What the Experts Won't Tell You About the Relationship Between Fibromyalgia and Diet in the Elderly

Many doctors tell their elderly patients suffering from fibromyalgia to take expensive prescription medications, but you can treat fibromyalgia or completely eliminate it from your body through diet and exercise alone. A link exists between fibromyalgia and diet, this has been proven by medical science, but did you know that your diet can help to drastically reduce your symptoms without medication.

A fibromyalgia diet is not a rigid diet that needs a total change of eating habits but rather subtle changes to your eating habits that can help you to reduce the symptoms of fibromyalgia. The first way that you can use diet to reduce the effect of fibromyalgia is to eat small meals every two or three hours instead of consuming three large meals throughout the day. This helps to keep your metabolism high constantly and also increases your energy levels and results in a decrease in the symptoms of fibromyalgia.

Any elderly sufferer of fibromyalgia should avoid consuming foods high in caffeine or sugar since they cause spikes in metabolic and energy levels. This spike (and the consequent trough) in energy levels and metabolic rates can help to increase the pain and aches associated with fibromyalgia, so it is best to avoid them.

One of the most significant findings of recent fibromyalgia research is that an imbalance in the amount of complex carbohydrates consumed by the patient causes an increase in the symptoms of fibromyalgia. To help to reduce the effects and aches of fibromyalgia, the sufferer should ensure a balanced intake of complex carbohydrates as well as making sure they consume enough protein from both plant and animal sources. This can help to drastically reduce the aches and pains in the joints as well as helping to subdue the body pains that occur in most of the elderly sufferers of fibromyalgia.

Another way that you can change in your diet to help lessen the effects of fibromyalgia is to vary the types and proportions of foods that you eat. Many people assume that certain types of foods are healthy while others are not, this could not be further from the truth. Simply put eating a lot of any food will cause some sort off health problems, any diet high in fruits and vegetables and low in fat can help you to alleviate your fibromyalgia symptoms.

Many elderly patients suffering from fibromyalgia also make the critical mistake that plagues almost 80% of all elderly sufferers; they don't check to see if a particular food is making their symptoms worse. Some foods that are high in certain oils, fats and sugars often cause an increase in the symptoms of fibromyalgia and the patients needs to be observant and check to see if any foods that are being consumed are making the symptoms better or worse and adjust their lifestyle to the findings.

Fibromyalgia can be treated successfully in the elderly and diet may be even more effective than medication in reducing the effects of this disease.

References
1. http://www.webmd.com/fibromyalgia/guide/fibromyalgia-the-diet-connection
2. http://www.prohealth.com/library/showarticle.cfm?id=3425&t=cfids_fm
3. http://www.nfra.net/fibromyalgia_diet.php