Healing Fibromyalgia - With Food

WebMd defines Fibromyalgia as the most common arthritis-related illness after osteoarthritis. Still, it is often misdiagnosed and misunderstood. Fibromyalgia is a rheumatic condition. Its characteristics include widespread muscle and joint pain and fatigue as well as other symptoms. Fibromyalgia can lead to depression and social isolation.

I was diagnosed with Fibromalgia in February of 2008. I started on a treatment of Gabapentin and eventually Tramadol. The Gabapentin made my arms and legs fill with fluid, which I then had to take a water pill for, which striped all my potassium out of my body which I had to take an extra pill for. I was up to 1000mg a day of Gabapentin when it stopped working. My doctor switched me to Tramadol, which worked wonderfully. I had no side effects at all. I was able to move again. I was taking 800 mg a day. One Friday I "forgot" to refill my prescription and I thought, oh well I'll get it on Monday. MISTAKE!! I, my friends had become addicted. I had some of the worse symptoms I had ever experienced. Restless legs, no sleep, my bones felt like ice. I had to take 3 or 4 showers a night. It was unbearable. I thought, boy my Fibro is really acting up.

Two months later I was feeling so much better with my weight loss that I thought, well I'll just try to stop taking the Tramadol now. I was off everything else and I thought it would be easy. I started cutting down my pills and was down to only 2 per day. That's only 50 mg. I started to feel that ice in my bones again and thought, you know, if I didn't know any better, I'd say I was having withdrawal symptoms. Well guess what?? I was right!

Tramadol is extremely addictive and extremely hard to get off of. They compare it to getting off Heroin.

This is a quote on the symptoms:

"The atypical withdrawal symptoms are probably related to tramadol's effect on serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake. Symptoms may include those of SSRI discontinuation syndrome, such as anxiety, depression, anguish, severe mood swings, aggressiveness, brain "zaps", electric-shock-like sensations throughout the body, paresthesias, sweating, palpitations, restless legs syndrome, sneezing, insomnia, tremors, and headache among others. In most cases, tramadol withdrawal will set in 12–20 hours after the last dose, but this can vary. Tramadol withdrawal lasts longer than that of other opioids; seven days or more of acute withdrawal symptoms can occur as opposed to typically three or four days for other codeine analogues. It is recommended that patients physically dependent on pain killers take their medication regularly to prevent onset of withdrawal symptoms and this is particularly relevant to tramadol because of its SSRI and SNRI properties, and, when the time comes to discontinue their tramadol, to do so gradually over a period of time that will vary according to the individual patient and dose and length of time on the drug"


It took me seven days to get the zaps in my brain to stop. The pain in my arms and legs was indescribable.

I can only say that if you are on Tramadol, I hope that you're able to get off it so much easier than I.

This is yet another reason why we need to go back to healing with food. You can cure most of the symptoms of Fibro just by increasing your Vitamin D levels. There are several articles out there on healing with food. Here's one I found today.
Your body wants nutrients. These pains are your body's way of saying, HEY STOP IT!

If anyone has questions related to Fibro or how to use nutrition to help heal your body, just reach out. I'm happy to share.