Fibromyalgia
My sister-in-law has just been diagnosed with Fibromyalgia. Can you tell us more about this condition and suggest anything she should now be taking or doing?
The name Fibromyalgia (FM) means pain of the muscles. To date, nobody has identified a single underlying cause of this rheumatic autoimmune problem - but what we do know is that, although it can develop in childhood and older age, it is most common in middle-aged women. In fact, some 90% of FM patients are women around the age of 50.
One link that has been made involves a condition called Leaky Gut, and population studies confirm that some 60% of FM patients have this problem too. In a healthy gut, the permeable lining of the intestinal tract acts like a filter, allowing essential nutrients to pass through but blocking toxins and other nutrients, which may cause an allergic reaction if they get into the bloodstream. In Leaky Gut, the sieve-like holes that allow this have become enlarged making this filtering less selective and stressing the immune system.
The most common cause of a Leaky Gut is the regular consumption of foods that cause an allergic and inflammatory response. These include wheat, dairy, citrus fruits, eggs and chicken so your relative should cut these out and take a good quality probiotic supplement, plus aloe vera juice to soothe and heal the tract. Zinc will help the immune system cope with this condition so she should also take 30mg a day.
FM sufferers also report disturbed sleep patterns and in clinical trials, patients given 100mg of 5-HTP, three times a day for a month reported better sleep, less depression and fewer muscular pains. This supplement is widely on sale in good healthstores.