Dear Readers,
Here are five common "no no's" people mistakenly do when trying to manage fibromyalgia. Do any sound like you?
1. Exercising too much or too littleFibromyalgia reflects an energy crisis in your body, so you can only exercise to a certain point. Beyond that, you get what is called "postexertional fatigue," where you feel completely wiped out the next day. Be careful to avoid this as it can discourage you from the moderate exercise that is vital to healing fibromyalgia.
On the other hand, insufficient exercise results in deconditioning and clearly can worsen your ability to function.
So what level of exercise is right? If you feel tired but good afterwards, and better still the next day, then you exercised the right amount. But if you feel like you were "hit by a truck," then you did too much. Start with a light walking program. Wear a pedometer to see your progress and try to build up over time to 10,000 steps a day by adding a minute each day.
2. Not Knowing When to Say "No"Being too agreeable to things you don't really want to do is a major stress that aggravates people with fibromyalgia. Try more often to allow yourself to say "no" when what is being asked of you doesn't feel good.
3. Not Listening When Your Body Tells You it's in PainWidespread muscle pain is one of the most dominant symptoms associated with fibromyalgia. When you feel pain, remember that that's your body's protective system signaling you that something needs attention. Don't dismiss the pain or try to "play through it." Instead learn how to manage fibromyalgia-related pain using a comprehensive approach. The S.H.I.N.E. Protocol is my recommended approach to this, as it can guide you systematically through the five key areas that you need to address.
4. Eating Excessive SugarEating excessive sugar (especially in sodas or fruit juices) can severely flare fibromyalgia by worsening adrenal exhaustion and Candida/yeast overgrowth. Eat a high-protein diet and substitute Stevia or Saccharin for sugar. Sugar-free ice cream with Splenda and sugar-free chocolates with maltitol are also okay (in small amounts). Dark chocolate can actually improve fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome symptoms!
5. Not Getting Enough SleepIt may seem counter-intuitive, but people with fatigue-related illnesses, such as fibromyalgia, often get too little sleep. Getting eight to nine hours of good quality deep sleep each night is critical to eliminating fatigue and pain. If you aren't getting enough sleep, see Sleep and Insomnia to learn about nutritional support, sleep habit changes and medications that can help you.
Love & Blessings,
Dr. T
Thanks very much.
I had teh "usual" symptoms of fibromyalgia and or Chronic Fatigue and I also had infections, ongoing infections which severely effected my life. They were explained away by saying I had "normal" white blood counts, and by physicians who said I wasn't getting enough exercise or my diet wasn't adequate, yada, yada, yada. After nearly dying, I had to force physicians to do further testing, after doing research myself, and I was discovered to suffer from a serious, usually fatal, without treatment, genetic immune disorder.
All my treating doctors were floored, and one had refused to test me, due to my age, as their little PDA's said it should have been diagnosed in childhood or decades before and had just refused to consider it because they had not seen anyone reach my age, after having been in a medical environment where infectious organisms were present for years and in practice msyelf, and survive without treatment.
I am so angry at physicians who just build a wall around their practice and their patients due to their failure to reach beyond their "norms" and seek out the truth. I forcefully demanded that they further explore my white blood count and immune status and sure enough, the answers were there, but were first addressed with immune globulin because they felt that they were caused by other treatment, the symptoms returned after the initial treatment ceased, and finally, diagnostic tests were done. My quality of life and even my life had been jeopardized for years by this failure to further explore for an underlying problem and my physician and I now think many of the individuals diagnosed with these disorders also have an underlying primary immune genetic problem. There are many different ones, with varying symptoms and degrees of problems, and various ways to diagnose them. I would encourage all individuals to explore this with their physicians.
I had this discussion with five other individuals with one of the diagnosis, they were tested and four of them had a form of a genetic immunodeficiency.
Thanks for the info about immune genetic problem, as I'm seeing ,my Dr. tomorrow, Monday, and I'll request the testing.
I have little hope of getting these tests done thru my doctor. What about independent labs or Life Extension? Do these tests have names? If they must be ordered by a doctor, what kind of doctor?
Are they covered by insurance, at all? Medicare? And if you do have an immune genetic problem, is there a treatment protocol? Please advise. Thanks.