Sorry – the Fibromyalgia Brain Fog is creeping back up on me (drug is wearing off – phooey : ()

Since starting on a drug, Cymbalta, that had recently been approved for the treatment of Fibromyalgia my health has just about been totally restored – which is fantastic!

Plus I was also referred to a dietitian. She assured me that there had been no studies to show that a long term lacto/ovo vegetarian diet could cause nutritional deficiencies. I was soooo relieved. It would appear that in my desperate search for remedies to my rapidly declining health that I had cobbled together bits & pieces of information for all over the place (mainly the internet!). I have now learnt to only trust actual evidence-based info.

I would always rather source my food from less exploitative sources. The massive global demand for fish is one example of such a selfish consumption. Wild fish stocks around the world are being depleted faster than they can reproduce.

I am amazed at how few people actually understand the basics of nutrition (myself included). I have recently switched to a raw vegan diet and am finding it extremely beneficial. My only problem is that i am now having to learn about the foods i put in my body to make sure that i get the right levels of nutrients across the board.

Well, I found an article that described how a vegetarian diet is so high in plant fibre that even though it contains a good amount of magnesium, it is swept too quickly through the gut, before it can be adequately absorbed into the body & especially if your gut is already weak as in IBS (which can be a major symptom of Fibromyalgia). And where I live our soils are naturally deficient in Iodine so the plants are too – hence low Iodine intake. I did have a link for this article but I can’t find it right now.

I tried to post this with links to various studies, but my post was not published. I assume this blog frowns upon external links (which is understandable) so, I can only give you the names of a couple of articles/studies, instead of links, if you are interested in more information:

“Dietary habits and mortality in 11 000 vegetarians and health conscious people: results of a 17 year follow up”, BMJ 1996;313:775-779 (28 September)

“Health benefits of a vegetarian diet” – Proc Nutr Soc. 1999 May;58(2):271-5, which concludes: “The evidence available suggests that widespread adoption of a vegetarian diet could prevent approximately 40,000 deaths from IHD in Britain each year.”

“Trace Elements in Man and Animals–9: Proceedings of the Ninth International Symposium on Trace Elements on Man and Animals”, By Peter Wilhelm Fritz Fischer, National Research Council Canada
Published by NRC Research Press, 1997. See page 181 which states that upon collecting the data from studies on magnesium intake and retention of vegetarian and meat eating persons it was found that the “vegetarian diet has a significantly higher magnesium content (45%)” than adults with mixed diets.

It’s unfortunate that our doctors know so little about nutrition (I assume that’s who told you your diet was the reason for your deficiencies).

“Nutrition counseling–should physicians guide their patients?” – Am J Prev Med. 1994 Sep-Oct;10(5):308-11 concludes:

“This article summarizes the findings of a study initiative under-taken by the U.S. Public Health Service to examine its own role in fostering a more effective education of U.S. physicians in nutrition. The study was completed in response to a congressional request that the federal government examine the need for a more productive government role in this important area. The literature, dating back to the turn of the century, is relatively uniform in its conclusions that U.S. physicians are woefully under-trained in nutrition. The training inadequacy might be dismissed, indeed, has been dismissed by many programs, yet the role of nutrition in promoting health becomes clearer with each passing year. We ask: Will either the government or the medical education community begin to equip our physicians with the knowledge needed to bring nutrition into play as an active therapeutic approach to complement other therapies? ”

Apologies for the length of this post.

Long term vegetarians are often found to be deficient in both Magnesium & Iodine. And people with CFS &/or Fibromyalgia are also often found to be deficient in both magnsium & Iodine too. I may have been going to get one or the other of these conditions BUT by being vegetarian for so long I certainly guaranteed that I did. My body had been stripping magnesium out of my muscles for years & my thyroid had become hyperactive. Out of concern for other bodies I had deprived my own.

Sure anyone can be a vegetarian when they are young just beware the consequences as you grow older.