All too often Fibromyalgia and digestive disorders go hand in hand. In fact, it’s one of the most common complaints and can have huge effects on your overall health, mood and weight! Typical symptoms can range from simple constipation to more serious disorders like IBS and Crohn’s.
Good bacteria, which are essential for optimal digestion, can be wiped out out by various factors such as stress, illness, medications and diet. And all of these factors are part of the life of a Fibromyalgia sufferer. The good news? You can fix this! Taking the right probiotics can restore balanced gut function quickly and easily when you have a low inflammatory diet that is personalized for YOUR chemistry.
Here’s what’s super interesting, while most people will have a gut imbalance, studies show that fibromyalgia patients have much higher levels of harmful bacteria in their gut. Here’s where probiotics come in. Probiotics contains strains of beneficial bacteria and many of these bacteria are strongly anti-inflammatory and can act as balancing agents for these harmful bacteria. The higher levels of bacterial overgrowth also correlated with pain intensity – the worse the bacterial imbalance was, the higher the individual’s pain.
Benefits of Probiotics for Fibromyalgia
- Immune system- 70% of your immune system is in your gut. Probiotics help to balance immune function.
- Mood- the majority of your serotonin (your feel good hormone) is produced in your gut. Research is showing that taking probiotics can help to relieve depression and anxiety. Optimal serotonin levels can also mitigate the effects of cortisol (your stress hormone) which can greatly exacerbate Fibromyalgia symptoms.
- Medications and stress can disrupt your intestinal flora. Probiotics can quickly come to the rescue saving you from an overgrowth of yeast. Yeast will disrupt hormones and slow your metabolism.
- Food sensitivities are reduced. The more food sensitivities you have, the more inflammation is produced.
- Probiotics aid digestion and assimilation of nutrients providing better nutrition and ability to heal.
- Probiotics can reduce seasonal and environmental allergies which can exacerbate symptoms such as pain,
fatigue and digestive disorders . - When looking for probiotics you should have many strains of bacteria , just having one or two lessens your
chances of it being the types you would need to restore gut function particular to your needs.
Here’s an overview of a few probiotics I like to see in formulations.
Acidophilus is important for digestion, immune health, urinary tract and vaginal health. Provides relief from gas and bloating.
B. longum helps to maintain the integrity of the gut wall which is important for auto-immune disorders. As with all probiotics it aids digestive and immune health, it’s also a great liver detoxifier .
B. bifidum aids digestion of dairy products as well as carbohydrates, fat, and protein so your your body can use them more efficiently.
B. infantis decreases bloating and bowel movement difficulty, gas, diarrhea, and constipation.
L. paracasei is important for liver function and the liver is responsible for over 500 functions including your hormones and your metabolism. Part of the your goal is normalizing hormones for optimal thyroid health. We will cover why the thyroid is such a key player in putting fibromyalgia into remission later!
L. rhamnosus restores GI health, supports immune health, supports vaginal and urinary tract conditions and aids digestion of lactose.
L. fermentum aids in your body’s production of two antioxidant enzymes superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione both of which are chronically low in FM. They both help to protect us from oxidative stress which. is thought to play a role in the pathogenesis of fibromyalgia.
But probiotics are only part of the picture, to heal gut health, an essential component to put your symptoms in remission, you must identify the foods that cause inflammation.
Food and Inflammation- Find The Trigger
In my practice, we use the protocol I developed in The Plan to identify food sensitivities and eliminate the foods which can cause an inflammatory response Simple, seemingly healthy foods, like strawberries, asparagus, oatmeal, yogurt and salmon can cause an immediate reaction which triggers inflammation, weight gain, depression or anxiety and health symptoms. Identifying and removing the foods that cause inflammation is key to putting your symptoms into remission.
When you think about how a simple capsule can greatly aid your weight, mood and health it seems like a perfect supplement to take when you need it. My advice is to try different brands that do not contain FOS (ingredients like chicory and inulin can be a gut killer!) and to keep rotating them so you receive the benefits that different strains offer.
Inflammation and Optimal Health and Weight
And as always, please remember this, your body always wants to achieve homeostasis, the act of repair and stability. But (!!), it will always divert energy from healing to digestion. Inflammatory foods, divert even more energy. Choosing the foods that work for your body will free up your body’s ability to do what it always wants to do, heal.
To find out more about The Plan visit www.lyngenet.com or email [email protected] .
Your friend in health,
Lyn-Genet Recitas
