Michael,

You bring up some very good points. Our soil is not as rich in nutrients as it used to be, plus lots of chemicals have accumulated over time and this affects our food products as well as poultry, beef, and pork.  Hormones given to animals to fatten them up for market gets into our bodies. Our lakes and rivers have pollutants which affect the fish.

Many physicians do not promote vitamins or even nutritional foods. They are trained to prescribe medications for symptoms.

Our American diet has certainly changed over the years. There is much more "fast food" which usually has more calories, fat, harmful transfats and lots of additives.

I believe in trying to eat healthier and use nutritional supplements. It appears that many supplements, as you point out, do not dissolve in our digestive system so do us little good. We must do our own research into which supplements might be more cost effective and efficient rather than just buying the cheapest ones. It is difficult to know what supplements to take and how much we need for our own particular bodies.

Thanks for sharing your comments.

DonnaZ

Bill,

Thanks for sharing your comments on lyme disease. Perhaps you can share your symptoms in this forum if you don't mind, so someone else who has similar symptoms can ask their doctor to test for this. As you may know, fibromyalgia is usually diagnosed when other possible conditions or diseases are ruled out. There are no tests to definitely determine that a person has fibromyalgia.

What type of testing finally determined that lyme disease was causing your symptoms? It sounds like a difficult problem to determine and deal with.

I hope you are starting the road to recovery. I wish you well.

DonnaZ

Hi Sandra,

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on fibromyalgia and on supplements. I agree that it would be great if insurance plans covered alternative therapies and preventative medicine. Perhaps costs for medical care would decrease if we could learn about a healthier lifestyle before we have some problems rather than trying to do something about them after they get bad enough to seek the help of a family practitioner or specialist.

 Lots of people don't have medical insurance these days so it is very difficult for them. They put off doing anything about their health until they are desperate for help because they just can't afford medical care.

I believe in nutritional supplements but there is no standard for them so many products are not readily absorbed or don't have enough of the supplement in them to do us any good.  It would be great to know exactly what amount of a particular vitamin, mineral, or other nutritional supplement is being absorbed. It would also be so beneficial to know what our body is lacking so we could add the proper nutrients.

DonnaZ

Hi John or J.R.,

Yes fibromyalgia can be very bad. The symptoms vary from person to person and even from day to day in each person. Some people are able to hold down a job in spite of their condition, while others are not able to do their daily chores.

You are right about the medications. I have had allergic reactions to several medications over the years. When I took Celebrex for my osteoarthritis right when it was first on the market, I was okay for the first month...then I suddenly broke out in huge red welts all over my body. My rheumatologist laughingly said she never saw anyone look like that! Then I was prescribed Vioxx and ended up with the symptoms of a heart attack. I failed a treadmill stress test so was referred to a cardiologist for a heart catherization. The catherization showed no problems with my heart, thank goodness. However, I was released from the hospital too soon and ended up with the blood from the catherization entry site (inner thigh) leaking into my leg. My leg was swollen and tight like a sausage. I was only able to work half days for several weeks because walking was very painful.. All that was because of the side effects of Vioxx. So I know from personal experience what medications can do.

DonnaZ

Hi Nick,

Thanks for the advice about magnesium, potassium, B vitamins and St John's Wort. They are all worth a try if we can get good quality supplements that readily absorb. Bananas are a good source of potassium as you mentioned.

By the way, off topic, I really enjoy your poems I have read in other forums.

DonnaZ