Fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia Treatment safely and naturally

Are you here hoping to find some recommendations for effective natural fibromyalgia treatment? If so, then you are in the right place and I sincerely hope the information on this page will be of help to you.

Before I discuss natural treatment options, I will initially go through some of the things we do know about this little understood, often debilitating and life changing condition.

What is it?

Fibromyalgia is a disease that is said to be autoimmune in nature since it involves inflammatory processes which involve our immune system turning in on itself.

What causes it?

There is no final identified cause of this distressing and painful condition. However, currently research is being conducted that seems to point towards the fact that it may turn out to be a bacterial origin but it is early days and nothing is certain yet.

Who gets it?

It is becoming more of a problem with more people being affected. Usually it is adults between 20 and 50 years of age that get this disease, and it has been shown to be more common in women than men.

How is it diagnosed?

Fibromyalgia is also known sometimes as a syndrome as it can affect many varied parts of the body and in many different ways. This of course, can make it difficult to diagnose.

To add to the problem, there is no one clear test that will diagnose this condition (so far) and so by the time people do end up with a diagnosis, many people have gone from physician to physician having test after test to get to the bottom of the issue.

This is not helped by the fact that symptoms are so varied they can look like other medical conditions and so many sufferers will have had a misdiagnosis before they eventually stumble upon someone who does diagnose them, most often via a process of elimination.

Of course, many physicians are not very familiar with this condition and so they are not “looking for it” which compounds the problem.

Symptoms

The symptoms, and numerous combinations of them, and how they are perceived by the sufferer always vary from person to person. However, there are common threads.

The majority of people complain of pain and tenderness in the muscles and soft tissues of the body. The degree of this pain will vary from person to person and even from day to day in the same person.

The symptoms often also include extreme tiredness and fatigue (which can often cause confusion and a diagnosis may be made of chronic fatigue syndrome initially).

Additionally, the person frequently experiences poor concentration and memory and they may not tolerate exercise well.

Mostly however it is the pain and exhaustion that are the biggest problem to the sufferer and it is this that they seek some form of fibromyalgia treatment to relieve.

Standard Fibromyalgia Treatment

Since the Medical Profession do not know a great deal yet about fibromyalgia, treating more than just the symptoms it causes is somewhat difficult.

Treatment tends to include the following approaches most commonly:

• Painkilling or anti-inflammatory medication
• Other prescribed medication to deal with other symptoms that have arisen including sleeping tablets for insomnia or even tranquilizers to “calm the nerves”.
• Behavioral therapies such as CBT - sometimes this is to help people learn to live with a chronic and painful condition. Other times it may be to try and address any emotional stressors adding or even causing the issue. Many people feel affronted by this and feel they are being fobbed off and not believed or taken seriously.
• Muscle relaxants – the constant pain causes extreme tension which causes more pain
• Physiotherapy and exercise - – to build up strength, fitness and tolerance

However, the success of the above treatments tends to be extremely limited and so many people, including physicians now advocate the use of alternative and complementary fibromyalgia treatments.

Since it is so varied in its manifestation and people do experience it so differently from person to person, it makes sense to me to try natural fibromyalgia treatment as this can be more tailored to the individual and their particular needs.

Natural Fibromyalgia Treatments

Homeopathy

This is one of the most effective natural fibromyalgia treatment methods that I am aware of and I have used it successfully with patients of mine in the past. In fact, if you read on, you will see that I do actually describe a real case history of the first ever case of fibromyalgia that I came across.

It is with conditions such as fibromyalgia that homeopathy comes into its own. The reason for this is that homeopathy is one of the few systems of medicine (acupuncture would be another) that does not require a diagnosis to treat the person and in fact that can even be a hindrance as it can lead the therapist and patient down the wrong path if the label that was assigned is incorrect.

Instead it is the persons own history or “story” coupled with the specific individual symptoms as well as how they affect the person that matter. This is what a homeopath needs to make a successful remedy suggestion.

Unfortunately, because it is so wide ranging in its presentation and how it is experienced, I cannot recommend specific homeopathic remedies. There are actually 3,500 different homeopathic remedies and the ones you see in the shops are just a few of them.

However if you consult a qualified and experienced practitioner in your area, then he or she has the task of working out what you need and she / he will have access to all 3,500 from special homeopathic pharmacies.

When you first see a homeopath you will find it to be quite different to any kind of medical consultation you ever had before. You will be asked things a physician would not ask as that system of medicine does not require it. Also the homeopath has more time available than physicians. In fact a full case history is so crucial to the process that most practitioners allow at least an hour the first time.

Much more detail will be asked of you and it is this detail that is the gold dust for the homeopath. For example, if you have pain usually you would tell a physician you have pain, where it is and how long you had it for. Generally that is all the physician needs. He may ask a little more.

However the homeopath wants to know exactly where it is, how often it comes, is there a pattern or a trigger, what kind of pain is it – burning, stinging, cramping, twisting, aching, sharp, dull, constant, intermittent, shooting, wandering etc. etc.

You will be asked what makes it better or worse such as heat or cold, movement or rest, position, the weather, stress, time of day or night, foods or drinks, crying, laughing and any number of other things. It is this level of detail that helps the homeopath narrow down from 3,500 remedies to just one or a few that are going to suit you the best.

And if you have a really “strange” symptom in with all of this, then that can be the icing on the cake as you will see in the following fibromyalgia case history.

True Case History

Many years ago I had a lady come to see me in my homeopathic practice searching for a natural fibromyalgia treatment approach. I cannot remember her name now so we will call her Ann, but I do remember her story as I was the first time I had encountered a case of fibromyalgia.

I knew very little about fibromyalgia, except how notoriously difficult it was to treat this mystery illness of which there were no known causes or cures.

However, not being one to shrink from a challenge, and having witnessed many so called homeopathic “miracles: I was sure Ann could be helped.

We sat for a long while and I asked her all the usual questions. Medical history, family history, social history, allergies, medication as well as the ‘story” around having fibromyalgia.

It transpired she had had it for a long while and it was the extreme pain that was the biggest single problem to her, closely followed by exhaustion. She had seen many doctors and nothing helped and so she had become understandably depressed and despairing. However somehow she stumbled upon the idea of homeopathy though I cannot recall how that happened now.

I dug, and probed and questioned and got all the detail around her story and her symptoms and indeed had narrowed down the choices to a group of remedies, but at this stage it was still quite a large group. I wanted to narrow it down further so I kept probing.

Eventually she said that she did have an extra symptom to tell me but felt silly as it did not make any sense so she had been holding back. After reassurance that she was not silly, and in fact it was often the so called silly symptoms that were the key so far as homeopathy goes, she shared it with me.

It turned out that for much of the time her pain was burning in nature. This in itself was really helpful but the gold was when she went on to tell me what would bring her temporary relief. Her deeply burning pains would be relieved if she stepped into a hot shower.

This was a big red flag for me. Ordinarily you would not expect burning pain to be relieved by adding heat into the equation and yet in her case, it was. Well in homeopathy there are a small group of remedies that have this as a symptom and so I knew she must need one of those. It was then only a matter of studying her case again, in the light of the small group of remedies that I could see there was probably really only one candidate that “fit” the case.

I prescribed this remedy. I still remember it. It was Arsenicum album. It fit the description of the burning pains as well as much of the other symptoms even down to her personality type. She was a talkative worrier, who found it hard to relax.

She came back to see me one month later and she was a different lady. Her pain had gone completely and her energy was improving. She continued on this remedy a while longer and then I discharged her. I never heard from her again but I stayed in that practice for many years so I am sure she would have come straight back if the problem had recurred.

Needless to say, not all cases are so straight forward and often there are many other complicating factors to look at, including lifestyle, jobs, relationships but the point I am trying to make is that homeopathy is so highly individualized, that it is one of the very few system of medicine that can offer safe and effective fibromyalgia treatment for many people.

Conclusion

Fibromyalgia is a complex and little understood condition, with many different ways it can show itself. This makes it not only difficult to diagnose, but also difficult to treat, particularly deeper than the level of symptoms.

However, some natural systems of medicine can be an effective fibromyalgia treatment because they are so highly tailored to the individual, and their particular symptoms and circumstances. In fact it is this individualizing that makes them extremely powerful in these types of conditions.

Homeopathy is one such example of a safe and effective natural fibromyalgia treatment that can afford great relief, and in some cases even clear the symptoms completely.

One last thing that I have not yet mentioned is diet. Some people are finding that certain dietary modifications are also affording some relief. A combination of this and homeopathy would in my opinion be a very powerful mix.

Click the link to learn more about fibromyalgia dietary recommendations.

One final word of advice is that if you do decided to use homeopathy for this, you need to go and see someone professionally rather than just read a book or even a website like mine. These are great in some circumstances but this is not one of them and your chances of success would be extremely limited.

Find yourself a local practitioner, who is not only qualified but also has experience behind them. And finally, don’t just book. Speak on the phone at the very least first. You need to make sure you feel comfortable enough to be able to talk to that person, and trust them. If you don’t, then all the qualifications and experience pales into insignificance. You need all three ingredients.

I truly hope this information is of value to you and that you now feel empowered to start acting on developing your fibromyalgia treatment program.

From Fibromyalgia back to Main Home Page

---

Disclaimer: In no way is any of the information in this website ever meant as a substitute for medical care from your qualified physican or other health care specialist. If you choose to follow any of the ideas given in this website, it is suggested that you do so only under the care and guidance and supervision of your physican.

Important: Please click the link to view The Natural Remedies Nurse Privacy Policy

---