Looking for new tools to fight fibromyalgia? Natural remedies – from exercise to acupuncture – can treat symptoms and ease pain. here are 6 techniques to try….

When fibromyalgia stiffens limbs and makes muscles and joints tender and sore, you may assume pain medication is your only bet.

Fortunately, there’s new evidence that natural solutions – including breathing techniques, exercise and supplements – may assist your treatment of fibromyalgia’s symptoms and reduce stress, a common pain trigger.

The potential for natural treatments is great, says Howard Schubiner, M.D., director of the Mind Body Medicine Center at Providence Hospital in Southfield, Mich.

“In our research [a combination of mind-body approaches], 25% of patients were symptom-free after six months.”

However, these treatments do require participation from the patient, Schubiner notes.

“Some people like being an active part of their own healing, while others feel it’s too much work. much of the successfulness of a program depends on what you think will be effective,” Schubiner says.

Read on to find out which science-backed alternative approaches are best for you.

1. Yoga
How it works: Besides lowering stress, yoga helps reduce chronic inflammation, which many researchers believe is a main cause of fibromyalgia-related discomfort.

In fact, women who practice yoga have lower blood levels of cytokine interleukin-6 – a protein causing inflammation that’s also linked to heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes – according to a 2010 Ohio State University study.

Danielle Miller, 45, of Lancaster, Pa., tried “every medication on the market” to treat her fibromyalgia pain. When a friend suggested a yoga class, she was reluctant at first but soon became hooked.

The meditation, breathing and stretching exercises increased her flexibility, improved sleep and even eased her irritable bowel syndrome, a disorder often associated with fibromyalgia.

“After 6-8 sessions, I began feeling better,” she says.

How to get started: Look for a yoga instructor experienced with fibromyalgia. (Your physician may be able to refer you.)

Start slowly and build to a regular routine you can stick with.

“When I attended classes randomly, I was in more pain,” Miller says.

2. Nutritional supplements
How they work: Supplements can decrease chronic inflammation, which in turn may reduce pain, says Shawn M. Talbott, Ph.D., research director for Supplement Watch, an organization that evaluates scientific evidence for nutritional supplements.

Anti-inflammatory supplements include grape seed extract, resveratrol (a chemical found in red wine and grape juice), bromelain (an enzyme obtained from pineapples), ginger, turmeric (the yellow spice used in Indian food), boswellia (an herb common in Ayurvedic medicine), decaffeinated green tea and purified fish oil.

How to get started: Supplements can vary in quality, cause stomach upset or interact with medications, so consult your rheumatologist about which brands are best.

Also, check labels for information on purity and strength of active ingredients.

Changing your diet is another way to reduce inflammation.

Eat lots of colorful fruits and veggies. Trade refined carbohydrates for moderate amounts of whole grains. Lower consumption of saturated fats and increase the amount of “good fats” (including monounsaturated fats and omega-3 fatty acids) you eat with foods such as nuts, avocados, olive oil and fish.

3. Acupuncture
How it works: Acupuncture has been used in traditional Asian medicine for thousands of years to relieve pain related to a variety of conditions. new research shows it may also be effective for fibromyalgia.
In a 2009 University of Michigan study, women with the disorder were treated with either acupuncture or a “sham” (fake) version, in which their skin was pricked with a sharp device to simulate acupuncture sensations.

Brain imaging showed that those who received real treatments got more relief from pain-killers with codeine and morphine (opiates).

“We’ve seen a drop in 5-10 points on the pain scale [a 1-10 scale doctors use to assess discomfort levels] from fibromyalgia patients who’ve used acupuncture,” Harris says.

Annette Poizner, a 47-year-old psychotherapist in Toronto, Canada, says acupuncture reduced her discomfort. But those results took a long time, and she warns against looking at the ancient Chinese treatment as a quick fix.

“It’s a gradual recovery, not a 10-session miracle,” she says.

How to get started: Find a licensed practitioner.

Ask your doctor or look online for local clinics. The website for the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine maintains a list of qualified acupuncture practitioners.

4. Mindfulness meditation
How it works: Mindfulness – defined as a calm, nonjudgmental focus on the present moment – can be a powerful stress-reduction method. When combined with meditation, it may reduce fibromyalgia pain and other physical complaints, according to a recent University of Basel, Switzerland study.

Researchers found that it helped patients cope better with the anxiety and depression that often go along with the disorder.

When women with fibromyalgia enrolled in an eight-week program of mindfulness-based stress reduction, they had significantly more relief from symtoms than those who received only physical or emotional support from loved ones and peers.
A follow-up found they were still benefiting from the mindfulness program three years later.

Because high stress levels can trigger or worsen fibromyalgia symptoms, it makes sense that reducing it brings relief, says Schubiner.

Still, he adds, meditation alone may not be enough.

“Results depend on how you incorporate these practices into your life,” he says. “If you have a lot of stress at home, for example, you can reduce it with meditation. But you’ll need to address root problems too.”

How to get started: some hospitals and medical clinics offer mindfulness programs for patients.

You can also buy meditation CDs (such as those by Jon Kabat-Zinn) in stores and online, or find free downloads from UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Center.

5. Breathing exercises
How they work: Deep-breathing exercises have been shown to lower stress, thereby easing symptoms.

Even slowing down breathing can reduce fibromyalgia pain, according to 2010 research at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, Ariz.

Patients with fibromyalgia were subjected to moderately painful heat pulses on their palms. When they slowed their breathing rates by 50%, some reported a reduction in pain intensity.

The patients’ attitude was a contributing factor: Those with a positive mindset saw results.

But those who said they felt overwhelmed by feelings of sadness and depression weren’t helped by the breathing exercises.
Researchers suggest that people with fibromyalgia have a stronger connection between pain and emotion.

How to get started: If chronic depression is part of your disorder, talk to your doctor about treatments.

For mindful breathing, Schubiner recommends a daily session in which you take long, slow breaths and pay attention to each one.

“You simply notice each breath, and then let it go,” he says.

Many yoga classes incorporate breathing exercises, and many books and CDs on breathing are available.

Try this simple technique by Dennis Lewis, from his book Free Your Breath, Free Your Life (Shambhala Publications):

The Smiling Breath
1. Sit comfortably on a chair or cushion and smile, even if it feels forced at first.

2. Imagine directing this smile inwardly throughout your whole body.

3. as you inhale, sense yourself inhaling through your smile, allowing the energy of the smile to combine with the energy of your breath, and direct this energy down to the painful area.

4. Exhale through pursed but relaxed lips (as if gently blowing on a candle without blowing it out). do this for a minimum of five minutes.

6. Exercise
How it works: Physical activity is an important fibromyalgia treatment, but don’t dive right in to an intensive exercise program.

“too much too soon can have a rebound effect, where you’re worse off than before you started,” Harris says. “The key lies in finding the right amount.”
The proper dose is moderate bursts of exercise that add up to 30 minutes a day, 5-7 times a week, according to a 2010 Johns Hopkins University study that found that patients following this regimen had reduced pain and less trouble functioning after 12 weeks.

How to get started: begin slowly, exercising for as little as three minutes at a time.

Gradually increase activity level to 20-30 minutes a day, recommends Rae Marie Gleason, executive director of the National Fibromyalgia Association.

“Exercising helps you gain some control over your life, something often missing in those with fibromyalgia,” Gleason says.

How much do You know about Fibromyalgia?
Fibromyalgia is one of the world’s oldest medical mysteries.

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Food Allergy Symptoms – Natural Solutions for Relief

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Food allergies are a bigger deal than most people think. Did you know that food allergies affect about 60% of the population? Listen to this:

“the incidence of food allergy is greater than the incidence of any other type of illness affecting mankind.”

Wow, that’s pretty powerful! the quote above is from James Breneman, former chairman of the Food Allergy Committee of the American College of Allergists.

Now here’s the kicker: we make ourselves allergic to food.

No kidding. let me explain.

How we Develop Food Allergy Symptoms

We can become allergic to just about any kind of food. To keep it simple, I’ll explain what happens with just one kind of food: proteins. when we eat protein, the act of chewing starts to break the protein down into component nutrients, a process which is continued in the stomach and then the small intestine.

According to researcher Karl Abrams, our normal healthy digestive process allows about 2% of these proteins to slip through the intestinal wall into the bloodstream. Once in these proteins enter the bloodstream, our bodies no longer recognize them as “food.” now they have become “foreign invaders” and the body jumps into an immune response. it produces antibodies to fight off these foreign invaders, and food allergy symptoms are often the result!

When our bodies don’t recognize food particles in the bloodstream, we become allergic to them. the next time we eat this kind of food, our body immediately goes into a food allergy reaction.

Food allergy symptoms can include digestive upset, such as diarrhea, gas, and bloating; skin conditions like hives; and swelling of various body parts, such as the throat or hands and feet. in fact, if it goes on for a long period of time, the liver becomes affected, since this organ is responsible for filtering the blood of excess toxins. when the liver is affected, then we can develop long-term chronic conditions like psoriasis.

What’s worse is that most people don’t have healthy digestion. so while a healthy digestive system let’s 2% of the proteins we eat to enter the bloodstream, a body under stress lets even more proteins cross the intestinal wall, which produces even worse food allergy symptoms.

Natural Ways to Prevent Food Allergy Symptoms

Now that you know how we develop food allergy symptom, the next thing is to discover how to prevent them. Luckily, there are three nutritional supplements that can relieve and prevent these symptoms:

AFA blue-green algae probiotics like acidophilus and bifidus food enzymes#1: AFA Blue-Green Algae

Blue-green algae has two important nutrients to help prevent food allergies: beta-carotene and chlorophyll. Studies show that these substances in AFA blue-green algae help “dramatically stimulate specialized cells around the intestinal walls to secrete lubricating material and thus help prevent this type of allergic reaction” (Karl Abrams). in other words, the beta carotene and chlorophyll in blue-green algae strengthen the intestinal wall, so proteins and other food particles can’t slip into the bloodstream. no particles in the bloodstream equals no food allergies. Abrams notes that the omega-3 fatty acids in the algae help as well.

#2: Probiotics like Acidophilus and Bifidus

Probiotics are the “friendly bacteria” that live in our intestines and do the bulk of the work of digesting our food once it has passed through the stomach. Acidophilus and bifidus are among the most important of these friendly bacteria, and provide a barrier between the intestines and the bloodstream, as well as helping us fully digest our food.

Stress, drinking chlorinated water, taking medication, or drinking alcohol can all decrease the population of probiotics in our gut, leading to what is called “leaky gut syndrome,” the phenomenon discussed earlier in which food particles slip into the bloodstream. Taking acidophilus and bifidus orally on a daily basis keeps our probiotic population at healthy levels, which creates good digestion and prevents food allergy symptoms. in my experience, eating live yogurt is not enough to prevent food allergies. one needs to take highly-concentrated acidophilus and bifidus in capsule form that are stored in refrigerators (keeps the bacteria healthy and active).

#3: Food Enzymes

Did you know that there are enzymes and co-enzymes that digest every kind of food we eat? What’s more, organic raw foods contain all the enzymes needed to digest themselves. for instance, Eskimos eat enough raw fish in their diet that they don’t suffer from poor digestion or heart disease. Their food has enough enzymes to literally digest itself, keeping the Eskimos healthy. in fact, the word Eskimo even means “he who eats raw food.” so, enzymes are very important because they are key to healthy and complete digestion.

Here’s the really good news about enzymes: if your digestion isn’t perfect, eating enzymes with and between meals can support digestion and help with food allergy symptoms. when taken with food, enzymes help ensure proper digestion and prevent food particles from entering the bloodstream. when taken separate from food, the enzymes are able to pass through the intestinal barrier (just like the food particles) to digest the food particles in the bloodstream. this prevents the immune system from thinking that food is an invader, thus preventing the immune response that causes food allergy symptoms.

Adding these three simple nutritional supplements to your daily regimen–AFA blue-green algae, probiotics like acidophilus and bifidus, and enzymes–can do a lot to support your body’s digestive process, and relieve food allergy symptoms.

Simple, effective, and convenient… now that’s what works for most people when it comes to nutritional supplements!

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Check it out: Food Allergy Symptoms – Natural Solutions for Relief