Fibromyalgia: An "Integrative Medicine" Approach

This week in the United States, many of us are tuned into PBS (Public Broadcasting System) for a new documentary series by Ken Burns, titled 'The National Parks: America's Best Idea'.   The National Park Service (NPS) is partially responsible for your reading these words right now, because as a 24 year old I was hired to assist a "seasoned" researcher the NPS had just harvested from the Environmental Protection Agency.  "Wild Bill" Malm had just turned 40 and I was recommended to him because of my previous work with a similar project and my temprament, which at the time apparently was commendable for its steadiness and affability.  It's funny now to think about how 'old' I thought he was -- I had recently seen Santana perform and thought the same thing about him and his band -- "How much energy for being over 40 -- wow!  I wonder what I'm going to be like when I'm their age." 

After committing to working two years minumum (as it would take me one year to learn the job, he said) my new, brilliant boss had me establishing many new positions and purchasing the equipment and space for a team which eventually included a video and graphics editing studio and staff.   The man ran circles around me -- his job had him traveling 55% of the time, he took a proactive approach to his health by regularly playing basketball with a group of professionals at lunchtime, and even built and airplane and learned how to fly it, as did his wife. I was SO glad when he was in the car and on an airplane because I could get to my long list of projects -- and I'll never forget when he called me from a plane the first time -- so much for that sanctuary of time!  And the "newfangled" telefax machine only made my deadlines shorter, as instead of getting something to FedEx by 6 pm, he'd know he could hand something to me in the morning after he'd been up until 3 am working on something that was due the next day in Denver or Washington.  

Honestly, I was initially intimidated by this maverick of a man, until one day when I went to his property to learn how to care for his myriad of animals while he was on a trip and he very gently held a goose for me to pet because I have a fear of birds that fly precariously.  "It's okay, you can pet it now", he said.   I married one of the researchers (who studied the "visitor values" of the taxpayers who supported the parks), and 8 years later left the job and the husband in order to pursue my degree in Occupatonal Therapy, which has afforded me many MORE learning experiences that all have lead me to what I am able to provide with Lumigrate.  

Over the years, I had the pleasure of doing many late nights of work and play, ski runs, mountain bike and motorcycle trips with them and honored to remain deep friends to this day.   Dr. Malm is retiring this fall, having received awards this year from the NPS and EPA and with the legacy of having inspired research leading to the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, which has, in effect, required scrubbers on coal fired powerplants and other improvements which likely have helped us have the possibility of improved health in the United States.  When Dr. Lepisto talks in seminars at The Integrative Medicine Center of Western Colorado about toxins and specifically talks about this topic, I know I have come 'full circle' in these 25 years and travels across the state of Colorado to 'land' in Grand Junction amidst another group of innovative leaders in their own right. 

Grand Junction is a small city at the base of Colorado National Monument, where one of the NPS' air quality monitoring sites that was part of the network established and studied with that forward-thinking program I went to work for more than half my lifetime ago still exists and is practically in view from where I write this blog!  The PBS series about the parks' formative years made me think about how the progressive thinkers in the 1800's, such as John Muir, had the wisdom to think differently about 'the system they lived in', and invested their lives in making change for the good of all people for future generations, literally diverting thinking to what we grew up with and took for granted as always having been the norm!  This summer, when President Obama came to Grand Junction and there were increased meetings of local medical providers about progressive thinking related to health care changes for the future, I was seeing the concepts that Lumigrate and the IMCs progressive thinkers have been talking about for years being talked about now at a national level.  (The 'collaborative care model' covered in Dr. Chris Young's video on Lumigrate titled "Health Management: Progressive Paradigms for Health Care" is part of a model called 'the patient home' which is taking root in the country and with more attention and funding hopefully will flourish eventually.) 

The progression in health care is happening, and a show like this one on PBS is a reminder of how LONG change can take in a big country and a big system -- and how instrumental it is to study history and allow it's wisdom to be our support at the end of very long days when we all feel exhausted from our investment in what we believe to be 'the better way' of health care.  I was fortunate to have two parents where were college educated professionals and my mother's influence about working with people, using my intuition, and being a student of history is more appreciated now than ever!  My dad's (and husbands') patience in ALL the hours of mathematics tutoring and his encouragement for studying business and science is as well, but ironically, what 'got me' that phenomenal job when I was 24 was also that I'd had an advisor when I started into University saying 'you should also take this two year secretarial training program', which led to my becoming a statistical typist at the age of 19 for Colorado State University.  

During my late 20s, the NPS program moved into a brand new building with a large amount of new laminate over particle board furniture, I was finishing woodworking as a hobby, I had an enormous amount of personal life stress over a period of a few years, not to mention keeping up with the demands of a job where I was gleaning life experience as well as great financial and medical benefits (as I had no college degree at that time and was really very young for having such a responsible position).   I went from being an unstoppably active and 'chronically well' young woman to having to stop and rest halfway up a flight of stairs!  I joked that I 'got asthma' for my 30th birthday, when I'd come down with a cold -- a tradition that continued for many years (as well as getting one mid September and again at the Holidays, and there for a while when I was in OT school I think I had a cold or the resultant bronchitis about half of the time.  Eventually I would be diagnosed with what is know called 'chronic fatigue syndrome' and then later it went into being diagnosed as 'fibromyalgia'.  As 'we now know', the hallmark list of symptoms are insomnia, body pain, fatigue, chronic infections (my asthma was related to chronic sinus infections I now realize), and cognitive "fog", a.k.a. 'fibro fog'.  But I've muttled through and ended up, through my quest for progressive health care providers for this, finding the providers you now see on Lumigrate.com

Here in this little city in western Colorado my health started to turn around in my mid 40s because I think there is another movement much like the PBS show was so beautifully reminding us of with the 'forward thinkers' of the last centuries related to the National Parks.  Some passionate and smart health care providers and a bunch of consumers are thinking differently!  For starters, one of these providers convinced me that working way more than 40 hours a week and only sleeping six hours a night was not a good recipe for successful recovery from fibromyalgia.  And then I sought out someone to prescribe biologically identical hormones, and that led me to Scott Rollins, MD.  He had been inspired by a naturopath, Christopher Lepisto, ND,  to learn about IgG food allergies, something which had been instrumental in discovering the 'mystery' of my maladies in the past (and ongoing). 

It turns out they were in the process of forming an 'integrative medicine center', where on Monday evening, I watched them sit with acupuncturist Audrey Barrett, MSAOM, LAc to discuss from an integrative perspective, how they treat fibromyalgia.  A couple of years ago my history with the NPS' video and information/publications component of my job came back to me when I started seeing these providers (and others) coming to the 'fibromyalgia forum' Dr. Young and I started in the building his practice is located in (and where I used to see patients as an occupational therapist in a PT clinic).   And hence, Lumigrate's concept was hatched! 

It's been interesting to watch this group come together and change professionally. It has been an immense pleasure to be part of it with Lumigrate, and now to be bringing it to so many people through Lumigrate.com!  From my perspective, Dr. Lepisto is seeing such a big picture now as he is approaching 10 years of experience in his field -- saying things like "cleansing is a continuum and you might not be up for doing the full blown cleanse, but you might incorporate a lot of the elements and then increase that every week until you're feeling better".  (In the past he would recommend the full-on cleanse and for people like me, I can't wrap my head around feeling worse for any particular week because too many things could derail.)   And this seminar, he mentioned the word 'kale' in less than 20 minutes -- I joke that he cannot do a seminar without talking about kale and full barrel syndrome (which is one reason we made it available for no-cost at Lumigrate.com!)  He talked about 'full barrel' in the first five minutes I think, after describing himself as the 'Chief Investigator and sleuth' in figuring out what is going on with someone's health.  I saw Dr. Rollins now more in favor of the 'you'll know who you need to see at the IMC, just come', whereas in the past he really thought that all patients should see all the six disciplines at the Center (exercise, nutrition and behavioral wellness are the other three).  I think this comes from the influence and appreciation of having settled into a team he is interrelated with, now that Audrey has joined them in 2009, and seeing over time that the 'patient' has within him/herself their own best doctor and will know what provider or providers to seek out and in which order, and with the guidance of the consultants they are essentially 'hiring to help them', make their way sooner or later to their highest health. 

When Audrey speaks, she clearly demonstrates a knowledge coming from a very deep root within herself.  She described fibromyalgia as a 'complicated, convoluted complex' which she sees as having a pattern of a downward spiral where they literally are just coping when they seek treatment typically.  Her treatment is of mind, body, spirit and emotions at once, and treatment focuses on the energy systems of the body.  There are three forms of energy:

• what we are born with (think of that as our 'bank account' of energy). 
• the air we breathe, which includes exercise and as you move the energy flows and that affects the 'liver system' which is a primary focus of Oriental medicine with FMS.  and
• the food we eat.  What we eat needs to have 'chi' (life force), but what happens when we are exhausted feeling is we'll reach for high fat/high sugar foods as those give our bodies an immediate and sustaining boost at one level but those foods really are quite void of 'chi'.   Dr. Rollins pointed out that these foods cause inflammation in the body and they agreed that sometimes people's symptoms can drastically improve with changing the diet.

Dr. Lepisto and Dr. Rollins' seminars always reinforce these concepts about nutrition in different words.  They all agreed the main symptoms to address are insomnia, body pain and fatigue, with digestion, infection and physical and emotional trauma as additonal factors to address in most cases.  Dr. Rollins' specialty area is anti-aging, and he looks at hormones being a key area he'll investigate with patients, particularly their effect on sleep.  And again I saw his professional shift in this seminar to say he'll look at hormones initially, then look at treating with a homeopathic means and then on to medication if necessary: but 'if you're well, you don't need these' and all three providers speaking agreed that the best way of regaining or maintaining health was through good foods, supplements if needed, exercise, and use of good water and limiting caffeine and alcohol. 

We all had a good laugh about Audrey's experience doing a cleanse in the time since the last IMC seminar about detoxification and cleansing (perhaps I'll add a blog about that in the future with her input, as it is a fascinating study in mind/body connection) and good ol' kale.  Please look for my addition of 'Dr. Lepisto's the King of Kale' in the nutrition / recipes area of the website www.lumigrate.com/forum/cooking-tips-and-recipes-please-add-yours.  I also added MY way of doing kale, and as much as I don't like to admit it, I DO eat kale now -- why?  Because I trust and believe Dr. Lepisto that it really IS a great food to be eating and it was something I was missing from my diet back before he was my naturapathic doctor on MY health care team. 

I hope this overview helps get you started thinking about the integrative approach to heath no matter WHAT your level of chronic illness or wellness is!  In the mean time, the one thing that was very clear with the discussion by these three experts that have come together under one roof: breathing and being centered and finding your inner doctor and wisdom is a great starting point.  If you're investing in learning, please take the half hour to download and watch the free 'Chronic Illness: Full Barrel Syndrome, the hour-long 'Health Management', and consider ordering the other videos that apply to not only to fibromyalgia (which literally is every video offered on Lumigrate.com), but anyone wanting to have best health (such as 'Detox and Cleanse', Supplements and Disease Prevention') ... for your convenience ... here's the link! 

www.lumigrate.com/catalog/seminars

IF you do not feel comfortable with knowing how to download or the details, this blog is for YOU!

www.lumigrate.com/blog/who-are-you-and-what-lumigrate-videos-and-more

AND last but not least, for more information about these talented providers and their amazing integrative center: www.imcwc.com.  How can I BE so lucky to twice in my life feel like I'm a little part of big history!?