This is going to sound awful. It hurts just to say it. It’s the silver bullet, though, against fibromyalgia. Exercise.
Don’t stop reading yet.
You have to start very, very slowly. 5 minutes of gentle exercise is perfect for the first week. If you have access to a warm pool, then it’s even better because you have less weight in the pool and the warm water reduces pain.
You might try physical therapy (PT) as many PT facilities have such pools. Make sure the physical therapist has experience with fibromyalgia, though. If experience isn’t available, speak with them about their approach.
If they start with “we’ll start you easy with 30 minutes and 2-pound weights,” they don’t know enough about the condition. If they say 10 minutes and 1/2 pound weights, you are in a position to explain that they expect too much. You need to start with less time and the weight of your own body.
Note that your insurance will limit visits. Find out the limit so you can spread visits out to cover the pregnancy and part of recovery.
You (and possibly your PT provider) can slowly increase your activities. Keep in mind that you don’t want to increase as fast as most people would. I used to add three minutes every three days, and I considered that an aggressive approach. Three minutes a week might be more sensible.
The mistake I always make is to stop when I’m sick. Short of influenza, I need to keep going and maintain my ability to move. We seem to have less ability to hold on to our gains than most people.
A motivator that I should point out: if your core and abdominal floor are strong and flexible, you will have an easier delivery (according to my OB all those years ago). If they are weak, you have more chance of injury and you will have a harder time with the “push” part of delivering the baby. I haven’t heard any statistics on this, but logic dictates that if you have difficulty with delivery, it might increase the chance of complications.
Exercise hurts when you have fibromyalgia. I won’t argue with that. But every incremental increase in fitness will reduce pain. The trick is to keep it slow and gentle.
Keeping a journal is the single best way to identify your triggers. So, what kinds of things should you write down? Here are some of the most common flares:
Stress: What’s going on in your life? Is everything going well in your relationship? Any problems with your kids? Is your job hectic or overwhelming? Are you moving, remodeling, or redecorating? Have you lost a loved one recently? Think about anything out of the ordinary that might be causing you stress.
Sleep: Try to make your bedroom a place for intimacy and sleep…and nothing else. Make sure you take time to wind down for at least an hour before sleep…no devices. Write down the time when you turn off the light and get ready to sleep, and when you wake up in the morning. If you can’t sleep, write that down. Estimate how much sleep you get every night.
Diet: Write down the food you eat. Don’t worry about the amounts or calories, just the types of food so that you can notice if there’s a pattern related to, for example, dairy or caffeine or gluten.
Weather: Extreme cold, humidity, and barometric pressure changes can trigger a flare, so jot down the weather. Intellicast offers a graph presentation that includes barometric pressure.
Activity: Overdoing it and, strangely, not doing enough can both trigger flares. We fibromites have difficulty properly oxygenating our muscle tissue AND flushing lactic acid from our bodies, making us feel weak and sore. Overdoing it can exacerbate this. However, not moving around enough can cause stiff, tense muscles. It’s best to pace activity with equal rest breaks…15 minutes of chores, 15 minutes of rest, etc.
Overwhelm: Fibromyalgia includes both hyperalgesia (pain amplification) and allodynia (ordinary, non-painful things are experienced as pain). Sudden, loud noises and bright lights can be painful, as can any type of sensory overload. (Personally, I can’t walk down the cleaning aisle in the store unless I’m holding my breath; the smell is overwhelming and nauseating.)
Over my 16 years with fibromyalgia, I’ve found a few non-invasive things that have helped me immensely. Some of them are a bit pricy, others are homemade, and still, others are absolutely free.
This memory foam mattress topper allows me to remain comfortable during sleep. It eliminates pressure points, yet still provides support.
The memory foam bed pillows I made from these zippered pillowcases and this loose memory foam perfectly cradle my head and neck whether I sleep on my back, side, or tummy.
This TENS unit helps relieve muscle tension and reduces my pain level. You do have to be careful to not stick the pads on or near tender points!
Make a heating pad from uncooked long grain rice. I began with a simple one made by filling, then knotting a tube sock. Then, I sewed a larger one from a pillowcase. Double-stitch stripes the length of the pillowcase about 5″ apart, creating “tunnels.” Fill each “tunnel” with a half-cup of rice, then double-stitch about 5″ up from the short end, enclosing the rice. Repeat until you reach the opening of the pillowcase and double-stitch it closed. When you want heat, toss it into the microwave for a couple minutes, shake it up, and apply. (I use a second pillowcase as a sham to keep it clean.) Be extremely careful not to overheat it, as it will burn your skin.
Practice Jacobson’s progressive relaxation technique. I find it helps to play some soft instrumental music in the background.
Try to avoid processed and fast food as much as possible. (I’ve found it helps to cook larger batches of meals that can then be split into portion sizes, vacuum-sealed, and frozen. Obviously, this doesn’t work for everything, but it’s great for things like beef stew, spaghetti sauce, soups and stews, chili, and lasagna.)
Try to avoid chemical cleansers as much as possible. (I clean with either bleach or white vinegar, watered down as necessary. It’s helped me a lot to rid my house of those multi-chemical cleansers. The smells of them alone were overwhelming.)
Having an understanding family has been wonderful. My husband and son understand when I having a bad day and pitch in without hesitation. Find those people who understand and support you. But it is also important to remain positive and do the things you can and not allow your chronic illness to define you.
Seek God through prayer, His Word and the counsel of others. Finding meaning and purpose in your life is critical for your spiritual and emotional health. In prayer, ask God to reveal His purpose for this season of your life. Invite others’ input and don’t be afraid to step out and try new things. Have you always wanted to take an art class? Write a book? Now might be the perfect time to start.
Ask important questions like, “What am I passionate about?” “What in my life can I share with others?” We sometimes abandon our “passions” for adult responsibilities. Think back to your youth and what you enjoyed doing. Rediscover your gifts and talents. Although your chronic illness may keep you from coaching your son’s soccer team, maybe you can use your photography skills to capture those winning moments. Be creative.
Take calculated risks. Rebuilding your life requires that you explore unchartered territory. Sure, it might be scary to head back to college at age 35, but why not give it a shot? While you may not succeed at everything you try, the experiences will enrich your life and give you something to talk about besides your illness.
Eliminate toxic relationships from your life. Few things are more draining than dysfunctional relationships. People who consistently blame you for their problems, criticize your choices and discount your feelings are toxic. If being in someone’s company continually drains you, it might be a sign of an unhealthy relationship. Learn to establish healthy boundaries.
Forgive those who fail you.Over time, your friends will fail you, co-workers will fail you—even your church will fail you. Forgive them and move on.
Learn to choose between “best” and “good.” Your physical and emotional resources will limit your choices. Determine who and what adds meaning to your life and invest in those relationships and activities. Not sure? Ask a friend. A fresh perspective may be just what you need.
Share your gifts and talents. Those who suffer have a lot to contribute. It is critical to look for ways to share your gifts and talents with others in your church and the community.
The best way is to accept it and moderate it in a moment-by-moment exercise. The stress of the “fight” will only make the pain worse for most with fibro. My new normal is that I am in pain every second of every day. I avoid unnecessary stressors which include movies and tv shows that are too intense.
If a sporting event causes “tension and release” that is excessive for me, I stop watching. If a food causes symptoms, I stop eating it. Part of fibro is a dysregulation of the peripheral nervous system which means that our bodies may overreact or underreact to strong inputs through our senses and emotions.
There are lots of normal things that are no longer normal for me. I have stopped fighting my new limits and have learned to accept what I can and cannot do. It is a process of grieving the loss of function and celebrating what remains.
I have learned that I must do moderate movement and small amounts of rest continuously to function. I sleep because we all must even though I know that the lack of activity through the night will increase the cramps that must be worked out in the morning.
But I slowly work and move through the cramps in order to function. I want to remain in bed because I wake up exhausted, but I know that a lack of moderate movement will mean that my cramping will get worse instead of better.
I take Lyrica, Wellbutrin, Lexapro, something for sleep, and something for a learning disability. I am consistent with my medications and have tried many to find a good mix for me. I accept that this is all that the doctors can do for me.
The “battle” is one where people expect that there is an answer to get better, and there is no one right now. We can learn the coping mechanisms that work for us and use them. I have better days now than I had before because I move moderately, stretch mildly, rest often, set boundaries with people, and have lowered my expectations for what I am able to do.
Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue are survivable, and I can honestly say that I am a very happy man who deals with grieving the life that I lost every day. It is a process. I had a therapist. We saw each other a lot. I have learned how to disconnect a bit from my pain. I have learned how to engage in activities where the pleasure and payoff are more than the pain and costs. Those are different for each person.
The pain seems unbearable at first, but we can habituate to it as we repeat to our brains over and over that it is not a signal that something is going to harm or kill us. If we can learn that this pain signal does not mean that a tiger is trying to eat us or that cancer is present, then we can help the body relax and attend to it less. It is a process, and it sucks. But it is better than the alternative.
Please also understand that most doctors do not understand the disease and that opioids like Vicodin and Percocet (hydrocodone) may make fibro pain worse instead of better for many people with fibromyalgia.
I also use downward social comparison to help my mental state. Can you imagine having this disorder a thousand years ago with no medications, no heating and air, no choice in foods, and no support groups? We are even way better off than the people who had this 30 years ago and who faced humiliation and shame for their lack of activity.
Acceptance is a key survival strategy. Grieving is the pathway to acceptance. I still grieve every day about the things that I once could do and no longer can. I grieve the things that a “normal” person my age can normally do. But I come back to acceptance and a place of well-being in the midst of my pain.
For me, it was addressing the root cause of the illness: heavy metal toxicity. I had 8 dental amalgams as well as a couple of root canals. I used to get vaxxed. I ate a lot of fish. I had some imaging with contrast dyes. Nowadays everyone is exposed to multiple heavy metals.
So once I had the amalgams safely removed that was a huge step forward I have been working on getting my body’s detox pathways to work right (liver, kidneys, and gut, for example, are how we do a lot of our detox) as well as boosting natural detox such as glutathione levels.
This has helped tremendously. It is taking some major time but I’ve been being poisoned for decades so not surprised to get the garbage out and to repair the damage is taking time and effort.
I am not “cured” but the fibro is nowhere near as bad as it had been. I do think it is part of why I still have major sleep issues. I fatigue way easier than I should. I DO have chronic pain—but it is not at the level it was. I am still never pain-free but I actually have hopes of getting there.
I saw pain specialists. I had strong pain meds. Only took the edge off. The McKenzie PT has been a real help. I get an “edge off” pain with arnica gel or Penetrex.
I believe it is crucial for fibro folks to stop eating processed foods, give up fake sugars. reduce real ones, eat fermented foods, and do other things that help the gut to improve. Doing that and much more has made this a presence in my life instead of the dominating force.
Going to keep getting better; there is a lot of room for improvement but my docs have been astonished I have come this far. My PT has been great. He told me many years ago I was in the sub-sub-(about ten times)-basement and needed to NOT PUSH myself as it kept leading to flares.
I still drop in on him and he is IMPRESSED. He still offers me tweaks to the routine AND works on me because I still have serious problems but I did not give up; it’s stopped progressing (and contrary to what is claimed, I found it most certainly DID progress and got worse.
Maybe technically it was the OTHER problems that DO come from it, but it got worse and worse without a doubt.) Infections, Lyme, mold, and more can also be caused or exacerbate the condition so it’s not just heavy metals and I had a lot of those factors so had to address those topics as well.
I don’t know what it takes to make a fibromyalgia diagnosis because I don’t trust science’s model to describe and assess what the phenomenon really is.
They do more harm when they label human beings with all kinds of “disorders”. Those assumed disorders become something that human beings wrongly identify with, later on in their lives, which render them unable to truly ever transcend their condition. Simply because they have grown to identify with it.
I also understand, on the other hand, that it is the best we can come up with in terms of organizing humanity efficiently. But in my opinion, it does not serve the individual anymore, really.
And yes, in my view – after observing and experiencing the phenomena quite closely – it is clear to me that fibromyalgia is indeed a throw-away diagnosis. But perhaps, for the medical field – not at all.
I have come to understand that science and the medical field alike, suffer from a disease called compartmentalization.
That is, the label and invent names for anything that has the slightest difference in symptomatology and thus create more confusion than not. Rendering them unable to see the forest for the trees anymore.
Fibromyalgia, Multiple Sclerosis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Lupus, Lyme Disease, Crohn’s Disease, Huntington Disease, Duchenne muscular dystrophy syndrome, PTSD, Parkinson, Alzheimer, Guillain–Barré syndrome, Autism, ASD, AFM, all other muscle dystrophy diseases and disorders, and I can go on and on filling pages of pages with sophisticated names that describe even the most minute detail indifference, just to justify a new name.
They have lost their ways of being able to look at the human body as a holistic machine. Rendering them unable to see that all of those “disorders” come from a unified place in the body, but as each human body is unique and therefore different, those imbalances – by the time they come out onto the surface – they take a slightly different form in symptomatology.
You will notice that the common denominator for all of these “disorders” has to do with electrical( action-potential) imbalances within our nervous system coupled with autoimmune “activity” that arises and takes place within the body.
In other words, the byproduct of pain, spasms that we feel as a result, (but not only limited to) are a byproduct of locked action-potential electricity within our nervous system: either within the brain, extrapolated within the CNS ( Central Nervous System) – this is where we get the Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s’ stuff, or within the somatic and peripheral nervous system that is dispersed all around and within the body – where we get the fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis, etc. All of that ensues as a result of a change deepwithin thebody.
As a result of that change, other systems such as our immune system, “doesn’t” recognize that said change as a positive change: That is, a change that coming from within the body, and so it thinks that this “change” is a result of an alien attack if I can use that language.
And so, the immune system rises and attacks this change within the infrastructure. And what we get is the onset of the conditions associated with fibromyalgia and all other conditions stated above.
I started with 200 mg once a day. I increased it every other day until I got relief which for me was until I reached the maximum dose of 1600 mg every 24° period (i take 400 mg every 6°). Do not take if you are on an antidepressant without consulting your doctor. Also, avoid if you use sr. John’s wort.
It does much the same thing as SAM-e so don’t take it & SAM-e together without a doctor’s ok. Either or should apply to these 2 supplements. MSM comes in a variety of strengths. The maxi has seen recommended is 1000 mg every 8 hours. No more. I started at the lowest dose once a day, & increased gradually every 48° until I got relief. Again, avoid if you’re using st. John’s wort.
The warnings on these supplements above are because, to a lesser extent, they stimulate serotonin production. It’s very mild, but things like this add up. Often, a pharmacist will know more about them than a doctor, esp. if your doctor doesn’t hold with supplements.
Another Rx pain med that slightly increases the availability of serotonin in the body is Tramadol (Ultram). If you are ever given an Rx for this, make sure the doctor is aware if you are using any or all of those 3 medicines (SAM-e, MSM, & St. John’s Wort). The issue between MSM & SAM-e is also that they work by increasing the availability of sulfur in the body, but too high levels of sulfur are as bad. It may be worse than too low levels.
I have also found Boswellia Serrata to be of some help. 600 mg twice a day is the recommended max dose. It mostly helps with joint pain, which is common in fibro patients (I should know, I’ve had it since 1984).
When we were living in Scotland, a woman who owned a natural food store recommended nettle tea for joint pain. I found it quite helpful. I was very surprised to discover few people in the US thought it was used for joint pain; many here in the US use it only for respiratory illnesses, including COPD, & had no idea it was used for joint pain. I have used it when I had a respiratory illness, & found it helpful for both.
Also, these days, you can purchase 4% lidocaine topical lotion to rub into sore joints. Make sure you don’t strip the skin of its natural oils as that’s the medium through which it absorbs into the skin.
Another thing recommended is DMSO. You’ll usually find it in the veterinary section if you want the cheapest prices, & in states that don’t allow its sale for human use, you won’t see anything but veterinary formulations in any online store. It’s a very common chemical byproduct & nontoxic.
Don’t get a 99% solution, get something diluted & in gel form…. I’ve tried both & diluted 8n gel is more effective. The main issue is it can, for those with sensitive noses, smell like raw garlic…& it can leave a taste of garlic in your mouth – even though there is no common chemical I am aware of that DMSO shares with garlic. I find garlic difficult to deal with in food.
I am very sensitive & large amounts are a huge turn-off to me. If I want to stop myself from eating too much, that’s a heck of an appetite suppressant for me. It’s also not cool with cereal at breakfast…the taste of, say, honey nut Cheerios & garlic just so does not work…but I found it helped with sore joints regardless of the taste.
I have recently found a formulation where DMSO is listed as an inert ingredient, the main ingredients being menthol & camphor…so you smell like linament on a horse or Ben-Gay on an older person. The DMSO can’t be anything but a base ingredient in some areas…areas though have yet to see any mention of its harming anyone. Anyway, it helps but doesn’t take away all the pain. Nothing does.
As for antidepressants, pain & depression share many of the same pathways in the body, so antidepressants are used, with varying degrees of success, to help with the pain.
You must realize that this war on opioids & the false blame opioids receive for the overdose crisis means that we may all, if we’re on pain medication, be forced off it…& those newly diagnosed with pain syndromes like fibromyalgia may never see an Rx for pain medication.
I’ve seen tweets by people who have had major surgeries & their post-OP pain. Options are things like one, maybe 2, acetaminophen, extra strength (500 mg a pill), every 8 hours with 400 mg of ibuprofen every 6 hours for pain unrelieved by acetaminophen.
Most hospitals are so afraid of the DEA raiding them that they won’t prescribe opioids at all for any reason whatsoever. The VA has pulled all veterans off opioids altogether, resulting in a rash of suicides due to being unable to live with severe pain from war injuries.
I include in this WWII vets who had things like shrapnel buried in areas that precluded the removal of the shrapnel because of the risk of paralysis or even death. This is a jagged foreign object in the body, always tearing at something inside, often close to the spine or a major organ.
Many have been on opioids for decades with no, only a few, increases in dosage over that extensive time frame. What a way to reduce the number of VA patients! What a way to say thanks to the men who were sent from farms & small towns all over the US to make sure the menace of the Axis countries never reached our shores!
Many of these were called back up to active duty in Korea in the early 1950s, to yet another war. What a way to perpetuate the wrongs done to our Vietnam veterans, sent by conscription to fight an unpopular war & blamed for joining an army they didn’t ask to join but were forced to join.
If you want me to write more about this I can continue…
Unfortunately not only is Fibromyalgia comorbid with other conditions, but its symptoms can also mask other issues. There’s no definitive test as it doesn’t show up in blood work so it’s diagnosed by clinical evaluation.
When I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, I had been experiencing widespread pain (one of the symptoms/criteria) for years, but due to being a teenager, was told it was “growing pains”. It wasn’t. Other criteria they use are trigger points that, if pressed, cause intense pain.
I ‘scored’ on 14 out of 16 trigger points. The other common symptom is “fibro fog” where concentration is poor and cognition can be affected (especially during a flare–up).
I was relieved to finally have a diagnosis. I also have hypermobility which also causes pain, but a different kind of pain: fibro is more nerve pain and hypermobility is more joint pain (and frequent dislocations).
At the end of the day, you can see why people with certain conditions (such as Ehlers Danlos) refer to themselves as Zebras. Doctors are taught “when you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras”. Aka, don’t go diagnosing ‘rare‘ conditions when it could be a simple thing. Except instead we get fobbed off, being told it’s just back pain and everyone gets that. Oh, you’re only young you’re probably still growing.
Yes, some doctors misdiagnose it. And yes that can have a negative effect on people who do have it. But two people with the same condition can have wildly different experiences. I don’t have to use any mobility aids (i.e. walking stick or wheelchair) but many people with fibro do.
That doesn’t make me not have fibromyalgia anymore or make me better than them. Because I might suffer more with the other fibro symptoms. Plus I have another condition which, when I have flare-ups of both conditions at the same time, can make it impossible to get out of bed.
I’m 18 years old, I don’t want to have these conditions but I will live with them. I had to fight for 7 years to get a diagnosis. I can’t remember what it’s like to wake up and not be in some sort of pain. That doesn’t mean I’ll sit back complacent. It means I’ll go to physio and look after myself because I’ve got (hopefully) another 70-odd year with these conditions at least.
Just think, if someone’s been fighting for doctors to recognize something is actually wrong with them for, in most cases, a decade (average time from onset of symptoms to diagnosis) then maybe once they have an answer that fits, they don’t want to fight anymore.
Besides, it’s not even doctors that diagnose fibro most of the time, it’s rheumatologists (in the UK anyway) who you have to be referred to, which can take up to 6 months in some cases.
Doctors: It’s a difficult condition to diagnose but saying doctors misdiagnose it can be harmful to people who genuinely have it and struggle with it every single day. Sure, it could be an indicator of something else but that’s down to the doctor’s not being informed. Or old school doctor’s thinking they know best.
I know people with Fibromyalgia who are on cocktails of painkillers so strong that they are dependent (not necessarily addicted although that happens too) and cannot come off them without massive withdrawal symptoms – because doctors just keep upping the dosage instead of trying something different.
Misdiagnosis is more often the doctor’s fault than anything else because it can only be diagnosed clinically rather than a definitive blood test.
That being said, blame culture in medicine is detrimental to all involved and should be avoided where possible.
You know this is the craziest thing I am going to talk about now…
I’m not sure what the percentage is, but I can tell you that I spent years taking Adderall for ADHD and then had to stop taking it when I got pregnant. During the hiatus from that medication, I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia.
After unsuccessful attempts at treating it with many of the same methods you mentioned, I decided that I was sick of being a test monkey and asked my doctor to put me back on the Adderall. This time around, not only did it manage my ADHD symptoms, but it also seemingly “cured” my fibro.
Being a stimulant medication, its purpose is to counteract the area of an ADHD patient’s brain that makes them feel restless and unfocused by “tricking” the brain into believing it has produced too much of its own stimulant, therefore making it produce the chemicals that calm.
While it still does this for me, it also cleared up the brain fog and mental sluggishness that accompanies fibro, but the best thing it’s done is make the pain tolerable so I can normally physically function. As you certainly know, with fibro, some days are worse than others, and it’s not as though this medication blocks the pain as an opiate does, rather, it keeps me so focused on the task at hand that it also distracts me from the pain.
Upon realizing this, I started doing things to help further lessen the background pain, such as yoga and taking daily vitamin B12 and folic acid supplements, as they support nerve health.
Adderall is not recognized as a pain management drug, and only a small handful of doctors currently acknowledge it as a treatment for fibromyalgia. It is a controlled substance with a high potential for abuse, so, doctors won’t prescribe it without a perfectly valid reason, and they usually require a clear EKG prior to prescribing because the stimulant property is sometimes hard on the heart muscle.
BUT, Adderall IS recognized as a treatment for chronic fatigue, so, if you approach your doctor after having utilized so many other medications unsuccessfully and specifically address the concern that the fatigue which accompanies your fibro is debilitating in nature, and you propose the idea of trying a stimulant, he or she may agree to prescribe it at a low dose on a trial run.
Be prepared, however, as it is a common practice for doctors to perform drug tests before and during treatment with a controlled substance to ensure a patient is not abusing it or any other drugs.
I’m certain this is a treatment that will not be appropriate for every person with fibro or other chronic pain disorders, but it has worked in this way for me and a decent handful of other people in our shoes. That being said, for how significantly my quality of life has improved, I firmly believe that it is a treatment that deserves consideration by doctors and sufferers alike.
Get your genes mapped. If you have either fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue it is probably most likely due to “Soft Tissue Calcification” which is caused by the body not excreting enough sulfur and phosphorus, which is caused by having genetic mutations like CBS 699 and SUOX mutations.
The treatment for these mutations right now is to eat a diet that is very low in sulfur and phosphorus and calcium and vitamin D because these will all lead to pain or chronicfatigue.
Also, it is important to supplement daily with a well-absorbed brand of magnesium citrate like Solgar magnesium citrate tablets, or CALM magnesium citrate powder by Natural Vitality that you dissolve in water and drink, or CALM magnesium citrate gummies that you just chew up.
Pick one of the three, depending on which would work best for you. They are all very well absorbed.
It is also very important to avoid vitamin D and calcium in both supplements and foods, so this also means to avoid multivitamins as they are all very high in calcium and vitamin D and only have unabsorbable magnesium in them (aka they usually contain magnesium oxide, which is only 4% bioavailable)
So ditch the D, calcium, and multi vibes, start taking magnesium citrate daily and avoid all foods high in sulfur, phosphorus, vitamin D, and calcium. And also avoid MSG and MSG chemicals like the plague.
Doing these things will help you to get rid of or lessen any fibromyalgia pain or chronic fatigue that you may have.
If you think I’m crazy, then all you have to do is try what I am saying for a couple of weeks (as it is not dangerous) and you should see your symptoms lessening.
And then to be absolutely sure, get your genes mapped to see if you have the CBS699 or SUOX (SUlfur OXidase) mutations.
See genetic genie dot org and 23andme dot com for more info. (It will cost about $250 to get this done or maybe less if 23andme is having a sale or if you buy more than one gene testing kit)
I had this done and it turns out that I have a lot of these mutations from both parents so my body cannot properly metabolize and excrete sulfur and phosphorus, and this causes excess sulfur and phosphorus in all my cells which causes both pain and fatigue in the cells and calcium and vitamin D make the pain worse.
So as long as I stay away from all foods high in sulfur and phosphorus and avoid calcium and vitamin D and all MSG chemicals, I am pain–free.
If I eat anything that is high in sulfur and phosphorus or high in calcium or vitamin D, I will get bad pain within half an hour of ingestion. Black pepper and foods high in oxalic acid will also cause pain, so I avoid those as well.
And I also avoid zinc supplements since zinc strengthens the glutamate response in the body.
At any rate, this is something for others to try and see if it works. It is cheap and easy and safe. And as they say, the proof is in the pudding.
I no longer have bad fibromyalgia pain and before, I had such bad pain that I couldn’t even sit down. So this just might work for others as well. I can’t be the only one with these mutations. And I know I’m not because both sides of my family carry them and have all sorts of medical issues.
