List of Things That Have Helped My Fibromyalgia

Here is a list of things that have helped my fibromyalgia, things I have tried that didn’t help, and some things that had mixed or temporary results. Let’s start with the shortest list, which is things that have actually helped:

1. Spine pain relief

Things I have tried that haven’t helped:

1. Heavy vitamin D supplementation.
2. Liposomal vitamin C supplementation.
3. Gabapentin.
4. Cymbalta.
5. Guaifenesin Protocol**
6. Steroids.
7. Anti-inflammatories.
8. Cannabis/CBD
9. Magnesium Threonate – This was specifically recommended for fibromyalgia and didn’t help. More about general magnesium supplementation below.
10. Other various prescription anti-depressants and anti-psychotics.
11. Cat’s claw, devil’s claw, agmatine, DLPA, black seed oil, and probably other supplements I can’t remember.
12. Low FODMAP diet.
13. Gluten free diet.
14. Nightshade free diet.
15. Dairy free diet.
16. Exercise
17. Physical therapy.
18. Talk therapy.
19. Cognitive behavior therapy.
20. Pain medications – While they can help ease the pain, they don’t effectively treat fibromyalgia. Same thing with ice packs.

**I am still on the Guaifenesin Protocol, though the results are currently unknown. It is potentially making the fibromyalgia symptoms worse, which is how it’s supposed to work. This is part of the reversal process, and it happens in cycles. I have had some good days with it, and bad flare ups, which are both expected. It’s too early though to tell if it is actually helping.

Things that had limited or temporary success:

1. Magnesium supplementation
2. Lyrica

Heavy magnesium supplementation can give a temporary reduction in symptoms, but large amounts of magnesium will soon lead to digestive issues. This will happen within 3 days. If there is any pain that goes with those issues, the pain can trigger the fibromyalgia. Even without extra pain, the magnesium has diminishing returns that happen in only a few days. It’s best to stick with a more normal, consistent amount, but at that point, any benefits won’t really be noticeable. I halved my normal supplementation amount, and I take a larger amount reactively to an oncoming fibromyalgia flare up. Magnesium oil is helpful as a muscle rub, like a menthol muscle rub. It seems to be just as effective. Lyrica worked amazingly well for 1 week, then stopped working altogether. I’ve never had consistent enough healthcare to get a regular prescription in order to ramp up to higher doses. I’ve always been afraid of losing my prescription and being forced to stop the medication. Lyrica cannot simply be stopped. You have to do a long taper, and without proper support from you doctor, that potentially becomes impossible.

Something that is not on this list is sleep. I can’t add it to the list of things that help, because getting good sleep doesn’t fix or treat fibromyalgia, but a lack of sleep can certainly cause flare ups, or make it worse. And there is no way to get better sleep outside of sleep medications, which doctors won’t prescribe anymore, so it’s not something you can just do. That “just” word is so dangerous. “Just get some extra sleep!”. Sure, and while I’m at it, “Just cure cancer”, and “Just create peace in the Middle East”. So easy, right? The worse the fibromyalgia is, the less sleep you will get. You need some sort of intervention to turn that cycle around, and the only way I know to do that is sleep medications. I practice good sleep hygiene, and that does offer some help, but when you’re dealing with a 10/10 pain, all the good sleep hygiene in the world won’t help you get the sleep you need.

This is a non-exhaustive list of things I have tried, and the list is still growing. I’m sure I’ve missed a few things too. Fibromyalgia affects everyone differently, and all the treatments for it affects everyone differently. Some people respond to medications like Cymbalta or Gabapentin. I never have. There are many people who despise Lyrica, but it worked temporarily for me. I am not here to try to sell you something. I have wasted enough money on snake-oil cures and supplements, and I don’t want you wasting your precious money either, but if there is a treatment out there, we each need to work toward finding it for ourselves.

There are also many causes of fibromyalgia. It is often secondary to another health issue. For some people it is secondary to something like Celiac’s, or IBS. For me it is secondary to intense spine pain, so it stands to reason that relieving that spine pain will ease the fibromyalgia. This is the only thing I’ve known to be true and to work throughout my battle with this disease over the last 7 or 8 years. Unfortunately, like sleep, I can’t ever achieve pain relief. You can’t will the pain away. I’ll add that I tried a spinal cord stimulator trial. Not only did it fail to relieve some pain, it actually triggered this non-stop cycle of fibromyalgia. I was getting by before the stimulator trial, and I haven’t been able to get by since. Only medical professionals can help when there is a degenerative situation happening like there is with me. Getting help from doctors has been one of the most difficult parts of this fight. They alone can unlock the door to pain relief.

This disease makes you so incredibly desperate. You will try anything and everything you possibly can to treat it and to fight it. If you told me cutting off my foot would help relieve the pain from the fibromyalgia, I would cut my foot off. I would not hesitate, and I wouldn’t think twice. That’s how bad it is. There are loads of snake-oil cures out there. Most of those are just some sort of supplement. I quickly accumulated a coffee table full of supplement bottles, and a kitchen full of powdered supplements to be weighed out by the gram. I’ve suffered through all sorts of side effects from medications. I have fought my heart out doing physical therapy and trying to get exercise. None of these things have helped. After 2 years dealing with the current degeneration (and 22 years dealing with my spine issues altogether), I am right back where I started, realizing that only spine pain relief will help, and I am no further in my journey to get relief. It’s demoralizing to go on such a long journey and end up right back where I started, but I wouldn’t be able to sleep at all if I didn’t exhaust every potential treatment out there.

One of the first steps when dealing with fibromyalgia is to see a Rheumatologist to get diagnosed. They will first rule out all sorts of auto-immune disorders. They might suggest some treatments or prescribe medication. The doctor I saw didn’t do any of that. She left me to fend for myself, much like most other doctors I have seen. However, once you know what you are dealing with, you can then focus your efforts on fighting the correct problem. It will give you the chance to find an underlying root cause, or to find some sort of medication or supplement that might help you. Knowing what you are fighting is the first step. Doctors have been the worst resource for treating fibromyalgia. Internet forums have been some of the best resources. Doctors either won’t help you at all, or they have an “I’ve tried nothing and I’m all out of ideas” approach. Find a forum with a good community. Support from this community will help you more than anything. Educate your friends and family. If most doctors don’t understand the disease, you can bet friends and family won’t either. Educating them will help them give you support, and you will need as much support from others that you can get.

Some people have success with medications or supplements. Some people have success with dietary changes. There is often no one treatment, and there probably is no solution. It can take a combination of things all being done at the same time. Diet changes plus Lyrica for example might help someone. I had great success in the past with dietary changes, but that approach has failed me this time. If the fibromyalgia is secondary to something else, then treating that other problem is probably the best course of action. For me it’s spine pain. Every time I’ve had any kind of treatment that offered some relief, the reduction of fibromyalgia symptoms follows. I’ve mostly only had diagnostic treatments, so the pain relief has never been long lasting. I’ve never had more than 4 decent days in a row. I’m still working toward a long term solution.

I wish you all godspeed in your journey. I wish you all the mental energy and all the power in the world to fight this disease. I hope you find your treatment, and I hope it happens much faster than it has for me.