Is Fibromyalgia Real?

Very Well Health ^ | June 29, 2024 | Adrienne Dellwo

[DoodleBob]

What’s your solution?

This thread may become a great reference for people.

[MarDav]

A now since retired doctor-friend suggested most of what causes achiness and various assorted “mystery pains” is inflammation. He prescribed low dose naproxen and, voila, aches and pains virtually gone.

[FrogMom]

“ easy diet change an $40 in system cleanses “

Could you elaborate, please? What/how system cleanse?

[Rockingham]

Over years of experience and reading in the medical literature, I settled on eggs for breakfast, a good general vitamin and mineral supplement, along with supplemental vitamin D3, magnesium L-threonate, collagen peptides, and liposomal vitamin C. These worked for me as to the CFS. Notably, the effects led to improved peripheral circulation and better joints and skin tone, a major bonus for general health, appearance, and longevity. My doctor marvels that my bloodwork and cardio numbers are now better than his.

Why do those work? Vitamin D and magnesium are deficient in much of the population but are both essential to mitochondrial health and function. In addition, magnesium plays a key role in hundreds of enzymatic processes. Since collagen production declines with age, collagen peptides have become a popular anti-aging supplement. Liposomal vitamin C helps the body to use collagen peptides to rebuild skin and the vascular system.

The harder part was headaches and peripheral neuropathic pain due to persistent atypical shingles. For years, heavy doses of aspirin tamped down the pain, but kidney damage forced me to drop them. In addition to the previously mentioned supplements and eggs (usually) for breakfast, I gradually added vitamin K2, niacinamide, green tea extract, benfotiamine, liposomal luteolin, and a high quality krill oil. Along with hot baths and strong hot tea, those slowly reduced the pain. Most people will find aspirin also useful for the pain.

I am writing a medical journal article on all this and will post it on FR when it is published.

[dpetty121263]

No contempt at all just a disease of the mind.

[CodeToad]

Also depressive.

[TheWriterTX]

I used Aqua Flora High Potency 9 (available at vitamin stores and on Amazon) and followed the candida diet.

A capful in the morning and one again at night. A bottle lasted for a month. I stayed on it for 3 months.

No sugar (nothing with sugar, even homemade baked goods), no yeast (no bread of any kind), only citrus fruits, no peanuts, drank only lemon water, veggies, and meat. I never drank so avoiding alcohol was not an issue. There are copies of the candida diet “safe foods” list on the internet.

Life altering. After a migraine that lasted for 8 solid months, I was ready to eat a bullet. I was desperate for any kind of relief.

No more migraines, swollen joints, body aches, digestive issues, chronic fatigue, or insomnia. Only took 3 days to experience relief.

The first 2 days of the cleanse were the worst because my body was shedding toxins. By day 3 I woke up after a full night’s sleep, feeling rested, no migraine, no swelling. It was amazing.

As an added bonus, it took years off my face. People that have gone on it also lost the stubborn baby weight. They weren’t fat; they were carrying unprocessed toxins. Once they started shedding toxins, the weight melted off.

Doctors will gaslight the hell out of you. My husband knew I was not a drama queen, pampered princess, or fragile violet. He called me Superwoman because I had, prior to this horror show, incredible stamina to work (sometimes 2 jobs -full time during the week and part-timeon the weekends for extra money), take care of the house/chores, and raise the kids. Within just a few weeks I was back to full strength.

[TheWriterTX]

You could not be more wrong.

It’s an imbalance in the gut microbiome that goes untreated because doctors are too lazy or ignorant to take it seriously.

Everyone knows they are tossing toxins in the food. Mess up a person’s digestive system and it cascades from there.

[metmom]

Not to sound like a looney lefty, but it’s telling that most of the critics on this thread seem to be guys. Indeed, how curious that conservatives bemoan women who become men and visa versa - that is, the sexes are different - yet a “woman problem” is considered a DSM-V condition.

It's a lose/lose situation for women.

They're condemned for not being more like men, and yet when they are, they're condemned for trying to be like men, too.

When women see that there's no winning with men, why should they even bother with them?

[metmom]

I have a life-long friend who is an M.D. (graduated near the top of his class at Stanford med School) and has been in practice 30+ years. He refers to Fibromyalgia as “Bored Suburban Housewife Syndrome”.

The women I know with it don't fit that profile at all.

Broad brushing a whole group of people based on a few is so intellectually lazy.

[SIDENET]

I have fibromyalgia.

I truly wish that fibromyalgia was a fake condition, but that hasn't been my experience.

I'm a guy. I'm not neurotic (at least I don't think I am), not on opioids, not on SSRIs, and not on Lyrica.

Men definitely get fibromyalgia. My understanding is that men are under-diagnosed for a combination of reasons. First is that they tend to try and "suck it up" and keep going. Second, many doctors don't view fibromyalgia as something men can have. Third, men (from what I've read) tend to present differently from women who have it. For example, allodynia is more rare among men with fibromyalgia, while being a much more common symptom among women.

What is fibromyalgia like? Well, it's different depending on the person. For me? every morning feels like a combination of a hangover combined with the first day of a flu where you feel really run down and achy. Additionally, my muscles will be very tight. I have muscle pulls in my neck and shoulders all the time. That's a normal day. It gets a lot worse during flare ups.

In my case, I don't know what caused it. I didn't have a triggering event like an injury or illness. It just came on gradually and got worse over time.

I was an active person before fibromyalgia. I'm fairly sedentary now, compared to before, but I sure don't want to be that way. I have kids to raise, things to do, and all of the rest of the normal responsibilities of life. If you met me in real life, you wouldn't know I had it, and I wouldn't mention it, either.

Sorry to ramble, but just wanted to toss out some thoughts on this thread.

[metmom]

Writing it off like that shows contempt.

[Lazamataz]

There are medical pains and problems that guys get that women can’t fathom.

Exactly. I have been suffering from OneGunTooFew-itis for decades now.

Symptoms:

• Intense, unreasonable craving for laquered wood and blued steel.
• Reflexive and uncontrollable entry into gun stores and gun shows.
• Severe weight-loss in wallet.

[China Clipper]

What’s your solution?

This thread may become a great reference for people.

Ahh, the ultimate question, right?

Here's what I have always recommended and how I treated my FM patients.
1) First and foremost, assure them that I BELIEVE them when they tell me their symptoms. Realize, there may be more likely many other underlying feelings, issues and emotions here.
2) Get "baseline" scores on their perception of their pain/sxs. Keep track and share with the patient when appropriate. Gains may be small, and may go unnoticed unless you have some way of tracking them regularly.
3) Start a discussion before each each treatment session for them to share a recent POSITIVE action or event that they were able to do, complete or finish. Sometimes it can be so basic as "I was able to get out of bed". It just HAS TO BE positive!
4) Continue building on those POSITIVE events, and allow the patient to see that they DO have SOME CONTROL over their lives. I use the "for every action there is a reaction" point of view, the "If/Then" statement. For instance, "IF you try to walk two miles today, THAN you are gonna be so sore and stiff the next day". Take that IF/THAN and make it positive. IE, "IF I walk for 10 minutes, THEN I won't be near as sore the next day"... Etc etc

My plan of treatment is to try to give the patient the "control" back that they feel they have lost. If you have ever experienced this form of chronic pain, you'd understand that complete "Loss of control" you feel for your life. It is a terrible spiral that only gets worse; the more pain you have, the less control you have over your day to day activities. So, I try to get my patients to feel "back in control" even for just a little bit, and then build on that.

AS you can see, it it, I believe , a very difficult diagnosis and treatment. It involves not the just medical people, but I believe, you MUST involve the patient, and in a POSITIVE manner, for best results.

In short, this is not a "fix me Doc!" kind of diagnosis, it is a "what can I help you with to accomplish the best outcome?"

[exDemMom]

I don’t have any quick fix solution.

Being a researcher, all I can say is that this issue requires millions of funding for research. And research is a very slow process, but necessary to understanding the underlying mechanisms. Once those mechanisms are understood, then targeted treatments can be developed. Even when targeted treatments are developed, then there is the challenge of getting them approved through the FDA. There are things that the FDA will not approve, even though they work in research laboratories.

This might sound like I’m just angling for more money in research. I’m not. Research is a very time and resource intensive process.