Improving Fibromyalgia Symptoms With An Elimination Diet

The biggest lesson I have learned from my experience with elimination diets is that food can help and hurt your body. For so many years I have used food to fulfill my emotional needs. I should have realized how vital food is for my body as well. Although, I don’t claim to have a cure for fibromyalgia. I do however have some tips on improving fibromyalgia symptoms with an elimination diet.

What Is The Purpose Of An Elimination Diet

An elimination diet is a process you can go through eliminating certain foods and then strategically re-introducing those foods one by one. This makes it easier to determine what if any foods are causing you pain. If you want more information, I explain in more detail in my article How To Get Started On An Elimination Diet. Ideally in the end, you permanently stop eating the foods that gave you a reaction.

Here are some tips to get you started:

• Plan – this includes meal planning and preparing your kitchen.
• Seek Support – ask family and friends to participate with you.
• Buy only what you need – by planning your meals out, you can save money and time.
• Document – keep track of what you are eating. Especially keep track during re-introduction.
• Allergy testing – jump-start your journey by doing a hair intolerance test. I used 5 Strands Affordable Testing. This will tell you what level of intolerance you may have for certain foods.

Benefits of an Elimination Diet

Everyone is going to have different reactions to different foods. My journey was remarkable and I experienced many benefits. I do want to stress that I went through this process under a physician’s care. Here are the benefits I experienced:

• Less Inflammation and pain: The number one benefit was less pain. I have a feeling that the lack of sugar had a lot to do with this lack of pain. It wasn’t something I noticed right away either; it took some time.

• Clearer Skin: This was a surprise but a very welcome one. In my article on Fibromyalgia and Rashes I talk about how even my hair follicles get inflamed. Cleaning up my diet with an elimination diet also cleared up the inflammation in my skin. No longer did I get rashes or itchy bumps on my skin and scalp.

• More Energy: I started realizing I had more energy throughout the day. I also feel like this had a lot to do with not eating sugar. In addition, all the extra nutrients I was consuming through fruits and vegetables only helped my situation.
• Weight-Loss: I didn’t do this diet to lose weight and I really didn’t expect it at all. However, I ended up losing thirty pounds overall. I felt so much better, so much lighter than I had before I started.

Will an Elimination Diet Improve My Fibromyalgia Symptoms?

I have tried so many of the “fibromyalgia medicines” that is out there. None of it helped enough to be worth the side effects I went through. That is when I turned to holistic methods and looked at my nutrition. Currently, there isn’t enough research on fibromyalgia to even fully understand the cause much less a cure. In no way am I saying improving your nutrition will cure your fibromyalgia. What improving your nutrition can do is improve your overall health. By improving your overall health you may be able to gain more control over your fibromyalgia symptoms.

I have found that by managing my stress, improving nutrition and daily exercise I can better control my fibromyalgia flares. Of course, the minute one of those things gets out of control I am on damage control. This is where I am currently, sadly. I let my nutrition get out of control during the holidays and the pain and fatigue I have been experiencing has been exponential.

Finding Support During An Elimination Diet

I have started a facebook private group to help educate and support those trying to make healthy eating a lifestyle. Feel free to click the link and join. I have partnered with 2 other health coaches to provide quality content and support for free! If you are interested in receiving health coaching please visit my wellness empowerment coaching page for more information.