CoActive Health

Alternative Options for Managing Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue and Related Conditions

Man­ag­ing Fibromyal­gia and Chronic Fatigue Syn­drome with Nutrition

Accord­ing to the National Fibromyal­gia Asso­ci­a­tion, fibromyal­gia is preva­lent in 3–6% of the world’s pop­u­la­tion and of that 3–6%, 70–90% of them are women and it seems to be an increas­ing prob­lem. Fibromyal­gia is char­ac­ter­ized by ten­der­ness on mul­ti­ple areas of the body and is often assio­ci­ated with chronic fatigue, acute stress, gas­troin­testi­nal prob­lems, mito­chon­dr­ial dys­func­tion (prob­lem with energy pro­duc­ing com­po­nent in the cell), as well as hor­monal imbal­ances (typ­i­cally a result of stress and adrenal fatigue) .

It is dif­fi­cult to char­ac­ter­ize fibromyal­gia as a sin­gle dis­ease as there are numer­ous vari­a­tions on pre­sen­ta­tion and mul­ti­ple fac­tors that can inter­act dynam­i­cally. Symp­tom pre­sen­ta­tions are bet­ter char­ac­ter­ized as on a spec­trum of dis­ease. For most patients I have worked with, I can often paint a story from birth through devel­op­ment and life stres­sors on how the dis­ease pro­gressed to where it was today.

Under­stand­ing the story is impor­tant as it gives you a focus for your nutri­tion rec­om­men­da­tions spe­cific to the patient. Patients present with dif­fer­e­ing degrees of phys­i­cal, chem­i­cal, emo­tional, and dietary stress. Each per­son also has genetic dif­fer­ences that pre­dis­pose them to dif­fer­ing pre­sen­ta­tions —  symp­toms will appear where weak links in the genet­ics reside. For­tu­nately, research shows that genetic expres­sion can be mod­i­fied with diet and lifestyle even in those with inher­ent sus­cep­ti­bil­i­ties, so a focus on lifestyle and diet is an essen­tial adjunct to any treat­ment recommendations.

Mov­ing from Symp­tom Man­age­ment to a Holis­tic Understanding

Most patients have been treated med­ically with anti-depressants, pain killers, mus­cle relax­ers and other phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals focused on symptom-management and sec­ondary effects of the dis­ease. Not much is under­stood regard­ing the actual causes of fibromyal­gia, and there­fore use­ful treat­ments have been elusive.

What is known is that middle-aged indi­vid­u­als with fibromyal­gia develop height­ened sen­si­tiv­ity to their sur­round­ings. Some texts refer to this as mul­ti­ple chem­i­cal sen­si­tiv­ity syn­drome whereby phys­i­cal, emo­tional, chem­i­cal and dietary trig­gers have all been shown to play a role. Treat­ment can be frus­trat­ing as symp­tom improve­ment can often wax and wane, as well as plateau. Other symp­toms may present them­selves as the body adapts and attempts to find inner balance.

It is in my per­sonal opin­ion that fac­tors as early as health in fetal and infant devel­op­ment can prime a person’s sys­tem to become over­re­ac­tive later in life.  C-section, birth trauma, and formula-feeding within first year of life can all be fac­tors that can alter genetic expres­sion, brain & emo­tional health, gut health, and propen­sity of the immune sys­tem to be hyper­sen­si­tive to com­mon aller­gens and envi­ron­men­tal toxicants.

The body is much more dynamic than sci­en­tific research can lead us to believe. So while we can point to the brain, the thy­roid, the adren­als and other sys­tems in the body as play­ing a role, spe­cific symp­toms are the body’s healthy response to the stresses imposed on it. Sim­ply remov­ing the symp­toms, although often nec­es­sary in acute flare-ups, is sim­i­lar to cut­ting the wire to the check engine light in the car — the prob­lem still exists, yet your body is unable to alert you.

Instead of ask­ing how to get rid of the symp­toms, a holis­tic approach asks what are the causes of those symp­toms, what are the chem­i­cal medi­a­tors, and how can we coax the  body to bring itself back into bal­ance. Holis­tic care is an evidence-based approach when look­ing at research that asks holis­tic questions.

Nat­ural Approaches to Con­sider

Many health pro­fes­sion­als are begin­ning to rec­og­nize the ben­e­fits of alter­na­tive ther­a­pies. Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal com­pa­nies are begin­ning to offer high-priced “pharmaceutical-grade” sup­ple­ments, and many med­ical sem­i­nars are begin­ning to offer advanced train­ing and edu­ca­tion on alter­na­tive & holis­tic approaches to com­plex conditions.

Because these con­di­tions are seri­ous and involve mul­ti­ple body sys­tems, it is impor­tant to seek advice from appro­pri­ately trained health pro­fes­sion­als who can appre­ci­ate the inter­play between body sys­tems, guide you through diet and lifestyle plan­ning, and exhibit con­fi­dence in rec­om­mend­ing clin­i­cally for­mu­lated sup­ple­ments and herbal com­bi­na­tions that are spe­cific to each patient, but do not react with any exist­ing medications.

• Elim­i­na­tion diet fol­lowed by rota­tion diet:

Elim­i­nat­ing com­mon aller­genic foods for at least 2 weeks and then rein­tro­duc­ing them one at a time can be help­ful in iden­ti­fy­ing trig­gers. The body can be sup­ported clin­i­cally dur­ing this process to help sup­port diges­tion and rebuild­ing of the gas­troin­testi­nal tract while pro­mot­ing a bal­ance of healthy bacteria.

• Detox­i­fi­ca­tion program:

Unlike the fad pro­grams that are becom­ing increas­ingly pop­u­lar, detox­i­fi­ca­tion does not need to require fast­ing and/or drink­ing straight liq­uids. Detox­i­fi­ca­tion is a nat­ural process that occurs innately in your body and can be coaxed with high qual­ity sup­ple­ments and herbs.

Tox­ins are released pri­mar­ily through urine, bowel move­ments, and sweat­ing. The body has a process for acti­vat­ing and car­ry­ing sub­stances out of the body that can be pro­moted through nutrition.

Some more aggres­sive options are also avail­able such as chela­tion of heavy met­als and other tech­niques such as removal of mer­cury den­tal amal­gams. It is impor­tant to under­stand that detox­i­fi­ca­tion can­not be forced as rid­ding tox­ins adds extra stresses to the body. These released tox­ins can com­mu­ni­cate back to the body through chem­i­cal mes­sages and cause men­tal fog, resis­tance to weight loss, and increased irritability.

• Can­dida program:

Can­dida is a genus of yeast that can atr­ribute to a wide range of symp­toms, but in these patients could notably con­tribute to unex­plained fatigue and plateau­ing of symp­toms. Peo­ple typ­i­cally asso­ciate yeast with vagi­nal yeast infec­tions, but Can­dida and other types of yeast can grow in the intestines as well when the bal­ance of healthy bac­te­ria is thrown off. Dietary man­age­ment is rather strict and can be sup­ported with herbal com­bi­na­tions. Med­ical treat­ment is avail­able and some­times nec­es­sary, but is gen­er­ally a more aggres­sive approach that is harsh on the system.

• Sup­ple­ments & Herbs

Sup­ple­ments like Mag­ne­sium, B6, Malic Acid, and Alpha Lipoic Acid can be help­ful with energy pro­duc­tion and some of the oxida­tive stress that can occur in inflam­ma­tory con­di­tions. Adap­to­genic herbs like Ash­wa­gandha and Holy Basil can also help bal­ance stress and adrenal function.

Bal­ance of essen­tial fatty acids like omega 3’s can also be an impor­tant com­po­nent to pain and inflam­ma­tion as well as brain health. When deal­ing with dis­eases like Fibromyal­gia and Chronic Fatigue Syn­drome, clin­i­cal dosages are often needed to demon­strate a mea­sur­able effect, so it’s impor­tant to be mind­ful of poten­tial drug-herb and drug-supplement inter­ac­tions. On the same note med­ica­tions used for these con­di­tions can deplete the body of valu­able vit­a­mins and min­er­als due to their effect on the body.

• Exercise/Movement Ther­apy

Exer­cise is dif­fi­cult for these patients as they asso­ciate most move­ments and daily activ­i­ties with pain and fatigue. Patients need to be mind­ful of their lim­i­ta­tions and get a feel for what days they can push them­selves and what days they are bet­ter off doing light work­outs. Move­ment ther­a­pies like yoga and tai chi, as well as other ther­a­pies like biofeed­back can all be help­ful for these patients espe­cially with the stress com­po­nent of these con­di­tions. As we find with most prob­lems, a com­bi­na­tion approach of exercise,mind-body tech­niques, and  man­ual ther­a­pies like chi­ro­prac­tic, osteopa­thy, acupunc­ture are all help­ful in this regard.

How to Make an Approach Work for You

With so many options to choose from, patients with these types of con­di­tions will often become frus­trated. Full com­pli­ance with rec­om­men­da­tions can be dif­fi­cult, espe­cially when dietary restric­tions are involved. Patients can help their own com­pli­ance with these pro­grams using a vari­ety of proven tech­niques. These tech­niques include med­i­ta­tion, pos­i­tive affir­ma­tions, sup­port groups and con­sis­tent jour­nal­ing. Patients are com­forted know­ing that there are oth­ers going through the same frus­tra­tions and that with sup­port of one another can begin tak­ing the often dif­fi­cult steps needed to con­trol of their con­di­tion. Patients also need a degree of account­abil­ity and daily reminders of what they’re set­ting out to accomplish.

Some­times a per­sonal rela­tion­ship and the acute stress and men­tal angst asso­ci­ated with it can be a decid­ing trig­ger that needs to be addressed. Los­ing a loved one, going through a divorce, and other highly stress­ful life events can be detri­men­tal to your mind and body. Seek­ing help from reli­gious lead­ers, women’s shel­ters,  some­times even look­ing to law enforce­ment and other legal avenues may be essen­tial and nec­es­sary steps.

For­tu­nately, online com­mu­ni­ties develop every­day and the inter­net can be a great way to con­nect with peo­ple and resources that can help you directly. Check with your health provider to deter­mine if any of these approaches may work for you.

This infor­ma­tion is not intended to treat, diag­nose, cure, or pre­vent any dis­ease. All mate­r­ial in this arti­cle is pro­vided for edu­ca­tional pur­poses only. Always seek the advice of your physi­cian or other qual­i­fied health care provider with any ques­tions you have regard­ing a med­ical con­di­tion, and before under­tak­ing any diet, exer­cise, or other health program.