Fibromyalgia, an elusive syndrome which leaves its victims in daily pain and discomfort is barely understood and poorly treated by the medical profession.
Patients with fibromyalgia walk around with hypersensitivity to pressure (allodynia) at specific points and often complain of fatigue and "brain fog".
Since the etiology of this disease is not well understood, patients often are placed on a whole host of medications from anti-depressants and mood regulators to stimulants and pain medications. Often, they are none the better despite the host of medications.
I have seen patients improve and even eliminate their fibromyalgia with a combination of dietary changes, homeopathy, hormone balancing and Scenar. In fact, I had a patient walk into my evanston office with the complaint of plantar fasciitis. Once treated with Scenar, she returned the following week to inform me that not only did the plantar fasciitis improve, so did her fibromyalgia. We performed another session of Scenar and she has been free of plantar fasciitis and fibromyalgia for two years.
One of my very first patients who came to me with the diagnosis of fibromyalgia had contracted it after several rounds of antibiotics for presumed sinus infections. After careful analysis I found her to have abnormal bowel flora and an overgrowth of potentially pathogenic yeast in her bowel. Once this was cleared up her fibromyalgia disappeared.
it is also common to see fibromyalgia post traumatically. One of the more current and better explanations for the disease is autonomic nervous system dysfunction. Post traumatic stress disorder or PTSD can occur as a result of the fight and flight part of our nervous system being activated without the ensuing down regulation.
One of the reasons that the "fight and flight" does not turn itself off is that the rest and relaxation arm of the system is often neglected in terms of lifestyle practices and has low tone.
Another reason the fight and flight or sympathetic nervous system could get stuck in a perpetual on mode is due to over exposure to stress, or poor response to stress. A common profile of a person with fibromyalgia is one of someone who is always taking on more as in a type A personality. Another profile is someone who suffered abuse or misfortune over an extended period of time.
Women are affected with fibromyalgia to a greater degree than men. And, often the involvement of bowel and bladder symptoms are noted with the main complaints of pain, discomfort and urgency.
There is no reason fibromyalgia patients have to endure pain or longterm use of medications. The underlying reasons for the syndrome can be explored, identified and treated effectively with creative medical, psychological and naturopathic tools.
