Food sensitivities such as gluten intolerance are another common factor in the development of fibromyalgia. In a person with undiagnosed gluten intolerance, the body is unable to properly digest the food and absorb nutrients into the body. This can lead to chronic inflammation, which later develops into severe pain throughout the body.

Another cause of these muscle aches has to do with a digestive condition called “leaky gut syndrome”. In a patient with leaky gut syndrome, the lining of the intestines are more porous than they should be allowing tiny food particles to enter the bloodstream. These food particles cause an allergic reaction in the system, leading to chronic inflammation and pain. Food sensitivities, chronic use of NSAID pain relievers, and antibiotic use are the most common causes of this syndrome.
Fibromyalgia or any type of autoimmune disorder usually goes hand in hand with digestive trouble. For that, there’s papaya. This nutritious fruit not only tastes good, it contains high doses of natural digestive enzymes in addition to vitamins C and E.


Papaya contains a chemical called papain. Papain breaks down proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. Papain is a protease enzyme from the Papaya fruit, known to reduce pain and inflammation. Many hospitals use papain to break down fibrin build up in wounds. Papain also helps to speed up the healing process, to treat ulcers, and reduce swelling. You can get papain through eating fresh papaya or in supplement form.

Personally, I keep a bottle of papaya near my nightstand in case I wake with digestive turbulence in the middle of the night.  Just a few tablets and I'm good to sleep again.

I have always had a love affair with the AT (Appalachian Trail).  Since I was a young woman I've aspired to walk that long trek someday.  This may not be feasible at this time, but Grandma Gatewood's trail is truly inspiring.  

Emma Gatewood told her family she was going on a walk and left her small Ohio hometown with a change of clothes and less than two hundred dollars. The next anybody heard from her, this genteel, farm-reared, 67-year-old great-grandmother had walked 800 miles along the 2,050-mile Appalachian Trail. And in September 1955, having survived a rattlesnake strike, two hurricanes, and a run-in with gangsters from Harlem, she stood atop Maine’s Mount Katahdin. There she sang the first verse of “America, the Beautiful” and proclaimed, “I said I’ll do it, and I’ve done it.”

Grandma Gatewood, as the reporters called her, became the first woman to hike the entire Appalachian Trail alone, as well as the first person—man or woman—to walk it twice and three times. Gatewood became a hiking celebrity and appeared on TV and in the pages of Sports Illustrated. The public attention she brought to the little-known footpath was unprecedented. Her vocal criticism of the lousy, difficult stretches led to bolstered maintenance, and very likely saved the trail from extinction.

Author Ben Montgomery was given unprecedented access to Gatewood’s own diaries, trail journals, and correspondence, and interviewed surviving family members and those she met along her hike, all to answer the question so many asked: Why did she do it? The story of Grandma Gatewood will inspire readers of all ages by illustrating the full power of human spirit and determination. Even those who know of Gatewood don’t know the full story—a story of triumph from pain, rebellion from brutality, hope from suffering. - amazon.com

Keeping on top of household chores can seem utterly impossible when you're struggling with fatigue and pain.  Below you'll find some tips to help you cope.

1.  Aim at cleaning one room at a time rather than the whole house.  If the room is huge, break it down into small areas and make sure to rest by reading or gaming when you feel fatigued.

2.  On a bad day clean only areas that may incorporate poor hygiene.  Such as the toilet, hand sink, kitchen sink, and counter tops

3.  Choose a lightweight vacuum cleaner the next time yours breaks.  If you live in a two story house get one of those broomsticks for upstairs and downstairs so you don't have lug anymore than you have to.

4.  Avoid clutter by getting in the habit of putting things away immediately.  Encourage other family members to do the same.  Throw away things when people aren't looking to clear all that "crap" that is lying around and never used.

5.  Delegate chores you don't have the energy to do.  Kids can throw a load of laundry on, empty waste baskets, or load a dishwasher.

6.  Keep a basket near the bottom of the stairs so that you can carry several items up and down when necessary.

7.  Choose clothes from easy-care fabrics.  Just throw in the wash, dry, and fold.

8.  When your feeling the urge to cook and take care of those you love, make extra portions and store them in the freezer for future use.  This way they can take care of themselves when you need to rest.

9.  If you find it hard to peel fresh vegetables keep a supply of frozen veggies in the freezer.  They have the same nutrient content as their counterparts.

10.  Keep the utensils you use a lot in easy-to-reach places.

Pain and fatigue of fibromyalgia may intensify when holidays pop up.  You can minimalism these effects if you incorporation a few precautions when you begin to feel the first onset of a flare-up.

Apply Heat

Heat from hot water bottle, hot bath or shower, hot pad, or wheat pillow that can be heated in the microwave helps relax muscles thereby relieving pain and stiffness.  For stiff aching hands fill a washbasin with warm water, apply a little bit of olive oil, and massage underwater.

Massage

See if your doctor can order physical therapy.  Numerous studies have pointed to doctor prescribed PT for fibromyalgia.  Patients note 50% less flare-ups when relieving manipulative therapy.  Or, ask partner or friend to help ease these sore muscles and lift our spirits.  

Know your Triggers

Once you've got them labeled do what you can at all cost to eliminate them.  If stress is to blame, step back.  Come to terms that you have an illness and there is nothing wrong with bowing out.  If you can't remove yourself, then at least take a break from time to time and pace yourself.

Get More Sleep

Make sure that you incorporate a rest period each day.  Just you, lying there with some favorite reads or a good movie.  Try getting to bed earlier or sleeping in later on the weekends.  

Adjust Your Exercise

If you think you might have overdone it lately, ease up.  Exercise helps many fibromyalgia suffers.  In fact, most doctors routinely prescribe light activity to ease the pains of fibromyalgia.  If you have difficulty doing simple tasks try incorporating some light yoga to stretch muscles.

Keep Your Mind off the Pain

They say out of site out of mind can ease the firing of pain signals.  Try doing relaxing activities you enjoy. Get out your phone, play that game you enjoy.  Focus on reading more- you can read more than one book at a time!  Grab some titles that interest you and take you away.  Try arts and craft activities or take up writing like me!

What a beautiful, uplifting story.  I have not seen such a well-made production in quite some time, simply memorizing.  

Her legacy is forever linked to that of her husband's, the Prophet Joseph Smith. But who really was Emma Hale Smith? Many years after the death of Joseph, Emma recounts to her daughter her experiences relating to the birth of Mormonism, from magnificent revelations to excruciating persecutions. Discover the remarkable life of an elect lady in Emma Smith - My Story. - Desert Book

There are days I wake up feeling refreshed and crave more sustenance than my usual dietary fare.  It is during these days that I am brought back to the simple art of home cooking made easy. Nothing satisfies an early morning craving than Simple Eggs Over Easy with Fried Potatoes.  

I must admit I do not use Teflon pans any longer.  In fact, much of my cookware is cast iron.  No invasive metal pieces will be proliferating my body anymore as I am on a quest to purge the toxins that may have intensified this illness in the beginning.  

Believe it or not, cast iron cookware is quite easy to assimilate to!  All you need to do is heat the pan on medium/low heat for a minute or two, add a bit of butter, and let it swirl around the pan filling those noticeable grooves.  You're set!  And, yes, you can swirl that egg around just as you do on those toxic Teflon pans!

Here's a simple recipe for those days you want some 'meat' on your bones.

1-2 organic eggs at room temperature preferably
1 medium to large potato
butter
Himalayan salt
Organic pepper

Take your potato and microwave on high 3 minutes.  Allow to cool and slice to 1/4 inch sections.  You may peel it first if you like.  Add butter to cast iron pan that has been heated as stated above.  Add potatoes, salt, and pepper.  Cook, turning until potatoes cast a delightful golden brown hue.  Take pan off stove, rinse with water and wipe with paper towel.  Place back on the stove and add a bit more butter to your liking, swirling pan.  Don't allow butter to brown.  Crack one or two eggs adding a bit more salt and pepper. As edges cook and middle becomes slightly solid, turn over eggs for one minute.  Immediately remove from pan and serve.

As my body begins to heal from lashing me with constant painful flareups, I am tempted to add new foods to my diet.  As I explained on Phase II Finding Relief, your body knows and will actually crave new foods as it begins to reverse.  I do stay constant with the Fibromyalgia Breakfast soup, but at times I crave a simple oatmeal breakfast cereal or eggs over easy near some delicious fried potatoes.  

You'll note that most of these recipes are LOW in carbohydrates. Too many carbohydrates at one meal wreck havoc by taking precious digestive time away from the healing process.  

1/4 cup organic oatmeal
1`/2 cup rice milk
2 tab. raisins
2 tab. sunflower seeds
1 medium banana 
raw honey

Place oatmeal and milk in a bowl.  Microwave on high for one minute.  Set aside.  Slice banana into 1/2 inch slices.  Top oatmeal with banana, raisins, and sunflower seeds.  Drizzle a tad of raw honey on top. Sprinkle a little more rice milk around the edges.  Serve immediately.

I had a recent discovery lately that had me perusing the Internet for days trying to understand why I've felt such elated relief from fibromyalgia.  Every year around the end of spring and the beginning of summer I take a delightful bike ride daily along A1A taking in the breathtaking coastline.  There is something calming and invigorating that envelopes me as I peddle away.  After 30 minutes or so, I bring my old mat and lie on the beach taking in a few rays of sun.  This activity always melts away any joint pain and tension allowing my mind a good breathing spell.  

For some reason this year, the ocean is unbelievably warm.  Normally, I'd wait until mid July to take a cool dip immersing myself and dashing out due to shocking coldness still present.  But for some reason, the ocean temp has been hovering around 80 degrees.  This makes one just want to frolic in the waves for unknown periods of time forgetting that the minutes are ticking away.  After a week or so of doing this relentlessly, I was shocked and unaccustomed to feeling very little pain and the clear mind in the hours that followed.  I knew it was directly correlated to the ocean water!

I knew it had something to do with osmosis.  Osmosis is the spontaneous net movement of solvent molecules through a partially permeable membrane into a region of higher solute concentration, in the direction that tends to equalize the solute concentrations on the two sides.  Just as my body drinks in my skin care regiment, it was taking in the ocean water that I was swimming in!  I was propelled to see if I could find answers to my better health.

What I came upon was non short that amazing.  I read several articles on The Water Cure.  The Water Cure is another in a long list of alleged miracle cures discovered by “lone geniuses” who are allegedly persecuted by a resistant medical establishment. 

Dr. Batmanghelidj was imprisoned for political crimes in Tehran’s infamous Evin prison. A number of his fellow prisoners had previously been diagnosed with peptic ulcer disease (PUD). Their symptoms recurred in jail and didn’t respond to Cimetidine and antacids. Dr. Batmanghelidj gave a prisoner with unbearable pain two glasses of water. The pain disappeared completely after 8 minutes.

He treated other PUD patients with remarkable success. One patient was semiconscious from pain but after drinking water he recovered in 20 minutes. (One wonders about the wisdom of making a semiconscious patient drink, since there is a risk of aspiration). Patients were advised to continue drinking 1500cc of water daily for 6 weeks, allowing time for the average ulcer to heal. Symptoms did not recur.

During treatment, urine volume increased and patients had to get up at night to pee. Dr. Batmanghelidj assumed this meant that they were losing sodium so he added salt to their treatment.  Dr. Batmanghelidj decided that the real problem was dehydration: dehydration was the sole cause of pain so the pain was relieved by drinking water.

Dr. Batmanghelidj eventually got out of prison and came to the US, where he developed his ideas further and wrote a series of books. His philosophy expanded. Although water alone had worked for his initial patients, he added Celtic sea or Himalayan salt to supply trace minerals. 

He claims the water cure will:

1. Prevent and reverse premature aging
2. Eliminate pain, including heartburn, back pain, arthritis, colitis, angina, and migraine headaches
3. Cure asthma in a few days, naturally and forever
4. Cure hypertension without diuretics or other medications
5. Lose weight effortlessly and naturally, without strict dieting

The Water Cure:

The water you drink must be free of all impurities.

The water you drink must be warm.

The water you drink must contain salt.

Sea salt is best. Celtic sea salt is the best sea salt. One quarter teaspoon of salt per one quart of drinking water.  One quart is 32 ounces. 

Drink your salted water throughout the entire day.  Sip your water. Don’t drink 6-8 oz at a time. Drink 1-2 oz at a time. Go slowly.

You must consume half your body weight in ounces of water per day, each and every day to recover from the symptoms of long term, chronic, unintentional dehydration and to prevent it from happening again.

The outflow of urine should be equal in volume to the inflow of water. The color of your urine should be very light yellow like the color of lite beer.

I am not a doctor, but I do realize that a possible reduction in symptoms may be occurring due to my body taking in more salt water if Dr. Batmanghelidj's principles hold true.  I am in the water for quite sometime allowing body to "drink in" all that healthy sea water.  Sea water is highly concentrated with salt so the ratio of actually drinking the Water Cure to swimming in it may be slightly the same.  I believe when the ocean water is no longer available due to a decline in temperature I may be tempted to try the Water Cure.  

I do not recommend trying anything without your doctor's approval especially for those who are on a low salt diet.  Check with your practitioner first.  But, since this a site for alternative disciplines, I do want to "throw" it out there for your inspection.

I believe it is through movies like these that inspire each of us to go on and trust in God.  There are times life becomes just too overwhelming and lying still with a good flick such as this brings us back into reality.

About the Director:
T. C. Christensen has made several films about Latter-day Saint founder Joseph Smith. Among these are Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration and Emma Smith: My Story, both made in cooperation with Gary Cook. Other Mormon-themed films include his biography of President Gordon B. Hinckley. Christensen was the coauthor and director of Only a Stonecutter, the story of John R. Moyle, the father of James H. Moyle. Christensen has also been the cinematographer for many films, including Rigoletto, The Testaments, Forever Strong, Outlaw Trail: The Treasure of Butch Cassidy, and The Work and the Glory.

Product Description: 
As part of the Willie Handcart Company, Levi Savage (Jasen Wade) feared that leaving late in the season would lead to despair and death. What he learned was that for every tragedy, there was a multitude of miracles. Brought to you by filmmaker T. C. Christensen (Praise to the Man; The Work and the Glory), 17 Miracles will open your eyes to the unbelievable but true stories of the Mormon pioneers as you have never seen them before. Films by T. C. Christensen have received recognition in several film festivals. His Pioneer Miracle received the Best in Show award from the Houston International Film Festival in 2004. Seasons of the Heart, for which he was both director and cinematographer, also received multiple awards in film festivals. - Amazon.com

The Mayo Clinic recognizes that patients with fibromyalgia use more dietary supplements in hopes of treating their symptoms, according to Connie Leudtke, registered nurse in the Mayo Clinic Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Clinic. You may try everything from essential minerals like magnesium, which when taken with malic acid may help improve pain, to Gotu Kola, an herb used in traditional Chinese and Indian medicine to help relieve anxiety. Supplements should be taken only under the supervision of a doctor, and the Mayo Clinic staff stresses that using complementary therapies and lifestyle changes can better help you cope with fibromyalgia.  Here's a few more supplements you can add to your "to do list".


SAMe (s-adensylmethionine)

SAMEe is a chemical compound found naturally in the body produced from methionine, an amino acid found in high protein foods, and adensosine triphosphate (ATP), a substance involved in the production of energy in the body.  SAMe reduces pain, tenderness, fatigue, and depression.  It is used by the body to make serotonin, a neurotransmitter involved in mood and pain regulation.  Three out of four RCTs investigating SAMe in the treatment of fibromyalgia reported that SAMe was more effective than a placebo in reducing both the number of tender points/or the degree of tenderness felt, as well as symptoms of depression.

Eleuthero

Eleuthero is a plant that grows in southeastern Russia, nothern China, Korea, and Japan.  The parts of the plant used are the root and rhisomes (underground stems).  It is also known as Siberian ginseng or Devil's shrub.  It helps to beat fatigue and imporves mental alertness.  The active ingredients include eleutherosides and complex sugars, which help the body produce energey.  In a study published in Psycological Medicine in 2004 concluded that eleuthero both reduced fatigue and improved energy levels in people with chronic fatigue.  A review published in Phytotherapy Research in 2005 clamied that adaptogens like eleuthro can reduce pain, boost energy and improve sleep in fibromyalgia suffers.  

I use Celestial Seasonings Tension Tamer.  I make a coffee cup full each morning with one tea bag, strain, place in a coffee mug with a closed lid, and sip throughout the day.  Works wonders!

St. John's Wort

St. John's Wort is a hedgerow plant with yellow flowers.  It has an antidepressant effect similar to those of SSRIs and MAOIs (monoamine oxidase inhibitors).  It also helps ease nerve pain and has antiviral properties.  St. John's Wort boosts levels of the brain chemical serotonin, low levels of which have been linked to fibromyalgia.  The active ingredient, hypericin, is thought to keep the brain chemicals linked to positive mood, such as serotonin and noradrenaline, in the brain for longer.  It does this by blocking the effects of an enzyme that destroys them.  Serotonin and noraderenaline are involved in the regulation of pain.  

Red Montmorency Cherries

Red Montmorency Cherries are a type of tart cherry grown in North America.  They help maintain muscle strength, ease pain, and improve sleep patterns.  These cherries are rich in antioxidants called anthocyanins and flavonioids which reduce inflammation.  They are also rich in the 'sleep homrone' melatonin.  In 2011 researches at the Oregon Health & Science University reported that drinking tart cherry juice helped to maintain muscle strength and reduced overall pain.  Another study in 2011, at the Northumbria Centre for Sleep Research at Northumbria University, found that volunteers who drank red cherry juice slept more soundly for a longer periods of time.  

Vitamin D

I personally live off the beaches of sunny Florida and get enough of this vitamin manually by lying my achy body on the closest beach.  But, if you can't, this is one essential vitamin for fibromyalgia suffers.  

Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin know as the sunshine vitamin.  Most of your vitamin D can be had from being in the great outdoors for at least 20 minutes each day.  It is also found in foods like oily fish, eggs and liver, as well as fortified cereals and margarine. Lack of vitamin D can cause symptoms linked to fibromyalgia, including muscle pain, fatigue, low mood, and sleep and digestive problems.  Vitamin D relieves muscle pain, boots mood, and promotes a sound sleep.  It improves absorption of calcium, which low levels are associated with muscle and bone pain. Calcium is also needed for a healthy nervous system and a calm disposition.  It is also involved in the production of serotonin, from which the body also makes the 'sleep hormone' melatonin.