Vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and essential fatty acids provide the building blocks for your body to get well and stay well.
The following foods, supplements & lifestyle choices can help correct nutritional deficiencies, reduce pain and inflammation, increase your energy and generally help improve symptoms in fibromyalgia:
Vitamins and Minerals
Vitamins and Minerals can help Fibro
Vitamin D
Vitamin D is produced by the body when the skin is exposed to sunlight
Vitamin D reduces cytokine production the protein that causes inflammation so a deficiency can exacerbate autoimmune conditions
Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin so stored in the body. Think about choosing an oil-based supplement or take them with food that contains some fat.
Vitamin D2 is produced by plants, and Vitamin D3 is made by your skin
vitamin D3 or cholecalciferol - high bioavailability
NOTE: Dangers of too much Vitamin D is the buildup of calcium in your blood (hypercalcemia) weaken the bones and damage the kidneys and the heart.
Think about adding K2 as it helps move calcium into your bones.
Vitamin B12
Make sure includes methylcobalamin - Believed to be the active form of vitamin B12 and remains in the body longer.
Creatine
May improve muscle functional capacity
Magnesium
Fibromyalgia has been linked to a mineral deficiency
Malate – energising / Muscle fatigue
Magnesium helps natural muscle and nerve relaxant and critical for the relief of muscle pain
Malic Acid
Malic acid may help muscle tissues get more oxygen, improve energy production in the muscle cells and prevent muscle tissue breakdown
Montmorency Tart Cherry
Montmorency Tart Cherry can help relieve the pain, help muscles recover and improve sleep
CoQ10 (Coenzyme Q10)
Can Reduce Pain, Fatigue and Morning Stiffness
Fat-soluble nutrient
NADH - nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) + hydrogen (H)
NADH believed to promote fatigue reduction, enhanced mental clarity, and increased levels of neurotransmitters like dopamine.
DHEA (dehydroepiandrosterone)
It has been suggested that because dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) levels have been found to be low in the condition and raised by exercise
Melatonin
Melatonin often used to aid sleep, but can also been used for depression, chronic fatigue, and fibromyalgia.
Turmeric
Turmeric is Anti inflammatory
Ashwagandha
Prominent herb in Indian Ayurvedic to nourish the mind and relax the nervous system.
Benefits for the Brain, Thyroid and Even Muscles
Normalise physiological functions, neuroprotective, anti-anxiety, antidepressant and anti-inflammatory
Acetyl-l-carnitine
also called Carnitine, L-carnitine
Helps memory and brain function.
L-carnitine plays a key role in energy production.
In studies been shown to lower pain levels and improve mental health.
Omega-3 fatty acids
Helps reduce the body’s production of inflammatory hormones
D-Ribose
A simple sugar which fuels the mitochondria use to produce adenosine tri-phosphate (ATP), which provides cellular energy.
Improving cellular energy boosting muscle energy. It has also been used to improve symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and fibromyalgia
S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAMe)
Has been shown to relieve depression and chronic pain
Required for immune function, and assists in the production and breakdown of neurotransmitters such as serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine.
SAM-e may reduce fibromyalgia symptoms of pain, fatigue, and stiffness.
NOTE: If taking antidepressants consult doctor before taking SAM-e
5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP)
It may help relieve pain, morning stiffness, fatigue, and anxiety.
Helping raise serotonin levels in the brain. Serotonin, a chemical messenger that sends signals between your nerve cells.
Serotonin levels are also associated with depression and sleep
Clinical trials have shown 5-HTP is associated with improvements in anxiety, pain intensity, quality of sleep, fatigue, and tender points.
NOTE: If you take antidepressants, you should not take 5-HTP.
Other Options
Taurine
Capsaicin
Rhodiola
B1 Thiamine
Diet, Lifestyle and Fibromyalgia
Foods to Eat
Green vegetables – Provide essential minerals such as magnesium
Malic Acid Foods - Tart fruits such as Granny Smith apples, certain grapes, and cranberries.
Food to Avoid
Gluten – Inflammatory Food - Can cause autoimmune issues
Sugar – Increases pain and inflammation.
Processed foods or foods with additives
Excess alcohol and caffeine – Causes mineral deficiencies and dehydration
Exercise
Exercise
Probiotics & Prebiotics
Gut Health - Eat Fermented foods – Probiotic foods such as sauerkraut
Probiotics appear to play a significant role in supporting the immune system.
Low FODMAP Diet
Low FODMAP Diet
Essential Oils
Frankincense oil - Add into massage oil to help pain as has natural anti-inflammatory properties reduce inflammation, pain, and stiffness.
Helichrysum oil - antispasmodic, anti-inflammatory
It is an antispasmodic and can give you quick relief in case a spasm begins
Alternative Therapies
The Lightning Process
Neuroplasticity
Acupuncture
Osteopathy
Fibromyalgia Research
Research on Fibromyalgia:
Fibromyalgia: Complementary and alternative treatments
Rhodiola Rosea
D-Ribose
The use of D-ribose in chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia: a pilot study.
Gut Health
Altered microbiome composition in individuals with fibromyalgia
The presence of metabolic indicators of perturbations in the gut microbiome (hippuric, 2-hydroxyisobutyric and lactic acids) supports the paradigm that regulation of the gut-brain axis becomes affected in stress related disorders, like FMS. Three metabolite markers (taurine, creatine and succinic acid) were important for the differentiation between FMS patients and controls and were significant indicators of the pain and fatigue symptoms in FMS
Free amino acids in fibromyalgia syndrome: relationship with clinical picture.
Serum leptin in Egyptian patients with fibromyalgia syndrome: relation to disease severity
Vitamin D
Serum vitamin D level and bone mineral density in premenopausal Egyptian women with fibromyalgia.
Effects of Vitamin D Therapy on Quality of Life in Patients with Fibromyalgia.
Vitamin D and fibromyalgia: a meta-analysis.
The role of vitamin D testing and replacement in fibromyalgia: a systematic literature review
Purine metabolites in fibromyalgia syndrome
5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP)
Primary fibromyalgia syndrome and 5-hydroxy-L-tryptophan: a 90-day open study.
5-Hydroxytryptophan: a clinically-effective serotonin precursor
S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAMe)
Oral S-adenosylmethionine in primary fibromyalgia. Double-blind clinical evaluation
Evaluation of S-adenosylmethionine in primary fibromyalgia. A double-blind crossover study.
Omega-3 fatty acids
Complementary and Integrative Methods in Fibromyalgia
The ω3 fatty acids have mild anti-inflammatory properties, decreasing synthesis of thromboxane A2 from arachidonic acid. Intake of ω3 fatty acids is inversely associated with major depression, (43)(44) a strong comorbidity with chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia. (45) Furthermore, serum levels of the ω3 fatty acid eicosapentaenoic acid are significantly lower in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome than in healthy controls. (46) Supplementation with ω3 fatty acid has some evidence of efficacy in treating a number of nonspecific symptoms associated with fibromyalgia, including fatigue, arthralgias, (47) depression, (48) and anxiety. (49)
We suggest ω3 fatty acids as an initial recommendation, with 5-HTP and SAM-e as secondary choices. The ω3 fatty acids have more potential benefits in other areas related to chronic widespread pain and fibromyalgia, whereas 5-HTP and SAM-E essentially work as serotonergic antidepressants.
Omega-3 fatty acids for neuropathic pain: case series
Creatine
Creatine supplementation in fibromyalgia: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial
These findings introduce creatine supplementation as a useful dietary intervention to improve muscle function in fibromyalgia patients.
Acetyl-l-carnitine
these results indicate that LAC may be of benefit in patients with FMS, providing improvement in pain as well as the general and mental health of these patients
these preliminary findings confirm the efficacy of duloxetine, and suggest that acetyl L-carnitine is also efficacious in improving depressive symptoms, pain, and the quality of life of FMS patients
Ashwagandha
An Overview on Ashwagandha: A Rasayana (Rejuvenator) of Ayurveda
There are dozens of studies that show that Ashwagandha slows, stops, reverses or removes neuritic atrophy and synaptic loss. Therefore Ashwagandha can be used to treat Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Huntington's and other neurodegenerative diseases at any stage of the disease, even before a person has been diagnosed and is still in the state of mild forgetfulness, etc.
NADH and CoQ10
Therefore, CoQ10 plus NADH as natural supplementation could be used as a possible alternative and complementary therapy for this condition and even in other chronic illnesses associated to fatigue.
Exercise
Prescribed exercise in people with fibromyalgia: parallel group randomised controlled trial
Magnesium
B12
Response to vitamin B12 and folic acid in myalgic encephalomyelitis and fibromyalgia.
B1 Thiamine
High-dose thiamine improves the symptoms of fibromyalgia
