Does Diet Affect Fibro Pain?
- Thread starter cjd
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As for certain foods, that is entirely an individual thing. There is no one food that will affect everyone with fibro the same way because fibro manifests differently in everyone who has it. the only way to find out what works and doesn't work for you is to do a whole lot of experimenting. If someone tells you that this or that thing is "good for people with fibro" or "not good for fibro", don't listen to them because it may or may not be true for you.
Diet, on the other hand, definitely affects fibromyalgia. What helps is to eat the very best and most healthful diet you possibly can; but that is the most healthy diet for you.
Some people will say, oh go vegan and that will fix things. Or, just don't eat red meat, or something of the kind. Well, it won't help you if your body's constitution needs to eat meat to be healthy. Some people need more of one kind of nutrient and some another, and so on.
The thing to do is some very dedicated and serious experimentation. Do elimination diets if you want to find out what foods are best for you. You need to be diligent if y ou do this: read food labels obsessively and cut out ALL of the thing you are testing for. For instance, gluten. If you want to go gluten-free to see if that would help, you need to know that wheat is in many things you wouldn't expect, like condiments. You have to remove all of it from your diet for at least a month to test it effectively.
If y ou determine what the very best healthy diet is for you, and stick with it, you will probably find that it helps either to reduce the severity of pain and/or the frequency or duration of pain. The best way to manage fibro is to make your body and mind as healthy as possible.
Diet, on the other hand, definitely affects fibromyalgia. What helps is to eat the very best and most healthful diet you possibly can; but that is the most healthy diet for you.
Some people will say, oh go vegan and that will fix things. Or, just don't eat red meat, or something of the kind. Well, it won't help you if your body's constitution needs to eat meat to be healthy. Some people need more of one kind of nutrient and some another, and so on.
The thing to do is some very dedicated and serious experimentation. Do elimination diets if you want to find out what foods are best for you. You need to be diligent if y ou do this: read food labels obsessively and cut out ALL of the thing you are testing for. For instance, gluten. If you want to go gluten-free to see if that would help, you need to know that wheat is in many things you wouldn't expect, like condiments. You have to remove all of it from your diet for at least a month to test it effectively.
If y ou determine what the very best healthy diet is for you, and stick with it, you will probably find that it helps either to reduce the severity of pain and/or the frequency or duration of pain. The best way to manage fibro is to make your body and mind as healthy as possible.
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That’s a really good question @cjd and the answer for me is a definite yes, my triggers ; the worse ones are gluten products, wheat, sugar, coffee, Coca Cola and Pepsi even if they’re sugar free makes no difference to the pain they end up causing so yeah they are the worse for me. ps hope your liking the forum 
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Hi cjd,
I'll add in something that supports what Sunkacola said. An old school friend of mine was diagnosed fibro/ME around a decade ago and had a really rough time; she basically spent several years bed-bound. After trying everything that various doctors and health professionals threw at her with absolutely no change, she tried a ketogenic diet. She went into almost full remission, and is now working and enjoying her life again. To this day, if she gets sloppy with her diet her symptoms return.
Now, for me, going keto for almost half a year made absolutely no difference to my symptoms. I also went through a full elimination diet process over a long period and found that I wasn't sensitive to anything (I'd always imagined I might be gluten or lactose intolerant, but apparently not!) However, I do know that if I generally eat junk and don't take care of myself, that tends to end in a flare. The moral of the story is that we are indeed all different, but exploring diet could well yield results - for some, it can make a big difference! Good luck figuring out your own unique needs - I hope you find something useful.
I'll add in something that supports what Sunkacola said. An old school friend of mine was diagnosed fibro/ME around a decade ago and had a really rough time; she basically spent several years bed-bound. After trying everything that various doctors and health professionals threw at her with absolutely no change, she tried a ketogenic diet. She went into almost full remission, and is now working and enjoying her life again. To this day, if she gets sloppy with her diet her symptoms return.
Now, for me, going keto for almost half a year made absolutely no difference to my symptoms. I also went through a full elimination diet process over a long period and found that I wasn't sensitive to anything (I'd always imagined I might be gluten or lactose intolerant, but apparently not!) However, I do know that if I generally eat junk and don't take care of myself, that tends to end in a flare. The moral of the story is that we are indeed all different, but exploring diet could well yield results - for some, it can make a big difference! Good luck figuring out your own unique needs - I hope you find something useful.
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Adding to what sunkacola and Jemima have said above,
- eating healthy, e.g. the Mediterranean diet, is supported by studies,
- my story is I've tried almost every diet (20+) and (need to) keep a mixture of a lot of the main ones (Mediterranean for lipids, elimination for iBS, fairly vegan, organic, fairly raw), but none of this has influenced the severity of my FM. Only one I haven't tried is lectin-free, as that would mean I could only eat nuts (most; not even unskinned almonds), and nothing else
. But I'd always recommend trying 'em all.
These are places to start with the most medical evidence:
For FMS: Fructose & fructans free (low-FODMAP includes these)
For Gut / IBSD/C: Fructose free; elimination diet. BTW: Belt etc. loose around the waist.
For stomach - hyperacidic: elimination diet, e.g. nothing acidic, i.e. sour, spicy, onion-like.
For Bladder: … eat pumpkin seeds
For Cardiovascular: Mediterranean diet
And these are the diets with the most medical evidence:
Bottom line always seemed to me to say that a) it's actually about eating healthy unprocessed food,
and b) not the usual simple carbs in all the modern processed products, but complex, i.e. unprocessed wholemeal carbs are OK.
Similarly c) with fats: not the normal processed fats & oils, not sunflower stuff, but most nuts & olive & canola (& linseed) oil.
- eating healthy, e.g. the Mediterranean diet, is supported by studies,
- my story is I've tried almost every diet (20+) and (need to) keep a mixture of a lot of the main ones (Mediterranean for lipids, elimination for iBS, fairly vegan, organic, fairly raw), but none of this has influenced the severity of my FM. Only one I haven't tried is lectin-free, as that would mean I could only eat nuts (most; not even unskinned almonds), and nothing else
. But I'd always recommend trying 'em all.These are places to start with the most medical evidence:
For FMS: Fructose & fructans free (low-FODMAP includes these)
For Gut / IBSD/C: Fructose free; elimination diet. BTW: Belt etc. loose around the waist.
For stomach - hyperacidic: elimination diet, e.g. nothing acidic, i.e. sour, spicy, onion-like.
For Bladder: … eat pumpkin seeds
For Cardiovascular: Mediterranean diet
And these are the diets with the most medical evidence:
- vegetarian, dairy-free, then both: vegan (lots of nuts & tofu/soy),
- gluten-free,
- Mediterranean, which pretty much involves low fructose/-ans, then go low FODMAP anyway.
Not sure if this is the “easiest order” for these, it was mine, after having tried all I do 80% all of them.
Bottom line always seemed to me to say that a) it's actually about eating healthy unprocessed food,
and b) not the usual simple carbs in all the modern processed products, but complex, i.e. unprocessed wholemeal carbs are OK.
Similarly c) with fats: not the normal processed fats & oils, not sunflower stuff, but most nuts & olive & canola (& linseed) oil.
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