The never ending search for a good night’s sleep…If you have fibromyalgia, you know what I’m talking about. I have blogged before about different supplements that can help you get the rest that you need. Dr. Teitelbaum’s recommendations have been my starting place for finding effective sleep supplements.
After a lot of trial and error, I found a concoction that seemed to work: 50 mg 5htp, 100 mg L-theanine, and 3 mg melatonin. This seems to help me fall asleep, stay asleep and get back to sleep if something wakes me up. Interestingly, I found an article that recommends this exact trio because of the synergistic effects between them.
L-theanine reduces stress chemical messengers (cortisol and epinephrine) to induce calm and help you stay asleep.
Melatonin is a hormone that tells your body that it’s time to go to sleep. It also provides pain relief to FM patients when taken at higher doses (a recent study demonstrated that 10mg per night is effective). Melatonin is also a potent antioxidant.
5htp is a precursor to melatonin and serotonin. One interesting thing I learned from this article is that night time serotonin helps repair the wear and tear that day time activity causes. 5htp helps provide the building blocks for both of these important chemical messengers.
http://www.betternutrition.com/supplements-for-sleep/ sleep supplements
Huzzah! I hope this helps someone else out there sleep well tonight!
Tag: supplements
Part 2 of How to outsmart your foggy brain
So last week I wrote about my recent energy crash and brain fog (which seems to go along with digestive symptoms). I think it has to do with starting school courses again (two online classes). At any rate, the things I tried last week improved my coping, but not enough to ward off the zombie fatigue permanently. So I decided to add some more supplements to the mix. I rechecked my CFS bible ‘From fatigued to fantastic’ by Dr. Teitelbaum and realized I’ve been overlooking adrenal fatigue. He recommends Vit C (500-1000mg), Vit B5, also known as pantothenic acid (100-150 mg) and licorice (200-400 mg).
I got all three (but my pantothenic acid supplement was 250 mg). I didn’t sleep well but my energy was much better sustained during the day! The downside was the side effects (diarrhea), probably from taking more than Teitelbaum recommended… And my sensitive tummy! Obviously I need to take less and even try to work up to the recommended dosage. Hope that gives someone out there more tools to add to their arsenal!
Update: after two weeks my energy has been much better, so my adrenals must have been zapped!
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Natural Treatments for Fibromyalgia: Why you should Try D-Ribose
The first part of my natural treatment protocol for FM was focused on healing my digestive tract (which I described in a previous post). The second phase is to begin incorporating d-ribose.
D-ribose is a sugar produced in the body and taken to alleviate fatigue and pain in fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. Here’s what the research says about this supplement.
The biggest advocate for d-ribose is Dr. Teitelbaum, a prominent doctor in the field of chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia medicine. He has developed a program for treating both conditions which includes d-ribose as a core component. Dr. Teitelbaum contends that CFS/FMS is caused by an “energy crisis” in the body, leading to a cascade of different symptoms like fatigue, pain, sleep disturbance, among others. One root cause of the energy problem, he argues, is that the ability of the mitochondria in your cells to generate energy is suppressed. Mitochondria produce the energy, called ATP, used by your cells to carry out all their functions. D-ribose is essential to the production of ATP. Therefore, taking additional D-ribose should help to support mitochondrial function and improve energy output in fatigued patients. (If you are interested in learning more, check out a much longer discussion found on Dr. Teitelbaum’s website here).
The evidence? Dr. Teitelbaum has authored a few pilot studies that have demonstrated some promising results. The most recent study was an open-label study published in 2012. In this multicenter study, 257 patients diagnosed with CFS/FMS were given d-ribose (5 g three times daily for three weeks). Patient symptoms were assessed in terms of subjective change in energy, sleep quality, mental clarity, pain level, and global sense of well-being, and compared to their pre-study baseline. Significant improvements were found; specifically a 61.3% increase in energy, 37% increase in general well-being, 29% improvement in sleep, 30% improvement in mental clarity, 15.6% decrease in pain.
Sounds great, right? There are some limitations to the study. First of all, there was no placebo group so we don’t have a sense of how much a placebo effect might have impacted the results. Secondly, it was quite a short study so long term effects were not captured in the results. Third, I always feel a bit suspicious of studies that lump chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia together because a lot of recent research has demonstrated different causes for the two conditions and mixing them together might conflate the results.
Personally, I have found D-ribose a helpful aid to improving my energy. I would say that it improves my energy by 15-20%. I take 5mg in the morning, and sometimes an additional 5mg in the afternoon. When I stopped taking it, I noticed a worsening of my afternoon brain fog and fatigue. I didn’t notice a worsening of pain or sleep however. I also appreciate that it is easy to take – just mix a spoonful with a glass of swater- instead of yet another pill. It is also relatively inexpensive.
As with everything fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue related, it is an individual experience, so you have to try it for yourself. In the case of d-ribose, I think it is definitely worth a try!
Check out other great posts on the Fibro Friday Linkup!
References
Teitelbaum JE, et al. “Treatment of chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia with D-ribose – An open-label, multicenter study.” The Open Pain Journal. 2012, 5,32-37
Skillfully Well & Painfully Aware 