Case Study: Overcoming Fibromyalgia And Fatigue

Keli is a 47 year old lady who has been a patient of mine for the previous 5 months. She initially came to see me seeking help for fatigue and fibromyalgia. Her biggest problem was the fibromyalgia.

Keli mostly experienced it in her neck, across her shoulder blades and both arms. She often woke with a painful neck, and from there, the pain spread across her upper body throughout the rest of the day. As is typical with fibromyalgia, Keli also experienced fatigue throughout the day. This made it difficult to carry out her job, which involved writing lengthy articles. Keli said she regularly had a foggy head and found it hard to get going in the mornings. This led to quite a lot of stress because her job contained tight deadlines.

A common feature of fibromyalgia is poor quality sleep and unrefreshing sleep. Keli would wake briefly several times throughout the night and rarely woke feeling refreshed in the mornings. She said “When I open my eyes in the morning I usually feel even more exhausted than when I went to sleep”.

Nutrient deficiencies are extremely common among my patients; even the ones who eat healthy home prepared meals. Vitamin D, magnesium, selenium and iodine are all helpful for improving energy levels and reducing the aches and pains of fibromyalgia. It is also important to realize that diet plays a critical role in the levels of inflammation in the body. Inflammation can cause pain and fatigue, and reducing inflammation will always help a person with these conditions to feel better.

My recommendations for my patient:

I asked Keli to follow an anti-inflammatory diet. This involved removing foods that raise inflammation in the body – sugar, gluten-containing grains, dairy products and food additives. Keli already ate fairly well, but she did snack on cookies most days in the afternoons when she felt stressed and overwhelmed by her workload. She also ate oats in the mornings for breakfast. Many people can tolerate oats, but they gave her mild heartburn, which is a sign they were not appropriate for her body. I asked Keli to follow the eating plan in my autoimmune book. I asked Keli to take 2 Glicemic Balance capsules with her lunch each day, to reduce cravings for cookies in the afternoon.
As with most of my patients, Keli didn’t have enough vitamin D in her blood when I gave her a blood test. This can cause pain and fatigue. I also arranged a urinary iodine test for Keli and found she was deficient in this nutrient, as I suspected. Iodine is necessary for an efficient thyroid gland. If you are low in iodine, you can feel tired and not be able to lose weight. Selenium is a mineral that many people don’t get enough of in their diet because very few foods are a rich source. It helps to reduce inflammation and helps the liver to produce glutathione, which is a powerful, natural detoxifier. I asked Keli to take 2 Thyroid Health capsules each day with breakfast, which would provide her body with all these nutrients.
Serrapeptase is a powerful enzyme that can help to rapidly reduce pain and inflammation in the body. The strategies I’ve described above can take some time to have their benefits. I wanted to give Keli a remedy that would help her feel better as quickly as possible. I asked her to take 2 Serrapeptase capsules first thing in the morning on an empty stomach.
Good quality sleep is so critical to overall health and emotional wellbeing. The chronic sleep deprivation was greatly reducing Keli’s quality of life and she realised she had developed a temper and was snappy with her husband. I asked Keli to take one teaspoon of magnesium powder at bedtime.
Gentle exercise is so important for reducing the pain and stiffness of fibromyalgia. Often when you’re feeling sore and exhausted, exercising is the last thing you feel like doing. However, getting some movement helps to improve the overall prognosis of fibromyalgia. One of Keli’s friends is a Pilates instructor and I encouraged her to join the class.