Participants: Agatha Thrash (Host), Justina Thomas, Don Miller
Series Code: HYTH
Program Code: HYTH000205
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00:01 Fibromyalgia is a word that you've probably heard,
00:04 a lot of people tend to have it especially in middle aged women 00:08 and some people think that it is all in the head, 00:11 but for these people, there are some surprises in store so 00:14 I hope you will stay with us as we discuss this rather common 00:17 disorder, fibromyalgia. 00:39 Welcome to Help Yourself To Health 00:41 with Dr. Agatha Thrash of Uchee Pines Institute 00:44 and now here is your host Dr. Thrash. 00:47 There are a lot of symptoms associated with fibromyalgia, 00:52 in fact they are wide spread in the body and sometimes 00:56 the person looking on who does not actually themselves feel 01:00 the symptoms, they think well this probably cannot possibly be 01:04 something that is real, it's probably simply something 01:07 that's just in the head, the person is just thinking these 01:11 things are true when they really are not. 01:13 But there is such a list of things that people can 01:18 suffer from, I'd just like to read some of these for you: 01:21 Can be, of course it's primarily diffuse and rather wide spread 01:28 pain, but with some tender points in certain areas, 01:32 in addition to these tender points, and the tenderness 01:36 all over, there may be fatigue, sleep disturbances, digestive 01:42 complaints of various kinds, bladder complaints of 01:45 various kinds, chronic head aches, feeling not well, 01:51 feeling sensations here and there that are not real, 01:55 hearing things that are not there, or having noises in the 02:00 head, being dizzy or unsteady on the feet, all of these are 02:04 things that people can feel and more, there are many 02:07 other symptoms that people with fibromyalgia may have. 02:11 The disorder is fairly common and for those people who have it 02:20 it's really quite a serious problem, it is not know why it 02:23 occurs but there are some things that are now developing 02:26 because of research that seem to point a finger in certain 02:30 areas so we would like to present some of those. 02:32 The diagnosis is based on the symptoms mainly and the history 02:36 of these symptoms and the treatment is unfortunately 02:40 non-specific, we just treat the symptoms and hope for the best, 02:45 but there is some good news and that is that it does tend to 02:49 sort of burn itself out, so after a few years the person 02:54 does say they are better and they are feeling quite well. 02:58 Now I would like to show you some of these tender points 03:02 and if you will look here at the board you will see these 03:06 points that I have drawn on the board, but then I would also 03:09 would also like to show you these on a person, so I've asked 03:13 Justina Thomas if she would come and help me to show that so 03:19 Justina come and I will let you just face the people 03:26 this way and I will show you where these points are located 03:29 on a real person: They are paired areas in all places 03:34 that you find these in the body, the tender points are paired 03:39 areas, one is right here, so if you push your fingers 03:44 right there for the person and they say ouch! then you've 03:49 probably hit the spot, now right here is another spot, so if you 03:54 press on this area just under the collar bone which is here 03:58 you press right there and the person says ouch!, 04:02 you've probably hit one of the tender spots, then right at 04:05 the elbow, right here and right here, always symmetrical 04:10 if you press in this area and the person says ouch! 04:15 then you've hit one of the spots. 04:17 Now there are two others as you can see at the knee, 04:21 now on back there are four paired spots on the front 04:28 and five paired spots on the back, as in the front 04:34 there are two on the neck high up, here is the base of the 04:38 skull right here and just below that on the neck there are two 04:42 points, then going out a little way on the shoulder, right here 04:47 there are two points, that feel tender? 04:49 - Yes! - She has it, and then 04:54 there are two other that are right here, 04:56 does that feel tender? - Yes! 04:59 Ok! She's probably got it, now to find this other one, 05:03 it's done simply this way, put your hands on the waist 05:06 and then just about just about the extent of your thumbs 05:09 if you just reach down like that you will find some little 05:13 dimples on the skeleton there and it's where those little 05:19 dimples are that you have the problem, then just under the 05:22 buttocks on the edges of the thighs you will find the other 05:26 tender spots, now fortunately Justina does not have the 05:31 problem but these are the spots that you can check, 05:37 just rub them or press on them and if you illicit pain and the 05:42 person has generalized pain and some of these other problems 05:46 then that may be helpful to make the diagnosis of 05:49 fibromyalgia, thank you Justina! 05:52 Now as I mentioned there are numerous research projects 05:57 going on, on this very baffling problem of fibromyalgia 06:03 and one of those has to do with digestive problems and 06:07 Dr. Don Miller who is here with me today, he is going to 06:13 tell you about one of these digestive complaints that 06:17 may have some pay dirt in establishing what this 06:22 disorder is, Dr. Miller! 06:25 - Yes, there are a lot of nice studies coming out. 06:27 This is from the annals of rheumatic disease, it says 06:32 in association between irritable bowel syndrome and small 06:35 intestinal bacterial growth has been found. 06:38 So IBS or irritable bowel syndrome which I'm going to 06:42 talk about right now could be associated with small intestine 06:48 bacterial overgrowth, let's go to the next one, 06:52 this comes Cedars of Sinai UCLA School of Medicine, 06:55 evidence that inflammatory bowel disease or Irritable Bowel 06:59 Syndrome could be associated with fibromyalgia. 07:04 Now we say that fibromyalgia could be associated with 07:08 Irritable Bowel Syndrome which could be associated with 07:10 small intestine bacterial overgrowth, so these could be 07:15 a causal link right here. 07:17 There is another study that came out as far as symptomatic 07:22 trying to see if there is symptoms here for 07:25 Irritable Bowel Syndrome, 92% of the people with IBS 07:29 have bloating, if you constantly feel bloated there is a good 07:33 possibility that you have Irritable Bowel Syndrome. 07:36 Of course we find that things in our intestinal tract can 07:40 certainly cause this type of bloating, now there are some 07:43 symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome that we 07:45 need to look at, there is basically three different types: 07:48 1. There are people with constipation that is accompanied 07:51 by pain, and of course I would say most people are chronically 07:56 constipated just because of the life styles that we have, 07:59 but constipation with pain normally constipation does not 08:02 have pain until we try to pass the stools, but we are talking 08:05 about constipation and constant pain. 08:08 2. Then there is alternating between diarrhea and 08:12 constipation, normally the diarrhea will come upon first 08:16 rising and at breakfast time and then the rest of the day 08:19 will be constipation, if you are following this pattern 08:22 good chance that you have Irritable Bowel Syndrome. 08:26 3. Then there is painless diarrhea accompanied by mucous. 08:30 So if you seem like you always have diarrhea and there seems 08:33 to be a lot of mucous in your stools then it could be a sign 08:37 that you have Irritable Bowel Syndrome. 08:40 There are other symptoms there, we have gas, of course gas 08:45 could be formed by many different things in our dietary, 08:48 our very lifestyles, if you find that every once in awhile 08:51 you have gas, the best way to find out what is causing my gas 08:54 is do what we call, keep a food diary, every time you have a 08:59 meal you write down what you eat and then you start 09:02 writing down symptoms. 09:03 If you have a symptom that every once in awhile you have, 09:05 write down the symptom, write down what you are eating until 09:09 you see a pattern developing, it seems like every time I eat 09:13 peanuts I start itching the next day, and if you find that 09:18 pattern, then apparently your problem is peanuts, 09:20 or your problem is beans, or greens or something else, 09:22 find out what it is. 09:24 A person with IBS will often be nauseated, this is something 09:29 going wrong in the stomach and in the intestinal tract 09:32 can cause nausea, bad breath, we realize that if you have 09:36 mal-digestion things going on in the intestinal tract, 09:41 it's going to back up and you will start to smell it 09:44 through the breath, bloating, weakness, appetite loss, 09:47 even faintness, all are signs of Irritable Bowel Syndrome. 09:51 Usually it appears between the ages of 20 and 50, women have it 09:57 about twice as much as men do for some reason, and about 10:02 one fifth of the Americans have this particular problem 10:05 so it is not an uncommon problem and there are some 10:08 simple things that you can do for Irritable Bowel Syndrome 10:10 and if that's associated with fibromyalgia then this is the 10:13 tract we want to take to try to take care of it. 10:15 The reason why you have the sometimes diarrhea and sometimes 10:22 constipation is a spasmodic contraction of the colon, 10:26 if it goes to fast you are going to have diarrhea, if it goes 10:31 to slow you are going to have constipation because the purpose 10:32 of the colon is to take up moisture and prepare it for 10:37 exiting the body and so a spasmodic, sometimes it is 10:41 going to fast, sometimes it is going to slow, you are going to 10:44 have your diarrhea and constipation going 10:47 back and forth. 10:48 So what can you do to treat Irritable Bowel Syndrome? 10:51 Since it said over here in this one particular study that it's 10:55 associated with a bacterial overgrowth and also other things 11:00 growing in the colon, then there are some certain things 11:03 that we can take that are vermicides, that will kill off 11:07 worms, bacteria, funguses, and other things growing in 11:12 our intestinal tract. 11:13 Let me just read some of these I'm going to read them rather 11:16 slowly because if you think you have this problem and let's 11:19 go beyond this problem, let's go to where you are going to be 11:23 traveling in another country where you might pick up a bug 11:25 that you don't want to have or you might have some type of 11:29 intestinal parasites from whatever reason, if you have 11:33 pruritis ani, you are always scratching at the anus or 11:36 other things, it could be a sign and so here are some of the 11:39 things that you can take to help purge these things from 11:43 your system: Aloe Vera is very good, you can take it in 11:46 a number of forms, you can go to the store and buy some 11:49 Aloe Vera liquid and drink it that way, I like to just take an 11:54 Aloe Vera plant, I've got a bunch of them growing on my 11:57 window sill in my office, I'll take a whole leaf off, 12:01 cut it, cut the little spines off, wash it off, I'll drop the 12:04 whole thing into a blender along with a banana and some pineapple 12:08 juice and whiz that up and it makes sort of a chiffon 12:11 and so I'm getting my Aloe Vera juice in a very pleasant way. 12:14 Worm-Wood, now I'm going to mention a few herbs here that 12:18 are extremely good I would not travel over seas without these 12:21 things, Worm-Wood is one, another on is Echinacea, 12:25 Goldenseal, these are very common herbs in America, 12:29 Goldenseal is extremely expensive but get some, 12:32 have it on hand, cloves, now we don't recommend you eat 12:36 cloves all the time because they are a spice and can be 12:38 irritating to the intestinal tract, but it's very good for 12:42 expelling things that should not be growing there. 12:45 Burdock, another extremely good vermicide is Black Walnut, 12:51 I usually buy it in a tincture form, if you buy something 12:58 that's been extracted by alcohol I don't recommend you taking it 13:02 just taking the dropper and just putting it into your mouth 13:05 because any alcohol is not good, here's what I do, 13:08 I bring some water to a boil, (a cup of water), 13:11 I pour the water into a cup, I add my extract and let the 13:17 heat dissipate the alcohol, just a few moments and it's all 13:21 dissipated and then you can drink it with perfect safety. 13:24 Grapefruit seed extract, another thing I will not travel without 13:28 when I go overseas, I usually carry a few bottles because 13:31 I usually end up giving it away to other people I find 13:33 along the way, I will add it to all water I drink overseas 13:37 taken from a common source, I try to buy bottled water but 13:41 anyway the GSE, Grapefruit Seed Extract is extremely good for 13:45 expelling these types of things, and establishing a good flora 13:49 in your intestinal tract. 13:50 Pumpkin seeds and figs are very good, another thing is get some 13:56 Diatomaceous Earth, you can buy Diatomaceous Earth, 13:59 capsulize it, or you can buy it in capsules and take this for 14:03 about three weeks, if you have worms or other types of 14:05 parasites, they will eat it and it will cause them to 14:08 disintegrate, very good thing to take and it won't hurt you 14:10 at all. 14:11 Garlic, onion, cabbage and carrots, are extremely good 14:16 they are all high in sulfur, the animals that may be inhabiting 14:20 your intestinal tract don't like them so take those. 14:22 Garlic is extremely good, I go to places in the world 14:27 over there in Africa, I go to this place called Shingoma 14:30 and there is a lot of people living in the area with asthma 14:34 and worms and other things and so I take garlic to them 14:37 and I say plant the garlic, I give them enough to take 14:40 right then and enough to grow so garlic is great to have, 14:44 I would take some garlic drops or some garlic capsules with you 14:48 and extremely good for Irritable Bowel Syndrome. 14:50 Bilberry, tarragon, and Mugwort also are very good as expellers 14:57 of these type of things from your system, so I would 15:00 recommend you take them. 15:01 You can apply heat to the abdomen when you have 15:05 Irritable Bowel Syndrome because it's very good for causing a 15:09 relaxation and taking away the pain, charcoal is very good 15:13 for the gas, now charcoal will take care of the gas but 15:16 find out what's causing the gas and then you won't have to 15:19 take it in the first place. 15:20 Swallowing air, now when do we swallow air, people who drink 15:24 soda's, all that fizziness they are swallowing that, 15:30 it will cause bloating and cause more gas, increase the 15:34 bran and fiber in the diet basically by eating fruits 15:38 and vegetables in their natural state and whole grains and 15:41 drinking plenty of water along with this, and extremely regular 15:46 be on a regular schedule, it's extremely good for Irritable 15:49 Bowel Syndrome, that means that you are eating at the 15:51 same time every day, you are going to bed at the same time 15:53 every day, you are exercising at the same time every day, 15:57 and never eat food before going to bed at night. 16:00 These are some simple things that you can do for Irritable 16:03 Bowel Syndrome, and as you follow these simple steps 16:06 God has promised if we do our part He will do His part, 16:11 so you are praying and if there is something that I haven't 16:13 mentioned ask Him, say Father what else can I do and He will 16:16 give you some simple things to do and if you find out 16:19 something that works for you you call us and let us know, 16:22 an that's pretty much how you found out all the simple 16:25 remedies that you put in all your books isn't it Dr. Thrash? 16:27 - We found a lot that way, I am very happy that there is 16:31 a lot of research now going on to establish the validity of 16:37 very simple things, take the one for fibromyalgia that just 16:41 came out about six or eight months ago about vitamin D. 16:47 Deficiency in vitamin D has a wide spread group of symptoms 16:54 some of them very much like fibromyalgia, so someone got 16:57 the idea, I think it was published in the 17:02 American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and they found that 17:06 by giving people vitamin D they could make a change in the 17:11 symptoms that people have, so then they checked the 17:14 vitamin D levels of all the people that they had, 17:17 all patients who came in with fibromyalgia, they checked them 17:21 for their vitamin D level in the blood and they found that as 17:26 a general class the people with fibromyalgia tend to have 17:30 low vitamin D levels and so what we are now recommending 17:37 is that many people, not just people with fibromyalgia 17:40 but many people get an annual vitamin D level run in the 17:46 blood, it can be very revealing. 17:49 Now there is another one that comes out of Boston, 17:52 also very recently in the Boston University School of Medicine 17:57 did a very nice research project on vitamin D and it's 18:02 relationship to fibromyalgia and found essentially the 18:06 same thing, that giving vitamin D to people with 18:10 fibromyalgia will often improve their symptoms. 18:14 Here is another one that is published in a journal called 18:18 Medical Hypotheses and this one show that chronic 18:24 inflammation can be a problem for people who have 18:29 fibromyalgia, they found that the stress between various cells 18:35 of the vascular tree could release some nitrous oxide 18:41 into the blood and that caused a relaxation but in these 18:46 individuals with fibromyalgia they tended not to have such 18:50 good sheer forces and consequently did not release 18:54 as much nitrous oxide and so they postulated that chronic 18:59 inflammation was a factor so they did some tests that 19:02 revealed that chronic inflammation was going on 19:05 in these people and in the whole class of patients who have 19:10 fibromyalgia and by eliminating inflammation they could improve 19:15 the fibromyalgia. 19:16 Here is another very interesting study that was done with a 19:22 staphylococcus vaccine, what they did was to take the 19:26 staphylococcus and make a staph vaccine then they injected 19:30 it into patients with fibromyalgia and they found that 19:33 giving the vaccine improved a number of things about the 19:38 patient, their ability to neutralize a staph antigen 19:43 greatly improved and they also were able to neutralize a staph 19:51 toxin, that also improved, so while they were doing this they 19:56 discovered that the IGG, the Immune Globulin G was also 20:01 improved in these individuals but not in the controls, 20:06 none of these things were present in the control people 20:09 who were normal but did improve in the people with fibromyalgia, 20:13 so as you can see there are a number of things that are now 20:16 being found and another one of those is an interesting one 20:21 and Dr. Don Miller will talk with you about that right now. 20:25 - Sometimes I read some of these studies and I am absolutely 20:28 amazed at what science is investigating and I wonder 20:32 why did they go down this road but I'm glad they 20:34 went down this road. 20:35 This one from the Journal Of Women's Health, the title of the 20:39 study is asking a question: Use Less Cosmetics, Suffer Less 20:44 From Fibromyalgia, and basically here is one of the premises: 20:49 fibromyalgia patients often complained of dry skin 20:53 and so the person conducting this study hypothesized that 20:58 perhaps it's all this cosmetics and the dry skin and the 21:02 moisturizers could be causing the problem. 21:05 It says here over ambitious cleaning resulting in dry skin 21:10 and regular use of cosmetics as moisturizers could contribute 21:15 to their symptoms. 21:16 So he took a group of women who used make-up and who did not 21:20 use make-up and found out what is the result here? 21:24 After two years in the study here's what he found: 21:27 After two years there was a significant improvement in pain, 21:30 which is one of the major problems in fibromyalgia, 21:33 improvement in sleep, another symptom of fibromyalgia, 21:38 sleep loss, and stiffness, together with better physical 21:43 function and improved well being, something as simple as 21:47 not rubbing the stuff on your face and it could be a real 21:51 good way of not having the fibromyalgia problems Dr. Thrash 21:56 it sounds like a pretty cheap and sane way of doing it. 21:59 - A good way and I'm very happy that we have that one. 22:02 Here is another one that shows that if there is some kind of 22:08 obstruction to the intake of air when one is sleeping, 22:12 that can be associated very closely with fibromyalgia 22:17 and then if they put a machine for positive pressure air 22:22 then they found that these patients greatly improved. 22:25 Here is another one that hooked up some women with fibromyalgia 22:29 to an EEG, an electroencephalogram and they 22:33 found sleep spindles were abnormal in the women with 22:37 fibromyalgia, in fact they might have a decreased number and 22:42 decreased quality of the sleep spindles that are the 22:48 Hallmark of good sleep. 22:50 Another study showed that fibromyalgia might be an 22:55 auto-immune disorder, very complicated study but a very 22:59 nicely done and indicated that it may be associated with or 23:04 actually be an immune disorder. 23:07 Now another thing that Dr. Miller is going to 23:10 talk with you about is one of the Hallmark's of fibromyalgia 23:16 and then I will tell you a few things to do to treat it. 23:20 - Well I'm going to mention one thing that is very good for 23:23 perhaps treating the symptoms and the problems caused by it. 23:27 This was found in the International Journal of 23:30 Psychiatry Medicine, they were trying to study the fact that 23:34 fibromyalgia is often caused by stress, psychological stress 23:40 it's been linked both with the beginning of fibromyalgia 23:43 and the symptoms severity and so they found that people 23:47 who are religious, and here is the conclusion of the study 23:49 right down here at the bottom. These data, the data they have 23:53 in the study suggests that the religiousness of a person, 23:57 the religious spiritual connection with God may have a 24:01 protective effect upon a patient with fibromyalgia. 24:04 There's another thing that you can do as far as perhaps 24:08 diagnosing fibromyalgia, we find that women with fibromyalgia 24:14 urinated eight or more times during the day compared to 24:17 six times for women who do not have fibromyalgia. 24:21 So perhaps there is something about the abnormally high 24:25 frequency in urination that's characteristic feature of 24:27 fibromyalgia so that's just one of the other signs that if 24:31 you have frequent urination during the day and sometimes 24:34 urgency means you've got to go but you can't go very much, 24:37 it could be a sign that it is in fact fibromyalgia. 24:40 - Very good diagnostic feature there, now as to the treatment 24:45 some of these are very nice treatments. 24:48 Here is one that's depressed mood often means that the kind 24:54 of treatment that you are going to give may be a failure 24:57 so the first thing to do is to relieve the depression that 25:02 person feels, and often the fibromyalgia itself makes the 25:06 person depressed, they wonder what is wrong with me, 25:10 people think that I am just putting on, I really don't 25:13 feel good, I'm not lazy I'm sick, and yet they look good 25:17 and they are strong but they just have these disabling 25:23 symptoms, so first correct that and any other kind of treatment 25:29 that you do will be more helpful. 25:32 Then here is one of Spa therapy, I like this one, it almost makes 25:38 me want to have fibromyalgia just to get t do the treatment. 25:41 This was a study done in Turkey, it would be nice to go to a Spa 25:45 and get a treatment at the Spa and enjoy the Spa. 25:50 Here is one swimming, another good treatment, but people with 25:55 fibromyalgia who entered into a swimming therapy, 25:59 they did far better than those who did not do it, and while 26:03 none of these treatment is entirely curative, they do 26:07 help so much that they are well worth the trial to do. 26:11 Here is another study, this was low intensity aerobic exercises 26:16 such as walking, or riding a bicycle at low speed, nothing 26:23 that's exhausting nor debilitating for a person 26:27 who is not well but something that they can easily do and 26:32 the tender points improved and the general tenderness also 26:35 improved quite a lot. 26:36 There is another one that I would really enjoy and that's 26:40 baths in the Dead Sea, that's sounds like a fun thing to do. 26:46 Here is one that is obvious what it would help and that is 26:51 hyperbaric oxygen therapy oxygen given in a chamber that 26:56 is under pressure and that has found to be helpful for 27:00 a number of patients. 27:01 Then here is one that was done in Utah, giving patients Ribose 27:09 which is a sugar that's associated with the energy 27:13 capsules that we make in the body, and this was shown to be 27:18 very helpful in repleating the reserves of energy that 27:24 these people have with fibromyalgia. 27:27 Now again the good news is that fibromyalgia tends to get better 27:34 in a few years, and even if it is all by itself even if it's 27:38 not helped by any of these nice treatments it will still get 27:43 better eventually, so the woman should not be depressed, 27:46 she should not be discouraged, she should do some of these 27:49 exercises and expect that the Lord is going to give her 27:52 complete relief, may the Lord Bless you with relief. |
Revised 2014-12-17