Partners in Healing

Healthy Eating  organic food in usa Partners in Healing Me and Joel Salatin

Recently I was at The Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund Food Freedom Fest and Business Summit hosted by the Nutritional Therapy Association in the Shenandoah Mountains of Virginia.  A spectacular setting for a fantastic event!!  I got to meet healing professionals from all over the country and I even got to meet a personal hero of mine, Joel Salatin, The Christian-libertarian-environmentalist-capitalist-lunatic-Farmer from Polyface Farm (sorry for the poor quality picture).  There is grass fed beef and other pasture-raised products available in the US mainly due to the efforts of Joel Salatin and people like him.  When farmers raise food that is nourishing, people are able to heal quicker and more completely.

In my book Freedom from Fibromyalgia: 7 Steps to Complete Recovery, one of the biggest pieces of the puzzle I discuss is healing nutrition.  When one is recovering from fibromyalgia, good food is a necessity, but often difficult to acquire, much less prepare.  Now there is a short-cut: Paleo on the Go.  I met the owner of Paleo on the Go, Dave Rohdi, at this same conference.  He takes the high quality food made by farmers that are like-minded with Joel Salatin and makes them into ready-to-eat meals that can be shipped anywhere in the country.

If you are too sick to cook, too busy to cook, or you just don’t want to cook, but you want the highest quality, nourishing food like I make, I think Paleo on the Go is a great option.  While the way I eat is not strictly Paleo, the Paleo Diet is actually fairly close to what I do.  Dave sent me some delicious samples of his food and I was very impressed.  The quality and ingredients were outstanding, they were easy to heat up, and the portion sizes were perfect, just right!

My favorite was the Decadent Fudge, made with just dates, organic raw cacao powder, coconut oil and honey.  No refined sweeteners!  There was enough in the pack I could share with my son and husband too.  My second favorite item was the Elk Burger with Wild Mushrooms.  I was shocked by how tender the meat was.  When I reorder the next thing I want to try is the Thai Chicken Soup-Tom Kha Gai.

Paleo on the Go has a wide variety of foods, even those without nightshades in the Auto Immune Protocol Section (no nuts, seeds, nightshades or eggs).  They also have BROTH!  Real, honest to goodness broth that I am excited to tell you about.  I think the prices are also really fair, about the price you would pay for an entrée at a chain restaurant, but gourmet-quality food.

So here is a great deal if you want to give it a try, use coupon code FIBROLADY at www.PaleoOnTheGo.com for $20 off your first order of $150 or more.  I would love to hear about what you ordered and what you thought of it!

If I Can’t Have Sugar…

Sugar Cravings  If I Can't Have Sugar... sugar cravingIf I Can’t Have Sugar, What Can I Have?

It is my belief through years of trial and error that one of the biggest reasons for pain in fibromyalgia is sugar consumption.  No one wants to hear this and I’m often asked, “If I can’t have sugar, what can I have?”  First, you are an adult, you can do anything you want.  You can continue to do whatever you want, you are the person that faces the consequences.  However, if you are serious about getting out of pain once and for all then it is time to take a serious look at eliminating sugar, and foods that act like sugar.

The Feedback Mechanism

There is a system present in your body called a feedback mechanism which alerts you to sensitivities and allergies to food and other products.  Most people who are symptomatic of fibromyalgia just kind of feel bad all the time and have no idea which food or combination of foods is causing which symptom.  It really is impossible to tell and lab tests are not very helpful with this either.

The first time I tried getting off sugar, I white-knuckled it for about a month.  At that point I was still highly symptomatic with fibromyalgia, but after a short time without the sugar, my pain medication started working better and I was much more comfortable.  However, I was still really craving sugar and after about a month I finally succumbed in a big way. Then I noticed I was in so much pain, especially in my back and shoulders.  I had my feedback mechanism in place!  I could finally see the cause and effect of my diet because I had removed the gunk.

It Doesn’t Have to Be Forever

My suggestion is to try to go one day without sugar.  Just one day and see how it goes. You will probably not notice any significant health improvements, but in this day and age it is actually a really big deal to go one day without sugar.

Next, go one week without sugar.  You don’t have to get fancy, just one week without ingesting obvious sources of sweetened foods.  You will probably start to notice improvements in everything from joint mobility and body pains.  If you are taking pain relievers, you may start to notice them working better.

Finally, set out to go one month without sugar. Once you make that, your feedback mechanism will be firmly in place.  At that point you should be able to gauge how much sugar it takes to start feeling bad.  So in my case, one piece of cheap-quality grocery store cake is enough to hurt my back and give me an immediate headache, so it is actually not tempting at all to turn down cake at a party.

However, one scoop of gourmet ice cream every once in a while seems to have little effect on me other than gaining weight, which although I’m not happy about gaining weight, I’d rather that than be in pain.  So I can have the occasional high-quality treat and not succumb to pain.

There is Help

Like I mentioned it above, the first time I tried cutting out sugar I “white-knuckled” it.  I just went by shear will power.  I don’t suggest that, it is very difficult.  Nine out of ten of the cells in your body are actually not you, they are microbial life forms.  So when you have a sugar craving, it’s not just you, it’s them too!  So to help keep the natives calm, the best way I have found is to flood your system with microbial life that does not crave sugar, with a therapeutic-grade probiotic.  (See the article here on Why You Need a Therapeutic Grade Probiotic.)

Eating other foods rich in probiotic life forms such as raw sauerkraut and beet kvass are also helpful.  For intense cravings, I suggest a chunk of raw cheese.  I also suggest applying magnesium oil every night to head off chocolate cravings.

Finally, a detox bath of 1 cup baking soda and 1 cup sea salt (like Hain’s) is one of the best ways to help your body get into balance.

There are alternatives

If you are avoiding sugar, then you want to be on the lookout to avoid the following ingredients as well because they can set off cravings for sweets:

Nutrasweet

Aspartame

Sucralose

High fructose corn syrup

Sugar alcohols such as Maltitol

Also, avoid super sweet fruit such as dates, grapes, melons, pineapples and figs.  Instead try berries and citrus fruits such as grapefruit.

What you can try is the herb stevia.  It is available in powder or liquid, but I like the organic, least-processed form the best.  It can satisfy a sweets craving without triggering more.

Later, after your feedback mechanism is in place, you can try foods that have unrefined sweeteners to see how they affect you.  Here is a list of some unrefined sweeteners:

Honey

Maple Syrup

Jaggery

Date Sugar

Unfortunately, you may not be able to eat much of any kind of sweetened foods.  I am basically “allergic” to any kind of sweetener.  If I eat sugar, I usually feel the effects pretty quick.  If I eat something with honey or maple syrup, I generally have a little more leeway, but too much too frequently and I feel pain again.  Now, I want to clarify, I am not in so much pain I need to take any pain relievers.  I feel uncomfortable and that is my feedback mechanism letting me know I have overdone it.  If I were to continue, then I would probably see a cascading of negative outcomes and I really don’t want to go there.  I would rather forgo the sweet and live the sweet life!

 

Why You Need a Therapeutic Probiotic

Why You Need a Therapeutic-Grade Probiotic

organic probiotic probiotic Why You Need a Therapeutic Probiotic organic probiotic
All the steps in Freedom from Fibromyalgia: 7 Steps to Complete Recover are important for complete recovery of fibromyalgia and the coexisting conditions, but I get asked often if there was only one thing I could do, what would it be?  My answer is always Step 3: Quickly Begin to Heal Your Gut.  If you heal your gut, then that will eventually make the way for all of the other healing.  (That being said, if you do all seven steps in order it is the fastest, most efficient way to heal from fibromyalgia, of which I am aware.)

If you have the symptoms of fibromyalgia, rest assured you have a damaged digestive system (gut).  You more than likely have other issues as well, such as toxicity, but the digestive system is at the crux of most of the issues with fibromyalgia.

Healing your gut is actually a long and slow process which can take years.  The only way I know of to jump-start the healing process is to use a therapeutic-grade probiotic at high levels for an extended period of time (thirty to ninety days or more)  This, combined with a simple no-fake-food diet, and a detoxification element such as zeolites, is what we call The Healing Cleanse.  (You can find in-depth information about this process in Freedom from Fibromyalgia: 7 Steps to Complete Recovery.)

Probiotics fortunately are receiving mainstream attention and now you can buy them everywhere.  I remember trying the yogurt and the various “pearls” all to no avail.  So what’s the difference between foods such as yogurt and raw sauerkraut, supplements you can buy in stores, and the supplement that saved my life?   Foods are great for maintaining gut health, while probiotics at the store are just not very strong because they do not contain multiple strains of beneficial microbes that colonize like therapeutic-grade probiotics do.

 

Features to Look for in a Therapeutic-Grade Probiotic:

  • Several strains of beneficial microbes such as:
  • Lactobacilli
  • Bifidobacteria
  • Beneficial yeast strains such as Saccharomyces boulardii
  • (antagonist to the pathogenic yeast Candida albicans)
  • Colonizing
  • Organic
  • Free of gluten
  • No GMOs, artificial coloring, flavorings, or preservatives Every batch tested

Therapeutic Grade Probiotic probiotic Why You Need a Therapeutic Probiotic prescript assist probioticThe brand of therapeutic grade probiotic I use is SH FermPlus Pro.  (I use a maintenance amount daily and a few times a year I do a “detox” for a period of time.)  This is the probiotic I consider to have saved my life, and I know a lot of others that feel the same way about it.

If for some reason you cannot use SH FermPlus Pro, perhaps maybe there is an ingredient in it you are allergic to, then my second choice is Prescript Assist.  It is available in chewable tablets or capsules.  (SH FermPlus Pro is only available in a powder that needs to be mixed in water.)  I give the Prescript Assist chewable tablets to my child who is too small to take capsules, and I use the capsules while traveling.

The main point is to address healing of the gut.  If you would like more information on this subject, get my free eBook, Lose Up to 15 Pounds in 30 Days Without Exercising, Starving or Stressing (by signing up for my newsletter) and see the section on “The Healing Cleanse.”  Feel free to contact me, Leah McCullough, at www.TheFibroLady.com or at The Fibro Lady on FaceBook and Twitter. This video also explains the difference. Once you begin this process, there are ways to maintain a healthy gut. You may have to seriously consider what you eat and drink. When you are ready, please visit the site, check out the recipes and sign up for my newsletter, which will give you great ideas for continuing to heal and take your life back!

Pets for Fibromyalgia

Why Do Many Chronicly Ill Patients have Pets?

Pets & Fibromyalgia pets Pets for Fibromyalgia Annie and LeahI get to talk to people every day that have a chronic illness of some kind.  When talking about comfort measures, an often overlooked one is pets.  When I was severely ill with fibromyalgia and its coexisting conditions I had several pets that meant the world to me.  They were part of my family and my link to the world.

I lived in a two-story house and I had to go down both flights of steps to let the dogs out into the yard.  Some days it was all I could do to get up and down those steps to let them out.  I was actually wishing for a one level house, which, ironically now that I’m well, I now live in.  But going up and down those steps, and letting them outside and interacting with them, was part of the bridge that kept me in this world.

It can be very difficult for “normal” people to understand how isolating it is to have a chronic illness.  In my case, I lost my job, I lost most of my friends; my family relationships were strained, and at the worst points, the only “social” interactions I had were with health care providers.  I wasn’t shopping, going to restaurants or going to movies.  I felt like an elderly shut-in person, which is awful for anyone but, for an outgoing and friendly person such as myself, that is even more terrible.

There were times when I was so depressed and in so much pain that the only things that kept me in this world were my husband, my parents and my pets.  My sweet little pets were my non-judgmental friends that were a great comfort to me.  Petting and interacting with them was a tangible way to get some much needed social and emotional stimulation.  I was very fortunate that my husband was able to take care of the litter boxes and take the dogs for a walk.  The only thing I could do with them was let them out into our fenced back yard, as I mentioned above.

When I started to recover, my fur babies were right there with me.  In the mornings I would get up to spend some time with my husband before he left for work.  Normally, after he left, I would go back to bed, and sometimes that would be the best sleep I could get.  As I started to recover, I started sleeping normally and I didn’t have to lay down in the morning.  After my husband left in the morning, the gang would start trotting down the hall to the bedroom, but when I didn’t follow they got confused.  This was one of the signs for me that things had really changed.

Be Fibro Free pets Pets for Fibromyalgia Issy and Leah 2One of the more “impossible” things I thought could never happen was horseback riding:  I was too heavy, my boots wouldn’t fit because my feet had grown, and my knees were shot.  Much to my surprise, after I lost 70 pounds, my feet and calves shrunk so much that my from college fit again and my knees didn’t hurt anymore.  I began taking riding lessons again and after an over 20 year hiatus I was shocked how my body remembered to ride.  It was wonderful!

I have been so well for over seven years now so all those precious pets have now gotten old and passed away.  We wanted to wait awhile before we got any more pets, but the house didn’t feel like a home without a dog and a cat.  After our last cat died we only waited three months before we got our new cat Mitzi, and after our last dog died we only waited five months before we got our new dog, Annie.

What types of comfort measures have you taken that have worked to alleviate the social and emotional isolation that having a chronic illness makes?  Also I would love to see a picture of your fur babies, preferably with you!

What Do You Call a Man with Fibromyalgia?

Do men get Fibromyalgia? man with fibromyalgia What Do You Call a Man with Fibromyalgia? man with chronic fatigueAs the disease of fibromyalgia gets to become more and more common, the people who are diagnosed with it become broader.  It used to be only middle-aged women were diagnosed with FMS.  Men were diagnosed with fibro only a little more often than they were diagnosed with breast cancer.

Why?  My theory about how fibromyalgia begins, which is due to toxicity, is that people manifest disease in different ways.  If you take five people who smoke a pack of cigarettes every day, even though they have been given the same toxin, they will generally have different results:  one will have lung cancer, one will get emphysema, one will get heart disease, one will have seemingly unrelated diabetes, and one will have no problems and die in a helicopter crash at the age of 98.  Obviously these outcomes are for an example only, but the fact remains that we are all unique individuals and we react differently to toxins.

I learned from the biologist Rik Deitsch that people generally fall into one of two groups, when exposed to toxins their bodies either excrete them or hold onto them.  For some reason, people with fibromyalgia seem to hold onto to toxins.  So maybe a lot of men excrete the toxins and never develop a disease like fibromyalgia to begin with.

Also, a man with fibromyalgia may have been diagnosed with something else such as Chronic Fatigue (with pain) or Gulf War Syndrome if they served in the first Persian War.  (Because I am a veteran, and I also served during the first Persian Gulf War, I know a lot about this topic first-hand.)  Also, fibromyalgia is still by some medical professionals to be a “made up disease” even though the symptoms and pain are very real.  And lastly, the disease of fibromyalgia mimics other diseases and men may have other issues such as a back injury that camouflages it.

However, more and more men are being diagnosed with fibro and it is no longer seen as just a disease for middle aged women.  Unfortunately, fibromyalgia falls into the categories of the fastest growing forms of disability in the USA, (http://apps.npr.org/unfit-for-work/).  And, not only are more and more men being diagnosed, but people that are younger and younger, even children.

The good news is people all over the world are recovering from fibromyalgia.  My friend in Australia, Dan Neuffer, (CFSUnravelled.com) documents on video peoples’ accounts on how they have recovered from fibromyalgia and other diseases such as Chronic Fatigue.  He wrote a book about his own healing experience called CFS Unravelled: One man’s search for the Cause of Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and the Discovery Essential for You To Recover and it is available on Kindle.  (My interview with him will be out on his website soon and I will keep you posted when that happens.)

My greatest wish if for all people, regardless of gender or age, to reclaim their health and enjoy life.

Who is Buying Freedom from Fibromyalgia?

 

how to recover from fibromyalgia  Who is Buying Freedom from Fibromyalgia? Fibromyalgia recovery bookBelieve it or not, a lot of people who buy the book Freedom from Fibromyalgia: 7 Steps to Complete

Recovery don’t have fibromyalgia.  Some people buy it for the nutrition information, some for the story

of my recovery, and some for the recipes.  However, the vast majority of people who purchase the book

who do not have FMS, buy it for someone they care about that has fibromyalgia.  It is such a beautiful

thing for me to see the love in their eyes as they think about the person they care about and purchase

the book.

You may not realize how much you are thought about, cared for and loved by those around you.  I know

a lot of folks with FMS are hesitant to spend $30 on themselves for a book, but these folks who love you,

happily invest the money.  Most people feel so helpless, they jump at the chance to give their

loved ones some hope.  Witnessing this has been such an unexpected blessing.  Honestly, it is one of the

best parts of my job!

 

In the spirit of gift-giving, use the promo code MAY15 if you are purchasing the book as a gift (for yourself or a loved-one…after all you should love yourself!)

Yours in Joyful Health,

Leah

 

Two Fibromyalgia Articles Just Published

Whole Living Journal  Two Fibromyalgia Articles Just Published Screen Shot 2015 01 16 at 7It is an honor to contribute to publications about health and nutrition. One recent article was released in the January/February 2015 Issue of the Cincinnati, Ohio-based magazine Whole Living Journal. It is a very personal essay, my story. To read it, view the January/February 2015 Whole Living Journal online  and find the article on page 19.

Kelly The Kitchen Kop  Two Fibromyalgia Articles Just Published Screen Shot 2015 01 16 at 7

The second article was out January 13, 2015 on the fantastic natural food blog of Kelly the Kitchen Kop.  I met Kelly in November at The Weston A. Price International Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana.  We hit it off immediately!  This article is Fibromyalgia Symptoms Causes and Total HEALING: Recovery IS Possible! The discussion here is already amazing!  Feel free to join in.

I am busy working on getting the message out that fibromyalgia recovery is possible.  I’ll keep you posted about any more articles as they come out.  If you have a question you would like for me to address or an idea for an article, contact me or connect on Facebook or Twitter!

 

 

Yours in Joyful Health

Lea