Here is a very helpful, informative article on fibromyagia from Dr. Lark.
Relief from Fibromyalgia
by Dr. Susan Lark
Published 04/30/09
Fibromyalgia, once dismissed by many doctors as "neurotic malingering," is now recognized as a health disorder affecting five million Americans, most of them women. The common symptoms of this debilitating disorder are chronic pain, fatigue, and sleep disorder. Often it strikes women a year after a complete hysterectomy or following menopause.
If you are suffering with this, I know you have sought advice and relief from your doctor. The conventional medical practice is to prescribe anti-inflammatory and analgesic drugs and sometimes physical therapy and exercise. Chances are you're still searching for effective long-term relief. I've had great results for my patients with nutritional and alternative treatment approaches to this chronic disorder.
First, let's go over the criteria for a diagnosis of fibromyalgia:
- Generalized aches, muscle spasms, or stiffness of at least three sites on the body for at least three months
- Six or more tender points out of 18 very specific sites on your body
- The exclusion of other disorders that can cause similar symptoms
- Generalized fatigue
- Chronic headache
- Sleep disturbance
Fibromyalgia often feels like soft tissue and muscular rheumatism. Sufferers may have symptoms of irritable bowel and bladder, panic disorder, amnesia, blurred vision, TMJ syndrome, PMS, heart palpitations, and even vertigo.
The Serotonin Factor
For sufferers of fibromyalgia, there is a significant correlation between poor quality sleep and the degree of musculoskeletal pain. The fewer REM (rapid-eye-movement) and deep sleep cycles a woman has, the greater the fatigue and pain she has the next day.
Given that association, researchers have concluded that one of the central causes of fibromyalgia pain is low levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin. Research has shown that raising serotonin levels improves sleep quality and increases pain tolerance.
In double-blind studies, 5-HTP (5-Hydroxytryptophan), which converts to serotonin, improved all of the symptoms of fibromyalgia: a number of painful areas, morning stiffness, sleep patterns, anxiety, and fatigue after 30 days of use. Better results were obtained after 90 days of use.
Other Nutritional Therapies
I recommend that you combine 5-HTP (50-100 mg three times per day) with St. John's wort (use the extract, 0.3 percent hypericin, 300 mg three times per day). The natural antidepressant seems to boost the effectiveness of 5-HTP.
Magnesium citrate (150-250 mg three times each day) has also proven beneficial. Magnesium deficiency is commonly found in fibromyalgia patients. Given magnesium's important role in the creation of energy and in muscular function, researchers studied the mineral's effectiveness in treating pain in fibromyalgia patients.
One study published in 1976 demonstrated that 300-600 mg daily of magnesium malate resulted in tremendous improvement in the number and severity of tender points. Talk to your doctor about this form of magnesium.
I also suggest that you include ample amounts of legumes, tofu, seeds, nuts, whole grains, and green leafy vegetables in your diet to increase your food intake of the mineral. It's also very important that you take a high-potency multivitamin and mineral supplement on a daily basis to support your general health.
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Lifestyle Changes are Helpful
Low-intensity exercise has been shown to reduce the severity of fibromyalgia symptoms. Be sure you don't engage in stressful, vigorous exercise or competition, but swimming or water exercises can be a wonderful way to both reduce your stress and relieve some of that painful stiffness.
Acupuncture helps to manage pain and fatigue
The Hoku point is widely used to relieve pain anywhere in the body. Spread apart the thumb and index finger of one hand with the palm facing your stomach. Use your other hand to encircle the first so that your thumb and index finger are pressing against the webbing. Press for a few minutes.
Called Stomach 36, this powerful energy point diminishes fatigue and improves energy and endurance. It relieves pain in the abdominal area and lower body, strengthens the body and helps to tone and balance muscles. The left hand holds a point four fingers below the knee cap of the right leg.
High Mountains is another potent pain relieving point. The left hand holds the point midway between the back edge of the outer anklebone and the Achilles tendon on the right leg. This point relieves sciatica, thigh pain, headache, lower-back aches, and rheumatism.
Healing meditations have also been wonderfully effective for my patients. Try this one I've developed and see if it works for you.
Release pain through golden light
Sit or lie in a comfortable position, your arms resting at your sides. As you take a deep breath, visualize that the earth below you is filled with a large reservoir of a deeply healing golden energy.
Now imagine that you are opening up energy centers on the bottom of your feet. As you inhale deeply, visualize the soft golden energy filling up your feet. When your feet are completely filled with the golden color, then let the color flow up through your ankles, legs, pelvis, and lower back.
Each time you exhale, see the golden energy leaving through your lungs, carrying pain and discomfort with it. See the pain dissolve into the air.
Continue to inhale the healing golden energy into your abdomen, chest, shoulders, arms, neck and head. Exhale the golden light slowly out of your lungs. Repeat this entire process five times and then relax for a few minutes.
New Research on Fibromyalgia Treatment
Discovered by Dr. Samuel Yue, relaxin hormone treatment for fibromyalgia, now in early stage testing, is based on his observation that women's muscle pain and spasm symptoms are affected by menstruation, menopause, surgically induced menopause or when the ovaries have been removed. A polypeptide similar to insulin, relaxin is involved in the production and remodeling of collagen and the increase in elasticity and relaxation of muscles, tendons, and ligaments during pregnancy.
Dr. Yue suggests that fibromyalgia results from a systemic deficit of relaxin hormone. He has had good results with relaxin hormone treating hundreds of patients. It's quite expensive and occasionally some women do experience side effects-breast tenderness, morning sickness, and occasional increase of menstrual flow-that are usually transient.
If you want to test this therapy, it is available as Vitalaxin from Sky Inc. BioHealth Solutions, 612-946-1550, or www.SKYBioHealth.com.
References
- Affleck, G, et al.1996. Sequential daily relations of sleep, pain intensity, and attention to pain among women with fibromyalgia. Pain 68:363-8.
- Buchwald, D., Garrity, D. 1994. Comparison of Patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, and Multiple Chemical Sensitivities. Archives of Internal Medicine 154:2049-2053.
- Puttini, P.S., Caruso, I. 1992. Primary fibromyalgia syndrome and 5-Hydroxy-L-Tryptophan: A 90 day open study. Journal of Internal Medicine Research 20:182-9.
- Romano, T.J., Stiller, J.W. 1994. Magnesium deficiency in fibromyalgia syndrome. Journal of Nutritional Medicine 4:165-7.