Ask the Doc

Causes of Fibromyalgia?

 

Q: Dr. Moulas, what is the true cause of fibromyalgia?

 

A: Fibromyalgia is a disease that has multiple causes. In the research studies that have been completed on fibromyalgia patients, several major theories have come to light.

 

The first is that there has been an injury to the neck or upper spine, which triggers fibromyalgia by affecting the central nervous system. Another is that psychological stress is the cause. It’s even possible that disturbed sleep patterns for long periods of time can trigger the disorder. If your true cause is any of these, we can start making a difference in small increments right now, today!

 

Physicians don’t have a method of determining what is YOUR true cause of fibromyalgia, so we’re waiting for technology to come up with some valid tests. In the meantime, we already have solutions for injury to the neck or upper spine: chiropractic and healing the body from within. We already have solutions for reducing psychological stress. And we already have solutions for disturbed sleep patterns. Some of these solutions are in this report. All you have to do is embrace them! Get going on using them and your body will get going with the healing!

 

Protein and Headaches

Low blood sugar from not enough protein in the meal

or in the diet causes headaches.

 

Many people believe that it’s not a good idea to eat red meat, so they eliminate it from their diet. Grass-fed red meat is an excellent source of nutrients, including omega-3 fats that prevent headaches! The problem is that when many people eat less meat, they don’t substitute other protein foods for the red meat. Other protein foods include fish, chicken, turkey, wild meats, eggs, cheese and dairy products.

 

If you don’t have enough protein in a meal, your body cannot repair itself. Without enough protein in a meal, the composition of that meal is primarily carbohydrates and fat. And we already know what too many carbohydrates in a meal can do: cause a headache!

 

Make sure you eat some form of protein at every meal. Even adding one or two eggs for breakfast can change your life and your headaches! See how good your day goes when you have enough protein! Eat at least three ounces (about the size of a computer mouse) at each meal and you’ll have the minimum amount you need each day.

 

Low Blood Sugar

Carbohydrate foods are foods such as breads, pasta, cakes, cookies, candy, muffins, rice, beans, whole grains, tacos and tortillas. Starchy vegetables such as peas, corn, potatoes, acorn squash, and other winter squashes also contain high levels of carbohydrates. Milk products are another good source.

 

It’s okay to have carbohydrate foods in your diet, but limit them to a maximum of three or four servings per meal. Some people must limit them to one or two to become headache-free. Watching your diet for the number of carbohydrates eaten in any one meal can be a big revelation into why you have headaches. Too many carbohydrates cause headaches by raising insulin levels that lower blood sugar too fast and also increase inflammation in the body. 

 

Here’s an example of too many carbohydrates in a meal:

Oatmeal with raisins, orange juice, a muffin, and an apple.

 

You may think that the oatmeal meal is a healthy meal but it contains too many carbohydrates. The headache-free breakfast would be oatmeal with milk and an apple. You could even add an egg to this new meal.

Chemicals and Headaches

Very clever researchers discovered that certain chemicals, especially MSG added to Chinese food is a strong headache trigger in many people.

 

Foods that contain MSG might not necessarily list “MSG” or “monosodium glutamate” on the label. Instead, you’ll see: hydrolyzed vegetable protein, natural flavorings, sodium caseinate, yeast extract, hydrolyzed yeast, autolyzed yeast, hydolized oat flour, calcium caseinate, hydrolyzed plant protein, hydrolyzed protein. Protein isolates of any type may contain MSG, even soy protein. If you eat processed foods, it will be rare for you to see a label without one of these! Every fast food chain uses it in their food ingredients!

 

You may lose to gain. What I mean by this is that you may lose your present life in the meal department to gain a headache-free life. What you gain is learning how to cook and prepare foods from scratch. You gain the freedom to do things you couldn’t do before and you can do them without restriction. You gain the affection lost by family members who didn’t understand your headaches.

 

In a few months, you will have adapted so much to your new diet, that your family and friends will want to come over to see what you’re cooking that tastes so good! Natural foods cooking is different than what it was like a decade ago. It’s easier to find cookbooks, share recipes, and find near ready-made alternatives at the health food stores and whole food superstores.

 

Nutrasweet and aspartame are unnatural sugars synthesized in the laboratory. There have been thousands of reports about headaches and even brain tumors linked to aspartame

Bad Sleep Habits And Headaches

Sleeping on your stomach or with your pillow bunched up is a sure way to a headache. What happens is that your neck becomes twisted for long periods of time as you sleep, putting pressure on the nerves, blood vessels and vertebrae in your cervical (upper) spine. That pressure sends messages to the brain that there’s something that needs to be addressed, and a pain signal is sent to your head. Presto! You have a headache and your neck hurts as well.

 

The solution is sleeping on your back with a pillow that supports your neck fully. You may also sleep on your side, but check with us at the office about the proper sleeping position that won’t create headaches. If you bring in your pillow to our office, I’ll check it to see if it’s part of the reason you have headaches. For example, a pillow that is too thin or too fluffy will contribute to headaches because it doesn’t support the cervical curve in your neck. The cervical curve is a natural S-shaped curve in your neck. If the pillow is too flat, that pillow flattens your cervical curve. If the pillow is too fluffy, it exaggerates your cervical curve.

 

In the past 20 years, chiropractic physicians have used a complete range of cervical pillows to fit the necks of those who are young and old.

 

Headache Advice

When you have a headache, nothing seems right. The sooner you feel better, the sooner you can get back to life as usual.

 

Headaches can result from many causes, some serious and some not as serious. As your chiropractic physician, I’ve already done everything to insure that your headache is not the result of serious disease. I have set up a treatment plan for you that I believe will help us address the root of your headaches once and for all. My goal for you is for you to be headache-free within six months. Many of my patients begin their headache-free life a lot sooner than that and they do it with my home care recommendations.

 

What chiropractic physicians, medical doctors, nutritionists and herbalists have discovered in the last ten years is that the reason why many people have headaches is that there are some personal habits and diet habits that contribute greatly to causing headaches. Have you ever noticed that sometimes after a very heated argument, you get a headache? One trigger for headaches is stress.

 

Have you ever noticed that sometimes after eating a nice dinner with a glass of wine, you get a headache? You may not have felt any stress during that dinner and everything was going very well when a headache appeared out of nowhere that sent you to bed early. Your night was ruined. This type of headache can be caused by diet, and even though every headache sufferer does not get diet-induced headaches, the great majority do. That’s why part of your home care recommendations will be to monitor and alter your diet.

 

There are many different Headache Diets you can find online and all of them are different from each other. Some eliminate monosodium glutamate (MSG), others eliminate aspartame, and others eliminate tyramine. These diets have ignored some basic facts. What I’ve found is that there are certain dietary principles to follow that will address most of these – the MSG, aspartame, and tyramine simultaneously. Start here, and after you get these mastered, we can go further with individual diets later.

 

As a headache sufferer, what’s important for you is to make a commitment to start noticing the little things in your life that are contributing to your headaches. Today starts your personal journey into a headache-free life.

 

As your chiropractic physician, I will alert you to all types of possible headache triggers that you can control in this home care manual. I’ll continue your chiropractic treatment and with both of us working together, your headache-free life is right around the corner! Have hope and take action and we will both see results!

 

Your Posture

Your spine is the central support structure of your body. Your spine carries the neurological lifeline from your brain to all the other parts of your body. Your health really depends on the flow of energy through an unrestricted nervous system. When your spine suffers, your overall health can suffer too. When you respect your spine by taking good care of it, your spine will serve you well by offering its strength and flexibility for a long time to come.

 

Here are my two top recommendations for taking care of your spine:

 

1. Be ergonomically correct when you sit at a desk, stand, bend or reach. “Ergonomically correct” is a fancy term for body posture that doesn’t cause stress to your body.

 

For example, which three of these postures do you think would be ergonomically correct:

1. Sitting with your legs crossed at the knees.
2. Sitting with your legs crossed at the ankles.
3. Bending straight over to pick up a box with knees locked for support.
4. Bending over to pick up a box with knees bent.
5. Standing in a crowd with your weight centered on one leg for a long time.
6. Standing in a crowd with your weight centered over both feet with your shoulder, back and head centered over your spine.

 

The answer is b. d and f.

 

             

 

            Here’s how I remember how to stand correctly while lifting something heavy or

just standing for long periods of time: I think to myself, “Brace yourself!” What

I mean by this is that if I’m reaching down into the crib to pick up a baby, I must

get ready for the act of lifting by bracing myself. I brace myself by bending at the

            knees and keeping the weight as close to my body as I can. The farther the baby is

from my body, the more I’m at risk of injury.