Archive for September, 2008
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Nowadays Fibromyalgia is developing a status in society, starting to be observed like a real and truly painful condition. However, research studies have not yet proven the specific role in the syndrome of some general choices related with everyday’s life like… food.
However, common sense tells that a healthy nutrition plan is able to change life and in this ambit FMS can not be different. For those who suffer from FMS every advantage is one more step to recovery and like this a balanced food choice will help strengthen the immune system, reduce fatigue and prevent secondary diseases.
Muscle debility as a primary symptom in FMS patients, just for starting, reveals for instants how important should be for people with this illness, to respect in every meal an adequate amount of protein. At the same time, healthful foods like those high in immunity boosting antioxidants and phytochemicals are also of fundamental role, once could help to achieve higher levels of body energy and minimize fatigue.
In the United States the general ideal diet composition is 40-30-30 ratio of carbohydrates proteins and fat. However this diet could not be just for people who share days with FMS and chronic fatigue, once not all carbohydrates are created equal and this will imply a subjective choice of carbohydrates low in the glycemic index.
Along with foods that are high in sugar, fat and cholesterol, some FMS patients also avoid others like tomatoes, white potatoes, eggplant and pepper that could aggravate pain and increase inflammation.
To be avoided in theses cases are also chocolate, sodas, tobacco or peanuts. For peanuts, there’s the particularity that may cause acid reflux. In the same list we can adjudge spicy foods that very usually upset the stomach.
It is also important to retain that the portion of fats in a FMS patient diet should be composed by “good fats” like cold water fish, raw nuts, vegetable oils and avocados.
Variety and moderation are also two good “friends” at the table.
Always remember to drink water (around eight glasses per day) in order to flush toxins out of the body.
And how is it possible to forget effort and pain during food preparation?
Taking time to prepare a healthy meal could be very painful for people who suffer from FMS. For situations like this, support groups often recommend good advices like: a good posture when cooking; rest breaks during the meal preparation; purchase pre-sliced frozen organic vegetables and invest in some kitchen gadgets that can make preparation easier.
Technorati Tags: chronic fatigue, Diet, fatigue, fibromyalgia, fibromyalgia diet, FMS, food, health, pain management
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During 1970’s the researcher Hench noted that in this syndrome muscle and tendnous connective tissues are usually subjectively involved, and for the first time introduced the term Fibromyalgia. One decade later another researcher named Muhammad B. Yunus proposed the need of a unified classification system and a diagnostic criteria. Yunus later emphasized the “biopsychosocial perspective” of FMS which synthesized the contribution of genes, personal and medical history, stress, posttraumatic and mood disorders, coping skills, self- efficacy of pain management and social support towards the functioning and dysfunctioning of the central nervous system in relation to pain and fatigue.
The first controlled clinical study with validation of know symptoms and tender points was published in 1981 and the importance concept that FMS and other similar conditions are interconnected was proposed in 1984. Serotonergic / Norepinephric drugs were first show to be effective in 1986.
Finally in 1990 the American College of Rheumatology established firm criteria for the classification and diagnosis of Fibromyalgia. In that same year were developed the neurohormal mechanisms with central sensitization.
Unfortunately, FMS has also been called a “waste basket” diagnosis and a fad disease. In 1997 medical books, also those used in University, did not even recognized FMS. This is due with the health experts inability to see FMS as a medical related problem. Although, speculation in the ambit took also on a new expedition which led to research and ongoing studies about the syndrome. A better understanding is slow in coming and more and more medical schools are educating new doctors about fibromyalgia symptom.
The XXI century has brought new laboratory tests and brain-imaging technology that has being proven FMS as a real physical disorder caused by a malfunction of the central nervous system. And as more effective treatments could be in the near future, hopefully is expected that one day the history of fibromyalgia could be just and only… past history.
While there’s no treatment, recent research shows that a balanced healthy diet is paramount to successfully reduce the symptoms and a more specific fibromyalgia diet focuses on food which doesn’t aggravate the condition and also introduces best practices like getting quality sleep and generally offers improvement through a conscious healthy lifestyle. Sticking to a fibromyalgia diet will also make you aware of nutrients and how the substances within affect you.
Technorati Tags: cfs, chronic fatigue, fatigue, fatigue relief, fibro, fibromyalgia, fibromyalgia diet, fibrositis, pain, pain history, pain relief
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We all know about pain… however, just some of us are “messengers” of a chronicle condition that invites pain to be present in everyone’s life.
Since when FMS have been a presence among world society?
Since when people suffer from the symptoms of that strange disorder?
Throughout history, people have reported illnesses with strikingly similar symptoms pointed in to the straight direction of the FMS “abyss”. Physical pain reports can even be found as far back as the old testament biblical times, but only since the XIX century this disorder has been identified by a variety of names such as hysterical paroxysm, muscular rheumatic fibrositis. The present term fibromyalgia was first coined in 1976, in an effort to describe its primary symptom.
Physicians recognized and wrote about a condition they then called muscular rheumatism and some in the medical profession thought (and may still think) as something of psychological nature. All over time there have been a multitude of theories as to what FMS is and what causes patients complains. Those ones were for a long time ignored as real, once the particular characteristic of this physical suffering remains the invisibility.
As the term of the illness implies, it was logically thought to be a muscle problem, as muscle pain seemed to be the primary symptom. But as research studies could find nothing wrong in the muscles, for a while FMS was theorized as an autoimmune disorder. However, once again, research revealed no disturbance of the immune system.
Turns not so difficult to realize why for most of the past two hundred years FMS was thought to be a psychiatric or psychosomatic disorder.
In 1824, tender points were described by a doctor in Edinburgh and in 1880 another doctor described the same condition and then called it neurasthenia. During 1904 Pathologist Ralph Stockman first reported evidence of inflammatory changes in the fibrous, intra-muscular septa (a thin that divides two soft masses of tissue) on biopsies from patients. In the same year William Gower introduced the term fibrositis in his description of low back pain. Subsequent studies of muscle biopsies have failed to reproduce Stockman’s findings of inflammation and the term fibrositis is therefore considered a misnomer.
In 1913 a physician named Luff talked in the British Medieval Journal about the factors of fibrositis, noticing that the symptoms grew worse when the barometric pressure lowered and rain was approaching. Luff’s article also referred temperature variations, fevers, infections and vehicle accidents, drawing the connection between “growing pains” in children and fibrositis. For the subsequent years terms as fibrositis, fibromyositis, psychogenic, psychosomatic or muscular rheumatism have all been used as description of the syndrome. Yet the term fibrositis has been most resilient and eventually became synonymous with idiopathic local or diffuse muscle-skeletical pain of any type.
To be continued…if you like this article please check back in a couple of days for Part II.
Technorati Tags: cfs, fatigue, fibro, fibromyalgia, fibrositis, FMS, pain, pain history
