Fibromyalgia! ..... (BIG word!)

Got a new client with Fibromyalgia today. It's a serious issue, causing Chronic Fatigue, disturbed sleep, adrenal fatigue, severe pain in most joints, large inflammatory response throughout the body, chemical imbalances, gut and immune system dysfunction....... Not good! It's estimated that 2.7 million people suffer with this (ref Publications.Parliment 2009).

I want you to read this and see how complicated some clients issue's are. I've been fortunate enough to have worked with a lot of clients in my career and so many people nowdays have serious health issue's. What i thought i'd do for you all is just show you the initial stages of my thoughts, my advice to the specific client, why i'm giving that advice and anything i feel you need to know. Hopefully it gives you a chance to see there's so much more to gym training than biceps curls and bench press. Plus, it gives me a chance to show off and use big words!

This particular clients is suffering with:
1. Chronic Fatigue
2. Very bad sleep
3. Depression
4. Severe pain throughout most joints
5. Worn away right knee cartilage
6. IBS...!!!
7. Bad stomach pains
8. Large amounts of stomach bodyfat (the client feels they have fat too much weight here)
9. Back pain on left side of lower back

(On a personal note, i really feel for the suffering they have and the client was in tears during the consultation)

Physical Static Assessment showed:

1. Stiff right calcanius
2. Right foot arch lower
3. Right hip rotation
4. Left shoulder hip hike
5. Rotoscoliosis (right side higher)
6. Shoulder Protraction
7. Gut distension
8. Forward head posture
9. Atlas subluxation

The client has been advised by the GP and Nutritionist to:

• Do no exercise
• Avoid dairy
• Eat a lot of Vegetables
• Use Soy milk and Soy protein
• Take a Vit D supplement
• Lastly, that the issue couldn't be cured.

Clients Goals:

1. Obviously to reach homeostasis and be Fibromyalgia free
2. Lose weight, reduce stomach bodyfat and tone up.

Now, i can't be bothered to sit here and slam the advice given. Rather focus on trying to be a touch more positive. I have also been provided with current eating plan.

I will not be detailing the exercise program here as it's all individualised to each specific client, and of course i want to protect my clients anonymity. It doesn't matter what the clients issue is, they could have a leg falling off and be walking round in circles! All they want is to lose weight and tone up &, quite honestly, this is something i find very sad about modern society. Very few people put their health first!

So here are my initial thoughts and advice to this client;

• Everything begins with nutritional work. Everything!
• I believe Fibromyalgia to originate in the Gut. Studies show a large overlap between Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and Fibromyalgia. A major finding is a connection involving overgrowth of bacteria in the small intestine producing gases like hydrogen and methane. These gasses cause intestinal bloating and widespread pain in the body by lowering the pain threshold.
• Bin the Soy and slap whoever told you to consume it. Soy promotes estrogen, which blocks T4-T3 conversion therefore lowering metabolism, which leads to hypothyroidism, which leads to weight gain, and gives off the same "tired" symptoms as Fibromyalgia.
• According to Michael Gershon in the book The Second Brain, “70-80% of the bodies immune system is in the GALT system of the gut!”, and problems with the gut are thought to be the first initial causes of a lot of modern diseases such as cancer. So you REALLY want to take care of your gut
• Begin with the 4R gut healing protocol (Remove, Replace, Reinnoculate, Repair). This is in Paul Chek's book " How to Eat, Move and Be Healthy". I'll write about this in more detail in another blog.
• Start on an HCL deficiency protocol to boost Hydrochloric Acid in the stomach which will help ability to absorb nutrients. My client was asked to take Vit D, well what i'm asking is WHY are they deficient in Vit D. Could be because they are not breaking down and absorbing what they are eating. See this links for more here http://www.charlespoliquin.com/ArticlesMultimedia/Articles/Article/27/Maximize_Your_Progress_with_Hydrochloric_Acid.aspx

• For the nutritional work i will be following an entirely natural eating plan. Mostly following the advice given in the book ..... http://www.gutandpsychologysyndrome.com/ .... which goes into detail about how many issue's (such as ADHD, IBS etc) are caused by gut issue's from eating the worng foods for your body. I have also instructed my client to start reading it.
• On this note, immediately stay away from any Gluten or Lactose food groups, and only organic Meat, Vege, Fruit for the next month. A definite no, are sugars and starches as small intestinal bacteria ferment carbohydrates into gas which as i explained above, cause widespread pain.
• A food intolerence test ..... http://www.yorktest.com/en/our-tests/product-information/FoodScan113Programme.html?ProductID=2 
• They have also agreed to run a Adrenal and Hormone profile. Being estrogen dominant inhibits T3-T4 conversion and slows down the metabolism so i want to check whether this is the case. But Cortisol also blocks the conversion of T4 - T3 and running on Cortisol from being chronically stressed can cause some of these symptoms to. Also want to check for any stage of adrenal fatigue because this can also cause Chronic Fatigue.
• Raise Serotonin! This is a biggy! Serotonin can help to stimulate the endorphins which work with sedative receptors that are known to relieve common pain. What you don't do here is take a Serotonin supplement or anti-depressant. You just start with the  pre-cursors to the chemical/neurotransmitter you need. So in this case we are talking L-Tryptophan! Our bodies make Serotonin from 5-HTP, which is made from L-Tryptophan. You can find L-Tryptophan in chicken, turkey, cheese, eggs. Our bodies cannot make enough Serotonin and 5-HTP and most people do not get enough L-Tryptophan as they consume to little meat/protein and too many carbs.

Longer term, we will be looking at reducing stress and helping my client to take more time to themselves as being in a constant Sympathetic Nervous System state places continuous demands on eevry system in the body which will eventually break down

Thanks for getting to the end. I know this topic won't apply to many of you but i appreciate you reading it. Hopefully you can see from here that i do know a thing or 2 about the body but what i want you to see most of all...... is how complicated some clients are and how much thought goes into it. If this client trained with someone who didn't know about this and was then made to do drop sets on Squats, bad-ass Tabata training and basically smashed them in the gym, they'd be made MUCH worse!

The gym is a very small part of looking great, feeling great and being great!

Thanks!
B