Natural Remedies for Fibromyalgia

It is always best to try natural remedies for fibromyalgia treatment first. Symptoms are your body’s way of telling you it wants change. It’s not telling you that it wants chemicals (drugs). They only turn off your alarm system, mainly pain. Pain tells us something is wrong. If we cover over symptoms, the imbalance or toxins are still there. Eventually, they will show themselves in another way – a way that could be even worse than just pain.

Taking care of your body is the single most important thing you can do. That is the essence of natural remedies for fibromyalgia. The body is designed for certain functions and often our lifestyle does not honor that design. Some areas of lifestyle that dramatically affect fibromyalgia are:

Sleep
Exercise
Stress
Diet and Nutrition
And education about your health and your specific problems.

Some other things that are listed as natural remedies for fibromyalgia are complimentary medical treatments. This might include:

Chiropractic manipulation
Massage therapy
Acupuncture
Counseling

Establishing a routine is very important. Going to bed and getting up at the same time every day, setting aside a time every day that you can sit back and rest for about 15 minutes and sticking to a regular eating schedule all help the body to heal better and to stay at peak performance.

With fibromyalgia, the foods you eat are likely to be 85% of your problem - they may be 100% of your problem. As much as all the other things we talk about in this site may help your symptoms or help you make needed changes to bring your life into balance, food is the most important aspect of fibromyalgia recovery. I know this from experience.

Let me share with you my journey to recovery. About a year after being diagnosed with Irritable Bowel Syndrome, in terrible pain, I went to a naturopathic doctor. He recommended some supplements but said that the only thing he has seen that has really worked for IBS was a special diet called the SCD (Specific Carbohydrate Diet) that I could learn about in the book, “Breaking the Vicious Cycle: Intestinal Health Through Diet”. I ordered a copy of the book as soon as I got home. I read it and thought “this is what I need to do.” But I saw that it would be a huge undertaking. That caused me to procrastinate over a month before finally committing to it.

The book answered a lot of questions for me and explained what was going on in the digestive tract when it was out of whack. One thing I found out was that the catalyst to the IBS was likely a strong set of multiple antibiotics that I had to take to get rid of helicobacter pylori. No one had ever told me that after taking any antibiotics, you should always follow up with probiotics. I wonder if I had done that, would I have ever had IBS. I guess we’ll never know. Colon problems do run heavily on both sides of my family so there may be some genetic predisposition for this problem for me as well.

I was in a lot of pain the weekend when I decided to follow the SCD diet. I started it Monday morning and decided I would starve before I would eat an ‘illegal’ food as listed in the book. The first two weeks were very difficult.

By the end of the first 30 days I was about to give up. Since most meals must be made from scratch, it is a time-consuming diet as well. But in the last couple of days of the month I felt some better. Then I had a few pain free days. I thought it could be coincidence but just in case I continued with the diet for a while longer. That was the last time I had constant pain in my side for days at a time.

I stayed strictly on the diet for many months (I think it was just over six months but I should have waited a year). Then I started adding in one food at a time. After I added in a food, I waited three days to see if there were any reactions – such as pain or cramping in my side. I found that I could not add artificial sweeteners, soy, some grains and a few other foods back into my diet. But within another six months, I was able to eat many foods that I had to eliminate initially to allow the colon to heal.

The SCD diet did amazing things for me. It allowed a cleansing to take place. By getting rid of all the foods that are being treated as the enemy, the body has the resources to focus on healing. This is the ultimate goal of the natural remedies for fibromyalgia.

If you can grow your own organic vegetables while on this diet, it would be best. Many of us do not have a lot of energy to spare so I found that I am able to grow my own using the EarthBox Gardening System. I have 12 of them. The earthboxes paid for themselves in the first year with all the zucchini, cucumbers, bell peppers and tomatoes that I grew from them. It doesn’t take long to get $50 worth of tomatoes and other fresh organic vegetables.

The SCD diet may not be for everyone that has fibromyalgia. It is specifically for those who have colon problems as one of the symptoms. It is the fastest and most effective way to cleanse the body and allow the colon to heal. Grains are the main thing removed from the diet.

But everyone needs to do some of the things that are spoken of in that diet. For example, we all need to avoid foods with white flour or white sugar. We all need to eat fresh, raw, organic fruits and vegetables.

Using natural remedies for fibromyalgia is not as cut and dry as one might think. Since the symptoms are diverse and vary among patients, treatment programs must be individualized for each patient. Treatment programs are most effective when they combine patient education, stress reduction, regular exercise, and a change in diet. Recent studies have verified that the best outcome results from a customized treatment plan for each patient that involves a combination of approaches.

See other ideas about natural remedies for fibromyalgia at our Treatment Page.

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Natural Remedies for Fibromyalgia