The Taming of the Great Fibro Beast/My Top 11 Holistic Fibromyalgia Flare Up Survival Tips

I wrote this about this time last year. Since then, so much has changed. But guess what? I still have Fibromyalgia. It didn't go away with moving and simplifying my life, or hunting down my 2 dozen food allergies. It didn't go away when I lost 112 pounds. It didn't go away when I started a holistic support group. It didn't go away, and I accept and surrender to the fact that it may be my dance partner for life. I still refuse the medication route. People call me nuts for that. Personally, I think being addicted to drugs so I can button my shirt...is nuts, and not where I am at, yet. So, once again, here are my Top 11 Holistic Fibromyalgia Flare Up Survival Tips. I'll be back next week with more recipes and menus...and hopefully less BLAH.

Shhh...we're hunting. What was that?! Look! Over there...on the couch! A FIBRO BEAST!!! OK ladies and gents, step right on up and see first hand the beauty of surrender to chronic pain with bursts of worse, the ferociousness of the long muscle groups in spasm. Examine her isolation induced depression! See the wasted days and nights! Feel for the Fibro fog! Where did her ability to take her own shirt off go?! Solve the mystery! Step right on up!

Yes. I DO feel like a circus freak. As my parched desert prepares for much needed rain, I start preparing for days of less mobility, pain x too much, swollen joints, and fatigue that makes Olympic training exhaustion look like the hokey pokey. The walk to the mail box becomes a marathon. The dog poop grows in the back yard, the dishes multiply in the sink, and the laundry pile becomes something needing it's own zip code. And NO matter what I do...It's coming for me anyway.

I have been through all of Kubler-Ross' Stages of Grief with the Beast. I got angry, I denied, etc. None of that helped...until the acceptance part. I have to accept this, find humor in it, find ways to comfort myself, and move through it. I have given it full control because I CAN'T CONTROL IT. All I can do... is CONTROL HOW I REACT TO IT.

The following are my Top 11 Holistic Fibromyalgia Survival Tactics.

1. Accept it. You can't make it go away by ignoring it but you can make yourself sicker, longer.

2. Don't over medicate it. You may mask another health problem...like gluten intolerance. Honestly, if I had filled all 10 prescriptions, not only would I be a zombie, but I'd still be eating gluten because I wouldn't have become aware of my body's signals that MORE was going on.

3. Stretch...all the time. Well stretched muscles have an easier time fighting off rigidness and spasms.

4. Talk about it. Out of whack emotions go hand and hand with the Beast. Emotional upset is enough to wake the Beast. Stress pokes it like a stick. Anger feeds it. Despair serves it dessert.

5. LAUGH as much as you can. The body doesn't know the difference between forced and real laughter. It releases pain reducing endorphins either way. Laughter Yoga...search it out!

6. Try a gluten free diet. I'm still getting flare ups...but they are not back to back, or one long endless one anymore. They are also clearly defined; from the weather, too much activity, or stress/emotions. They are not from eating a glutinous pizza, or the end result of bagel day anymore. I will not say I'm Fibro-less because I'm gluten free but damn, I'm so much better gluten free!

7. The following supplements have been the most useful to me: Mixed Omega's 3-6-9, coconut oil, ginger, digestive enzymes, food based vitamin B complex, magnesium, potassium, malic acid, food based calcium, and lots and lots of vitamin D. Malic acid is a fruit acid that enhances calcium and magnesium absorption, and encourages our muscles to release stored inflammatory hormones. (I am not suggesting anything, just sharing what I use)

8. Buy Epsom salts...in bulk. A hot Epsom salt bath really helps my rigid muscles. Don't spend extra money on scented products if you have essential oils. A few drops scents a 5lb. bag.

9. NO JUNK FOOD before, during, or after a flare up. High sodium and sugary snacks only make the Beast happy. Eat light and well. Use nutrient dense foods, drink green or coconut milk smoothies, and save the munchies for another week. I had been known to fall into the 'I don't feel good anyway' food loop. Salty chips and chocolate... just hurt the next day.

10. REST. Find a way. Be gentle to yourself. The only 'cure' for each flare up is time spent resting. I'll sleep for 14 hours and not feel like I have rested, but an hour with my feet up between dish loads makes a huge difference in my endurance, and the flare-up's.

11. Added 2/03/2011
Oh my goodness, how much do I love community acupuncture? Wow. I have been going for 3 months. It is my most effective tool against acute pain.  I am hopeful in time it will help further my healing, help my body enjoy more quality time between flares and perhaps, keep the Beast at bay.

Babble From A Dry Hot Place

Yes, it is hot today. I got up too early, drank too much caffeine, and ran out of steam to pack the house by 3pm. Arg. We are more than midway through the ever heating Dry Hot. By the end of the month, it will be both hot and humid. I have been barely functional through our past 3 Monsoon seasons. I hid from the sun all day and just prayed I'd live until the rains stopped in September. This will be my first gluten free Monsoon season. The Fibro Beast in me still hasn't yet fully accepted it's demise via GF life. I'm hopeful to feel a change in the way my body reacts to the unstable weather, though based on how I felt through the rainy Spring, I'm not expecting a miracle.


What I was expecting, is pain and inflammation. I'm trying to rethink the Monsoon season, to not expect the inflammation, pain, and odd electrical shocks that come with the beautiful, needed, wanted, sacred desert rain storms. This is my Cherooke-Buddist-Unitarian version of a Jedi Mind Trick. I am not the droid, they, the horrific duo of inflammation and pain, are after. In my chewy center... is a very quiet deep well where I fully receive the Seasonal Gift of Monsoon. My Path is to celebrate the Cycles of the Mother, sings and dreams my Cherokee heart. Bring it on, asserts the soft spoken activist in the Unitarian-Universalist shell.


Since I have no health insurance, doctor, or medications to ease my suffering, I'm experimenting with a new supplement regime for the Summer and loading up with electrolytes, eating my daily 3 tablespoons of coconut oil, being diligent in taking malic acid, mixed omega 3-6-9's, Natural Calm, a super fruit and greens powder, and 3 Emergen C packets, along with 2 gallons of distilled water every day. I am able to withstand full sun (with SPF 80 and a wide brim straw hat) like a good melon plant. This is a new trick for my body. It's been 3 years since I haven't lost my vision, a layer of skin, and my equilibrium simply walking to the mail box. I'm reveling in this Dry Hot time, as a good desert dweller should. During this time, my continual pain and general inflammation level has been minimal, except when get too much exercise or I consume not naturally occurring nitrates. I like bacon. I can not always afford nitrate free bacon, so I eat what we can afford every 2 weeks. I fully know it's going to set off a cascade of inflammatory hormones and a slight allergic reaction that feels like the sensation of burning skin. 


Hum? That's what the beginning of a Fibromyalgia flare-up feels like in me...


So, I have been my own guinea pig once again, willingly eating nitrates and trying to find what in my arsenal of supplements and herbs can ease the pain, in hopes of it working during my next flare up. I'm on to something. If I take at least 2000 milligrams of vitamin C, vitamin B3 (niacin), and a vitamin B complex-100 with a cup of yarrow flower tea when I eat the bacon or the hot dog, it reduces the feelings of burning skin and inflammation after the niacin flush kicks in. The yarrow encourages sweating and purging of toxins in the body through the skin. If I get into a hot bath or shower and sweat the rest out, I'm better in less than 30 minutes.


Until now, a nitrate encounter alone was enough to awaken the Fibro Beast. The after effects of eating 2 strips of bacon or a slice of pepperoni pizza, could last for weeks. I'm sickly looking forward to testing it on the physical sensations of a flare-up as they truly feel similar in my body. Our new place has a small community sauna. Going on the 'sweating it out' theory and since I did so well with the hot springs, I'm trying a 5 minute sweat this week to start working my way back up to up to an hour in the sweat. I know the idea of making yourself pour sweat while nude in a cedar box, sounds like an odd thing to do in the 110 degree desert. On the contrary. 15-20 minutes in a moist 180 degrees, makes  110 feel like a brisk Winter morning. A quick rinse with hose or shower brings bright, clear, glowing skin and a better perspective of the word, HOT. 


The other natural modality that's been surprisingly effective now that I am gluten and dairy free, is juicing. I have juiced for taste, nutritional benefits and digestive help since the 1980's. My (former) brother in law taught me the celery-lemon-parsley-sea salt Gatorade replacement within days of my arrival in the low desert 8 years ago. What I found in this new body is that food IS medicine for me. My GF/DF body is very sensitive to whatever I put in it...good or bad. I've been finding a juice or smoothie for every need I have. I have been eating pineapple for 2 years hoping to feel the claimed anti-inflammatory effects of it. Removing the dairy last month...allowed that to happen. I juice a whole fresh pineapple whenever I feel the least bit of inflammation or sluggish digestion. It makes me feel like there is naturally occurring rum in that pineapple. ALL of my inflammation...ceases in minutes. I feel giddy on sweetness and life yet grounded and 'in my own skin' at the same time. Very energetic, as in vital energy or 'Ital'. Probably what a hummingbird feels like! 


So, that's my babble. If I do have sucess with my formula for the Beast, I'll share. Enjoy what must be a welcome taste of the Summer in the US...everywhere else but here.