The Life and Times of Fibromyalgia

In my last post I joked that given the commonality of some of the symptoms of fibromyalgia, we all have it.  Actually it’s estimated that 1-2% of the population has it which would be millions and millions of Americans. 

The history of the disease is interesting.  Years ago, I can remember when I first started medicine, it was a huge question of whether this was just malingering or what this was.  That may have something to do with the fact that most of the primary doctors back then were male and most of the people who get this are female.  Women were widely told “This is all in your head.  Go home.  You’re just depressed.  Take an anti-depressant.”  We blew them off.  That was not a good period of time in the medical field.  We needed to recognize that there was an honest problem.  We may not know what to do about it, but giving people recognition that, yes, there’s an actual problem here has some benefit in and of itself.

It was ignored by medicine for a lot more years because we didn’t really have anything to do for it and still don’t have a lot to do for it today.  Doctors don’t like to admit they can’t help people with their problems.  Patients don’t like to be told there is no help.  Still, today, there is some denial or a lot of ignoring. Because of its insidious and slow onset, it is frequently not even recognized.  A person might be coming in complaining of TMJ (temporal mandibular joint) pain and not have read an article or put the rest of the pieces together.  The doctor is rushing from one patient to the next and he doesn’t ask questions.  It can go unrecognized for long periods of time.  It’s frequently under-diagnosed and misdiagnosed.  There are a lot of pitfalls there from the medical side of things.   

It’s also interesting that people in Africa or India or other places don’t seem to get fibromyalgia.  It’s kind of a European/American disease.  What is it? What causes it?  Is it stress?  Is it microwaves in the air?  Is it fluoride in the water?  We don’t really know what causes it or where it comes from.  We do know that there is disturbance of sleep patterns.  We do know that there are different alterations of neuro-hormones in the brain.  There is low growth hormone.  There is a derangement of things in the brain.  We know that some of those things can be diagnosed, but part of the diagnosis is that all of your blood tests and X-rays will be normal even if you do have fibromyalgia.  It’s important for us to have a diagnosis in case it’s something else medically that we can treat.  

But it’s very interesting to note that there is a continuum of fibromyalgia.  That continuum is directly related to the amount of stress the patient is in.  The more stress they have the worse their fibromyalgia is.  

The one thing that we can universally prescribe that we know that helps is not a drug.  It is not a pill that medicine knows to prescribe; it is simply exercise.  That’s a hard thing to get somebody to do who is stiff in the morning and hurts all over.  But that’s the one thing that we can consistently encourage patients to do is exercise.  

In the alternative medical field there are certain things we’ve tried:  alpha lipoic acid, B12, and magnesium certainly should be tried. Also acetylcysteine, glutathione, and Omega-3’s are always important and particularly important for fibromyalgia because of it’s anti-inflammatory needs.  It is an inflammation of sorts.  L-arginine can be beneficial because it increases nitrous-oxide and that helps control pain out there. 

Medically things that doctors try are P3, thyroid supplements; doxaphene as kind of an anti-depressant; and oxytocin shots can be beneficial.  Testosterone may be of some benefit.  There are some things to try medically. 

The huge thing, the real take-home note here is the continuum of stress and it’s relationship to fibromyalgia.  The more stress, categorically, the more pain and the more significant a problem this is going to be on a daily basis.  And that's the skinny on fibromyalgia.

Hypertension and You.

This week we’re going to change the focus from breast health on to other areas that affect your health, specifically hypertension (or high blood pressure). 

Obviously, high blood pressure is not a good thing.

Let me help you understand why.  Think of your blood vessels as a garden hose.  When your heart pumps, there is a bolus (a large ball of fluid) that comes through your arteries every second or so. That whole big volume of blood that’s in the ventricle goes out almost at one time.  It’s kind of like the Tom and Jerry cartoons that you see where the mouse gets caught in the hose and there’s a bulge in the hose where he's hiding from the cat. That happens every time your heart pumps.  That bulge of fluid goes out through the arteries and it stretches them in the process.

It doesn’t take much of a thought process to figure out that as you increase the pressure it increases the stretching of the artery walls.  They are made of little elastic fibers.  As you stretch them too much those elastic fibers begin to break.  Then the body repairs it with a patch that we call cholesterol or plaque.  Cholesterol, calcium and other substances such as fibrin, are part of that patch.  That’s how that whole process of hardening of the arteries occurs.  You get too much stress, you get damage, and then you get the patch.  Now that patch doesn’t flex and the rest of the arterial wall has to flex even more.  It becomes a vicious cycle.  You can see how that creates a perpetual damage problem ongoing. 

So, we can see that keeping your blood pressure under control is important in order not to damage the arteries so that the arteries can function with their natural stretch properties every time that bolus of blood comes out of the ventricle.  It’s also important in order to not damage organs like your kidneys, your brain, etc. 

There are some natural things you can do to keep blood pressure under control.  The simplest one is stay out of stress.  I’ve already mentioned briefly that stress causes disease, and in fact chronic stress is a major cause of hypertension.  If you’re interested in supplements, magnesium has been shown to reduce blood pressure significantly.  There are a number of other natural things that have benefit.  Garlic is another supplement that can help prevent or treat hypertension. Even though garlic will make you smell, it could save your life.

The bottom line: keeping our blood pressure low is very important, especially for the cardiovascular system. I’ll be talking more about cardiovascular health in the coming weeks on this blog and on my podcasts, so stay tuned! 

5 Unusual (And Easy) Ways To Prevent Breast Cancer

1. Don’t wear a bra.

No, that doesn’t mean you need to go outside and burn your bras. But you should probably wear it less than you think. Bras tend to raise the temperature of the breasts, and cancer thrives in higher temperatures than normal. Bras also restrict the natural flow of oxygen and nutrients to the tissues, and don’t allow the normal lymph-pumping action of natural breast movement. (See number 4). 

2. Breathe

Well, you’re probably already doing this. But take a few minutes to breathe differently every day, and you’ll notice a world of difference. Deep, slow breaths from your abdomen will oxygenate your system, keeping your cells happy and avoiding the oxygen-starved environment that fosters the growth of cancer cells. Learn more about breathing techniques here. 

3. Don’t wear antiperspirants

“Eww gross”, you’re probably saying to yourself. Not wearing antiperspirants doesn’t automatically mean smelling like a horse, but it does mean staying away from the potentially cancer-causing aluminum that’s an ingredient in most products. (See here for my previous post on this). 

4. Exercise

Remember when I mentioned the “lymph-pumping action” your breasts have in natural movement? If you don’t move a lot, they won’t do their job. The lymphatic system is a crucial component in the body’s immune response, and lymph (the disease fighting fluid in the system) isn’t pumped through your body like blood, but rather by the movement of your muscles.  Some lymph nodes reside in your armpits (where a good deal of women end up having breast cancer) and when you “bounce” you’re naturally pumping lymph from there into the rest of your body. And, of course, exercise will generally increase quality of life and allow you to live longer. 

5. Stop being so stressed out!

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that 85% of all illness is caused by stress. Stop and think about that... then think about how often you live with that stress. Unfortunately, it’s next to impossible to live in today’s world without stress, but it is possible to find ways to deflect it or release it. One way is simply to find the time to do whatever it takes to get some rest and quiet (two essential ingredients to stress relief). Another way is to just say NO to all the commitments that clamor for your time. Be wise about how you manage your time, and you’ll find your stress levels will decrease. 

So there you have it, five easy ways to prevent yourself from getting breast cancer that don’t cost you a penny, and might even save you some money!