There is an almost endless list of cure-alls for fibromyalgia. Hopefully, the following suggestions will help you choose some of the more reasonable things to try.

Many people with fibromyalgia see a multitude of doctors and try numerous drugs to help with their painful symptoms, digestive difficulties and poor sleep patterns. Since all prescriptive medications have side effects, it is worth considering more natural remedies first.

Most Important

If you want to see significant, long-lasting improvements, you have to make some life-style changes. If you smoke, stop. If you drink alcohol, stop. If you drink any type of carbonated soft drink or pop, stop. You have a serious problem. You need to take some serious steps to correct it.

Thyroid Hormone Therapy

First, read the section on our web site about your thyroid gland. Then, if you and your doctor decide your thyroid gland is part of your total fibromyalgia picture, hopefully s/he will prescribe bio-identical thyroid. If not, ask him/her to let you try this before having you take any type of synthetic thyroid medication. Naturopathic and Homeopathic physicians can also prescribe bio-identical hormones.

Physical and Mental Interventions

A few of the first things to try are massage, acupuncture, hypnosis and biofeedback. More frequent, shorter massage sessions may be more beneficial than longer, less frequent ones. Acupuncture can be done with needles, acupressure or electrically. See what works best for you.

Recent studies indicate hypnosis can help ease fibromyalgia symptoms. You can even learn helpful self-hypnosis techniques. Biofeedback is an excellent way to learn to control your own automatic nervous system responses. This could help you learn to better manage muscle spasms and other sources of chronic pain.

Enzymes

People with fibromyalgia almost always have digestive problems. This is a relatively easy problem to solve - better food choices and digestive enzymes. We sell the best digestive enzymes in our office and will have them available through our web site shortly.

Dietary Choices and Food Preparation

Choosing better foods involves selecting higher quality, more easily digestible foods and preparing them correctly. The best foods are organically raised or grown locally. More grocery stores are carrying larger selections of organic, free-range foods. Local markets often have fresher, better quality produce, meats, poultry, eggs and seafood.

As for preparation, all foods, in their natural, raw state, contain all their own enzymes for complete digestion and assimilation. Heat, above 115 degrees Fahrenheit, destroys enzymes. Cooking foods at too high temperatures, for too long, destroys their enzymes and makes them harder to digest. Eating your foods as close to their natural, raw state is best. Since that doesn't always work with all foods, cooking at high temperatures for a brief period, such as stir-frying, or for longer times at lower temperatures, such as a crock pot, are the best cooking methods.

Another important recommendation involves eliminating simple sugars from your diet as much as possible. Simple sugars include anything made with sugar or artificial sweeteners. Please take a look at the discussion about artificial sweeteners within the article about food additives on our web site. Since anything made with flour becomes a simple sugar in your body, these foods also need to be avoided completely or severely restricted.

What Can You Eat?

At this point I ofter hear, 'What does this leave for me to eat?' The answer is quite a lot actually. You can have proteins, vegetables and sprouted-grain products. For much more detailed information see the Dietary Recommendations section on our web site. The protein choices include beef; buffalo; wild game such as rabbit, deer, elk and birds; chicken; eggs; turkey; sprouted seeds and nuts; and legumes to include beans and peas. The best vegetable selections are the above-ground ones. Root vegetables, like potatoes, contain extremely high concentrations of starches or simple sugars. As a reminder, try to have all your choices as fresh, organic, free-range and as minimally cooked as possible.

Sprouted Grains

Sprouted Seeds and Nuts

Second, sprouted seeds and nuts are fairly easy to do at home. Since all seeds and nuts contain enzyme inhibitors to prevent their sprouting until they have the correct temperature and moisture, they require an extra step to make them easier to digest. If you do not do this, your body has to break down the enzyme inhibitors before it can properly digest the seeds or nuts. Soaking them in water overnight tricks them into thinking it's OK to sprout. Their enzyme inhibitors naturally break down. Re-drying them in a food dehydrator at 115 degrees or less returns them to their original crunchy state ready for snacking. You might ask, "Why not just roast them and destroy those enzyme inhibitors?" You can. Just make sure you take some digestive enzymes to help with their digestion since all the natural enzymes will be destroyed by the high heat of roasting.

As mentioned previously, most people with fibromyalgia have digestive problems. This results in various types of nutritional deficiencies. I've already recommended digestive enzymes to improve your body's ability to digest whatever you eat. You may also wish to consider supplements to help your body repair, rebuild and maintain itself more quickly and efficiently.

Supplements

The most important supplements to consider are the minerals calcium and magnesium and the cofactors to help them work better, especially vitamin D. Before taking vitamin D you should have your blood levels tested. Then when you recheck these levels every six months, you'll know whether you need more, less or are taking the correct amount for you. Depending upon lab results I recommend one or more of the following:

• Ionic Fizz: Calcium Plus, Magnesium, Calcium with D and K (1 - 2+ scoops daily)
• ATP Plus (for Malic Acid and Magnesium) (2 - 6+ capsules daily)
• Vit B Complex (1 -3 daily), Vit B-6 (1 - 3 daily), Vit B-12, sublingual (1 -2+ daily)
• Vitamin C Complex, 500 mg. (1 per 50 pounds body weight divided throughout the day)
• Vitamin D 2,000 or Vitamin D 5,000 (per lab results)
• Vitamin E, 400 iu (1 - 2 daily), Krill Oil (1 - 2 daily)
• Organic, unrefined coconut oil (1 tablespoon, three times daily)

Decreasing Substance P

Capsaicin has been shown to reduce the levels of Substance P. As you remember, levels of Substance P are high in people with fibromyalgia. You can use cayenne pepper as a condiment or as a seasoning with your foods. There are also capsaicin creams for massaging sore, achy areas.

Increasing Serotonin

Since serotonin is low in people with fibromyalgia, you can increase your serotonin levels by eating foods containing high levels of tryptophan or serotonin. Some of these include bananas, chick peas (garbanzos), chicken, cottage cheese, dates, eggs, mangoes, papayas, sesame seeds, spirulina, sunflower seeds, turkey and walnuts. Reduce your intake of whole wheat and rye. These could reduce your levels of serotonin.

5-HTP stands for 5-hydroxytryptophan. The amino acid tryptophan is converted to serotonin in your body. This supplement may help you sleep more soundly and generally feel better overall.

A Few Other Helpful Remedies to Consider

There are many other supplements with potential for helping with the myriad of fibromyalgia symptoms. The ones for providing more anti-oxidants and free radical scavengers are worth listing. Some of these include:

• Co-Q 10 (Ubiquinone) - helpful for increasing energy
• GSE (Grape Seed Extract) - natural immune system enhancer
• MSM (methylsulfonylmethane) - relief for joint aches and pains
• SAMe (S-adnosylmethionine) - especially for inflammation and improving mood

And, last, but certainly not least, there are many fibromyalgia sufferers who find significant relief with medical marijuana. This is, obviously, a personal decision and must be discussed with a medical provider who can provide adequate documentation and a prescription.