A Body on Fire
Fibromyalgia is a chronic condition that has caused untold sleepless nights for its sufferers and the medical practitioners trying to help them. As those with the condition struggle daily and nightly with a multitude of intense issues, their doctors and the researchers working to find a cure are just only now really beginning to crack the code as to what this disease might be.
Meanwhile it is estimated that over 5.5 million people in the United States alone suffer from fibromyalgia. They are plagued with fatigue, joint and muscle pain, sleep problems, depression, headaches, digestive problems, pelvic pain, TMJ and more. The range of symptoms varies by individual and by day and by night. One day one part of their body, perhaps the left leg and arm, are screaming in pain and the next night it is the right side. There seems to be no relief in sight.
Years ago sufferers were sometimes greeted with disbelief. The medical community was unable to detect any clear issues with modern medicine, and often wrote it off as a psychiatric issue or the flu or a similar, familiar condition.
Criteria for diagnosing fibromyalgia has been established by the medical community. The basics are that a person must have had symptoms at a significant level (established on a scale as equal to or greater than 7) over a significant area of their body for at least three months.
Chronic Inflammation
For people with fibromyalgia, chronic inflammation causes widespread problems. To be clear, inflammation isn’t always a bad thing. When acute (periodic) inflammation occurs, it is the body’s way of healing itself after injury or infection. When we have an injury or illness, our body reacts by enlisting the services of its anti-injury-or-illness troops to increase blood flow to the area.
This increased positive flow of blood stimulates the nerve endings and other cells near the infection or injury and soon the white blood cells charge in to save the day. This is called acute inflammation. It’s necessary and normal for good health.
Chronic inflammation, however, is not a good thing. It plays a significant role in cardiovascular disease, according to many sources including the Mayo Clinic, and in fibromyalgia, which is basically inflammation system-wide. Chronic inflammation causes the pain, clogged arteries, strokes and more that fibromyalgia clients suffer.
Causes of Inflammation
A number of factors probably cause the inflammation, and it is difficult to specifically trace because of the wide-ranging symptoms. There is a cycle to the pain, fatigue, sleeplessness and all the other symptoms that fibromyalgia patients suffer that has no clear beginning or end. It is thought that certain factors exacerbate the condition and those include obesity, high stress, and eating the wrong foods.
Whether obesity is a cause of fibromyalgia or fibromyalgia is a cause of obesity is up for debate, but we are sure that obesity increases inflammation. Both obesity and inflammation are known to cause cardiac problems, and all three can lead to a sedentary life which in turn breeds systemic toxicity and the tendency towards more weight gain.
Anti-Inflammatory Diets
Anti-inflammatory diets, which are basically what the name says they are, have also gotten popular for the treatment of fibromyalgia, especially when cardiac symptoms are dramatically expressed as a major chronic symptom.
First there some things to avoid, beginning with tobacco and excessive alcohol drinking (although a little red wine is fine). Foods to avoid include all fast foods and foods that act to support inflammation like fatty meats, processed meats, partially hydrogenated oils, vegetable shortening, fried foods and regular cheese. It’s also important to avoid refined sugars and other snack foods and other beverages.
The anti-inflammatory diet advocated as a cure for inflammation is a diet based on healthy eating choices. There is no empirical evidence an “anti-inflammatory” diet will treat the severe conditions that many fibromyalgia patients suffer, but there is ample evidence that similar diets (the Mediterranean diet and the Asian-style diet) have a positive effect on cardiac functioning, which is at the root of much of the problems experienced by fibromyalgia patients.
The diet itself is very similar to the Mediterranean style of eating and includes using healthy fats, such as canola and olive oils, eating small portions of nuts and large portions of fruits and vegetables. The similarity extends to other diet programs such as the Zone diet and even has similarities to alternative healing recommendations in Aruvedic medicine.
Whether it is called an anti-inflammatory diet, the Zone or the Mediterranean diet, all three provide doses of Omega-3 fatty acids that research has proven helps relieve morning stiffness and joint pain among other things.
All of these anti-inflammatory diets, in one way or another, recommend the following:
- Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables;
- Minimizing trans and saturated fats and using olive oil or canola oil in cooking;
- Reducing the amount of refined carbohydrates such as white rice and pasta;
- Reducing the intake of sugars;
- Eating a good source of omega-3 fatty acids, such as fish or fish oil supplements and walnuts;
- Eating plenty of whole grains such as brown rice and bulgur wheat;
- Eating lean protein sources such as chicken and fish and cut back on full dairy foods and red meats; and
There seems to be an agreement that certain spices as well, like cumin, ginger and curry, have anti-inflammatory properties. Foods to avoid for treating fibromyalgia with this diet are the processed and fast foods that we all know we should avoid.
NSAID Drugs
Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are familiar to most of us as aspirin, naproxen and ibuprofen. Research is currently being conducted on their potential to help the fibromyalgia sufferer fight the toxicity in their system (the inflammation) in a quicker way. But there are risks from NSAIDS, not the least of which is gastrointestinal bleeding, which could be a real problem in the already weakened systems.
Long Lasting Change
Assuming that a person is lucky enough not to experience the negative aspects of the NSAID, then the choice may be clear. But there is an argument against this quick fix. It might, in the short run, cure the symptoms. But unlike the lifestyle change that will result from adopting the anti-inflammatory diet, there is nothing stopping the cycle of buildup of toxins, again. This would put the person right back where they started.
There is an alternative. With millions of people suffering from this disease, the onslaught of fibromyalgia needs more than one finger to plug the damn. It needs an army, and it is thought that that a major change in lifestyle that embraces an anti-inflammatory diet may provide a few of those fingers.
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