Fibromyalgia

I never heard of Fibromyalgia until a couple years ago, and now I hear it all the time. It's just one of those things that I have been more aware of, but I am amazed at the frequency of the condition.  Fibromyalgia is a difficult condition because first it is defined mainly as "unexplained muscle pain" - It is not a disease, and so in the medical profession, since there is no "disease" to treat - there is nothing they can do.  Many I have talked to recently have been told repeatedly "The pain is in your head".

The second problem with Fibromyalgia is that it is often misdiagnosed.  There is a Standard tender point diagnostic tool.  There needs to be 11 out of 18 points that are active.  It seems simple, but is often a challenge and not always followed  This poses as a problem because it is often difficult to reverse the diagnoses and it can hurt employment opportunities or insurance.  The most common differential diagnoses is myofascial trigger points because of its muscle pain description.  Here is a table of the two conditions:

  Fibromyalgia                                                       Trigger Points
  * Widespread pain                                               * Local pain
       (If you can't point to pain with one finger)               (Located with one or two fingers)
  * Soft and doughy muscles                                  * Hard and tense muscles
  * No radiating or referred pain                               * Radiating or referred pain
  * 5:1  more common in females                            * Equal ratio - 1:1

Fibromyalgia can be a very difficult condition to treat - especially if it is not fully understood.  Like many conditions I have recently posted, Fibromyalgia is a chronic stress condition.  It is often associated with a chronic illness or depression.  Fibromyalgia can either be the cause of these, or the result.  When one is in pain, their activity decreases and soon depression sets in.  On the other hand, depression can also create unexplained pain in the body.  They go hand in hand and are often found  together.  Being a stress disorder, Fibromyalgia is more specifically the lack of muscle metabolism. During stress, our body is in an active moment, innately to survive, utilizing our energy sources to run away from danger.  Once our energy sources are depleted, our muscles switch from aerobic metabolism into anaerobic - in this cycle the end product is lactic acid which creates muscle pain.  This is what happens when we work out, we tend to go beyond the capacity of our muscle and soon they switch into anaerobic metabolism and creates that soreness we always feel the day after.  This is normal and uneventful as long as we rest and let our muscles recover.  However, if we never relieve of our selves of stress then our muscles never recover - stuck on anaerobic metabolism and building up of lactic acid.  Our muscles are depleted of all other energy sources.  This is not something that happens over night - it is something that takes several months to even years to occur - depending on the stress levels we face.

Understanding the condition, we can now development a more appropriate treatment.  I think there are two major aspects to focus on  - stress and nutrition.  Remember, this is a chronic condition and so it will take time - up to several months to see improvement.

1.  De-stress - There are  four major ways to reduce stress in their lives.  I suggest finding at least 30 min a day using one of these activities, or maybe all four together

• Chiropractic care - stress regulated under the Autonomic nervous system.  Certain adjustments can help balance the ANS and reduce stress
• Yoga - There are some great yoga exercises that focuses on breathing techniques to help one reduce stress
• Meditation - similar to yoga and implemented into the exercises, but can be done alone and is very beneficial. Meditation can take place in many forms, either as in solitude or even as in prayer
• Exercise - this is a major benefit, but need to be done in caution.  We don't want to stress the muscles any further, so must be done with proper nutritional support and appropriate exercises must be implemented.  A low intensity exercise is best - which can be as simple as a 30 min walk.  Don't push yourself, don't do more than needs to be - or else more stress will be induced.
• Others - These four major stress reducers are necessary and need to be a committed task on a daily bases.  Once these are established, there are some minor things that can be done depending on the person's lifestyle.  These are minor (sometimes major) changes we need to make in our lives I think which can be done by an individual bases.  However, we often know what is causing our stress and we let it take over our lives.  It can be work, school ,or something going on at home.  There are some minor things as well that we don't realize, like listening to the news which only creates bad thoughts and  fear.  Sometimes we cannot eliminate some of these stressers, but we can manage them better in our lives. 

2.  Nutritional Support - The foods we eat can also create stress.  There are foods we need to avoid, like Sugar, Artificial Sweeteners (Splenda, Nutra-Sweet, anything that says Diet or sugar-free) , and Preservatives.  There may be certain foods we may be allergic to that would be helpful to be tested for.  Mainly for Fibromyalgia - this is about nutritional support.  This is about replacing the body with nutrients and energy that our bodies have depleted to help our muscles recover and to work properly again in aerobic metabolism

• Vitamin B12 and Folate - B12 is often found in meats, a small portion is sufficient.  Folic acid is mainly found in green leafy vegetables
• Acetyl L-Carnitine - Carnitine is a major component in muscle that has been lost
• Co-Q10 - This is also called Ubiquinone or Ubiquinol.  This is a major factor in aerobic metabolism.
• Vitamin D and E  - These are two vitamins often found lacking in fibromyalgia patients
• Magnesium - Magnesium is beneficial for muscles
• Others - Unfortunately for my lack of experience, there are a couple other methods that I would like to see the results for before recommending - however, I can see two other things being very beneficial for this type of condition and would be worth looking into

                   1. Guto Kola Complex - This is a Standard Process product.  This is a product that is designed                     to help with pain, inflammation, and one thing I can see it being beneficial is that is reduces oxidative stress in the body, improving aerobic metabolism. It also helps with gut ecology which would help make sure the GI tract is absorbing properly.  It seems almost too good to be true, and so I am anxious to to see the results of such a product first hand

                   2. Laser Therapy - Cold Laser therapy is designed to help with cellular metabolism.  The laser set at a certain levels communicates to certain cell receptors.  One major receptor is for the mitochondria activation to make energy.  Simply, it wakes up the cell to work again.  Laser therapy may not be a stand alone procedure to help treat fibromyalgia, but I can see it being beneficial when added to the other therapies to help the muscle wake up and work properly again.  It may be possible that the muscle has nutrients necessary, but may have been out of use for so long that it may need that reactivation to get things going again.  Just like Guto Kola, I would like to see first hand results, but is something to look into