Fibromyalgia and Restoring Internal Ecology Through Food and Nutrition

 Let's face it, fibromyalgia produces a range of symptoms and imbalances that can throw your whole body out of whack.  It can not only have the effect of destroying the delicate balance of your internal organs and ecosystem,  it can also place you in such a weakened state, leaving you wide open to other more potentially serious disorders.

With fibromyalgia it becomes necessary to focus on restoring and rebuilding your inner health, strengthening your immune system, and establishing a pattern of living well that will extend your vitality and help you heal and become well again.   In order to do this you need to have the right information along with some basic tools to help you achieve this goal. 

Many years ago, Rachel Carson, author of Silent Spring, warned that we are slowly destroying the ecological balance of our planet by adding chemicals to our crops.  She deplored the pesticides that leach into our food and water supplies, affecting our health and the health of future generations.

In a similar manner, we are destroying the delicate balance of the ecosystem that exists within our own bodies.  Each day our modern lives challenge us on many levels, both physically and emotionally and are contributing to the overall status of our health.   With fibromyalgia it becomes vitally important to raise our awareness as to the many ways we  influence our internal ecology and environment and to be ever vigilant in making choices that will support us in getting well.

One of the ways to repair our internal ecosystem is to become  aware of what upsets its delicate balance.  For instance, did you know that your personal ecosystem is inhabited by microorganisms that play an important role in keeping us feeling healthy, strong, and vital?  These friendly creatures, lactic bacteria, reside in the digestive tract, strengthen the immune system, and help the body defend against "unfriendly" bacteria and the pathogens that cause disease. 

In fact, both friendly and unfriendly microorganisms are always present in our bodies, but when we are healthy, the friendly greatly outnumber the unfriendly, keeping our inner ecosystem in harmony.  However, many factors weaken our immunity and upset this balance: the chemical we add to our food and environment, fast food diets, the stress in our daily lives, and the widespread use of medicines, especially antibiotics and hormones.  When the body is in a weakened state, the unfriendly bacteria can multiply quickly, producing symptoms such as aches and pains, inflammation, migraines and headaches, food allergies and sensitivities, skin rashes and eczema, sinus and flu symptoms, lethargy, spaciness, insomnia, constipation, diarrhea, poor memory, and other potentially more serious disorders.  

These unfriendly microorganisms, such as yeast and Candida, cause dampness throughout  your whole body and can often be behind symptoms such as dizziness, an overall feeling of heaviness, swelling or water retention, distended abdomen, phlegm discharge, loose bowels, and joint soreness and pain.   In Chinese medicine, dampness is considered to be the cause of many chronic illnesses including fibromyalgia and others such as high cholesterol, chronic fatigue, metabolic disorders, allergies and environmental illness.    

Having a diagnosis of fibromyalgia is a clear indication that it is time to restore the internal ecology of your body.  Many people with fibromyalgia have problems with yeast overgrowth growth in their systems and help for this condition is well within reach.   Food and nutrition therapy and the role of your diet is well-known and effective in combating internal dampness and systemic yeast, fungus or Candida issues and is the most effective way to restore your body's internal ecology and to rapidly diminish many fibromyalgia symptoms in the process.

Food Therapy & Diet

In her book, The Body Ecology Diet, author Donna Gates, discusses how to use seven basic yet Universal Principles as tools to gain mastery over every health challenge you may encounter and to replenish the "friendly" flora that live in your gut so that they outweigh the "harmful" bacteria that also reside there and cause damage to your systems.  

The Body Ecology Diet incorporates excellent principles of proper food combining, acid/alkaline balance with low acid-forming foods, low sugars and starches, easily digestible foods, fermented foods, and other solid nutrition recommendations to clear up Candida overgrowth in the body.  The diet allows a few grains such as quinoa, millet buckwheat, and amaranth when properly soaked.  The Body Ecology Diet incorporates the addition of cultured foods, a change to the quality of fats and oils consumed and a drastic reduction in the intake of carbohydrates and sugars.  Keep in mind that ALL carbohydrates convert to sugar, i.e. glucose, in your body, therefore you don't have to necessarily add sugar to your food  for a food to actually be broken down into it.  That's where it's important to realize that balancing out your macronutrients by adding healthy proteins and essential fatty acids is equally important for creating balance and harmony within -- especially when the goal is to improve health and rid your body of fibromyalgia symptoms!

Acid / alkaline is the principle of eating mostly alkaline forming foods.  This will assist the body in maintaining a slightly alkaline blood pH.  When the body is too acidic it leaches alkalizing minerals from the bones to balance the pH.  Calcium, for example, is a buffering mineral that your body will naturally take out of storage places, such as bones and teeth, in its effort to restore a stable blood pH levels (usually around 7.2 to 7.4).  Eating a diet that's too high in acid forming foods (such as sugar, meats, dairy, and other acid forming foods), eventually will lead to conditions such as brittle bones, aches and pains, dental carries, extreme irritability, depression, insomnia, and overall discomfort --  symptoms that are like those of fibromyalgia.

Alkalinizing the system supports healthy gastrointestinal / gut health as well.  The Standard American diet is awfully acid forming: sugar, meat, processed foods, soda, caffeine, refined grains, and carbohydrates.  As meat is acid-forming, The Body Ecology Diet uses much less animal protein.  The most alkalizing foods are the most mineral-rich so vegetables are top of the list.  The particular grains that are allowed are on the alkalizing side, while white rice, wheat, barley, and many others, are acid-forming and are avoided.  Note that acid-forming foods are not necessarily acidic foods. 

These are just a few of the food and nutrition principles implemented in The Eat to Beat Fibromyalgia Challenge, which is a powerful 30 day take charge group coaching program that walks you through the steps to rebalance your system and restore your body's natural ecology and  internal environment.   During The Eat to Beat Fibromyalgia Challenge you will be guided through a food elimination and challenge process to help identify those foods that can be behind many of your symptoms, in addition to learning and implementing the principles of acid / alkaline pH balance, proper food combining techniques, your uniqueness and how to eat according to it, cleansing , and building up a healthy internal ecosystem within, and much more.

To learn more about The Eat to Beat Fibromyalgia Challenge or to enroll in the next challenge please visit www. http://www.foodsforfibromyalgia.com/eat-to-beat-fibromyalgia-challenge.

I invite you to email with any questions or for additional information - deirdre@nutri-living.com

I wish you good health,

Deirdre