I have heard a lot of different opinions on what Fibromyalgia is and on possible treatments for it.
But I recently found a book that is incredibly useful. It's called " The Fibromyalgia cure" it's by DR David Dryland.
It basically says that fibromyalgia is caused by your body being in a constant state of fight or flight with elevated adrenaline levels. The elevated adrenaline levels slowly deplete dopamine and you end up with chronic pain.
Dopamine is a natural pain killer so if you have low levels and elevated adrenaline, it causes:
1. Chronic pain
2. Depression
3. Reduced/low libido
I found out personally that my trigger is poor sleep. Which makes sense as this causes elevated adrenaline, stress, anxiety and low dopamine levels + no energy and brain fog or fibro fog.
IMPORTANT: The guy who wrote this book did a study where he induced fibromyalgia in healthy students by removing stage 4 of their sleep - which is a stage of deep sleep. After he allowed them stage 4 sleep they returned to full health.
Here are some tips I have used to help me and listed below also are the causes of fibromyagia as he wrote them in the book.
1. Poor Sleep: I only sleep well if I sleep 9-10 hours a night. I sleep from 10pm - 7am and
most importantly the quality of sleep is MUCH BETTER before midnight and MUCH DEEPER as in a lot more stage 4 sleep. Sleep also decreases stress. Also it might be worth getting tested for sleep apnea.
2. Stress: This can cause, or increase fibromyalgia symptoms. As you probably already know. So get more sleep if you can. Or try taking vitamin c as this regulates cortisol 1000-3000 mg a day has been proven to reduce cortisol levels. Relaxation in any form you can - e.g a massage or watching your favourite tv show will help.
3. Anxiety: This can cause or worsen fibromyalgia. Also if you get panic attacks. This is because it increases adrenaline as does stress. I often find I worry about everything with fibromyalgia and get social anxiety, however if I sleep well this seems to go away.
4. Depression: Fibromyalgia can induce depression which makes symptoms worse. Or depression can cause fibromyalgia.
Other causes are: Post traumatic stress, bipolar disorder, psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, osteoarthritis or inflammatory diseases, painful trauma such as a car accident, restless leg syndrome and hypermobility - being double jointed.
Treatments: option 1: Root causes Bascially find out the root causes which for me is poor sleep, causing anxiety, depression and stress and then fibromyaligia which created a vicious cycle.
Then try and treat the root cause, for example if you have post traumatic stress, anxiety or depression then see a psychiatrist.
option 2: Increase dopamine
There are many ways to do this but all this will do is decrease the symptoms it's not an actual cure and if you stop taking medication for dopamine then the symptoms will return.
One route is to take drugs prescribed by a doctor - which you will have to ask about
and the second route is to take supplements combined with lifestyle choices:
Sunlight increases dopamine, as does exercise, anything you enjoy doing - (which may be why you feel better when you're happy), sexual activity and most importantly sleep.
Supplements: L tyrosine which converts in two steps to dopamine. It's an amino acid and also increases thyroid function.
Mucuna pruriens: It contains L dopa which converts to dopamine in 1 step - drugs the doctor gives you will either contain L dopa or will contain a substance that acts like dopamine in your body. Make sure you buy it from reputable source though
Others that may help are : D L phenylalinine - 3 step conversion to dopamine, fish oil - also may boost serotonin, eating more food.
These supplements aren't really noticeable straight away but if you take them every day the dopamine levels should build up slowly. Although I have no proof for this and drugs from the doctor would work better - provided that they have no side effects.
I hope this helps you, as it has helped me.