Explore the medications commonly used to treat Fibromyalgia, including pain relievers, antidepressants, and other options to manage symptoms effectively.
Another fibromyalgia patient just recently has reached that level of recovery that most of you only dream of. I’m talking about no pain and being able to plan to begin living and enjoying life. This young lady is 30 years old and was literally nonfunctional when her parents brought her into our clinic. With doubts and apprehension, she decided to give one more program a chance, and three months later she is a hiking, fishing, and planning on her “new” life.
Three months you say? Impossible! Well, although all of our patients are not as successful, it has been more common than not for patients to reach pain-free levels in three months’ time. The fibromyalgia protocol is that successful. It takes determination and a strong will to follow exactly what we outline for your program. That often is the difference between success and failure. You cut corners and you will fail. Our protocol is not painful or filled with mental gymnastics. The program requires you to get out of your comfort zone of life and diet and follow what really is a simple step-by-step program. The best part is you have me to help guide you so you do not fail.
Try our protocol or check the website for patient videos on their success.
Recently I completed a number of “video blogs” better known as “vlogs” that explain a number of steps in our protocol that might require a video in order for you to understand more clearly about fibromyalgia and our program. When completed they will be available on Youtube. We also plan on a regular series of video presentations that will include information and also a question and answer session for you and the general public. We will notify you as to when this will begin.
Due to the number of fibromyalgia patients in so many different states requesting assistance in starting our fibromyalgia protocol, we will be visiting a number of states training doctors in our program in order that you have direct contact with a trained fibromyalgia physician in your area.
We will notify you as to the dates and locations of training seminars for your doctors.
Within the last two decades, the concept of mindfulness meditation has been adopted by schools, hospitals, businesses, police, and even the military. Those who teach/mentor MM to people in the huge business of organized sport, the corporate world, and the military, no doubt live with some degree of contradiction in their lives.
It is not a practice that is focused so much on ethical issues in big business or professional sport (considered by many to be legitimated violence as in many sports such as boxing, football, and hockey and is integral to commercial enterprise, with an emphasis on competition and a ‘killer’ instinct). Too, many are amazed that military personnel who are taught about killing would benefit from MM, but those who suffer from PTSD, the after-effects of their experiences, could be helped greatly from their difficult military experiences.
I have likened PTSD elsewhere to fibromyalgia sufferers. It is what was once described as ‘shell shock. Who better to be taught a contemplative practice to help ease the burden of their flashbacks? Police and military personnel have jobs that are necessary to society and having resources to them that allow a mindful approach to their daily lives is paramount.
None of this is to say that those who are professional athletes or in the corporate world are not worthy of learning about ways in which to develop more empathy for themselves and others. Empathy and compassion are integral to MM. No one ‘owns’ this individual practice. While mindfulness is not regarded as a practice that has a political agenda it is seen as a way of listening to oneself as well as to others. In an indirect way, it can help with the current chaos and despair that permeates societies in this century with an emphasis on less aggression and anger.
MM won’t save the world from the many wrongdoings of the corporate world or the military machine complex and its wars (but it can be of great help in peacekeeping). In schools of various kinds, especially with children, in the field of medicine and health, and most directly in our own personal lives, no matter how we chose to live them, quietly contemplating our thoughts and actions can have a profound effect on society.
The toll booth ticket takers, cleaners, garbage collectors, computer analysts, farmers, nurses, secretaries, doctors, teachers, volunteers, housewives and househusbands, and daycare workers among thousands of other people are all subject to various kinds of anxieties and fears.
The journal Mindful is one that presents the practice in a variety of settings and is a valuable source of information regarding issues of MM.
What exactly is so easy, yet so difficult about being mindful and practicing mindfulness meditation? If someone was disciplined to ‘sit’ quietly for a few minutes each day and gradually increase the time to 20 minutes on a daily schedule it is believed to actually change the neural pathways of the brain. I have written many blogs on this site encouraging readers to embark on this journey so I beg the reader’s forgiveness for repeating myself once more.
Many have asked me about the difference between meditation and mindfulness. I am far from an expert on the subject and have struggled with the concepts over many years. I am not diligent about daily meditation sitting but I am getting better at reminding myself on an almost hourly schedule to bring attention to my thoughts and focus at that moment on my breath.
Can one incorporate mindfulness andmeditation? How is that accomplished? They are in fact the same thing, but being mindful is not just about sitting quietly while allowing our thoughts to come and go while labeling each of them ‘thinking’ and then turning attention to the breath.
Being mindful is practicing the art of ‘living in the moment—while eating, dressing, brushing our teeth, cleaning the house, attending a meeting, playing an instrument, writing on this blog …any of the daily activities of living. Many years ago I took a contemplative photography course which changed my view of photography as an art. To stop, breathe, and think of the subject matter in a deliberate way was an extraordinary experience.
It is not just sitting quietly meditating for a few minutes each day. It is an awareness of what we are doing on a moment-by-moment basis. THIS IS NOT AN EASY TASK! Many are confused by the label of mindfulness meditation but many more are challenged by the process itself as it is so difficult. One cannot say “There! I’ve meditated for twenty minutes, now I’m finished for the day”. Meditation does not become easier, nor is there a ‘good’ or a ‘bad’ experience of the practice…it just is.
Thoughts are constant and meditation is not to suggest that we can ‘stop’ thinking as it is ongoing. But for those of us with ruminating anxious thoughts meditation can be a way of looking at ourselves through a different lens. It is a way of paying attention, on purpose, moment to moment. We can learn to have self-compassion, to be nonjudgmental about our thoughts, and to make friends with our minds rather than struggle with fear, depression, anxiety, anger, and other negative and frightening emotions no matter what our lot is in life.
However, I want to point out that for those privileged by not suffering from racism, sexism, homophobia, classism, poverty, or ageism every day their lives are often (but certainly not always) less fraught with challenges and struggles. Still, even the privileged among us suffer from anxieties and depression and can be subject to fibromyalgia. Mindfulness meditation does not cure anxiety or depression. It allows us the space to not struggle against it.
The chronic anxiety of fibromyalgia can be helped with a program called ‘Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy’ which has been found to be extremely useful. The goal is to help the person to focus less on reacting to incoming stimuli and to accepting them without judging and without struggling against them. fMRIs have shown that practicing mindfulness meditation increases activity in the prefrontal cortex of the brain and brings about greater self control.
MBCT programs have become highly regarded as effective for people with anxiety and depression. It is a form of therapy that incorporates mindfulness and meditation (please note I am uncomfortable about separating mindfulness and meditation).
I have called my anxiety by name. She is “Hortense” and I chide her often. I say:” Don’t come back for a few hours, ok? I will listen to you then but for now I am not ready. I need a time out”. Sometimes I laugh at her as she is working hard to bring frightening thoughts to my mind. Hortense is the name of a beautiful flower.
How can something as beautiful as that send me into a catastrophic thought? For me, meditation focuses on the quiet. It is about hearing. It is: “The Sound of Silence”. It is about hearing our own minds and practicing to hear the voices of others. I think of these lines: “People hearing without listening” (lyrics by Paul Simon, recorded in March 1964, “The Sound of Silence”).
We hear our minds, but we often don’t listen. We need silence to do so. TVs and radios constantly blaring, phones ringing, computers and smartphones being attended to almost minute by minute do not allow us to hear ourselves. The world is filled with noise pollution. Fibromyalgia is basically a hyper-aroused central nervous system. Noise is a huge trigger for those of us subject to this malady. Quiet is soothing to our sensitive selves.
Mindfulness can be practiced in a waiting room, on a bus, waiting in a cashier’s line, or anywhere. Could this woman be meditating?
*photo of this painting from the private collection of a friend. It is an untitled oil on canvas 36×24″, Evgenia Makogon (artist), 2004.
Do read many of the books, journals, articles, and websites, or listen to podcasts or CDs on Mindfulness Meditation. The experts are many. But, it is not just theirs; MM belongs to us all if we chose to incorporate this gift into our lives.
This is not a blog about doctor bashing. I have been so fortunate for many decades to have a physician who does not suggest unnecessary tests and is sympathetic, highly intelligent, and comforting. Rather it is about the run around that many people with chronic pain experience as they ‘doctor shop’. Physicians do not want their patients to suffer.
However, often they are stymied by the host of symptoms presented to them which cannot be explained. For that reason, many people are burdened with a deluge of medical tests without receiving any concrete explanation about their condition.
When patients present themselves with chronic pain and a myriad of other invisible symptoms to their health care providers, their desire is for relief, more importantly, a cure. It is reasonable at first to rule out life-threatening conditions but with fibromyalgia, the tests can go on and on for several years or longer. I was 25 following a long labor and C section when I had my first attack of fibromyalgia. I could barely walk.
I was diagnosed with gout! I was a small person and did not have any of the usual characteristics of a gout patient, but a misdiagnosis kept me from understanding the side effects of the many medications I began taking. For many years various tests kept me wondering anxiously what each one would reveal (actually nothing was revealed!). The pain continued and has to this day – and will continue to be a challenge for me.
I have recently seen a site where a physician who herself has fibromyalgia suggests that a particular product has become the treatment of choice for both she and her patients with whom she has had great successes. I have read many such claims over the years and I find it disheartening. THERE IS NO EVIDENCE-BASED MEDICINE THAT HAS BEEN SHOWN TO CURE FIBROMYALGIA.
While it may be true that after suffering from fibromyalgia for many years various systems of the body are affected. However, there is no long-term, huge experimental, or quasi-experimental studies that can say with a fair degree of certainty that people with fibromyalgia are insufficient in magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, or any other kind of vitamin or mineral deficiency.
It seems likely that after years of pain and the many other symptoms of this syndrome, changes can eventually occur within the body which may have a deleterious effect on the hormonal and endocrine system, (perhaps, as in my case, even the circulatory and cardiovascular system). But to date, none of this can be proven.
Fibromyalgia remains an elusive condition of primary pain, fatigue, and a host of other symptoms that in the short term are non-life-threatening. I can only repeat what I have been proselytizing for many years: PAIN IS IN THE BRAIN. The pattern of more and more tests to make this invisible dis-ease fit a disease paradigm is exhausting, expensive, and unnecessary.
From my many years of research and living with fibromyalgia I can say with a fair degree of certainty that fibromyalgia is known to occur in a person who is highly sensitive, and generally has a crisis of some sort, like surgery, death of a loved one, or an accident that brings on the first major flare-up.
This person is overly empathetic, intuitive, and has an easily aroused central nervous system which is always in a state of hyper–arousal. There is a specific personality type. This is a person whom the world needs, and an empathetic caregiver who can easily sense what others need. It is also an anxiousperson.
Does this leave us without hope? Absolutely not. While it is challenging, brain research over the last two decades has shown the ability of the brain to change. But, more tests, more misdiagnosis, useless medications that affect us negatively, and constant physician visits are not the answer.
Interventions that are intended to promote self-management are the way that we should move forward as we become experts in our own lives. But then I am repeating myself since in all these blogs I keep saying the same thing. It is a struggle managing pain and fatigue, but any elixir that is said to cure fibromyalgia is not addressing the hyper-sensitive, hyper-aroused nervous system of those of us who are seeking a ‘cure’.
I have been researching historical figures who have been deemed hypochondriacs because of the vague ailments and histories of symptoms that mimic fibromyalgia, one of whom is Florence Nightingale. Others are such figures as Robert Schumann, the classical composer who was said to be highly sensitive as a young man and suffered greatly at age 16 after his father and brother died.
Glen Gould, the pianist was also said to be someone who was a malinger, a common derogatory word that is used for invisible pain conditions. He suffered from pains and was a worrier. Charles Darwin was a very anxious person and had pains and fatigue. The list is long.
We are in the company of many brilliant, talented, intense, anxious people! When a diagnosis is uncertain, and tests do not tell the experts definitive answers, the burden is on the person who suffers. Living with invisible pain and fatigue is a challenge until we take control of our own lives.
“Women never have a half-hour in all their lives (excepting before or after anybody is up in the house) that they can call their own, without fear of offending or of hurting someone”, Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale is famous as the woman who developed modern nursing. From May 6-12th we celebrate ‘National Nurses Week’ in honor of her birthday which was on May 12th, 1820. However, her birthday is now also celebrated as ‘International Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia Awareness Day. It is thought by many to have fibromyalgia that Ms.Nightingale suffered from most of her adult life.
The critics of Nightingale have speculated that she feigned illnesses, was bi-polar, mentally ill, and suffered from depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder, they were all due to various types of so-called ‘hysteria’ which commonly demeans women and highly sensitive persons. My view is that she developed full-blown fibromyalgia after the trigger of contracting a fever in Crimea while experiencing the horrific hospital and nursing conditions of war. But, it is not as simple as that.
For her to have developed fibromyalgia she needed the following personality and psychological characteristics: a highly sensitive person throughout her life, and plagued with anxieties and past trauma. The war and finally the fever depleted her energy and her overwhelmed central nervous system. She could no longer work as effectively with the anxieties she had faced. While the terms ‘shell shock’ and PTSD seem to be different from fibromyalgia, they are basically of the same anxiety family.
This view is held by many and it fits with my view that fibromyalgia is socially induced, in highly sensitive people (particularly women) whose central nervous system is in a state of chronic hyper-arousal. Dr. Kevin White calls fibromyalgia the ‘Nightingale Disease’, and while I agree that many of the systems within the body eventually break down from this constant state of overstimulation of the CNS, I do not agree with him that it is in and of itself an actual disease, rather a dis-ease.
However, no one has yet to ‘prove’ any particular theory about fibromyalgia, which is frustrating for both patients and health care providers. We can only continue to speculate, hoping for more concrete answers. Needless to say, I believe my theory is worth contemplating about fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue.
A review of the hundreds of comments I have received over the years on many blogs and other forms of research/interviews I have conducted has been interesting to observe that many of the commentators are nurses.
This fits in with my view that it is caregivers, primarily women, who are highly sensitive, working in highly stressed situations, coupled with anxieties, who often say of their lives that they are ‘burned out’ from a lifetime of caring for others. I continue to be amazed at how many nurses suffer from fibromyalgia brought on by a personal history of stress/anxiety and usually precipitated by a crisis, an accident, surgery, or something as seemingly simple as a root canal!
I refuse to think of Florence Nightingale as a malingerer considering all that she accomplished over her lifetime, like the many women I hear from daily who accomplish so much, caring for others, wanting to make an improvement in the lives of others while continuing to face their own challenges with pain and fatigue.
I believe that those of us with central sensitization, that is, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue, or to call it by another name -“post-traumatic stress disorder”, all suffer from chronic anxiety/ fear. These terms are, in my view, interchangeable. They can keep us imprisoned without recourse and in a state of hopelessness. In fact, the US Department of Health and Human Services has developed a new name that can even be part of our repertoire, that is, “Systemic Exertion Intolerance Disorder”.
In short, more diagnostic criteria are available for health professionals who are interested in tagging us. It is true that we have little energy along with our other challenges, but are we just a collection of symptoms?
For almost a decade now I have been writing about how those of us with these conditions, have options regarding a better quality of life. Yet, in spite of my preaching, I find myself, like others, often recounting yet another symptomof central sensitization almost ignoring the gestalt. Note for example the hundreds of comments or ‘hits’
I have on the two most popular blogs 1) itching and 2) tingling and numbness of arms. One would never have imagined that these two symptoms would be so problematic! Yet, those of us who suffer from specific symptoms focus on them often to the exclusion of what can be done to improve our daily lives.
The intent here is to gather together the ways in which we can begin to take control of our lives in lieu of medicalizing our very existence. After all, I have often written that central sensitization is not a disease but a dis-ease.
1) Talk therapy: We have become highly sensitive persons either because we were born with that characteristic or developed it early in life. We have had a past trauma that has resulted in repressed emotions that need to be attended to by a professional therapist.
2) Mild to moderate exercise, in particular walking.
3) Mindful Meditation.
4) Bodywork involving touches, such as massage, reflexology, chiropractic, Jin Shin, physiotherapy, or osteopathy.
5) Movement therapy such as chi gong, yoga, and tai chi.
6) Avoiding over-stimulating and stressful situations as much as possible.
7) Taking on a new, repetitive, creative undertaking that will help us change our brain: drawing, painting, quilting to name a few.
8) Avoid caffeine and other foods that are too stimulating.
9) Do not over-medicate. If possible medical marijuana through oils or other edibles is a good alternative, especially in regard to sleep.
It must be our intent to change our brain. Unless we embrace the concept of neuroplasticity ( that is, the capacity of our brains to change) and understand that it is up to us to become the masters/ mistresses of our own fate we will live forever in fear and hopelessness, dwelling on symptoms.
On a personal note: I must practice what I preach. It isn’t easy.
” What I want for my fans and for the world, for anyone who feels pain, is to lean into that pain and embrace it as much as they can and begin the healing process”, Lady Gaga
There has rarely been such public awareness of fibromyalgia as there is now that Lady Gaga has become public about her own suffering. While there are thousands of those of us who suffer from the debilitating pain and fatigue of this syndrome, many still believe it is malingering.
Unfortunately, it takes a public figure to allow the disbeliever to at least entertain the possibility that this condition, not a disease, but a dis-ease, is real. I am not a fan of pop stars and have not even seen Lady Gaga perform. In fact, I know little about her, but why does it take a widely known singer to convince the public that those of us with highly sensitive, over-stimulated central nervous systems live in a world encompassed by pain and a multitude of other ‘symptoms’?
We live in a world of the constant bombardment of our senses. All of us have experienced past trauma of some sort. Many can easily move on while others continue to take more chaos into our very being. Watching TV news, reading a newspaper, or internet news only heightens the sense of danger we feel for ourselves and others. It is rampant about death and tragedy and those of us with FMS and CFS have systems that can no longer absorb more trauma.
We can be called whiners, complainers, and acting victims but the reality is our pain is real. It is the result of prolonged anxiety such that the mind closes down and the body takes over. Generally, it stems from childhood trauma which could be abusive or unloving, but not necessarily so. It could also be the result of being extremely hypersensitive and traumas, not necessarily from childhood, have exacerbated our central nervous systems to a point of no return. The emotional trauma leads to real physical trauma.
What is to be done? Our minds need stillness, calm and quiet to heal our bodies. Living in the moment with compassion for our injured selves allows us to begin the healing process. I am struck today, September 22, 2017, by the cover picture and story in the Globe and Mail about the UN International Day of Peace. Ottawa citizens took part in mindfulness meditation for peace on Parliament Hill, led by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn with nearly 1,000 people participating.
Instead of reading about a blustering threat of killing an entire nation, earthquakes, flooding, hurricanes, hate crimes, fascism, Nazi groups, and race and gender injustices that add further psychic pain to our already over-burdened brain, I could see some semblance of hope. There IS some! But, for our own demons peace has to come from within. Medications, talk therapy, and support groups can help but we have to become experts in our own minds. We have to heal ourselves.
There is no cure for an already overburdened central nervous system, but we can learn to treat that anxious mind by being at peace living in the moment, finding comfort in perhaps odd ways that are unique to us, and living with joy that may be fleeting, but is there to call on when we need it. I have a piece of fabric that makes me smile when I look at it.
I imagine it is me looking in a mirror, trying to see into my brain all the garbled thoughts that make me anxious. I can “lean into it” as Lady Gaga suggests and sigh at that mind that hangs on to past trauma. What a fiasco… you gotta’ laugh…
Now it has been 11 years of writing almost monthly blogs about fibromyalgia and attending to the stories about people who are ultra-sensitive, highly empathetic, anxious, unable to tolerate the pain of others, and have developed an overactive central nervous system which is known as fibromyalgia. I am today taking another route at the beginning of this lovely month of June.
Unlike Florence Nightingale who came back with her heavy lamp from the Crimea and collapsed with fibromyalgia, I am writing today about another kind of nurse, one who was every bit as brave as Florence Nightingale and survived until the ripe old age of 97, in her home town of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. She was the marvelous Sara Corning. It is unlikely she suffered from fibromyalgia so the question you might ask is about the contrast between the two.
I don’t have an answer to that question, but what I do know is that nurses have heavy burdens to bear and never more so than those who faced devastation caused by wars and massacres. Like military personnel who return from wars, some develop post–traumatic stress disorder (aka fibromyalgia), while others can carry on their lives in a more usual manner.
Now to the purpose of this blog today. As you know from previous writings, I blame my highly sensitive nervous system on childhood trauma and in particular the experiences I had as a student nurse in the mid to late 1950s. During those days we were used as a source of free labor to staff hospitals, often without any days off for three years, working for 12 hours shifts with a great deal of responsibility, ill-trained, learning through an apprenticeship system.
It was not just in small-town hospitals in Nova Scotia, but generally throughout Canada, the US, and other parts of the world. We were exploited and did not have within us the knowledge or experience to rebel, after all, we were but teenagers. Wanting to record those experiences of student nursing days, I began interviewing in a conversational way, women who had been student nurses up until the 1960s when the times began to change. The oral histories I had with women who had been nursing in the 1920s and 1930s are stored in the Nova Scotia Archives and I thought I was done with recording nursing history.
Now, in my old age, as a time to reminisce, I look back at the trauma inflicted upon me and my classmates, and once again decided to speak with women of my vintage about their experiences. The result is the book whose cover I shall show you. I have just received the copies fresh off the press, published by GlenMargaret Publishing, Nova Scotia.
So, where does this tie into Sara Corning you might ask? Well, for the first reason, she, like me was from Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. Secondly, we were both nurses. Finally, as a social activist all my life I deplored violence, massacres, genocide, exploitation, and social injustice. Therefore, in order to pay back society as a result of the privileges I have had as a nurse, I decided that I would donate the proceeds to the Sara Corning Society in Yarmouth so that her story would never be lost in that small town.
A statue will be relatively soon erected, a street already named for her, perhaps a scholarship for a student nurse, a bench…the ways are numerous. As statues of unsavory men are being torn down, what better way to honor women, and nurses than through statues? But even more so the Sara Corning Centre for Genocide Education in Toronto whose work is far-reaching will have an impact on future generations Please go to their website and read more about her.
As I write I know that there are many readers who are nurses and whose lives are filled with pain from the sights they have seen, the exhaustion that can be overwhelming, and the death and despair they see on a daily basis. Yet, they persevere as did Sara Corning. It isn’t a book about Sara but about others who came after her, nurses everywhere who devote their lives, perhaps not as dramatically as she did, but are heroines nonetheless.
SARA CORNING
(Synopsis inside the book cover)
It was in 1919 that this remarkable humanitarian nurse departed for the Near East, where she helped to rescue and care for thousands of orphans, victims of the 1915-1923 Armenian genocide and Greek massacres, including during the Greek-Turkish forced populations exchange of 1923.
“There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in”, Leonard Cohen–Anthem
Cannabinophobia has resulted in a frenzy of political, medical, social, and cultural chaos for generations in spite of the fact that this herb has been around for 38 million years. Prohibition against cannabis usage has resulted in billions of dollars spent trying to stop its usage; hundreds of lives have been destroyed because of arrests, labeling them as criminals while governments have wasted their time trying to contain its widespread recreational use. But, it is medical marihuana specifically that I am the most interested in, and as Backes has written:
“The way to approach cannabis as a medicine is to do so cautiously, despite the fact that human beings have been using medicinal cannabis for millennia”. Physicians cannot prescribe but can authorize the use of cannabis. However, some physicians will not even do that in spite of the patient’s pain, and even worse in cases like multiple sclerosis where it has been shown to help with spasms, many will not even authorize it! For those of us with fibromyalgia and other chronic pain, as well as other conditions such as multiple sclerosis, waiting for the legalities to be sorted out means that we are expected to wait until the hysteria has subsided.
In Canada where I live the Liberal government has promised to legalize cannabis, but it is a slow process. It is likely to happen in 2017, the first of the G7 nations to do so. The government’s task force will release its report momentarily. Currently, in the US, eight states have legalized marihuana for medical and recreational purposes. With the recent US election, it is possible that all this progress may be rescinded. Only time will tell. Many want to be open-minded about the topic but it is far too often that their personal biases prevent reasonable discussions. While it is often said that religion, sex, and politics are taboo subjects to be avoided in polite company, I believe cannabis should be added to that list.
While I have many books and other reading material regarding marihuana (often spelled marijuana), The Pot Book remains among my favorite. Searching through the hundreds of internet sites, published articles, and books is an ominous task leaving the confused even more in a quandary. There is so little out there about the fibromyalgia pain, fatigue, and malaise, (among a host of other symptoms) and using cannabis for treatment, that it is a little wonder those of us with this syndrome wonder what should be done. Even this extensive book does not cover the topic and although most researchers write about chronic pain, the term fibromyalgia is not specifically used.
My view has been and remains- if alcohol, cigarettes, and prescription medications are available as a panacea for stress, anxiety, depression, and pain why not cannabis? If one can easily access cigarettes or imbibe alcohol for the social, recreational, and personal pleasure of relaxation why isn’t it the same for having a toke? Why is it legal to take a prescribed chemical such as valium (Diazepam) for example, but not an herb, like marihuana?
But, wait for a minute-an herb? I have long ago given up on herbs knowing that the myths associated with them are airy-fairy, woo, and snake oil, in fact, are unproven to be helpful. I can attest to their ineffectiveness. Why is this particular herb one which I consider to be beneficial for medicinal purposes? In fact, years ago I spent much money and time boiling Chinese herbs, not even realizing the heavy metals and other toxic substances in those concoctions and all this without any positive results.
Do people like to be deceived? Although I did not derive any benefit from them I still hoped I would. It was self-deception on my part as were the so-called ‘complimentary/alternative’ concoctions I wasted even more money on before giving upon them. They are not scientifically evidence-based. The ways in which we deceive ourselves are due to inherent biases. Most of these herbs are generally in the realm of pseudoscience. So here’s the question: why do I believe cannabis is helpful for the many ailments of fibromyalgia? Is the use of marihuana scientifically evidence-based? Are anecdotes enough for us to rely on? It is difficult to be unbiased/neutral and there are indeed unsupported assertions about marihuana, a highly contested issue.
When I first wrote about cannabinoids on this site 2019 all those years ago I explained that I had never tried cannabis for pain or fibromyalgia, nor for any other reason. I have never smoked a cigarette nor do I drink alcohol, the latter because it is too stimulating for me; it is not a moral issue. I avoid caffeinated coffee for that same reason. I simply don’t like the feeling of being out of control, my central nervous system cannot tolerate stimulants.
I have never taken a psychotropic drug, and other than Gabapentin and an occasional Tylenol I suffer through this unrelenting pain. I am not a martyr but until it was suggested I try medical marihuana I believed there wasn’t any other hope for relief and the anecdotes I was reading about cannabis seemed encouraging. When I read the hundreds of comments on these many blogs I have written over the years, I am in awe about how many mood-altering drugs people are taking for their emotional wellbeing. The pain of fibromyalgia is nonending. Why not try the unknown I thought. I was eager to try! I am considered a naïve user.
I confess to worrying I feel when people smoke cigarettes knowing that the evidence is clear, even written on cigarette packages, that smoking causes lung cancer. The tobacco that tobacco pickers made themselves from leaves burned the back of their throats. Over the years many have told me and written about the same sensations they incur after smoking cannabis, particularly from unknown sources, that is, there is more phlegm and inflammation in the respiratory system like burning, coughing, and wheezing from the heat of the smoke.
Tobacco wasn’t always regulated nor were the ingredients clearly stated on packages. If cannabis was regulated and ingredients stated before use would buyers become more cautious about from whom they were buying? Would they switch to vaporized, oils, sprays, suppositories, even the new market of pills, or edible means of taking marihuana for recreational reasons?
Or, is it the ritual, of preparing, and/or sharing a smoke that is enjoyable? Even more significant, the cost may be prohibitive for many forms of cannabis, so it is likely that those who are taking cannabis for pain are smoking. Costs must always be considered as many people with fibromyalgia have had to stop working due to their pain and cannot afford an oil or vapor and certainly not the spray. For those of us with fibromyalgia and sensitive to smoke we do have alternatives, hopefully, the costs will not be prohibitive.
In an article for CBC News, November 24, 2016, Opinion, Peter Thurley writes:” Stigma of the lazy pot-smoker hurts medical marijuana users” and the ways in which “they often give a nudge wink and say, “Lucky you, getting high on weed, eh?” He writes of the extractions (such as an oil) that “take much more plant matter to produce than other methods such as smoking or vaporizing”. The process results in higher costs.
In another CBC production, on November 25, 2016, Marketplace, alarms went off at the findings when the science-based study of four participants who were given weed to smoke to determine brain wave data after they had become high. But, it is this kind of scientific–based research that is sorely needed. Technology has allowed us to view the responses of our brains using fMRI and EEGs. We have to be able to make informed decisions. However, where is the brain research after a person has consumed a prescribed psychotropic ‘medication’?
In the last four years at one hospital in Denver, it was said that there was a big increase in the number of young clients with nausea, abdominal cramps, and vomiting due to cannabis. The data has shown that the current level of THC in weed is now 6 times more powerful than it was in the 1970s…and adolescent psychosis is an even more serious problem. It is speculated that using marihuana before the age of 25 is harmful to the brain. Yet, there is anecdotal evidence that cannabis is helpful in some cases of children with such conditions as epilepsy and certainly in cancer-related situations.
I am unhappy when I see someone inebriated or completely stoned. It is obvious that regularly drinking alcohol or toking toexcess is harmful for personal and societal reasons, as are other addictions. So now where am I on this controversial issue that has the general population in such a frenzy? Well, I have just become registered as a person who is legally allowed to use cannabis oil, taken orally for medical reasons. My fibromyalgia pain has increased tremendously since my hip replacement five months ago.
I have residual pain. Central sensitization has accelerated and flare-ups are more frequent with intense back pain from many degenerations of the lumbar spine. I have a choice: increase Gabapentin (and weight gain) or take an herb in the form of an oil. I chose the latter, despite still believing that most other herbs do not serve many purposes (although at least half of prescription drugs are plant-based, with added chemicals). I conclude after many years of reflecting and reading the science and hearing anecdotal testimonies that cannabinoid usage is helpful for chronic pain, and what is more chronic than fibromyalgia? It is not a cure but a potential panacea.
There are many internet sites, articles, and books that delve into the history of the herb, this Indian hemp plant cannabis, from which marihuana and hashish are made. For the most part, the history is written about how it was used for euphoria, or hemp itself was used in clothing and other products, rather than for medicinal/medical purposes. As a hallucinogen, it is said to have been used by the Chinese Emperor Shen Nung in 2727 B.C. (2737 B.C?, dates vary. See narconon.ca and/or deamuseum.org and/or livescience.com) who reported on its therapeutic use. Books and articles are plentiful about its history. “Cannabis is one of the oldest psychotropic drugs in continuous use.
Archaeologists have discovered it in digs in Asia that date to the Neolithic period around 4000BCE”, (Groopman, 2014). More ‘recently’, in 1839, a British doctor, William O’Shaughnessy wrote about its benefits and it became widespread for medical use, even prescribed to Queen Victoria for menstrual discomfort (Groopman, 2014).
Could this physician have imagined such a device as a gel pen filled with cannabis oil to apply locally? Or that there would be vaporizers, suppositories, oils, pills and other edibles, and even patches? That there were hundreds of slang words/terms one used that have evolved over the decades of marijuana usage? The spelling of marijuana or the terms used by users seems to men to be irrelevant so I will use them in various kinds of ways that are easiest for me to make a point.
The literature often appears to be completely two-sided without a middle ground of pros and cons about using the plant for mood-altering purposes in any form. Furthermore, whether or not it is effective for medicinal purposes has not been as carefully researched as prescription drugs. Much of the data is anecdotal. It is understandable since it is illegal in most countries. Now that several American states have legalized its use it is hoped that more participants will be willing to volunteer for larger studies without fear of repercussion, that is if the ‘new’ President does not undercut those states who have legalized it.
I am certain that Canada will lead the way in research as soon as the new year legalizes this ‘weed’. There is hardly a day that passes when the national paper ‘The Globe and Mail’ does not feature an article on marihuana. Who then will fund these studies? Will fibromyalgia sufferers be participants in these studies?
To be realistic Big Pharma might be unlikely to fund the research so the problem of funding remains an issue unless it can be shown to be profitable for the pharmaceutical companies. As a point of interest the study conducted by Dr. Mark Ware and colleagues of McGill University in Montreal in 2016, writes about the pharmaceutical development of cannabis patches for diabetic nerve pain and fibromyalgia! It is a small beginning for those of us with fibromyalgia and chronic pain. ‘Illegal’ home growers and ‘legal’ growers are of course somewhat leery about this new legalization, particularly if it is taken over by Big Pharma.
Marihuana is a social, political, and medical issue that is very complex. Growing a crop in one’s yard may be subject to criminality. The pharmaceutical companies may end up having complete control over the countries where it is legal.
The difficulties persist as most people are passionate about the topic and especially about government and/or Big Pharma’s control of the industry. Daniel LeBlanc wrote “Canada’s new legal marijuana regime is expected to feature a mishmash of provincial rules and a heavily regulated production system that will initially favor existing producers of medical cannabis, sources say” (The Globe and Mail, December 1, 2016).
It is obvious that with the issue of medical marihuana the ‘prescription’ is not precise. How is a person know which product will be effective for individual clients? How much THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) and the ratio to CBD (the second most common cannabinoid produced by the cannabis plant) is appropriate for each person? Briefly stated THC will give a person a ‘buzz’ while CBD does not. CBD has medical benefits and can counteract THC lethargy and getting ‘high’. It is used for anxiety, and pain, as an anti-inflammatory, and antispasmodic. Finding the right combination is a slow process for each individual.
Neither side is willing to be open-minded to the other, no doubt myself included. An example might be a discussion about why a drug such as a valium for anxiety is socially acceptable and legally prescribed while smoking weed is considered illegal in most countries. The opposite position could be that valium has been scientifically shown to alter a mood and the dosage is tightly controlled, whereas medical marihuana without much THC may not change such conditions as anxiety, in fact, may even increase anxieties.
Those who are definitely in one camp or the other are in the majority while those who see both sides of the argument seem to be in the minority. The entire concept is mired in controversy with passion raging on both sides of the argument. Nonetheless, health care providers are left in a quandary as to whether or not medical marihuana is effective for pain or is thought to be because of the placebo effect. That is, those compounds without much THC may help with pain, for example, but may do little for underlying anxiety. Evidence-based research is not yet as abundant as it could be, and it is not black and white. When authorizing medical marihuana physicians must use caution and it is by trial and error that one finds the right script.
It is here that I confess my own bias against any kind of invasion of the mouth, throat, larynx, and lungs by smoke, having seen many cancer patients suffering as a result of inhaling cigarette smoke. (There are others who are not in favor of edibles as they have been concerned about gastric issues and the difficulties of dosage control.) In my view, the evidence supporting either position is not definitive so our own biases are not ‘provable’ (I use this word loosely).
Some suggest that cannabis can actually prevent lung cancer while others suggest it is instrumental in causing it! Those who are pro-smoking disagree with others who say that it is equally as dangerous as smoking cigarettes. In fact, it may be more deleterious as the smoke is held longer in the lungs by the inhaler.
While science-based evidence is badly needed it may or may not help the situation if one is not open to discussion about their own point of view. It is the old idea that if marihuana is legalized it will lead to addiction and the use of dangerous drugs. A casual alcohol drinker does not necessarily become an alcoholic so that issue is a moot point.
One would have thought that California, of all the perceived laid-back states, would have legalized pot but it wasn’t until November 8, 2016, with the ‘Adult Use of Marijuana Act’ that this state ended its prohibition for those over 21. They now have what they consider to be a sensible system that treats marijuana similarly to alcohol with regulations and taxing procedures. Patients with a state ID card for medical usage will not have to pay taxes. It should be fully implemented by 2018.
However, “the state would impose a 15-per-cent tax on retail sales of pot and additional taxes on growers” (Gary Mason, The Globe, and Mail, Monday, November 7, 2016 A7). “Legalization could generate more than $1-billion in tax revenue” (Mason). As marihuana becomes legalized in more and more countries, small growers will be penalized, and the greater the opportunities for Big Pharma. It follows that the underground ‘bootleggers’ will be forced to proceed illegally.
The complexity is overwhelming. I am at this point myself overwhelmed by the amount of information I have been exposed to over these many years. I could write reams of pages on the political issues involved with legalization, for example, the legalities of driving while taking medical marihuana, using it at work, or traveling to other countries as a medical user.
While there is promise regarding the patches I cannot imagine using them for the ‘pain all over’ which affects us on a daily basis! A peculiar sight indeed! I cannot yet attest to the efficacy of medical marihuana oil for fibromyalgia and specifically for myself– stay tuned.
Well, here I am in the second month of experimenting with this wondrous herb. It isn’t easy trying to find the right mixture of THC to CBD that fits me! Medical marijuana is not to be considered one size fits all. In fact, I am not sure I have the right times of day with the right amounts of each of the ingredients completely suited to me even now after two months. It has been trial and error.
But I have been aided by my family physician and the very well-informed members of the National Access Cannabis clinic. The choices are mine and it involves reading, understanding, and recording how each process is helping (or not). It is winter, cold, and depressing as I struggle with hip and back pains combined with fibromyalgia and sleep issues. My brain seems frozen in this ice block.
But I have a new kind of cannabis to use! My physiotherapist gave me a free sample of a topical cream of cannabis PANAG Topical A OTC which will be marketed this spring. I have just begun using it on various painful spots. It is too soon to tell if it will be helpful.
The times they are a’chang in’… time to lobby for universal acceptance in Western society of an herb that can help with chronic pain and multiple other symptoms. We need to reduce taking many chemicals whose long-term usage is dangerous to our kidneys and liver. Prohibition of cannabis is senseless, it is a safe herb, nonaddictive, and often effective for many conditions like fibromyalgia.
In the words of a famous, highly influential, and significant astronomer Carl Sagan:
The illegality of cannabis is outrageous, an impediment to full utilization of a drug that helps produce the serenity and insight, sensitivity, and fellowship so desperately needed in this increasingly mad and dangerous world.
” The greatest heroes are those who do their duty in the daily grind of domestic affairs whilst the world whirls as a maddening dreidel”, Florence Nightingale
A dreidel is a four-sided spinning top. I loved the above quote but knew not what that word meant. It makes so much sense to me now as the world is certainly spinning out of control and it is the hyper-sensitive, traumatized person who suffers the most, especially if she or he works in a high-stress environment.
This week we celebrated the birthday of Florence Nightingale and I am reminded of the many nurses who write to me on this website suffering from fibromyalgia. There is little doubt that Nightingale herself was plagued with this condition. Those who do their work as responsible caring people live with the daily suffering and the trauma of others. While absorbing the pain of their patients they are often living with their own.
Those of us with fibromyalgia have an overabundance of empathy. It is not easy to disregard the emotions of others; we always anticipate the needs of people in real or perceived distress. Nurses are at the forefront where fear and anxiety are paramount and living with fibromyalgia intensifies the daily challenges. As patients suffer from anxiety their struggles are inter-meshed with their own. Oftentimes it is impossible to separate the two.
I have just completed a book about nurses in training in the 1950s and it is currently at the printers, due for release in June 2018. This book describes the lives of student nurses who worked under harsh conditions while working/studying to become RNs. They are stories of the difficulties these women experienced during their three-year training period.
The devotion to their profession and the uncomplaining ways in which they did their duty is awe-inspiring. Nurses exemplify the best of human qualities. But sometimes their own emotional capacity is overwhelmed and too anxiety-provoking. While this book is not at all about fibromyalgia, nonetheless it does exemplify the intense devotion to the caring work of those who make up the vast number of health professionals. Nurses are unsung heroes and heroines.
