Image: Helen’s Photos / Shutterstock
It began with small hints of trouble to come, changing my affectionate hug-giving husband into a silent, brooding, “Don’t touch me” sulker.
At first he could not pinpoint what was wrong. “I hurt. All over. Even the wind makes me cringe,” Charles would tell me.
Soon he could not do the things he enjoyed, such as gardening, woodworking, walking our five-acre ranchette and enjoying the wildflowers. He would sit for hours after work and stare at the wall.
Fibromyalgia and the chronic pain it causes is part of a cluster of diseases known as CSS, or central sensitivity syndrome. In 2007 the medical community estimated that about 2 percent of Americans suffer from fibro, which is the result of neurochemical abnormalities related to the central nervous system (spinal cord and brain) having become extremely sensitized on various parts of the body, where even mild pressure or touch can cause severe pain.
This can impact a person’s mood and sleep, and add to overall fatigue and the dangers that brings with it.
When the diagnosis of his fibromyalgia came down in the mid-1980s we were confused. “Fibro what?” we both asked. The disease was not well known yet.
The first medical research paper on “fibro” was published by Dr. Muhammad B. Yunus and colleagues in 1982 in Seminars in Arthritis and Rheumatism. It would not be until after 2000 that doctors seemed to share widespread knowledge of it, its treatment and recommended lifestyle changes for those suffering from it.
Common medications prescribed to fight the syndrome include duloxetine (Cymbalta), milnacipran (Savella), and velafaxin (Effexor). When halted, these medications, especially Cymbalta, can cause withdrawal symptoms.
We rejected prescriptions of these drugs, and turned to more natural remedies.
By the time the medical community had begun to discuss lifestyle treatments for fibromyalgia, Charles and I had already discovered that the condition, which would ride on waves of good and bad days, seemed to be triggered by diet and level of activity.
I suffer from another inflammatory-related disease and discovered early on that my flares were directly tied to what I ate. Armed with this knowledge, Charles and I began to examine his pain levels, comparing them to what he had consumed within a three-day period.
For six months we examined everything that went into his body. Charles would note what he ate, when he ate it and then the severity of flares. It became apparent that he had certain food triggers.
On his absolutely no-eat list is any form of dairy. This revelation hit him hard, as lasagna made with fresh vegetables from the garden, homemade cheeses from our family milk goat, and even homemade pasta noodles and sauce was his favorite. He still mourns this discovery 25 years later.
He also gave up caffeine. Coffee and even chocolate are off the menu, and although he still takes pure dark chocolate first thing in the morning to help his prostate, it is a limited amount. Salt had to go. White sugar as well. MSG and sodium nitrite are a real no-no in our house, as are prepackaged foods.
Hard to limit were the nightshade vegetables such as eggplant, tomatoes, potatoes and peppers. These will cause pain flares with fibromyalgia and other forms of painful inflammation such as arthritis, irritable bowel syndrome and more.
There are lists of foods to avoid and foods to embrace available from every online expert, but we have found from our own experience that every body is different, so we advocate that everybody should make a food journal.
Once you have several months of data, look for a correlation between flares and items eaten within a three-day period. If you notice culprits popping up consistently before a major pain flare, perhaps you should consider removing or limiting them in your diet.
As we removed items from our diet, Charles was able to enjoy life a lot more. He learned that if he stayed physically active, he felt better as well. He took up kayaking and went back to yard and garden work. We hike in the woods to find mushrooms, we bird watch, and we enjoy whole and organic foods.
The strongest medication Charles now takes for pain is found over-the-counter. Thanks to our own research and learning how our individual bodies react to foods and activity, we have been able to reduce Charles’ level of pain from severe to moderate. He now experiences flares only occasionally, although he sometimes flushes red, then goes pale and sweats with the severity.
When that happens, he’ll moan, “Oh, I had a milk product two days ago,” and we’ll grimace, shake our heads and struggle on.
Charles can now hug me, and I can rub his back without causing tears. We did this naturally by examining our own bodies and lifestyle. If it worked for us, maybe it can work for you, too.
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