Yes, you read that right. Successfully treat Fibromyalgia. But there is no successful medical treatment for Fibromyalgia, is there? The leading medical institutions like the Mayo Clinic focus on simply helping to control symptoms. That’s in part because there is no diagnostic test for fibromyalgia. While there is a list of the most common symptoms for fibromyalgia they vary dramatically from person to person.
Here’s the Mayo Clinic’s take on Fibromyalgia symptoms if you care to look: Fibromyalgia Symptoms.
That’s because their entire focus is on the next blockbuster drug that they can bring to market for Fibromyalgia. There is no medication that will cure your fibromyalgia. And, the longer you suffer from it, the more entrenched it becomes and the more difficult it is to change.
Every symptom you experience with your Fibromyalgia is mediated by your nervous system. The nervous system is adept at developing patterns and as a result of imbalance those patterns show up as aches, pains, disrupted sleep, fatigue and more.
If You Focus on the Symptoms…You Will Never Find the Cause
Here’s a post I did on the problem with focusing on symptoms: If You Focus on the Symptoms. This is not meant to imply that you shouldn’t attempt to alleviate your symptoms. However, treating the symptoms alone will not change the nature of your fibromyalgia and most medications bring with them a range of unwanted side effects that can be worse than the condition for which you take them.
If all you do is treat your symptoms your fibromyalgia will tend to get worse and more and more difficult to improve.
According to the leading medical institutions there is no cure for fibromyalgia. It’s tough to find a solution when you view everyone with fibromyalgia as the same. Each person is unique and often requires their own personalized approach.
To Understand Fibromyalgia, You Must Understand Stress
I Know That from Experience!
Did you know that 90% of ALL illness and disease is stress-related? And, that 75% of all doctor visits are stress-related? With that alone it seems pretty apparent that we should be putting a whole lot more focus on stress and even more importantly how it impacts the body, the nervous system, and our health.
But, its not actually the stress that causes the problem. It’s the overload that the stress causes on the nervous system. And the resulting progressive inability to recover from stress. This process is what results in illness and disease and for some of us that is fibromyalgia.
What Does Stress Have to Do with Fibromyalgia?
You might be asking ‘What does stress have to do with my fibromyalgia”. I understand because we have a very narrow and inaccurate view of stress and what it does.
I experienced significant ‘stress’ in my life with significant injuries, pain, divorce, and more. I didn’t relate my health challenges to stress at all. At least not until I discovered how to rewire my nervous system to be resilient to stress.
The Link Between Stress and…
Fibromyalgia, Chronic Pain, Chronic Fatigue
Think of stress as energy that your nervous system has to respond to. There could be heavy traffic on the highway. Or, a work project or a relationship challenge. Stress can be physical as in an accident or injury. Or, it can be emotional. Stress can even be chemical as in insufficient water, excess sugar or caffeine, or alcohol.
Whatever form it takes, it causes your Nervous System to activate its Sympathetic System, also called the Fight-or-Flight Nervous System.
The Sympathetic System prepares us to fight or flee for our survival. This happens even when the threat is nothing we need to worry about. The sympathetic system takes resources away from digestion and healing and redirects energy to the muscles. It increases tension and over time pain. It disrupts sleep because if your life is in danger you can’t afford to sleep.
Let’s face it, we live in a culture where those stress stimuli come at us day after day after day. Sometimes when we are exposed to a time of more significant stress it pushes us past overwhelm and we begin the journey from wellness to…
…Dis-ease: that results in lost ease and safety and calmness in our body which evolves into…
…Symptoms: aches, pains, disrupted sleep, indigestion, headaches, anxiety, fatigue that eventually becomes…
…Illness: this is where the medical system gives what you are experiencing a name that usually says there’s inflammation before it becomes. Gastritis or dermatitis or myositis and at the end of the process…
…Disease: when they bring out the heavy artillery of drugs, injections, surgery.
Neurology Turns Your Stress into Fibromyalgia
That chronic activation of the fight-or-flight Sympathetic System turns your nervous system into Sympathetic Dominant. Over time you live more and more from a state of fight-or-flight and your health suffers.
You live your life in a state of fight-or-flight and with that comes…
- Chronic muscle tightness and tension
- Increased inflammation
- Increased heart rate and blood pressure
- Impaired digestion
- Pain
- Impaired sleep
- Fatigue
- Anxiety
- Depression
For some this cascade of events turns into Fibromyalgia. For others its ulcers or inflammatory bowel disease. Some experience chronic fatigue. And, the list goes on.
The point is that the overwhelming stress puts the nervous system into a chronic state of Sympathetic Dominance that sets the stage for the onset of symptoms, illness and disease.
The First Step to Successfully Treat Fibromyalgia
The very first step is to recognize that this is a neurological issue, a problem of an imbalance in your nervous system. If you don’t take measures to restore balance to your nervous system you have little hope of overcoming the devastation of fibromyalgia.
Your Sympathetic Nervous System is overactive and your Parasympathetic Nervous System or Vagus Nerve is underactive. Without recognizing this you cannot put together a plan to treat your fibromyalgia.
Once you recognize the imbalance with your nervous system, now you can systematically go about correcting this by:
- Reducing the tension, pressure, and irritation to the Sympathetic system.
- Increasing the tone and activity of the Vagus Nerve
- Adopting practices that rewire your Nervous System for greater ease and safety
- Clear the communication channel between the brain and body so that your body can self-regulate and self-heal.
Remember that all healing takes place in your body and comes from your body. There is not a medication or surgery that will heal you. They might offer the opportunity to heal but healing is an inside job. Overcoming fibromyalgia is about restoring balance and giving your body the opportunity to heal.
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