Can you develop fibromyalgia even if you’re healthy?

[Rachel123]

Igenex or Armin tests are considered good tests. Standard Lyme testing is not at all accurate.

[VirginiaEdie]

There is a blood test for Lyme. I know there are other tick born diseases in Colorado, but I don’t know what their symptoms are. Something to consider?

[SomeGuy]

Are you eating enough? I would imagine that not enough food could cause many of the symptoms you are experiencing. I went through something similar last year and I thought I was suffering from adrenal fatigue. I upped my food intake and felt much better.

Are you getting enough saturated fat? You might try increasing your calorie count by adding some fat to your diet.

I eat COPIOUS amounts of saturated fat. The basis of my diet is fatty ribeye. My total cholesterol is almost 400, LDL around 275. So there’s plenty of energy in the form of fatty acids being shuttled around my body!

@Emacfarland My heart goes out to you… it sure sounds like you’re trying to do everything right and, in the face of divorce, parenthood, work, and other life stresses, you’ve been handed this health challenge knocking you around. Kudos to you for your strength and perseverance.

The reason I quoted these snippets above is that, given everything you’ve shared, I’m still stuck on the “are you eating what your body needs?” question…

It’s clear you are very committed to maintaining your highly fit condition - heck, you’re a trainer. You’re a pro. And that might actually be part of the problem.

How many calories do you typically eat during each day?

It’s possible that either: (a) you’re not getting enough food energy (yeah, calories) to meet your metabolic needs, so your body is grinding to a slower and slower metabolic rate, and/or; (b) you’re not getting the right combinations of food categories that your body needs at this time in your life.

I would ask you to consider doing an experiment on yourself. Cheap and easy: Add 600-800 calories daily to whatever you’re currently eating by adding even more healthy saturated fat (you obviously don’t have a protein problem - perhaps too much protein?). Do this for 7-10 days to see what happens.

Does your energy level improve? Do you feel less banged up? If so, then I believe you’ve begun to get to the bottom of things - it’s diet-related. If not, you haven’t lost anything. Just return to what you were eating before and cross this possibility off the list. And if the very idea of eating more unnerves you, this might be a clue that you’ve created an extreme relationship with eating that is not working to your advantage (or good long-term health).

I’m concerned that, in your diligence to do “everything right,” you’re inadvertently overdoing things to extremes that are beyond what is healthy for you, at least at this particular time in your life. So, how about backing off a bit - eat more and exercise a little less. Then, just see how you feel physically.

After all, if what you’ve been doing isn’t working, it’s time to try something else for a little bit and note the results. N=1.

Best wishes and please keep us posted.

[Emacfarland]

@SomeGuy you are wonderful and insightful and I greatly appreciate such thoughtful feedback. I think I eat enough, at least it seems like I do but of course we are always blind to things others might see more clearly…I have been considering if my strategy for coping with stress- running, physical activity- has started to not work and may in fact be causing deleterious effects on my health. It’s easy to get into the habit of going out and getting the adrenaline pumping and the “Runner’s High” when I’m hopped up on caffeine in the morning and basically numbing out for a while. And then I experience the crash later when all that pounding and tension catch up with me. When I try to sleep and my legs and hips ache all night, there’s this restlessness and pulsing that I feel is an accumulation of physical and life stress. The only thing that eases the ache is to tense my muscles or move my legs which of course isn’t conducive to sleeping…I am type A and high strung and put a lot of pressure on myself. I feel oftentimes like I am white knuckling my way through each day. I horrible at proactively relaxing. So, I think you have some excellent suggestions that I will be trying out. Along with relaxing my eating window and eating more I think I need to modify my activity to something that creates less stress. As hard as that is for me. But the pain and exhaustion I’m feeling is not worth the temporary relief I feel when I’m out pounding the pavement. So there are some changes I can make that might give me the relief I’m looking for, so I can step back and see the big picture and figure out a strategy going forward. I am grateful for your input and the time you took to read and respond!!

[SomeGuy]

I am type A and high strung and put a lot of pressure on myself

… yeah, I kinda’ guessed this might be the case

FWIW, I’ve been running daily for nearly 30 years (late bloomer?). Yeah, it can take a toll on your body - and your mind, if you let it. Wiser not to get too single-minded about such stuff. In recent years, while still relishing my daily cardio, besides switching to treadmill (indoor; easier on the joints), I began rotating days with elliptical and cross-country.

More importantly, if you sense that you’re using exercise as an escape valve, do make sure to evaluate whether you’re pushing too hard. As a professional, you well know there are many benefits to exercise - but all things in moderation and in proper balance.

And while I appreciate that your plate is full, it still wouldn’t hurt to fill it a bit more … with more portions of wholesome food.

[David_Stilley]

When I try to sleep and my legs and hips ache all night, there’s this restlessness and pulsing that I feel is an accumulation of physical and life stress. The only thing that eases the ache is to tense my muscles or move my legs which of course isn’t conducive to sleeping

I dealt with restless limb syndrome for years, prescriptions didn’t help. When I was eating carbs I would get up in the middle of the night with shoulder, bicep and thigh tension that built up until it released in a mini spasm. I would get up and move (like you mentioned) wash some dinner dishes and eat some toast or crackers and my limbs would relax and I would go back to bed again. After I started KETO it pretty much stopped. Sometimes it happens now and I get up and swallow some rock salt and drink a big glass of water and that fixes it. By the way I love salty food and mine is often more salty than others like. But sometimes I still fall a bit short in sodium apparently. Give it a try next time. I hope you start feeling yourself again soon.

[VirginiaEdie]

When I try to sleep and my legs and hips ache all night, there’s this restlessness and pulsing that I feel is an accumulation of physical and life stress. The only thing that eases the ache is to tense my muscles or move my legs which of course isn’t conducive to sleeping

Restless legs is a symptom of magnesium deficiency. I took Mg for years, so when I started keto, I figured I had Mg covered. Over time, I developed heart palpitations, anxiety, and restless legs (the reason I started supplementing Mg in the first place) returned. (I call it the fidgets because it happens later in the day, close to bed time. I just can’t sit still.) I had to up my Mg to 800 mg a day. Palpitations, restless legs, and anxiety went back into remission.

[Emacfarland]

@VirginiaEdie I mentioned above I take magnesium I make sure to cover potassium as well and get plenty of sodium since I’m so active. You’re right though it’s crucial to get enough and most people don’t!

[PortHardy]

I read a large mannual on Fibromyalgia and Myo-Fascial pain.
This is what i learned:

-Its an idiopathic disease process
-It is diagnosed by ruling out other diagnosis
-Criteria for diagnosis includes 12 of 18 points on the body from which pain is commonly experienced in fibro.
-A CRP test or C-Reactive Protein test can show whether you have higher levels of inflammation in the body.
-Treatment for Fibromyalgia symptoms include
Anti-Depressants and Nerve medications such as Lyrica, Cymbalta and Venlafaxine. It dampens nervous system activity to help prevent pain by reducing the bodys ability to mis-fire pain signals
-STRESS and TRAUMA can trigger the ONSET of Fibromyalgia abd is responsible for re-occuring Fibro Flare Ups.
-Most people who have Fibroymalgia, actually had it longer for than they think. It remained dormant in the body until a stressful event or trauma triggered it enough to cause a flare up
-TREATMENT includes: Medication, low impact exercise such as walking or light weights, deep pressure massage therapy that targets the faschia in the muscle, accupuncture, good quality sleep 8hrs+ and nutrition based on eating foods that increase omega 369 while removing foods that are considered inflammatory.

[Emacfarland]

@PortHardy yes, these are my symptoms and I could see that it would be possible for it to have been dormant…the prospect of this being a reality is frightening to me. My mobility is something I value greatly. I think finding a knowledgeable doctor is going to be key for me, because my guy is telling me something is not right

[Camille_Yeager]

Perhaps add even more salt. I have been keto since jan 2018, and added some salt, but it wasn’t until I read Angela Stanton’s book on migraines that I really upped my salt, according to her protocol. Which gave me added energy, and has helped with my migraines. It also helped the aches. good luck!

[Emacfarland]

@SomeGuy for the record I did not start running until I was in my early 30’s, so one positive I suppose is that I haven’t accumulated possible damage decades of pounding the pavement. I was not athletic as a kid! So it was a big deal for me when I started running and actually got pretty fast (at least relatively so for someone my age!). Lately I’ve been running about 30 miles a week plus some other cardio and strength work. So easing up on my activity and upping my eating is a good place to start. What I’m experiencing feels like it is more chronic than acute- like it’s been building rather than just being tired from tough workouts. The headaches and fatigue and aching all over my body tell me something is awry, but rest is definitely in order!

[anon54735292]

FWIW @Emacfarland if I’m not eating enough I will feel a substantial drop in energy long before I feel anything resembling hunger. I can eat in a pretty wide range of energy intake & still feel satiety but if I’m undereating and maintaining exercise levels it’s the energy rather than the satiety that is first to go.

[EierenOP]

I am dx’ed with fibro. I was dx’ed with fibro a few years after getting Lyme. Connection??? Nobody knows… But according to all my blood work I am “perfectly healthy!” and am a healthy weight and perfect blood pressure and so on. Seriously, I think I am one of the few people in this world who walked out of a hospital crying because they were told there was nothing wrong with them.

One thing that was found in all the doctors I went to is that I have laxity in my joints. This is somewhat like Ehlos-Danlos syndrome, though it does not meet the dx criteria for EDS. The running theory is that the loose joints strain the tendons in their efforts to keep the joints “together” and that this strain radiates to the connecting muscles, causing muscular spasicity and the root cause of my myo-fascial pain.

Based on your self-description (very lean, “female” problems, etc.) I wonder if you also have a form of EDS (or subclinical EDS). It might be worth a visit to a physiology doctor to check for how your joints are functioning in connection with your tendons and muscles. All your physical activity may be putting a lot of strain on something physiologically, which then radiates to the symptoms you’re describing. My joint laxity was only caught by the head doctor of a hospital physical therapy department - my rheumatologist who dx’ed my fibro didn’t know anything about it (he just had me try to touch my toes to investigate EDS, very old school…).

Besides doing keto for bowel issues (bloating due to doxy side-effects? fibro? intestinal laxity? I’ve never done well with a high-fiber diet…), I do some specific fibro supplementation. I take 5 grams of magnesium malate a day. I also take 1 gram (yes, gram) of B1 a day. Glucosamine, gelatin, cod oil, and yada yada as well. I also cut up ginger root and put it in the freezer and take a few pieces a day as “pills.” It seems to act like a mild pain reliever for me. [All prescription pain relievers gave me terrible side effects and some landed me in the ER. I do take 25mg amitriptyline every evening to help me sleep, I do recommend that one.] For the muscle spasicity I take Valerian (in the morning, as I’m one of the few people it’s actually stimulating for) and am thinking to add taurine next. I also usually only do gentle exercise, like Tai Chi and walking. I also frequently attend saunas, and every other week I get a back massage at work. Altogether these things keep me on my feet each day, though I do need to make sure I don’t overdo things. Managing the “daily spoons” as some people like to say…

This sort of thing is really frustrating, I know. Especially when you’re already doing everything right. I quickly grew tired of reading the “success stories” of people who got “cured” by losing 100# or adding a tablespoon of coconut oil to their day or whatever. You need to listen to your own body and whatever (maybe really unique!) issues it has.

[Emacfarland]

@EierenOP thank you for your support- right now I’m just feeling frustrated at the whole situation. The fatigue I am feeling doesn’t seem like it should be real, but it is. I don’t want to go down a rabbit hole and feel despair. I still don’t have a clear answer about what’s going on. But I do know I should listen to my gut, and I’m grateful there are people out there that feel similarly, so I know I’m not alone

[DeeCS]

plenty of sodium

Do you actually know how much sodium you’re getting?

[FishChris]

Even with all of Fibromyalgia experience, 33 yrs with it, it’s still impossible for me to say yes or no. I certainly believe it could be possible.
I think Dr’s nowadays are more open the possibility of FM. And they do have a chart that is basically a check list like, do you hurt here… Or here… Do you find it hard to get moving… Etc. And based on your score for this chart, can give a % of likelihood. Mine was pretty high…86% likely.

Anyway, although I don’t know how being healthy to begin with would make any difference getting FM, but I can tell you first hand, that being in good shape will certainly lessen the symptoms ! My FM was totally debilitating for many years, but has been much better for more than 10 years, since losing a bunch of weight, and getting back in shape. NOT cured, and in fact, I don’t even know if that’s possible, but way better

[Kelly_Denton]

That’s very interesting. I have fibromyalgia and degenerative disc disease. I went to tons of doctors in all sorts of fields trying to find out why I was in so much pain daily. I’m 33 now, got diagnosed with fibro when I was 25…found out I had ddd just a couple years before that. Suffered with back pain since I was 19. In the past couple years, I’ve suffered insurmountable pain… I think the answer is diet. I struggle with exercise bc of how much pain I am in. Just feel defeated sometimes. Nobody really understands us people with fibro… or anyone with an invisible illness, for that matter. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. Since giving birth to my son 4 years ago… the pain has just got worse and worse overtime. I struggle even bathing him, as sad as it is to say. I wish the doctors and scientists could come up with a breakthrough in this illness and get us some relief. My heart goes out to anyone in the same battle I’m in. I’ve found this thread really helpful, too.

[SomeGuy]

@Kelly_Denton First of all, welcome to the forum!

It must be extremely challenging to face the pain you’ve described. I wish you every success in finding ways to address your health needs and find the relief you need.

Have you been surfing around this particular forum as someone now exploring a keto diet - perhaps to see if it might alleviate some of the symptoms you’ve been confronting with fibromyalgia?

[Emacfarland]

@DeeCS I don’t measure but I fill empty gel caps filled with Real Salt and take them during the day. And I salt my food well, so my assumption is I get at least 3 or 4 grams…