Living with Fibromyalgia
It must have been terrifying for you to find out that you have fibromyalgia. But keep calm, and I’ll break it down to you so you are well-informed of what it actually is.
Latin: fibra (fiber), Greek words: myo (muscle) and algos (pain)
To put it simply, this means you are suffering from muscle pain. Fibromyalgia is a syndrome or collection of symptoms. The most prominent and major symptom is chronic, widespread pain and tenderness in the muscle fibers and connective tissue covering a large portion of the body.
In many people, fibromyalgia is triggered or exacerbated by injury (for instance, a car accident), infections (usually viral), hormonal imbalance, radiation and electromagnetic pollution, chemical poisoning (including drugs and smoking), nutrient starvation (as from a poor diet), allergies or any other type of stress.
Some symptoms of fibromyalgia include numbness, swelling, stiffness, aches and tingling in the tissues, limbs and joints; weakness and chronic fatigue; sleep that does not refresh; depression and anxiety; irritable colon and bladder; tension headaches and eye problems; and painful menstrual periods.
Having this condition truly affects your lifestyle. Suffering from a headache or even a toothache greatly tests your pain tolerance. How much more if you have to deal with unbearable pain and discomfort in the muscle that is accompanied by fatigue, sleep deprivation and emotional distress?
Worry no more because I will be sharing with you some ideas that your physician might have missed to inform you. This will give you more insights on your condition and will help you prevent it from getting worse.
Overlooked Connection Between Fibromyalgia and Thyroid Dysfunction
You might be wondering how fibromyalgia is related to your thyroid hormone. What you don’t know is that most doctors commonly misdiagnose thyroid disorders as fibromyalgia, mainly because they share the same primary symptoms such as follows:
- fatigue / lack of energy
- muscle and joint pain
- brain fog / depression
A combination of these two conditions definitely hinders one’s lifestyle. Imagine having to go through emails at work while suffering from muscle pains and fatigue. You lose focus on what you have to do; hence, making you unproductive.
Fast fact: fibromyalgia and hypothyroidism are both predominantly female disorders which affect 90% of women.
Dr. Nenah Sylver PhD
On a different note, you should also take into consideration that insufficient thyroid hormone can either contribute to, or outright cause, fibromyalgia. Over half of the subjects who are hypothyroid suffer from excessive amounts of mucin, a sugar-protein, hydrophilic (water-loving) compound that is normally present in muscles, skin, blood vessels, nerves, and other parts of the body — including the fascia, or membranous envelopes that cover the muscles.
In excess amounts, mucin, damages connective tissue. Therefore, if you have fibromyalgia, you may be suffering from an underactive thyroid as well.
Impact of Physical and Emotional Trauma
Have you sustained an injury from a car accident in the past? Or witnessed your parents fighting as a child? If so, you should know that these could be some of the trigger factors to your fibromyalgia, along with them are the death of a loved one, major surgical operations, natural disasters and the like. The chronic pain typically develops some time after a certain event you have witnessed or experienced.
These traumatic events are believed to cause biochemical changes in the brain that heightens your pain reception leading to different symptoms of severe muscle pain, sleeplessness, lethargy and/or fatigue, depression and others which are associated with fibromyalgia.
Furthermore, it is also believed that fibromyalgia amplifies painful sensations by affecting the way your nervous system processes pain signals and the body’s response to suppressing emotional trauma.
For example, even wind on the face or slight touching of something on your skin triggers your pain receptors, exaggerating it and in turn, giving you painful sensations. This happens if you are suffering from widespread pain because of fibromyalgia. Your pain tolerance is somehow decreased making you feel pain every time due to whatever trauma you were involved in.
Compromised Immune System
A lot of people would ask if fibromyalgia is an autoimmune disease because its symptoms overlap with those of autoimmune disorders. But then, the answer is no. It does not attack your healthy cells — but it does compromise your immune system.
Immune dysfunction — which can be either the cause or result of infections —strongly implicated in fibromyalgia (as well as chronic fatigue and other syndromes). People with fibromyalgia have various pathogens dwelling in their body, in the body, damaged muscle fibers, and additional malfunction of the nervous and hormonal systems.
As you may already know, when your immune system is compromised or is not functioning properly, you are at risk of getting sick more often than not. Even infectious organisms that normally don’t cause harm can make you ill. So, it is important to keep track of how strong your immune system is.
Low Levels of Serotonin in Sleep Disturbance
I’m pretty sure you don’t get sound sleep when you’re in pain. Well, I guess no one does and that’s just frustrating. For people with fibromyalgia, the combination of whole-body pain and sleep disturbance is a nightmare; the excruciating pain makes it difficult to fall asleep or even stay asleep and sleep disturbance exacerbates pain.
The physical effects of sleep deprivation or disturbance are as devastating as the mental ones; even a few nights of broken sleep can catalyze the onset of illness. In a 1999 issue of the Journal of Rheumatology, one study reported that when the deepest levels of sleep were interrupted for as little as three consecutive nights, the subjects suffered from lowered immunity, which cascades into increased pain levels, fatigue and inflammation.
Behind this is your hormone, serotonin (produced during restful, not fitful sleep). A lack of serotonin can disrupt your sleep patterns and lead to insomnia. Because serotonin directly regulates the body’s response to pain and affects other neurotransmitters involved in pain control (like endorphins), maintaining adequate serotonin levels can relieve such painful syndromes as fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, and premenstrual syndrome.
Pain Relief with Magnesium
People with fibromyalgia mainly complain about having muscle and/or even joint pains and of course, this is a complete distraction while doing daily life routines. However, if you haven’t figured out a good way to relieve pain aside from taking painkillers and muscle relaxants, well here you go: Magnesium.
Magnesium is necessary for the metabolism of calcium, vitamin C, phosphorus, sodium, potassium and vitamin A. It is essential for the normal functioning of nerves and muscles which in addition, has calming effects. It works as a natural tranquilizer, laxative and diuretic. Other than these, it can also help you avoid muscle spasms, weakness and back pain which are strongly associated with fibromyalgia.
Now that you know the key to relieve muscle pain, take note of these food sources of magnesium that you can conveniently have. It includes:
- nut
- soybeans
- raw and cooked green leafy vegetables
- almonds
- whole grains
- sunflower seeds
- brown rice
- sesame seeds
Remember that this mineral—magnesium—plays an important role in maintaining the health of your muscles.
Bottom Line
Fibromyalgia can be a serious condition. It has a great impact on one’s quality of life because it can interrupt basic tasks that have to be accomplished on a daily basis.
Since fibromyalgia is typically associated with symptoms like deep muscular aching, fatigue, brain fog, sleep disorders and lightheadedness, it undermines your work or school and social life, not to mention it is detrimental to your health.
It is necessary to be mindful of the reasons that cause hindrances to your lifestyle in order to prevent your condition from getting worse. Every cloud has a silver lining and living a pain-free life is possible because there is always hope.
Overcome Fibromyalgia through Energy Healing
Fibromyalgia is very frequently allergy-related. In many cases, the cause of FMS is allergies to foods, environmental substances, and emotional factors.
We get to the root cause of fibromyalgia by identifying and eliminating the allergen that is causing its recurring symptoms. By clearing all your Food, Environment, Chemical allergy from the energy healing protocol, we strengthen the immune system, improve digestion and absorption. This allows the body to get the necessary nutrients, which are essential for life without causing any reactions and say goodbye to your symptoms.
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