fibromyalgia?

[carrotlady]

Does anyone here suffer with fibromyalgia? I have such a bad flair up right now. I am really wondering if being 100% raw will once and for all help me with this as im losing energy for dealing with this problem. Ive had it for 10 years now and i just donÂ’t know what else to do.

I have been 80-90% raw off and on for many months at a time. Then when im off it could be weeks or months. I have managed to stay raw for a week or two at a time but then i go off. I always feel better while raw but im wondering if being 100% for a long time will really heal me. Anyone have any experience with this?

Thank you,
Carrotlady

[Rawkinlocs]

I HIGHLY recommend you read "Dying To Get Well" by Shelly Keck-Borsits.

She suffered not only from fibro, but also severe side effects from the Depoprovera birth control shot and raw foods helped her body heal from all of it! Her story is amazing and very inspiring.

Visit her site at http://dyingtogetwell.com and get a copy of her book. If you can't afford it, she also gives away the ebook version of the exact same book for FREE.

She also has a message board where she is there to answer questions, etc. located at http://rawandjuicy.com (click on the "message board" link)

[carrotlady]

hi thank you for that link. actually i have already seen that but wanted to know what others here have gone through with it also.
i think Alissa healed herself of it as well, im not sure how badly she had it?
Thank you for the reply, ill look at that site again as its been awhile.
Carrotlady

[pam]

Your right!
Alissa did heal herself from it and she had it really severe. Her story is amazing. She mentions it in her book but doesnÂ’t go into it too much. Ive done a consult with her and she really helped me stay raw and begin to heal my fribro also. She is really amazing at helping people and her story is amazing as well. Maybe she will write about how she healed herself here and what she went through with it. How about it Alissa?

[Helen Of Tennessee]

Hi Carrotlady,

I had severe Fibromyalgia. My DH bought me a new bed, then we put a thick quilt over it for me to lie on. I hurt so bad to lay in bed and sleep. When I was well enough to go to the grocery store, I couldn't push the shopping cart with my hands (wrists couldn't handle it), I pushed it with my forearms. I couldn't not open a new bottle of water. Today I compete in karate tournaments. What a difference!!!!!!

Before I knew anything about eating raw, I learned my Fibro was a symptoms of my thyroid disease. I was on Synthroid and suffered severe Fibro, Chronic Fatigue and a killer headache that I had for 3 years straight. Once I switched thyroid meds, these symptoms all went away. Then I learned about raw food and health. As I have increased my raw food intake, my thyroid meds have been cut back. So I know raw foods are allowing my body to heal itself. One day I'll be off the meds and I know the Fibro won't be back.

You can read my story at: http://www.shazzie.com/raw/transformation/helen.shtml

<>< Helen of Tennessee

[Alissa]

Well, i had it bad! For many years but i never knew it. I thought i had some rare disease for a long time because many times it was subtle. Aches and pains and tiredness and stuff like that. I was really sensitive to noise and light and was ready to cry at the drop of a pin. Never slept soundly at all, was up a million times throughout the night. I always had major back pain and neck pain but i thought that was all from my years of bodybuilding. I started to see doctors but they never found anything wrong with me. i was only in my 20s at the time and no one knew what fibromyalgia was. I canÂ’t remember all of it, its been a long time. Over 8 years since I had it.

So, i had mental and physical stuff going on from it but my back pain was so unreal. I remember going into my health food store one day to open it and i could not even stand up. My back felt like it was on fire with knives being pushed through it and i couldnÂ’t move my neck from a stiff neck. I used to get this thing i would call restless leg syndrome but it happened in my calves and in my forearms. This was unreal, as it would ache so badly. I forget all the other stuff since its been so long. One thing i do remember though was that even after healing it mostly, if i cheated and ate cooked food that restless legs and arms would come back. It was unbearable.

My best friend use to get mad at me because i wasnÂ’t able to go anywhere far in the car, that i remember! I couldnÂ’t drive for more then 20 minutes at a time or i was in severe pain. Somehow i thought this was a normal thing. That everyone was in pain if they drove for more then 1/2 hour.

I found out i had fibromyalgia by chance. I was having a huge bought of back pain and a friend told me to go see his physical therapist. The only reason i went was because he had had such good results with him and my chiropractor and energy healer, etc.. WerenÂ’t working for long periods of time.

so i went to the first visit and as he was examining me he couldnÂ’t find anything really wrong with my structure or anything but then started touching some points and i went through the roof. He started asking me questions and right away said, this is a no brainer. I really was weirded out because i had really searched for many years and no one knew what was wrong with me and then by chance i saw this guy and it all made sense what he told me.

I was playing with raw at the time and it really wasnÂ’t until a while after that i went raw.
i was vegetarian at the time and very into holistic approaches, probably why i never went back to the doctors... but nothing ever helped till i went raw. Honestly, i didnÂ’t even think about the fibro then, i was going raw for other reasons but not necessarily that. Just starting a new 'diet' and to feel euphoric.

When i finally was raw for a while, (im not sure how long exactly, i think about a month or more) I one day realized i didnÂ’t have the pain like i used to. I do remember it happening just like that. i almost had to start remembering how badly i felt because it was going away. I started doing things i wasnÂ’t before and friends started saying things like, but wont it bother you to drive that far and i would have to think and say, oh, yeah, no i think im ok.
It kind on just happened like that and slowly i realized that it was gone. I know if sounds weird, but i was so not focused on it because i was used to it unless it was a bad flair, that i just kind of forget that i had it and then it was gone. I know it wasnÂ’t longer then 2 months, i think a lot sooner actually, then it was gone!
So thatÂ’s my story. Now some of you may be asking 'but how did you do it, how did you get rid of it.'
HereÂ’s the answer, i ate raw!
ThatÂ’s it, i didnÂ’t count how many minerals i was eating, i didnÂ’t portion out the nuts and seeds and i didnÂ’t make sure i even had a green drink everyday. (Maybe i would have if i knew enough about raw then but i didnÂ’t)
HereÂ’s my take on it now. I work with a lot of people with fibromyalgia. Many times they go on a strict diet and try to be very rigid in their diets but even thought they may be more rigid they donÂ’t stay 100% raw. That is the key.
Eat what you want as long as its raw but stay 100% raw!
That doesnÂ’t mean popcorn once a week. A cooked soup occasionally... stay raw!
This is what i see a lot of, people being very strict but then eating a tiny bit of cooked. I donÂ’t know why i see this a LOT in people who have fibromyalgia but i do. You need to loosen up your diet but stay completely raw. WhatÂ’s your diet like carrotlady?
let me know if any of you have any questions.
xo Alissa

[Alissa]

I love your story Helen. Ive read it before but its so inspiring to read it again!
xo A

[NWgal]

I Have IT! I am just gettting into raw... I orderd a Vitamix .. I think it will help me alot becuase most days i just dont have the energy and it hurts to much to put togther meals..Lets keep in touch .. Once I get set up with the Vita Mix I am going to do the 30 day challenge :)

[lil]

I have fibromyalgia and even though it's been really good lately, I'm not yet convinced it's left!. At my peak, I had trouble walking and sitting and lying - everything hurt. Wearing certain clothes hurt!

Changes happened after I made some diet changes (no glutens, no diary, no stimulants (coffee alchohol) no processed foods) and I went on 16 weeks of Myers Cocktail injections (http://www2.shore.net/~spectrum/myers.html ) and that literally saved my life. It was like moving from night into day. I go back every 6 months or more for a few weeks of Myers ( and B12 shots). I also take supplements - such as MSM and sterols and sterolins.

As Helen said - fibromyalgia often accompanies thyroid disease. Have you had your thyroid tested?. There's a site that talks about this: www.drlowe.com .

I'm doing the 100% raw (most days) and there is definately a difference in a lot of my symptoms. Another key - is exercise, especially weight bearing exercises. It took me months and months to be able to tolerate weight bearing exercises, but it's made a huge difference.

[Curtis]

Thank you Raw I love reading this stuff! :)
Downloaded the e-book and reading it now.

[Helen Of Tennessee]

Hi Alissa,

Thank you so much for sharing your story. Although I'm much better now, I still am not all raw and I get some mild flare-ups of my Fibro. Reading your story and seeing how well you are now, I know I could do the same.

I'm ordering your DVD and book this payday. I've heard so much about them and I'm hoping I'll find just that little bit more inspiration to get me over the plateu that I have been stuck on (high raw but just not all raw) for the past year.

<>< Helen of Tennessee

[Sadii]

Hi all,

Thought I'd weigh in here with some comments. I don't have any answers, and I think Alissa is absolutely right-all raw is best!!! I just wanted to add some things, maybe Alissa has some answers, or perhaps someone else is experiencing something similar to what I'm going through.

I suffer from Fibro and Chronic Fatigue. I don't have as much pain as some of you do, though I do have a fair amount. The fatigue though, is absolutely paralyzing. I went completely raw in June, and stayed that way until roughly 3 weeks ago, give or take. At first I suffered a severe detox, and spent about 3 days in bed, nauseated, dizzy, etc. After that, I started to gain energy like crazy, and then lost 20 lbs. After that, I lost no more weight, even though I still have at least 50 more lbs. to lose. Around the beginning of Sept, I started to get tired again, too tired to properly fix food and still get to my part-time job and do daily chores. I'm not sure if I cut back too far on something, or if my body was starting to tackle some deeper issues.

I do know that my liver is really burdened-acne proves that, also some tenderness in that area. It is improving, but still have some areas (acne) that are hard to clear up. I did some research (see www.immed.org ) and found that those with Fibro/CFS tend to have a pretty good growth of mycoplasma, and some other things, for which MD's recommend a year's course of various antibiotics, and also anti-virals. That doesn't sound like anything I want to do-I don't know about any of you, but I'm pretty sure that antibiotic use is part of the reason many of us are sick.

So, my question is this: Do you think that doing raw alone will kill all the organisms/viruses that really sick people have? I'm so desperate for energy that I started doing Rife to kill the organisms, because you can focus directly on the organisms that you want to kill. Every new thing I've tried to improve myself always works for awhile, and then it's like something in my body gets used to the new environment, and continues to grow, or whatever it does to make me sick.

Rife does kill organisms, but it causes a huge die-off, or Herx reaction, if you are heavily infected. I also noticed a terrible depression during the die-off reactions. On the above listed website, depression is listed as one of the symptoms of a mycoplasma infection. I was really, really bad, but as soon as I started to feel better, the depression lifted. I have never felt a depression like this before. It was almost like a suicidal type of depression. Thankfully my nature is not to get depressed, and I recognized it for what it was, and not real feelings. Hopefully, Rife doesn't do anything else that is bad.

Anyway, does anyone have ideas on this? I'm currently doing a juice fast (apple, carrot, & kale or collards, usually), trying to heal the liver more quickly, because I got enough energy back after about 6 or 7 Rife treatments to be able to tackle that, and I'm all raw again. Money is short though-single parent on disability. Alissa-your opinion? Anyone else? (You can find Rife anywhere on a search engine if you want to learn about it-I made my own machine out of a stereo and some freeware.) Had a friend who healed Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma with Rife. Kept trying to tell him he'd get better faster if he was raw, but couldn't convince him.

Thanks to all of you for being here, and I hope that this time next year, we are all past the detox, and are pain free and full of energy!!

Kathy

[lil]

I haven't heard of RIFE before - so can't comment on that.

Have you had your thyroid and/or adrenals checked?.

I was tested for mycloplasma. I tested negative but then I'v eread how inaccurate the testing is. I don't know if you can cure with anything other than antibiotics.

[Sadii]

Lil,

So far, Rife seems to work much better and without losing good bacteria. I'll keep you posted. Now that I've quit trying to go so fast, the die off is better, and I'm feeling much improved. I still wonder, though, was I working on deeper issues, or were the organisms adapting?

Check out Rife on any search engine-it's really fascinating!

[Gosia]

Hello Carrotlady,

I know nothing about fibromyalgia, but I have found two studies which confirm that eating mostly raw vegetarian diet can help to fight this condition. I pasted the abstracts below.

Best,
Gosia.


(1)
BMC Complement Altern Med 2001;1(1):7
Fibromyalgia syndrome improved using a mostly raw vegetarian diet: An observational study.
Donaldson MS, Speight N, Loomis S. Hallelujah Acres Foundation, Shelby, NC USA. michael@hacres.com

BACKGROUND: Fibromyalgia engulfs patients in a downward, reinforcing cycle of unrestorative sleep, chronic pain, fatigue, inactivity, and depression. In this study we tested whether a mostly raw vegetarian diet would significantly improve fibromyalgia symptoms.

METHODS: Thirty people participated in a dietary intervention using a mostly raw, pure vegetarian diet. The diet consisted of raw fruits, salads, carrot juice, tubers, grain products, nuts, seeds, and a dehydrated barley grass juice product. Outcomes measured were dietary intake, the fibromyalgia impact questionnaire (FIQ), SF-36 health survey, a quality of life survey (QOLS), and physical performance measurements.

RESULTS: Twenty-six subjects returned dietary surveys at 2 months; 20 subjects returned surveys at the beginning, end, and at either 2 or 4 months of intervention; 3 subjects were lost to follow-up. The mean FIQ score (n = 20) was reduced 46% from 51 to 28. Seven of the 8 SF-36 subscales, bodily pain being the exception, showed significant improvement (n = 20, all P for trend < 0.01). The QOLS, scaled from 0 to 7, rose from 3.9 initially to 4.9 at 7 months (n = 20, P for trend 0.000001). Significant improvements (n = 18, P < 0.03, paired t-test) were seen in shoulder pain at rest and after motion, abduction range of motion of shoulder, flexibility, chair test, and 6-minute walk. 19 of 30 subjects were classified as responders, with significant improvement on all measured outcomes, compared to no improvement among non-responders. At 7 months responders' SF-36 scores for all scales except bodily pain were no longer statistically different from norms for women ages 45-54.

CONCLUSION: This dietary intervention shows that many fibromyalgia subjects can be helped by a mostly raw vegetarian diet.





(2)
Acta Physiol Hung 1999;86(3-4):171-80
Vegan diet in physiological health promotion.
Hanninen O, Rauma AL, Kaartinen K, Nenonen M. Department of Physiology, University of Kuopio, Finland.

We have performed a number of studies including dietary interventions and cross-sectional studies on subjects consuming uncooked vegan food called living food (LF) and clarified the changes in several parameters related to health risk factors. LF consists of germinated seeds, cereals, sprouts, vegetables, fruits, berries and nuts. Some items are fermented and contain a lot of lactobacilli. The diet is rich in fiber. It has very little sodium, and it contains no cholesterol. Food items like berries and wheat grass juice are rich in antioxidants such as carotenoids and flavonoids. The subjects eating living food show increased levels of carotenoids and vitamins C and E and lowered cholesterol concentration in their sera. Urinary excretion of sodium is only a fraction of the omnivorous controls. Also urinary output of phenol and p-cresol is lowered as are several fecal enzyme levels which are considered harmful. The rheumatoid arthritis patients eating the LF diet reported amelioration of their pain, swelling of joints and morning stiffness which all got worse after finishing LF diet. The composite indices of objective measures showed also improvement of the rheumatoid arthritis patients during the intervention. The fibromyalgic subjects eating LF lost weight compared to their omnivorous controls. The results on their joint stiffness and pain (visual analogue scale), on their quality of sleep, on health assessment questionnaire and on general health questionnaire all improved. It appears that the adoption of vegan diet exemplified by the living food leads to a lessening of several health risk factors to cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Rheumatoid patients subjectively benefited from the vegan diet which was also seen in serum parameters and fecal analyses.