibromyalgia should involve a three-pronged approach:
1. Emotional Repair
Bioenergetic normalization of previous emotional traumas is the single most effective treatment I know of for fibromyalgia at this time.
There are many different techniques that can be used here, but the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) is still my favorite. EFT is a procedure that borrows from the much-heralded discoveries of Albert Einstein (everything, including your body, is composed of energy) AND from the ancient wisdom of Chinese acupuncture.
For a look at the sometimes spectacular results EFT has with Fibromyalgia read this article from the EFT Web site – “Fibromyalgia Patient—“I forgot what pain is all about.”
In essence, EFT is an emotional version of acupuncture except that needles are not involved. Instead, certain release points are stimulated by tapping them with your fingertips. Further, the basics of EFT can be learned by anyone and can be self-applied (usually in minutes).
2. Dietary Changes
People with fibromyalgia may experience reductions in their symptoms by eliminating one or more foods from their diet, including:
• Corn
• Wheat
• Dairy
• Citrus
• Soy
• Nuts
Following my nutrition plan, including identifying your nutritional type, will help you in eliminating these foods. One study showed that nearly half of the patients reported “significant reduction of pain” after two weeks without eating any of the potential food allergens, and more than 75 percent reported a reduction of other symptoms such as headache, fatigue and bloating.
3. Exercise
People suffering from fibromyalgia pain tend to shy away from exercise, and understandably so. However, research shows that a combination of aerobic activity and strength training can improve fibromyalgia symptoms.
In one study by Harvard researchers, after exercising for 20 weeks, women with this condition reported improved muscle strength and endurance, and lessening of their symptoms including pain, stiffness, fatigue and depression.
If you or someone you love has fibromyalgia, I highly recommend working with an exercise specialist who can teach you exercises that will safely facilitate your healing process.
Finally, as you work to normalize your emotional traumas the following therapies can further help to reduce pain and get you back on track to optimal health:
• Neurostructural Integration Technique (NST) -- NST is a series of gentle massage-like techniques that have profound and amazing muscle normalization effects. Unlike massage, or most manipulation or adjustments, the benefits seem to be long lasting; generally 3-10 minute sessions are all it takes for permanent relief -- assuming you have addressed problem foods and previous emotional traumas.
You can go to our NST therapist page to find a therapist close to you.
• Chiropractic Care -- Especially the disciplines in chiropractic that address the emotional components, like TBM, NET and BEST. Dr. Kent provides some excellent recommendations on how to locate a good chiropractor if you don’t currently know of one.
• Acupuncture -- Western studies have shown that the use of acupuncture on pain-relief points cuts the blood flow to key areas of your brain within seconds, which may explain how this ancient technique might help relieve pain. It’s also been suggested that acupuncture may help support the activity of your body's natural pain-killing chemicals, and studies have found it to provide relief from fibromyalgia pain for up to 16 weeks.
.
Effective Drug-Free Treatment Strategies for Fibromyalgia
Get Proper Sleep -- Sleeping well should be first on your list of essential treatment strategies. It’s important to realize that even if you lead a very healthy lifestyle – which includes getting appropriate sun exposure to optimize your vitamin D levels, eating organic, locally grown food, exercising and having low amounts of emotional stress – if you’re not sleeping properly you will definitely experience negative health consequences, despite all your other efforts.
Implement a regular exercise regimen -- One of the most important strategies to help you sleep better is regular exercise.
Unfortunately, people suffering from fibromyalgia pain tend to shy away from exercise, and understandably so. But research shows that a combination of aerobic activity and strength training can actually improve fibromyalgia symptoms.
In one study by Harvard researchers, after exercising for 20 weeks, women with fibromyalgia reported improved muscle strength and endurance, and lessening of their symptoms including pain, stiffness, fatigue and depression.
Now, it’s important to remember that tolerance is a key point if you suffer from fibromyalgia. You don’t want to do exercises that will worsen your condition.
If you perform an exercise that aggravates your pain within a few hours or the next day, it’s a good gauge that you’ve done too much and need to back off, or switch to something else. You’ll need to slowly but surely progress into a program that will make you better.
Ideally, you’ll want to get up to an hour per day, varying your exercise routine so that you’re not doing the same exercises each day.
You’ll want to strive for a combination of aerobic, anaerobic, burst-sprint type exercises and strength training, preferably supervised by an exercise professional. But again, always take into account your own tolerance to each exercise.
Optimize your vitamin D levels -- Interestingly, some of the new research in vitamin D shows it is very effective for muscle pain, so I strongly encourage you, not just for fibromyalgia but for numerous other reasons as well, to make sure you have your vitamin D levels tested.
And, if you are deficient, follow my recommendations on how to optimize your levels, as this could make a significant difference in your overall health. For more information, I recommend you watch my free one-hour lecture on vitamin D.
Eat right – “Eating right” includes avoiding processed foods, and concentrating on fresh, whole foods. Ideally foods that are both organic and locally-grown. You’ll also want to eat foods that are appropriate for your nutritional type because we all have an ideal mixture of proteins, fats and carbohydrates that we were designed to eat based on biochemistry and genetics, and this varies from person to person.
There are, however, several food items that can aggravate fibromyalgia symptoms and should be avoided as much as possible, including:
• Corn
• Wheat
• Dairy
• Citrus
• Soy
• Nuts
Address your emotional challenges – In my experience, nearly all fibromyalgia sufferers have some form of underlying emotional challenge that contributes to their condition.
There are many ways to address your emotional issues, including meditation and prayer. In my practice, we like to use the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) as it is a very powerful, effective, and rapidly useful method to resolve emotional blocks on an energetic level.
For a look at the sometimes spectacular results EFT has with Fibromyalgia read this article from the EFT Web site – “Fibromyalgia Patient—“I forgot what pain is all about.”
If you start applying these techniques you likely will not need to rely on conventional drug therapy to help relieve some of the symptoms associated with fibromyalgia.
