What treatments work for Fibromyalgia?

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bblack4jc

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DX FIBRO
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Since I could not find a recent thread posting this topic, I thought that I would try to find out what others have used that has helped. Thank you for your input. I know that different things work for different people. So what has worked/helped you?
 
Hi @bblack4jc - hmmm.. that is kind of a difficult thing to answer because no one treatment works well for everyone, or even half of us... (going to apologize in advance, this might get long...)

the biggest thing you can do, and has the best results for the most people, is to try dietary changes - and that takes time and experimentation to work out what helps you the most. Things like gluten, nightshade family veggies, sugar, dairy and other things... all of these can have an impact on how we feel physically..

I have cut white breads (things like hamburger/hotdog buns, dinner rolls, etc) from my diet - dark breads are ok (for me)... and nightshade veggies... things like peppers, tomatoes, eggplant and potatoes (the last being quite hard to do as i like them in so many ways) and yes, it is making a difference in how i feel - my gut is much happier these days and some of the general inflammation has been reduced as well.

Sunkacola has a great post with lots of great advice and I encourage you to check it out...

For some of us, medications can be useful, but do try to avoid taking opioids if at all possible. Finding a medication that works for you, without nasty side effects can be a real challenge..
My physical med doc just asked me again about trying pregabalin (Lyrica) and again I said no to that one - the side effects, I feel, would be too detrimental - I am just not interested in it.
Gabapentin was tried, as was nortriptyline, duloxetine, fluoxetine, and sertraline... all of which caused side effects to varying degrees, some quite bad, others not as bad, but still detrimental. *side note: these were all tried individually, not together, and each one was stopped before trying another. Also of note, coming off of certain drugs can be a challenge as well, many need to be tapered down slowly to avoid withdrawal symptoms.*
I am trialing low dose N at this time, but still kind of early to know for sure if it is helping or not.. I just increased to the 4.5mg dose a few days ago.. If, after several months (followup appt is in January), this is not really helping, then it too will be discontinued, and I will give up on the medication side of things.

Another thing to consider is comorbidities... Don't make the mistake of putting every little ache, pain, or other symptom down to being related to fibro.. new symptoms should be checked out to make sure there is nothing else going on..

for me, i have arthritis in my neck, lumbar spine and hands pretty bad.. other areas as well, but those three places are the worst. The neck is causing nerve pain in the arms and hands, lumbar region (including SI joints) causes pain and nerve issues down the legs.. both of which can be problematic in their own right, but add the fibro in, and life can be difficult.. so managing other problems, as well as the fibro, is an important aspect of taking care of ones self.

Sorry this has turned into such a book, lol
 
There's 100s of treatments, and if I count each supp, each exercise type etc. I'm probably at 100+ every day that together get most of my symptoms under control. Quick exhaustion of physical energy remains the most challenging and limiting one.
  1. mind: pacing, diaries for symptom tracking etc., simplifying, relaxation, sleep hygiene, radical acceptance etc.,
  2. physio: e.g. osteopathy, chiropractic; esp. self-treatments, e.g. acupressure, stretches, TENS, praps cryotherapy, heat types.
  3. diet: healthy, e.g. Mediterranean, or eliminating various things.
  4. environmental changes in bedroom and weather protection (identifying, then preventing or alleviating triggers)
  5. Med/supp/herbs: Esp. supps, check if anything is low (for FM esp. D3 and B12), try magnesium types (for FM esp. malate) and for me the amino acids (check Trudy Scott’s amino acid questionnaire.)
Many things from each of these areas help my fibro every day, except I do all my physio myself now, can't do TENS or meds, and diets only help me for my lipids and MCAS/histamine, I've always eaten healthy anyway. Some of my most effective are the supp GABA, Wim Hof breath-holding and cold-showering, Chinese acupuncture, self-applied acupressure, stretching, massager, radical acceptance....

Going deeper however finding and continually re-adjusting the sweet spots, amounts of treatments is essential. Starting low, going slow.
Symptoms and triggers are best identified, recognized and tackled as soon as they come up, or prevented before.
Mental and physical treatments I use hourly in short stints of seconds or minutes.
When, how, how much to take supps can sometimes turn out to be different to what's usually recommended.
Being our own guinea pigs is challenging, but worth it....
 
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For me, what works best is activity / exercise, sunshine, fresh air, a support network, rest, good sleep, healthy eating, mindfulness meditation, body movement modification, laughter, saying no to things when I have to and lastly, medication.
 
Does changing ones diet help with fibro fatigue? With constant weather changes my fatigue is hardest to live with.
 
Does changing ones diet help with fibro fatigue? With constant weather changes my fatigue is hardest to live with.
Whether healthier and/or finding & avoiding trigger foods: if it changes anything, it will likely improve fatigue - but we can only try and see.
 
Does changing ones diet help with fibro fatigue? With constant weather changes my fatigue is hardest to live with.
For some people it does, for others it doesn't. the thing is, you have to experiment to find out for yourself because there is nothing that applies across the board with fibro. Try cutting out a food group such as gluten, or dairy, for a month (be meticulous and read labels and cut all of it entirely or you won't find out much) and see if it helps.
 
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