Fibromyalgia is an enigma to the medical community. In this article, my aim is to take the mystery out of the condition and Fibromyalgia treatment for you.
If you head to your doctor with complaints of body-wide pain for three months or more, they will try to rule out several well-known causes. They will look for arthritis, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and muscle strain.
If those causes can be ruled out, they may then consider a diagnosis of Fibromyalgia, especially if you are also fatigued. Fibromyalgia is medical jargon for chronic transient pain of unknown cause with no known effective treatment.
When Conventional Fibromyalgia Treatment Only Masks the Pain
When you receive that diagnosis, your doctor tells you to take it easy, eat and sleep well, exercise regularly, and perhaps even go to talk therapy. All of those things are generally good “advice” given to any human being, regardless of physical suffering. You’ll have good days and bad, and you’re told that you need to learn to live with it.
You’re frustrated, in pain, and have no idea if it will ever go away.
You may begin to feel like your own body is attacking you. The best they have to offer are OTC pain relievers. No one can tell you why there’s no better Fibromyalgia treatment than this. Because of this lack of thorough treatment, you’re frustrated, in pain, and have no idea if it will ever go away.
I want to assure you that there is a reason it’s happening. You most certainly can be free of this miserable condition. The cause of chronic pain is a dysfunction of your stress response system, commonly known as Adrenal Fatigue.
I’ll break down the relationship between the two here.
The Connection Between Adrenal Fatigue and Fibromyalgia
Cortisol, your main stress hormone, serves as your body’s primary anti-inflammatory function. Your adrenal glands produce that cortisol. Therefore, if the adrenals are taxed, you cannot produce adequate anti-inflammatory cortisol, and you will be overly inflamed.
It creates tremendous wear and tear in the body. And we know that cortisol and adrenaline will hit nerves throughout the body. They hit the central nervous system, peripheral nervous system, and autonomic nervous system. It sensitizes those nerves and makes them trigger happy.
People with Adrenal Fatigue develop chronic fatigue, chronic pain, or both.
People with Adrenal Fatigue develop chronic fatigue, chronic pain, or both. Our bodies react to stress in multiple ways, however, much of it stems from the adrenal glands that are inducing the “fight or flight” response. Those who are exposed to chronic stress within their daily lives are at high risk of depleting their anti-stress hormones which eventually leads to Adrenal Fatigue.
Subsequently, studies show that emotional stress has an effect on one’s perception of pain because of the drop in cortisol, human growth hormones (HGH), and dopamine. As a result, this makes them more vulnerable to fibromyalgia symptoms. This is possibly the reason why those with Adrenal Fatigue feel frequent body aches while people with fibromyalgia experience fatigue. Additionally, this could also be the reason why these conditions are often confused with each other.
Chronic Pain, Chronic Fatigue…or Both?
If this continues to occur over time, people with Adrenal Fatigue over time will develop chronic pain. Others will experience chronic fatigue, and others still may experience both.
For those with chronic pain, it’s sometimes significant enough to be diagnosed as fibromyalgia. The official diagnosis is important for research and studies. The diagnosis is also important for insurance and medical coding, so doctors can get paid.
This thorough explanation not only enhances the understanding of the specific impacts of Adrenal Fatigue and fibromyalgia but also underscores the significant role chronic stress plays in their development. By addressing these physiological and hormonal changes, we grasp a clearer picture of the interconnectedness of stress, hormonal health, and chronic illness.
Adrenal Fatigue Prolongs the Effects Fibromyalgia
Adrenal Fatigue causes inflammation. Inflammation causes pain. Chronic inflammation also acts as an additional biochemical stress. This excess stress perpetuates the entire body’s dysfunction and causes it to over-perceive its environment. This is called “Central Sensitization.”
The effects of Adrenal Fatigue have the body on constant high alert.
Central Sensitization is the phenomenon of an upregulated nervous system and a trigger-happy limbic system. The effect is that the body is on high alert, all the time. This is easiest to observe in the sensory nerves.
Smells are stronger and possibly irritating. The slamming of a door may feel like an earthquake to them. The phone ringing makes their heart race. They usually react more strongly to supplements and pharmaceuticals. When faced with a decision, they may find it impossible to choose. Their stress-tolerance has bottomed out.
This over-perception also creates hypersensitivity to touch and physical sensations: body-wide, transient, chronic pain, often diagnosed as Fibromyalgia.
It would make sense, then, that healing the Adrenal Fatigue will alleviate the Central Sensitization. With no more Central Sensitization, the body-wide pain disappears. That is basis for permanent Fibromyalgia treatment.
This Is What Adrenal Fatigue With Fibromyalgia Feels Like
It’s difficult to explain the pain of Fibromyalgia or Adrenal Fatigue to people who’ve not experienced them. For those who don’t know what the experience is like, I ask that you consider a simple exercise for emphasis.
Imagine how it must feels to have body-wide pain 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Remember the last close call you had in a car, perhaps getting cut off in traffic? Now I will ask that you feel that response: feel the blood bound into muscles, heart, and lungs. Experience the palpitations and notice the sweat, queasiness, the sense of fear and panic. Continue to hold on to that experience. Add that feeling to the the aches, pains, and debilitating fatigue of the last bad flu you had.
If you can imagine this, then you can imagine how it is to be an adrenal patient with Fibromyalgia 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Controlling Inflammation and the Pain of Fibromyalgia
The mainstream medical community tells us that there’s no targeted Fibromyalgia treatment. They ask sufferers to mask the pain using NSAIDs. They have no idea how to treat the root cause of the condition.
But there is a long-term solution for this symptom of body-wide pain. It’s not a quick fix or a simple vitamin or herb that heals it. The pain can go away over time, however, when you address the entire condition of Adrenal Fatigue. Adrenal Fatigue and Fibromyalgia treatment must be done holistically and comprehensively. I do this by using my Trilateral Approach to Healing.
As the whole system settles and becomes less sensitive, you will be in less pain.
In my Trilateral Approach, we target the dysfunctional stress response system for healing Adrenal Fatigue. As it returns to its proper function over time, your body’s ability to control inflammation returns. Its ability to heal and repair improves. As the whole system settles and becomes less sensitive, you will be in less pain.
Fibromyalgia and Adrenal Fatigue FAQs
Why are the symptoms of Adrenal Fatigue and fibromyalgia often confused with each other?
Both Adrenal Fatigue and fibromyalgia share similar symptoms, such as frequent body aches and general fatigue, primarily because both conditions can stem from or be exacerbated by hormonal imbalances and stress. This overlap in symptoms can lead to confusion in correctly diagnosing either condition.
What is the relationship between stress and the perception of pain?
Stress impacts the levels of cortisol, human growth hormones, and dopamine in the body, which affects how pain is perceived. Lower levels of these hormones due to emotional stress can heighten the perception of pain, making individuals more susceptible to conditions like fibromyalgia.
How does the body’s hormonal response to stress contribute to the development of Adrenal Fatigue?
When the body experiences stress, the adrenal glands produce hormones like cortisol to manage the stress, known as the “fight or flight” response. Chronic exposure to stress can exhaust the adrenal glands’ ability to produce sufficient anti-stress hormones, leading to Adrenal Fatigue.
