Just Stop Eating or Drinking (insert here)

People are well meaning, and they want to help. So I get constant suggestions about how to cure my condition. “My friend tried this and their symptoms went away.” “I read that if you just cut this out of your diet that solves the problem.”

Unfortunately, fibromyalgia is a lot more complicated than that. There simply is no widespread treatment that works for a wide range of people. Even the approved drugs have limited effectiveness- helping some but doing little for many.

The idea that there is a dietary link keeps coming up again and again. There have been instances where people have cut out caffeine, or artificial sweetener, or MSG and their symptoms improved. Sure, I have tried that approach as well. It did nothing for me, but there does seem to be a better understanding of why it actually does work for some.

Fibromyalgia is a condition in which your body over responds. If you have allergies, they become much worse. You become significantly more affected. My allergies can be awful now, when before they were insignificant.

What some are beginning to believe is that some symptoms may actually be caused by a heightened allergic response. What might have been unnoticeable before now makes you sick. Cut it out of your diet and you will feel better. The problem that gets better is not a fibromyalgia symptom, but an over response caused by the fibromyalgia. That is why some people get such good results when others have no response. It is variable from person to person.

Yes, cutting something out of your diet may make you feel better. It is not making the fibromyalgia better, though. I have seen no research that shows any actual cause and effect, nor any that shows that there is strong evidence for a chemical link for a cause for fibromyalgia.

We still just don't know what causes it, and the condition is tricky and elusive. It gets better and worse seemingly at random, and I have tried mightily to spot any patterns. I've had horrible stress and been better, and I have had things humming along happily and suddenly gotten much worse. The only absolute sure trigger for me seems to be the weather. When the rain comes in, that is my kryptonite.

Everyone is desperate for an answer. So far, though, I have not seen many.