Alternative Treatments for Fibromyalgia

This is the eighth of a series of articles I’m writing on fibromyalgia. 

My name is Dr. Teryl Boothe and I’ve been specializing in treating patients with fibromyalgia since 2004.  I’m a chiropractor practicing in Modesto, California. You can reach me at (209) 576-0898.

In the last article we discussed the difference between an allergy and a sensitivity and how I test for sensitivities in my office. This article we’ll talk about alternative treatments for fibromyalgia.

Alternative Care

There are several main categories of alternative care for fibromyalgia. I discuss them in no particular order.

a.       Massage:

Some fibromyalgia patients can tolerate massage but most can’t; it’s simply too painful. For those few who can tolerate it, it provides temporary relief—at best. Why? Fibromyalgia is not really a muscle problem. Muscles are simply the frequent site of one fibromyalgia symptom.

b.       Acupuncture:

Inserting needles into the skin is too painful for most fibromyalgia patients. Some have told me acupuncture helped with a specific health condition or a non-fibromyalgia pain, but I’ve never had anyone tell me it helped their fibromyalgia. Why? It doesn’t address their allergies and sensitivities.

Principles of acupuncture and Oriental Medicine were used in developing the theory for how and why Allergy Elimination Treatment works. Acupuncture is an “energy treatment”, meaning it aims to correct or improve energy flow through the body. Allergy Elimination Treatment is also an energy treatment, meaning it aims to correct allergy and sensitivities where they reside, in the central nervous system. Namely the brain.

c.       Chiropractic:

Most chiropractic techniques are too painful for most fibromyalgia patients. If the chiropractor practices a gentle technique, or method of treatment, that a fibromyalgia patient can tolerate, then the patient may get some temporary relief. Chiropractic care alone doesn’t address the cause of most or all fibromyalgia symptoms: food and nutrient sensitivities.

Principles of chiropractic and neurology are used in my fibromyalgia treatment program. The treatments are very gentle and non-specific.

d.       Homeopathy, herbalists, etc.:

There’s nothing wrong with these treatment approaches—I use some in my practice—the problem is you don’t know what you’re getting when you go to an herbalist or homeopath. If they’re not licensed in your state (as they aren’t in California), the practitioner may have poor or no training—there’s no way for you to know for sure.

While they can be helpful and powerful treatments when used by skilled practitioners, they don’t address the core problem of fibromyalgia: food and nutrient allergies and sensitivities.

e.       My treatment program is alternative care and will be discussed in future emails.

Self Care

This is when you become your own doctor. Many turn to this out of frustration with medical care—they become fed up with the same old song-and-dance of “try this drug”.

What usually happens is they begin the search for the next “miracle cure”. They try the juices: noni, wolfberry, gogi, mangostein, acai berry, camu-camu, and others I can no longer recall. Then there’s coral calcium, green foods, juice fasts, colon cleanses, diets, vitamin and herb programs extolled in books… The list could go on and on.

I don’t have a problem with most of these things as most are concentrated sources of good things like antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals. Used in moderation I believe they could be helpful. But they won’t fix fibromyalgia because they don’t address the cause: food allergies and sensitivities.

I’ve had patients tell me some herb or juice, or some “expert’s” supplement program, helped for a while. One said she felt great for six months. But the symptoms always come back. Why? The product didn’t fix the allergies and sensitivities.

I use a few supplements in my treatment program, but only for specific reasons, mainly to improve digestion.

Improving one’s health through lifestyle change, including diet and stress reduction, is always a smart thing to do. Supplements can be part of that change.

Doing Nothing

These patients have given up. Modern medicine failed them and the alternative treatments they tried didn’t work. Nothing worked. So they gave up. Sad but understandable.

Problem is, doing nothing doesn’t fix fibromyalgia, either.

In the next article we’ll discuss my Allergy Elimination Treatment and how it can help relieve  fibromyalgia for good.

Until then, yours for better health,

Dr. Teryl Boothe, D.C.

P.S.          Since 2004, I’ve offered a complimentary Fibromyalgia Qualification Evaluation at my office. I take a brief history and run some tests, then tell you whether I think my treatment program will help you or not. You get to ask questions, too. It’s very low-keyed and there’s no obligation, of course. I also offer telephone consultations if you don’t live locally. (209) 576-0898

Allergies  vs. Sensitivities and Testing

This is the seventh of a series of articles I’m writing on fibromyalgia.

My name is Dr. Teryl Boothe and I’ve been specializing in treating patients with fibromyalgia since 2004.  I’m a chiropractor practicing in Modesto, California. You can reach me at DrBoothe@FibroReliefCenter.com and (209) 576-0898. Website: www.FibroReliefCenter.com

In the last article we discussed how food allergies cause fibromyalgia symptoms. This article we’ll backtrack a little and talk about the difference between a food allergy and a food sensitivity, then I’ll tell you how I test for sensitivities in my office.

Is it Allergy or Sensitivity?

There are many opinions on how to define food allergies and sensitivities. Typically, most experts define a true allergy as a set or fixed condition. This means you react to the food every time you eat it and the reaction usually gets worse with each exposure. For some, food allergies can lead to anaphylactic shock, which can be deadly. These allergies would be picked up in a allergy blood test.

Check this out, though:

Set or fixed allergies account for only 5% of food reactions.

The other 95% are called food sensitivity (FS), food intolerance, and/or cyclic allergies. Different names for the same thing; you react to something even though the blood test or scratch test is negative.

We tend to be sensitive to foods we crave and eat frequently. Over time, FS and allergies can develop into chronic health problems as is explained in my Free Food Allergy Report. Your FS can be made much worse when you’re stressed or by anything else that can suppress your immune system.

“But how did I get so many food sensitivities and allergies?”

I’m asked this all the time, all the time. I think I’ve covered this in part in an earlier article, as it pertains to fibromyalgia. Here is more information I think might help you understand how you or anyone can react to so many different foods and substances.

• Often a FS will appear when you eat a specific food a lot, either by eating a lot in one sitting or by eating it several days in a row.
• Also, a reaction to a cyclic allergen may be triggered by other factors like emotional stress, a diet high in processed food, or environmental agents such as toxic fumes, tobacco smoke and so on.
• Eating two different FS in the same meal may also cause a reaction due to their collective effects.
• A diet high in acid-forming foods can also increase the number of FS you have.

This is all in addition to methods already discussed such as having a leaky gut and being fed solids too soon as an infant, and other potentials ways not yet discovered or figured out.

How I test for food sensitivities

Recall that the best method of testing for true food allergies is through blood testing. Please also remember that this will miss about 95% of the foods you react to.

Food sensitivities may be discovered in several different ways. Dr. Devi (the doctor who discovered the allergy elimination treatment [AET]) relies on muscle testing, as do several other doctors who teach different AETs. In a doctor’s office muscle testing is usually done with the patient lying face-up on a table, with one arm extended to ninety degrees. The doctor or an assistant would place an item to be tested in the patient’s hand and tug on the arm. If the arm goes weak or gives way, it’s thought that they’re sensitive to that substance.

I never did like muscle testing. For one thing, it’s not good for the doctor; performing hundreds of muscle tests on a daily basis will eventually cause back and/or shoulder problems. Also, it has to be done by well trained and honest practitioners; over the years I’ve seen muscle testing used solely to peddle health products, mostly by people who obviously had no idea what they were doing. And after about 20 tests, the patient’s arm starts getting sore and fatigued. Lastly, does the weak arm mean allergy or that the patient shouldn’t eat that food for any number of other reasons? Who knows?

There are other ways of tapping into the nervous system (which is what muscle testing does). One way I used before buying a computer-bases system was by leg length test. Placing an offending substance into a patient’s hand causes a temporary disruptive “ripple” to pass through their nervous system and makes one leg draw up short compared to the other leg. This was too slow, and there are all the questions of what exactly did the short leg mean; allergy or something else?

Computerized sensitivity testing

I now use a sophisticated computer-based system manufactured by a company called ZYTO. It’s operation is very simple. The patient places their hand on the Hand Cradle and once the software determines a good connection has been made, the test is conducted. Here’s the Hand Cradle:

The program measures your body’s electrical response to different challenges. If we were testing grains, the program would measure how you responded when challenged for all the different grains I have in my database. A zero would indicate you didn’t response to it all. The further away from zero the number is, the more you responded to the grain in question. Each item takes only half-a-second to test.

All the grains which had a score greater than a number I choose, as determined on a visit-by-visit basis but is never greater than ten, are loaded into a small glass vial filled with water and a little alcohol to prevent the vial from getting moldy. You are then treated with an AET and will hold the vial for ten minutes.

A report is generated after each visit showing, in our example, which grains you were treated for. Also, the number recorded by the program is printed next to the name of the grain; i.e., wheat might be a 15 while corn was an 11.

Brief case history

This patient didn’t have fibromyalgia but she did have many health problems caused by her allergies. One way her allergies affected her was mentally: she could get very “foggy-brained” if she ate the wrong things for lunch. Let me give you an example.

Her husband made beautiful wood boxes for electronic clocks and sold them up and down the state at various fairs and shows. She would accompany him on occasion. One day she said “ate the wrong thing for lunch” and that afternoon it was two-for-one; she gave away a free clock for every one purchased. She had no idea what she was doing. Needless to say, she was dis-invited to accompany him after that.

At the end of her allergy treatment program she no longer had to worry about getting “foggy-brained” after lunch. (I don’t know if she was invited back on the clock-selling tour because she moved out of state shortly after completing her treatment program.)

In the next article we’ll discuss other treatment options for fibromyalgia.

Until then, yours for better health,

Dr. Teryl Boothe, D.C.

P.S.          Since 2004, I’ve offered a complimentary Fibromyalgia Qualification Evaluation at my office. I take a brief history and run some tests, then tell you whether I think my treatment program will help you or not. You get to ask questions, too. It’s very low-keyed and there’s no obligation, of course. I also offer telephone consultations if you don’t live locally. (209) 576-0898

In the last article I talked about standard medical for fibromyalgia. This article we’ll discuss how allergies cause all/most of/some symptoms of fibromyalgia.

First, an explanation of my waffle-statement in the previous paragraph. Some patients complete my fibromyalgia treatment program and have zero fibromyalgia symptoms: no pain, no fatigue, no sleep disturbances, no anxiety or depression, no headaches, etc. I have to assume that getting their food and nutrient allergies corrected caused their recovery. I’m certain it couldn’t have been the supplements; thousands have taken supplements like mine without getting the same results. Same goes for the other minor aspects of the treatment program.

I felt I needed to add the words “most of” and “some” to the statement because not all my patients achieve a full recovery. Most are significantly better and a few only make a little progress. From that I have to conclude that food and nutrient allergies do not cause all the symptoms of fibromyalgia in some patients.

From here the explanation gets more complicated; here’s my quick take. Some symptoms normally associated with fibromyalgia were preexisting in some patients, meaning they weren’t exclusively part of that patient’s fibromyalgia syndrome. The treatment program usually improves preexisting symptoms but they may not completely resolve.

Also, it’s my firm believe that medications commonly used to treat fibromyalgia can cause other symptoms of fibromyalgia. You saw this with Lyrica in the last email: many side effects of Lyrica are symptoms commonly associated with fibromyalgia.

I don’t claim to have all the answers to the puzzle of fibromyalgia. However, based on the empirical evidence I’ve seen in my office, I have to conclude that my fibromyalgia treatment program corrects all or most of the causes of fibromyalgia symptoms.

Allergies can cause symptoms in three ways

1.       Food allergies cause allergy responses in your body.

This is discussed in depth in my free fibromyalgia report available on-line, so I’ll only provide a summary here. True food allergies cause allergy responses in the body during which cells of your immune system release powerful chemicals called “signaling molecules” (SMs). SMs cause many of the symptoms of fibromyalgia.

Allergy responses can be triggered several times as an allergen moves through your system and the responses can be prolonged for up to two weeks. This means you can eat something you’re allergic to and suffer symptoms for two weeks.

Let me give you one simple example. Even if you don’t suffer from seasonal or pollen allergies, I’ll bet you know someone who does. If the allergies are fairly severe you know how miserable the sufferer can be: sneezing attacks, red irritated eyes, stuffed up nose, tired, etc. These symptoms are caused by histamine, an SM released by immune cells called mast cells. The symptoms are suffered where the pollen comes into contact with mucous membranes, mainly the eyes, nose, and throat.

Now, imagine histamine being released INSIDE your body; it is known to cause headaches, itching, burning sensations, crampy abdominal pain, and a general sense of anxiety. Sound like fibromyalgia?

2.       Nutrient sensitivities can cause nutrient deficiencies.

I’ve never written about this in any version of my free fibromyalgia report. I’m working on writing up a more complete explanation of this that I’ll try to summarize here. First, I doubt you can have a true allergy to an essential nutrient. Most likely they are sensitivities, sometimes also called “intolerances”. You could also think of a sensitivity as an incompatibility that occurs when your body comes to decide, incorrectly, that a specific nutrient is “bad”.

Dr. Devi Nambudripad, who as you will recall discovered that allergies could be corrected, says that this creates an electrical incompatibility between your body and the substance, in this case a nutrient. Think of it as trying to force the positive poles of two magnets together; it’s very difficult to do because they repel each other.

If you’re sensitive to a nutrient your body will not absorb it as it should, which leads to nutrient deficiencies that are most likely sub-clinical, meaning they’re not likely to show up in a blood test. Obviously your body is absorbing some of the nutrient because if it wasn’t you’d die—that’s why they’re called “essential” nutrients.

Also, I believe your body cannot maintain proper levels of hormones, neurotransmitters, enzymes, etc., constructed with nutrients you are sensitive to. For example, the neurotransmitter serotonin is made from an amino acid called tryptophan. If you’re sensitive to tryptophan your body cannot maintain proper levels of serotonin and you will likely have problems with depression and insomnia. And, in my experience, medications and supplements will have little positive effect on you because you cannot correct this imbalance until you get the sensitivity to tryptophan treated.

I know of no scientific “proof” of nutrient sensitivities, these are my theories of what I’ve observed over the years of treating people in my office.

3.       Allergies and sensitivities can cause blockages in acupuncture meridians.

This is not my area of expertise—over the years I’ve tried to understand Oriental Medicine but I just can’t. For some reason it doesn’t sink in. I get the very basics, energy called “Chi” flows through 12 meridians or pathways, but that’s about it. Think of the meridians like highways: the flow can be normal, blocked or slow, and too fast. Blocked or too slow or too fast are all bad and lead to health problems and/or disease.

This is Dr. Devi’s field of expertise and this is what she writes in her book, “Say Goodbye to Illness”:

“When an unsuitable electrical charge or an allergen; whether it be food, drink, materials, fabrics, animals…, comes near the body, there will be a clash in their fields (remember my magnet comment). This repulsion creates blockages of the meridians or energy pathways…. The greater the difference in the charges, the greater the repulsion and the blockage, leading to greater imbalances or disorganization in the body.”

And what happens if the allergy blockage isn’t corrected?

“If one fails to discover the cause of the blockage, and the blockage continues, the adverse energy eventually takes over the body and causes problems at deeper levels. For example, the aches and pains can turn into chronic arthritis causing degenerative changes in the joints and organs… simple headaches can turn into migraines…” Etc.

This is again theory, but I believe it to be true based on what I’ve seen in my office. For example, I once had a fibromyalgia patient who, about three hours after her first treatment (for amino acids) told me that her sense of smell and appetite returned.

How could that happen in just three hours? Amino acids are very important as they’re used to build proteins, and every molecule in your body contains both amino acids and protein, but how could a nutrient deficiency be corrected in three hours? I don’t think it could. What happened is the allergy treatment corrected a block meridian, which allowed for the return of her sense of smell and appetite.

This almost immediate release of severe symptoms has happened many times. One patient had her fibromyalgia pain completely disappear after she was treated for phenolics. The release occurred as she was driving home from the office. I can think of at least four or five others who had significant reduction in pain or other major fibromyalgia symptoms within four hours of being a treatment.

(Incidentally, can you see why the first two treatments that every fibromyalgia receives are for amino acids and phenolics? Now you know why.)

Conclusion

I didn’t think I could get it done in one email, but I’m happy with what I’ve written. Obviously a whole volume could be written about this, but I hope you now have a basic understanding of how allergies and sensitivities can and do cause most if not all of the symptoms of fibromyalgia and getting your allergies and sensitivities treated is key to your recovery.

In the next article I’ll tell you how I learn what a patient is sensitive to.

Until then, yours for better health,

Dr. Teryl Boothe, D.C.

P.S.          Since 2004, I’ve offered a complimentary Fibromyalgia Qualification Evaluation at my office. I take a brief history and run some tests, then tell you whether I think my treatment program will help you or not. You get to ask questions, too. It’s very low-keyed and there’s no obligation, of course. I also offer telephone consultations if you don’t live locally. 209-576-0898

My name is Dr. Teryl Boothe and I’ve been specializing in treating patients with fibromyalgia since 2004.  I’m a chiropractor practicing in Modesto, California. You can reach me at rBoothe@FibroReliefCenter.com?subject=Fibromyalgia%20Question">DrBoothe@FibroReliefCenter.com and (209) 576-0898.

In the last article I talked about the common symptoms of fibromyalgia. This article we’ll discuss standard medical care for fibromyalgia.

I’m not an MD, but I’ve treated and talked to hundreds of fibromyalgia sufferers who were under the care of an MD either when they came to see me or prior to that time. I’ve heard every story you can imagine, and some you can’t, about medical care for fibromyalgia.

Some doctors don’t “believe” in fibromyalgia (this applies to doctors of all types, not just MDs). As if it was a religion. These doctors naturally view patients with fibromyalgia with a skeptical eye, to put it mildly. Patients get told “it’s all in your head” and get put on anti-depressants. Some patients said their doctor told them they were just lazy.

I had one elderly female fibromyalgia patient who said her husband and her doctor conspired to have her taken to a clinic against her will. She received electroshock treatments. (I don’t mean to imply “evil” intentions on the part of her husband and doctor, I’m sure they thought they were trying to help her. I only mean to illustrate how some fibromyalgia patients are treated.)

Treating symptoms and not the cause

Remember, fibromyalgia is primarily a diagnosis of exclusion, meaning everything else that could cause fibromyalgia symptoms must (or should) be ruled out before one is diagnosed with fibromyalgia. To the medical profession’s credit, this is usually done. Most patients go through batteries of tests before they’re diagnosed.

However, the other side of that coin is, everything is negative! A patient may have other conditions that produce positive test results, but in fibromyalgia everything is negative. The only recognized test for fibromyalgia is the pressing of several potential tender points on the back of a prospective patient but this is not an objective test, it’s subjective; a patient could claim that every point touched caused pain.

If nothing seems to be wrong, what do you treat? Symptoms. Medical care for fibromyalgia is care that addresses symptoms only. Not all medical care is like that. Antibiotics hope to kill bacteria responsible for creating symptoms. Insulin injections replace what a diabetic’s body no longer produces. Surgeons repair or replace injured or diseased body parts.

But in fibromyalgia, medical care consists of drugs the doctor hopes will control symptoms. Unfortunately, in my experience, the drugs do a poor job. Countless patients have told me their drugs don’t help. When I ask them why they continue taking them, most just shrug their shoulders. They don’t know what else to do.

Common drugs used in fibromyalgia

A typical fibromyalgia patient seeking care or advice from me is taking at least two different types of pain pills (one over-the-counter and one prescription), a sleeping pill, and at least one pill for anxiety or depression. This is usually the bare minimum. Add to that medications given for other conditions like high blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, hormone imbalances, and low thyroid. I’ve had patients who were taking more than 20 medications.

Most fibromyalgia patients are on some kind of opiate medication like oxycotin or oxycodone. However, it’s been proven that these drugs don’t relieve fibromyalgia pain and when they’re taken for a long time, years, they actually make fibromyalgia pain get worse.

The FDA has approved three drugs for the treatment of fibromyalgia: Lyrica, Cymbalta, and Savella. Cymbalta and Savella are serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors, meaning they affect neurotransmitters or “brain chemicals”. I’ve had many patients who were taking Cymbalta and the general feedback has been that it helps. Maybe not a lot, but it helps. Savella is very new and I’ve not had any patients who were taking it.

Lyrica was the first drug the FDA approved for treating fibromyalgia. It’s an anti-seizure medication and is supposed to improve fibromyalgia symptoms by affecting GABA levels in the brain. I’ve had several patients who were taking Lyrica, and several who had tried it; the general feedback is poor. About 75% of them reported rapid weight gain, pounding headaches, and dizziness.

Here are the most common side effects of Lyrica: dizziness, sleepiness, weight gain, blurry vision, dry mouth, constipation, feeling “high”, swelling of hands and feet, balance problems, trouble concentrating, and increased appetite. I’ve underlined symptoms that are also common to fibromyalgia.

Lyrica was approved because of two studies. 48% of the patients on Lyrica reported at least a 30% improvement in pain compared to 27% on a placebo; so Lyrica was twice as effective as a sugar pill. It scored a 2.7 out of 5 in at www.askapatient.com. There were 744 ratings. (Not limited to fibromyalgia patients.)

When Pfizer, the maker of Lyrica, asked to market the drug for fibromyalgia treatment in Europe it was turned down. Pfizer submitted the results of five studies with their request but the European Medicines Agency in London, England, said “the benefits of Lyrica in fibromyalgia had not been shown in either the short or the long term”.

Lastly, one of the tests said that all of the symptoms of fibromyalgia came back, and were usually worse, when a patient stopped taking the drug.

Why drugs don’t work

It’s probably obvious. Drugs provide little if any help for fibromyalgia patients because they don’t address what’s causing most or all of the symptoms of fibromyalgia: untreated food and nutrient allergies and sensitivities.

And what of the side effects? ALL drugs have side effects; some mild, some extreme. While drug manufacturers have to jump through hoops to get the FDA to OK their products before releasing them, most people don’t realize the public is still being experimented on. No one knows what kind of drug interactions will occur, meaning drug X might produce few side effects by itself but might be dangerous when used with drug Y or drug Z. And they won’t know until people start reporting the problems.

I’m often asked, “When can I stop taking all these drugs?” by patients who are starting my treatment program. I don’t put anyone on drugs and I don’t take anyone off drugs. I tell them what most people do, that is, they wait until they are starting to feel better then work with their doctor(s) on getting off the meds. Some drugs are easy to stop, some have to be slowly withdrawn.

I’ve had patients whose doctors refused to help them reduce their dosages or refused to permit them to stop taking the drugs altogether. My advise to them is to find another doctor who will work with them.

Most would agree that it’s far better to remove the cause of the symptoms than try to cover them up with mostly dubious treatments.

In the next article we’ll start to discuss how allergies can cause most or all of the symptoms of fibromyalgia.

Until then, yours for better health,

Dr. Teryl Boothe, D.C.

P.S.          Since 2004, I’ve offered a complimentary Fibromyalgia Qualification Evaluation at my office. I take a brief history and run some tests, then tell you whether I think my treatment program will help you or not. You get to ask questions, too. It’s very low-keyed and there’s no obligation, of course. I also offer telephone consultations if you don’t live locally.

P.S.S.      Don’t come and see me if you want to be diagnosed with fibromyalgia. Go see a neurologist. Or, better, yet, come and see me and see if I can help you get better first.

This is the fourth of a series of articles I’m writing on fibromyalgia. 

My name is Dr. Teryl Boothe and I’ve been specializing in treating patients with fibromyalgia since 2004.  I’m a chiropractor practicing in Modesto, California. You can reach me at rBoothe@FibroReliefCenter.com?subject=Fibromyalgia%20Question">DrBoothe@FibroReliefCenter.com and (209) 576-0898.

In the last article I talked about what causes fibromyalgia. This article we’ll discuss the common symptoms of fibromyalgia and I’ll share a couple of case histories.

As you well know, fibromyalgia is a “syndrome”, which means it’s a collection of symptoms, the chief of which is pain. Here’s a list of the most common symptoms of fibromyalgia, followed by frequency:

Widespread (fibromyalgia) pain.................................................... 98%

Fatigue.................................................................................................... 81

Morning stiffness greater than 15 minutes................................ 77

Sleep disturbances (insomnia)........................................................ 75

Paresthesias (numbness/tingling hands/feet).......................... 63

Headache............................................................................................... 53

Anxiety.................................................................................................... 48

Sensation of swelling......................................................................... 47

History of menstrual difficulties..................................................... 41

Dry eyes, mouth, skin, hair.............................................................. 36

Urinary urgency.................................................................................. 36

History of depression........................................................................ 32

Irritable bowel syndrome................................................................. 30

Cold and heat intolerance

Cognitive dysfunction (“brain-” or “fibro-fog”)

Gastric reflux (heartburn)

Restless leg syndrome

The last four don’t have percentages by them because they weren’t in the book. There are others, but this is a fairly complete list.

Naturally, when looking at this list one is lead to ask, “How could someone have so many symptoms, yet their doctor not really know what’s wrong with them?” To understand that you have to understand what causes most or all of the symptoms of fibromyalgia, which I’ll cover in another article.

Not everyone has all the symptoms listed above, but quite a few have had most of them. And I had at least one who said pain wasn’t their chief complaint.

Why I track the top thirteen symptoms

As you can see from the list, pain is but one symptom of fibromyalgia. It’s usually a patient’s chief complaint, but not always, and there are often several other symptoms rated as highly as pain. I feel it’s important to track all the chief symptoms of fibromyalgia when a patient goes through my treatment program, not just one.

We ask our patients to rate their symptoms on a scale of 0–10 when they start the program and at six-treatment intervals thereafter. Then we graph the results in their file so that both of us have an “at-a-glance” idea of how they’re doing.

This also helps if a patient gets discouraged, which can happen, of course. I’m able to pull out their graph and show them that they’re making progress, even if one or two of the thirteen symptoms have flared-up for some reason.

Case History #1: “Neuro-fibromyalgia”

This was a 48-year-old female who told me she had been diagnosed as having “neuro-fibromyalgia”. Her pain was limited to her face only and would get so bad that she would vomit. She was diagnosed in 2000 but the symptoms began in 1998. She rated her pain a 10 when she started the treatment program and her overall symptom score was a 4.2.

Her symptom score actually went up a little after the first six treatments, which, as you can imagine, worried her. When she was done, though, her combined score was .84: an 80% decrease. Her pain ended up at 4.

Lesson: There are “subcategories” for fibromyalgia and this was one (although quite unusual).

Case History #2

This was a 59-year-old female from Stockton whose chief complaint was low back pain. She was diagnosed with fibromyalgia two years before coming to see me. She had been unable to complete a full eight-hour day at work for two years. (Thankfully, she had an understanding boss.)

Her overall symptom score was 6.85 and her pain was 9. She had a flare-up about a month into her treatment program when her back “went out”, which caused her symptom profile to rise to 8.3. Most of her progress was made at the tail end of the program, which is unusual but points out the need to see the treatment program through to the end.

When she was done, her symptom profile was 1.38, an 80% drop. Her pain was only a 2.

Lessons: Don’t be discouraged if improvement doesn’t come right away; it’s likely just a few treatments away. Flare-ups happen and you get over them.

In the next article we’ll discuss medical care for fibromyalgia and why it doesn’t work very well.

Until then, yours for better health,

Dr. Teryl Boothe, D.C.

P.S.         Since 2004, I’ve offered a complimentary Fibromyalgia Qualification Evaluation at my office. I take a brief history and run some tests, then tell you whether I think my treatment program will help you or not. You get to ask questions, too. It’s very low-keyed and there’s no obligation, of course. I also offer telephone consultations if you don’t live locally.

P.S.S.     Don’t come and see me if you want to be diagnosed with fibromyalgia. Go see a neurologist. Or, better, yet, come and see me and see if I can help you get better first.

What Really Causes Fibromyalgia?

My name is Dr. Teryl Boothe and I’ve been specializing in treating patients with fibromyalgia since 2004. I’m a chiropractor practicing in Modesto, California. In the last article I told you how I developed other aspects of my program. In this article I’m going to talk about what causes fibromyalgia.

No one knows for sure.

That’s the best I have on that. There are hundreds of opinions, but no one really knows why one person gets fibromyalgia while another person with similar life experiences doesn’t. Why one but not the other? No one knows.

Stress

There’s one thing most experts agree on, though: stress is often the initiator of fibromyalgia. Put another way, stress can trigger the onset of fibromyalgia. It’s like the person who will “get” fibromyalgia is a loaded gun; nothing will happen until the trigger is pulled, and stress is usually the trigger.

“Stress” should be thought of liberally here. I’m not just talking about emotional stress, like how you’re going to pay the mortgage next month. Stress comes in all shapes and sizes.

There’s physical stress like an accident, injury, abuse, operation, or a severe viral or bacterial infection. Many of my patients have said their fibromyalgia started after a car accident or an operation that took them forever to recover from. I’ve had people tell me they got the flu, which turned into fibromyalgia.

Emotional stress can trigger fibromyalgia, too, of course; chronic or acute. One lady told me her fibromyalgia started the year she lost both of her parents. Another cited a bad marriage (over many years). Getting fired could do it if you’re the sole bread earner.

Although I haven’t seen many patients who said their fibromyalgia was started by chemical stress, it does happen. Drug addiction of any kind can do it, prescription or illegal. A bad diet full of chemicals might be enough to trigger fibromyalgia.

Here’s the thing about stress and the “loaded gun” theory

We don’t know whose “gun is loaded” and who whose isn’t, and stress is life: you can’t avoid it. So what good is the theory? Imagine that some researcher figures out how to tell who might be susceptible to fibromyalgia. What will those persons do? Try to avoid stress? Try not to get fired or get in a car accident? Ridiculous! Everyone’s already trying to avoid those things.

In my opinion, it’s more useful to figure out what you can do about it rather than fretting over why you got it. Not saying research shouldn’t be done, just saying that for YOU, right NOW, it’s more useful if you can figure out how to get rid of your symptoms rather than waiting around for someone to explain “why you”.

Not every case is started by stress

Some of my fibromyalgia patients are not able to identify a stressor and some claim to have had the symptoms since they were young, or “all my life”. Because I think most or all of the symptoms of fibromyalgia are caused by food allergies/sensitivities, this makes sense to me.

People can be born with food allergies, or any type of allergy. In my opinion, they’re most inherited. And it can skip a generation. Your parents might not have been very allergic but if grandma was, you could get it from grandma. Also, allergies can be caused by being fed solid foods too soon… This is a subject for a future article, so I’m stopping here.

Sometimes “why” is important, but a solution is more important

It helps to know why something happens to someone so they can avoid causing it to happen again, right? If you’re at high risk for heart disease because of your diet, knowing this should cause you to change your diet so you’ll be less likely to get a heart attack or stroke.

But as I’ve already pointed out, you can’t avoid stress (for the most part) and stress triggers fibromyalgia in most cases. Best you work on a solution.

Case History

I’m going to finish this article with a case history that makes a couple of important points. I had a 64-year-old woman start my fibromyalgia treatment program back in 2005. She said her fibromyalgia began forty years prior and she had no idea why it started. (While she couldn’t recall the stressor, there was probably one, in my opinion.)

Because fibromyalgia is a syndrome, meaning it’s a collection of symptoms, we have our patients rate how they’re doing on each of the chief thirteen symptoms of fibromyalgia, from zero to ten, with ten the worst. We then add up the scores and divide by thirteen. She started out at a 3.28.

This may not look high to you: 3.28 out of a possible 10, but she didn’t have 7 of the 13 symptoms. The symptoms she did have were quite severe: her pain was a 9 and her sleep disturbance an 8.

If you’ve ever read Winnie-the-Pooh you should know the character, Eeyore. Eeyore is a sad-sack donkey who sees and expects the worst with everything. This patient was an “Eeyore” at the start of her treatment program. She was just sure it wouldn’t help her, but she had the money so thought she would give it a try anyway.

At the end of her treatment program her combined score was a 1.07: a 67% decrease, which just happens to be our average. Her pain went from a 9 to a 4, which is a little deceptive. She only had pain during flare-ups. Between flare-ups she had no pain at all.

Lessons: Everyone is different. You don’t have to “believe” in the treatment for it to work.

She was smiling by the end of her first six treatments. J

In the next article I’ll run through the most common symptoms of fibromyalgia. Since you probably already know what they are, we’ll go through one or two other case histories.

Until then, yours for better health,

Dr. Teryl Boothe, D.C.

P.S.         Since 2004, I’ve offered a complimentary Fibromyalgia Qualification Evaluation at my office. I take a brief history and run some tests, then tell you whether I think my treatment program will help you or not. You get to ask questions, too. It’s very low-keyed and there’s no obligation, of course. I also offer telephone consultations if you don’t live locally. We can be reached at 209-576-0898.

P.S.S.     Don’t come and see me if you want to be diagnosed with fibromyalgia. Go see a neurologist. Or, better, yet, come and see me and see if I can help you get better first.

How I Developed My 80% Successful Fibromyalgia Treatment Program

This is the second of a series of articles I’m writing on fibromyalgia. You can get my FREE Free Fibromyalgia Report .

My name is Dr. Teryl Boothe and I’ve been specializing in treating patients with fibromyalgia since 2004. I’m a chiropractor practicing in Modesto, California. In the last article I told you how I came to successfully treat fibromyalgia. I’d like to now tell you how I developed the other aspects of my program.

Obviously, because of the experiences I related in my last article about the two fibromyalgia patients who had most or all of their fibromyalgia symptoms disappear after receiving Allergy Elimination Treatments at my office, the core of my fibromyalgia treatment program is that Allergy Elimination Treatment (AET). I’ll being discussing that in length in a future article.

I mentioned taking courses from Dr. Ellen Cutler and Dr. Devi Nambudripad in my last article. That was in 1999 (eons ago). Dr. Nambudripad discovered, by accident, that allergies could be eliminated, not just drugged over. She developed the first AET. Dr. Cutler was one of the largest practitioners of Dr. Nambudripad’s treatment at one time, but she wanted to do other things in addition to AET. She developed her own treatment protocol titled “BioSET”.

Dr. Cutler’s BioSET protocol included the use of enzyme therapy and basic homeopathic “drainage” or detoxification. I use both of those therapies in my fibromyalgia treatment program.

I give my patients two enzyme products: one to improve their digestion and the other to do many other fabulous things that I’ll be discussing in a future article. (I have an older article on the blog.) I believe both types of enzymes are very important, not just for patients going through the fibromyalgia treatment program, but for everyone. These are the two products I tell all my fibromyalgia patients to keep taking, even if they don’t get them from me.

Homeopathy is a complex subject, and I’m not a homeopath so I won’t try to explain it. If you Google it, you’ll get both good and bad. Most people trained in Western medicine can’t wrap their brains around homeopathy because it’s the opposite of what they’ve been taught: less is more. With drugs, more is more.

I don’t give my fibromyalgia patients homeopathic remedies to fix their fibromyalgia symptoms, I give them to help improve their overall health. Most fibromyalgia patients have other things wrong with them and I want them to be as healthy as possible when they’re done with my treatment program. My twelve years of experience with homeopathy has taught me that it can be very helpful.

In the course of my career I also ran into a product called “SeaCure”. Its history goes back to the 1970s when scientists thought abundant white ocean fish, if properly preserved, could help relieve world hunger. They took white fish and ran it through a cold-enzyme process that protected the proteins. It was stable and it worked, particularly with babies, but it turned out to be too expensive.

I give my patients SeaCure primarily to help heal their leaky gut. It has proven to be very beneficial in treating other conditions such as Crohn’s disease, irritable bowel, and colitis.

I used to take my youngest son to the library after school because we had a “secret” quiet place for him to do his homework. It was usually too noisy at home. As you can imagine, I had plenty of time to look at books. One day I found a then new book by Dr. Eric Braverman, a researcher and neurologist titled The Edge Effect.

I don’t recall why it caught my eye, but I checked it out of the library, read it, then bought my own copy. The book is all about balancing your neurotransmitters with diet, medication when necessary (Braverman is an MD, after all), and supplements. The author wrote that he thinks fibromyalgia is a condition of advanced GABA imbalance (deficiency).

Dr. Braverman developed a questionnaire that allows him to assess a patient’s neurotransmitter levels, and I use that questionnaire in my fibromyalgia treatment program. It’s been a great help; most fibromyalgia patients obtain significant relieve from problems such as anxiety and insomnia from the supplements while they’re going through the treatment program.

Then, in 2006, I learned of a treatment program put together by a Dr. Michael Johnson, who lives in Wisconsin. Dr. Johnson doesn’t use AET at all but his program featured several therapies that I added to mine, namely supplemental oxygen and what I like to call “brain treatments”: therapies that stimulate the brain to function better.

I have a few more “arrows in my quiver”: things I can turn to if someone’s not making the kind of progress I would like them to be making. This includes auriculotherapy, flower essence therapy, bio-identical hormone testing and supplementation, and various other nutritional supplements. Items in this paragraph are rarely needed because the standard treatment program works so well.

Next I’ll start discussing fibromyalgia itself. I don’t plan on getting into the boring stuff; it’s been written up in hundreds of books and is all over the Web.

Dr. Teryl Boothe, D.C.

P.S.         Since 2004, I’ve offered a complimentary Fibromyalgia Qualification Evaluation at my office. I take a brief history and run some tests, then tell you whether I think my treatment program will help you or not. You get to ask questions, too. It’s very low-keyed and there’s no obligation, of course. I also offer telephone consultations if you don’t live locally.

P.S.S.     Don’t come and see me if you want to be diagnosed with fibromyalgia. Go see a neurologist. Or, better, yet, come and see me and see if I can help you get better first.

How A Chiropractor Came To Treat Fibromyalgia (Successfully)

This is the first of a series of articles I’m writing on fibromyalgia. I’ve put some of this material in print before, on the Web or on paper, but much of it is new so I hope you will all find something of value.

My name is Dr. Teryl Boothe and I’ve been specializing in treating patients with fibromyalgia since 2004. I’m a chiropractor practicing in Modesto, California. I’ve often been asked how a chiropractor came to treat fibromyalgia (successfully, I might add—lots of chiropractors claim to treat fibromyalgia). I’d like to tell you that story.

About twelve years ago I had a patient seeing me for auriculotherapy, a treatment similar to acupuncture except there aren’t any needles. She felt the treatments helped her and, seeing that I was open to new therapies, told me that if I was to learn how to do a certain type of “allergy treatment” she would come into my office for the treatment and refer family and friends. I had a son suffering from seasonal allergies then so I figured that if I could at least help him a little it would be worth it. Her motivation? She was tired of driving to Reno to get the allergy treatments.

I took training from Dr. Lawrence Newsome who taught a treatment called “BioKinetics”. He said many, many allergies could be treated in a single treatment session. Unfortunately, that proved to be false. The way he treated allergies, however, was valid.

Next I took training from Dr. Devi Nambudripad and Dr. Ellen Cutler. There were aspects of both doctors’ programs that I liked, but there were also aspects that I did not like. For example, both taught what I felt were convoluted diagnostic procedures and both admitted their treatments often had to be repeated—Nambudripad’s more than Cutler’s.

I took what I felt worked from all three doctors and developed my own Allergy Elimination Treatment. No one else treats allergies the same way I do.

My patient was true to her word: she went through my program and has referred many patients to me over the years. I’m grateful to her for pointing me in this direction as it has been very rewarding. You’ll learn why if you keep reading these articles.

I developed an allergy practice in the course of a few years.

It was my experience of treating two allergy patients that taught me that most, if not all, fibromyalgia symptoms were caused by allergies. Let me explain.

The first patient was a 37-year-old female seeing me for seasonal and food allergies. On one visit, about two-thirds through her treatment program, she told me she had gone shopping at Costco the previous day. Naturally I was curious as to why she felt she needed to tell me that, so I asked.

She answered that prior to getting allergy treatments at my office she couldn’t stand or walk on concrete for more than five minutes without suffering excruciating back pain. She reminded me that she had fibromyalgia and that her back pain was part of her fibromyalgia symptoms. (I was like most doctors back then—I knew hardly anything about fibromyalgia.)

After completing her allergy treatment program, her pain was about 90% better; she still had some pain after sitting in her car for more than forty or so minutes. One interesting thing about her was, after I began marketing my fibromyalgia treatment program and was using her testimonial, she was severely criticized by her employer for claiming she had been helped by me. She worked in a pain clinic—I suppose he saw it as a failure on his part.

The second patient was a young mother who said she had just been diagnosed with both fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue. Remember, I was still mostly ignorant about these conditions so when she described to me how her life had changed for the worse, how she couldn’t sleep at night, couldn’t stand it when her husband touched her because it hurt, was anxious and depressed all the time, had pain all over her body that her doctor couldn’t explain…

… it just kind of blew my mind! Like every other dumbo doctor, I thought to myself, “How could anyone have all these symptoms??!!”

I gave her first treatment that day, a treatment for sensitivities to amino acids.

She came back the next week and blew me away!

Eighty percent of her pain was gone, she was sleeping through the night, and she wasn’t anxious or depressed. She couldn’t believe it and neither could I. (I’m no longer surprised when people tell me this—it’s happened many times since then.)

That got my attention! I dug into fibromyalgia and learned everything I could.

In the next few articles, I’ll explain how I developed the treatment program I’ve been using to successfully treat fibromyalgia patients since 2004.

Until next time, yours for better health,

Dr. Teryl Boothe, D.C.

P.S.         Since 2004, I’ve offered a complimentary Fibromyalgia Qualification Evaluation at my office. I take a brief history and run some tests, then tell you whether I think my treatment program will help you or not. You get to ask questions, too. It’s very low-keyed and there’s no obligation, of course. I also offer telephone consultations if you don’t live locally.

P.S.S.     Don’t come and see me if you want to be diagnosed with fibromyalgia. Go see a neurologist. Or, better, yet, come and see me and see if I can help you get better first.