Fibromyalgia recovery made simple

True healing requires putting yourself first in this process — it is a full-time job to get better.

by Betsy Timmerman — 

A lot is now known about the origin of fibromyalgia symptoms, but it was not always so. We now know enough that we can affect a healing recovery in most patients, once they understand the importance of their overall health and how it affects the healing of the central nervous system dysfunction, which prevails in fibromyalgia.

Getting well requires a concerted effort on the part of the patient. It takes courage to accept that healing is your job and no one else’s. Doctors may try to help you, and some may be successful in limiting symptoms. However, true healing requires putting yourself first in this process — it is a full-time job to get better.

Once you do this and do your homework, you can get well. By taking charge of your fibromyalgia, you can actually assist your medical team in treating you — whether they use traditional or integrative methods. The following is a guideline for recovery that works well for fibromyalgia patients.

1. Enlist a medical team who listens to you. You need partners in your healing journey — those who will try the treatments you want, based on your research and the information you present. Some of the most successful treatments for fibromyalgia are unknown to many doctors.

2. Have your endocrine system checked. Thyroid imbalance is almost always a part of fibromyalgia syndrome. Make sure you are getting the correct tests, including thyroid antibodies, free T3 and T4. Even if the results are normal, but you have all the symptoms of hypothyroidism, you probably have euthyroid syndrome and need to be treated with natural thyroid supplements. Adrenal exhaustion is also common.

3. Heal your gut. Irritable and leaky gut syndromes need to be cured to be well. Seventy percent of neurotransmitter production happens in the gut. You cannot be healthy if your digestion and elimination systems are off, no matter what disease you have.

4. Get eight hours of quality sleep. This is not easy, but be persistent with treatments that support stage four sleep, which heals the muscles. Avoid NSAIDS and caffeine, which disrupt deep healing sleep. Once you get enough of the right quality of sleep you will begin to feel well again.

5. Exercise and stretch gently. This will re-pattern your nerves, muscles and brain.

6. Take a high-quality, whole-food multivitamin. Do this to cover your nutritional bases.

7. Take probiotics to re-innoculate your gut. If you have ever been on steroids or antibiotics, this is a crucial step.

8. Think positive thoughts and state positive affirmations. This will produce healing chemicals throughout your body. You are what you think. Visualization and hypnosis are wonderful tools to help affect healing.

9. Eat nutritious food. This means food found in nature, not in boxes. Eating processed food depletes energy and vitamin/mineral stores. Fibromyalgia is a deficiency disease.

10. Avoid chemicals in food including NutraSweet and Splenda®. They are excitotoxins that rev up your already over-excited central nervous system.

11. Detox your cells and liver by eating clean. Once you reestablish your nutritional reserves, you can safely detoxify without harmful effects.

This basic protocol will start you on your way to a new body, which will respond to the stresses experienced in life. After several weeks, you will begin to feel less pain, get more sleep and think more clearly.

Betsy Timmerman, C.B.P.M., is a fibromyalgia educator, Certified Trigger Point Myotherapist, a First Line Therapy Therapeutic Lifestyle Educator and certified hypnotherapist who helps people prevent and reverse disease. 623-251-7547, 617-943-5570 or eastwestpainsolutions.com.

Reprinted from AzNetNews, Volume 31, Number 4, August/September 2012.