The Alexander Technique, Fibromyalgia, CFS and Musculoskeletal Balance: Part 1

I’m not going to go repeat all the data on the internet about FM Alexander, if you want that info you can google it and find out about the history and how his life as an actor lead him to develop his techniques. It is however very interesting and inspiring story in itself.

What I want to concentrate on in is detailing precisely the connection between the Alexander technique and how it relates to Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

And even more importantly how it can be best employed as an adjunct to my other techniques.

All the techniques I detail have a way of dovetailing into each other and symbiotically deepening the effects of each other.

Basically my take on the Alexander take is this, I want to take what I want from the techniques and apply them directly to assist with the musculoskeletal problems that are maintaining patients FM and CF Syndromes

There is a way of moving that your body likes and way that it doesn’t.

When you have an injury or imbalance there is a way of moving that helps the body heal and a way that prevents it from healing.

All musculoskeletal conditions have varying symptoms, but all have one thing in common, they can all be made better or worse by the way you align your head neck and trunk as you go through your every day life.

The muscles which support your skeleton are usually asked to work far too hard for the task that they are employed and over time this can lead to them becoming “stuck” in this state of excess tension aka Trigger points.

When you are then attacked by whatever initially triggered what you consider the beginning of your Fibromyalgia/ CFS, then if your muscles were already habitually in this state of excess tension, then post infection, one of your main symptoms will then be the muscular pain, that then leads you to the variety of healthcare providers who have you down for trigger point therapy etc and your primary diagnosis is most likely Fibromyalgia as oppose to CFS.

Let me make one point clear that is an overriding theme through all the therapy that I outline: It is: Your body has an innate capacity to heal itself, but as human beings in Western Society we seem hell bent on destroying everything that nature has taught us and switching to unnatural modes of action simply because its fashionable or that’s the way everyone else does it, or that’s the way things are made etc

Take the simple act of sitting in a comfy chair that maybe 200 million Americans are doing right now as you read this. The reality is that THAT CHAIR IS NOT COMFY JUST BECAUSE IT SAYS SO ON THE MANUFACTURERS ADVERT!

The typical slouching position that these people are forced to assume on a daily basis is absolutely against all the natural laws of correct posture and use of the spinal column and results in these millions of people holding their body’s in a state of excess tension for all the time that they believe they are “relaxing”.

In third world countries where natural posture is forced in daily lives due to the non-availability of “comfy” divans, bad backs are almost unheard of and subsequently so is Fibromyalgia and CFS (although they do have a million and one things that are far worse, but we wont go into that)

Fibromyalgia and CFS are largely diseases of modern society. We have evolved through the industrial age in a few hundred years but our body’s evolved over millions of years to become bipedal.

All the trappings of our success are designed by manufacturers for them to look fashionable and make their sales, not for your body to relax in its natural position and avoid muscular tension. If this was the case the comfy chair would not exist.

Another good example of the misuse of our body’s forced upon us by tradition and the manufacturers is that everyday favourite the W.C. In terms of emptying your bowels comfortably this piece of furniture is completely wrong and causes a requirement for a huge amount of pressure to be applied by the lower back in order to expel a movement. In a later article I will be diagramming the changes I recommend for sitting posture and using the W.C.

You may not like it but your body will.

I am not a trained Alexander therapist and so will be recommending that you seek a trained therapist in your area as an adjunct to my other therapies, but probably not until the 6 months mark after you have begun the other therapies. What I want you to do is employ the simple strategies I will outline in my next article which will present quick wins in terms of your overall musculoskeletal anomalies.

I have talked about the musculoskeletal aspect of Fibromyalgia and CFS and how it is essentially responsible for maintaining your illness.

You may be suffering from recurring musculoskeletal pain but do not know exactly what brings on the attacks. Usually it is years of poor postural habits which are causing your musculoskeletal imbalance, and we need to address how to change these habits.

For example.

Arthritis can be helped by improved postural habits, keeping the joints moving.

Spinal surgery or a disc problem can be helped by learning to use the abdominal and back muscles correctly.

General Back pain can be helped by correct movement as oppose to just bed rest

Pinched nerves in the neck or lower back are usually the result of compression due to faulty postural habits.

The first thing we need to learn is to reduce spinal compression as this will reduce the flare-ups of musculoskeletal pain which is contributing to your overall experience of Fibromyalgia.

As you are no doubt aware, when you are in more pain, your sleep is affected and therefore so is your fatigue CFS.

Using your body correctly results in less pain, improved healing, better sleep, less tension and therefore less fatigue. Sound good?

If you doubt the effectiveness of the Alexander Technique look at it from this angle.

Modern medicine and modern science are in no doubt about the following sequence of events.

Stress cause anxiety, the emotion anxiety produces an excess of the chemicals cortisol and adrenaline which are known to cause ulcers, high blood pressure and tension headaches and that’s just in the short term.

So can anyone doubt that the conscious mind can be utilized to interfere with these processes and attain precise conscious control over the way they use the skeletal muscles to restore and improve their health.

That is all we are going to focus on by using the Alexander Technique.

The benefits of the Alexander Technique indeed go very deep, but I particularly want to examine how it relates to physical musculoskeletal pain and its long term relief. All other priorities are helpful but secondary.

Alexander’s approach to musculoskeletal pain

Alexander’s approach tries to address the totality of a body to solve a specific problem, i.e. a problem that may occur in one area of the back cannot be healed unless the entire back is used in a well integrated way.

Being aware of and able to control our supporting musculature.
Alexander understood this and teaches how to control gravity and work with it rather than against it. This is essential for people with recurring back pain

Learning to do less with the body overall is an important feature of Alexander’s work with respect to back problems. This doesn’t mean just being lazier, but rather eliminating unnecessary muscle tension and bad postural habits at the root of back pain

I cannot express the importance of this to Fibromyalgia sufferers; in so many Fibromyalgia patients the tension cycle is what exacerbates their trigger points.

Pain causes more tension which in turn causes more pain and so on. By learning to short circuit this the pain cycle they can prevent a flare-up of fibro without having to resort to muscle relaxants and painkillers, also they don’t waste the little energy they have on unnecessary muscle tension.

In the next articles I will focus on Alexander’s concepts of “good use” and then the specifics of how they can be applied in everyday life to help Fibromyalgia and CFS patients reduce their musculoskeletal pains.

Mark J Shaw (B.A, M.Sc, PGD)

Mark is the author of a new digital book and training manual
“Beat Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome”

http://www.BeatFibroAndFatigue.com

Copyright of Mark J. Shaw and Associates 06/08/2006. This material can be copied or reproduced provided the authors profile and website link information are displayed.

What Causes Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome? : Part 2

Recent research has shown that in Fibromyalgia/CFS patients there is an irregular molecular weight for cells and enzymes that act as the body’s defense mechanisms.

Viral channels remain open as expressed by RNase L weights long after the viruses have effectively been eliminated.

This means that your body still thinks it is fighting infections long after they have been beaten, consuming energy resources and destroying otherwise healthy cells and thereby contributing to the overall feeling of exhaustion.

For example, lets examine a commonly cited feature of Fibromyalgia and CFS. You should have noticed that when you have the slightest inkling of a sore throat or a cold beginning, your Fibromyalgia/CFS symptoms get noticeably worse, but interestingly the cold itself never fully develops.

This is a well documented feature of an up-regulated immune system, overreacting to eliminate the infection and subsequently leaving the viral enzyme channels open, way longer than would normally be the case in a healthy patient.

The cold virus is beaten but your immune system is still effectively fighting it, the lymphocytes can’t find what they are looking for so float around attacking the wrong cells.

The effect is that your Fibromyalgia/CFS gets worse.

Not surprisingly, Ampligen has been found to have positive results in some CFS sufferers, as it has a strong antiviral mechanism, the incidence of viral infection and viral channel activation is reduced taking the stress off the ANS and effectively making the patient “feel” better.

However the ultimate goal should be to restore healthy immune function and appropriate immune response.

Similarly with Fibromyalgia/CFS of bacterial origin, the presence of these bacteria are causing an irregular dysfunctional immune response. What we can do of course with bacterial infections is reduce the presence of the organisms to almost zero while simultaneously addressing the underlying cause, the dysfunctional immune system.

There are widely over-reported instances of patients diagnosed with Fibromyalgia and CFS making a full recovery after antibiotics which only goes to indicate that the original diagnosis should have been Lyme's borrelia.

However this is a minority of cases and does not warrant the abuse of this data being touted around on various internet sites as Lyme’s IS Fibromyalgia and/or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

In order to treat patients with Fibromyalgia/CFS type 1, I advocate reducing the bacterial load using synthetic antibiotics.

The regime I recommend is to start with 1.5g Amoxicillin working up to 3g taken through the course of the day. After 2 months on this regime a 4 month program of Metronidazole and Amoxicillin should be taken together.

This rigorous program will address the problem of borrelia in their latent and active states and give enough time and high enough volumes to penetrate deep into all body tissues where borrelial spirochetes can lie dormant, finish off with 2 months of Amoxicillin to consolidate results.

Amoxicillin is very well tolerated in most individuals with a negligible side effect profile. In patients where Amoxicillin is not tolerated, or if there appears to be some bacterial resistance, Doxycycline should be substituted.

Metronidazole I’m afraid is awful and may make you feel as poorly as the Syndrome itself, it can be taken for 4 days of a 7 day window thus reducing the side effects. Like most things that are nasty it works extremely well.

In patients averse to the concept of taking synthetics, a herbal supplement has been receiving reports from colleagues of powerful antibiotic, antiviral and immuno-modulatory properties. Pentacyclic Alkaloid Type Uncaria Tomentosa, is a Peruvian herb, it is produced by Nutrimedix Ltd under the trade name, Samento. It is an arena I will be investigating personally in the near future and will post reports after a statistically relevant period.

If you google nutrimedix you will find them. As you would expect, it is expensive whereas the antibiotic regime should be free or will relate to your individual country’s adult prescription charge.

In following this programme, it is imperative that you explain to your doctor what you are doing, why and what you are trying to achieve, and get his support in prescribing these quantities of antibiotics.

There is strong controversy around the whole Lyme’s arena and some doctors are under pressure from authorities to reduce antibiotic prescriptions due to the emergence of bacteria that are becoming resistant to them.

This is not your problem at the moment. If your practitioner cannot give you good reason that you are unsuitable for long-term antibiotic therapy then take your business elsewhere.

A true borrelial infestation should be terminated with the same prejudice that a provider would associate with severe syphilitic infections, a similar spirochetal organism which can ultimately cause brain and tissue damage if left untreated.

Under NO circumstances should a sufferer self prescribe or self administer drugs and the author takes NO responsibility should adverse effects occur as a result of self-administration after reading this document.

As a Fibromyalgia/CFS sufferer you will have suffered for some time with musculoskeletal abnormalities. You may be at an age where these abnormalities may not YET have manifested themselves as musculoskeletal pain.

The body is a resilient and hardwearing organism that can tolerate deficiencies, anomalies and abnormalities for many years before becoming symptomatic. You may be somewhat older and have already suffered back pain, either lumbar, thoracic or cervical, over many years. You may have suffered from TMJ and headaches for many years.

In the next chapter I will explain how these abnormalities have come together to present as “torsion” in the thoracic area of the spine, how this relates to your Autonomic Nervous System, and how this in turn relates to the symptoms of your Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

It does not matter about the exact etiology of your personal condition. All these anomalies and abnormalities in your musculoskeletal make-up, balance and gait are what has finally lead you down the path of Fibromyalgia/CFS.

And the good news is that THEY ARE REVERSIBLE.

Some may take longer to address than others. Some may be more expensive to address than others, and some may entail an increased element of hardship and suffering to address.

But ultimately, they CAN be addressed, and by combining an undertaking to correct these structural anomalies, with my techniques and procedures, you will be able to see rapid improvements in your condition with noticeable improvement in the first month of between 25 and 50%, and an 80 to 90% improvement over the year that you stay on the treatment protocol.

Mark J Shaw (B.A, M.Sc, PGD)

Mark is the author of a new digital book and training manual
“Beat Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome”

http://www.beatfibroandfatigue.com/

What Causes Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome? : Part 1

Fibromyalgia/CFS can be caused by a whole range of factors. All of which, it is most likely your doctor or practitioner will not be able to diagnose.

Only doctors and therapists expert in the treatment and management of these conditions will have the time, testing equipment and expertise to tell you the most likely causes and provide an accurate diagnosis and prognosis.

Recent research points toward a variety of triggers prevalent in these conditions.

1/ a chronic bacterial infection which has overrun your immune systems ability to cope. You can be infected through a variety of mediums. The Sympathetic and Parasympathetic nervous systems are compromised and damaged. The condition is then maintained and exacerbated by musculoskeletal imbalance in the thoracic region causing irritation of the surrounding nerve ganglia.

2/ a viral/ chemical exposure which entered your system causing brain and spinal cord lesions, simultaneously leaving the Sympathetic and Parasympathetic nervous systems in a state of chaos. The condition is then maintained and exacerbated by musculoskeletal imbalance in the thoracic region causing irritation of the surrounding nerve ganglia.

3/ a viral/ chemical exposure which entered your system causing a temporary brain injury to the area of the brain that deals with immune response.

Types 1 and 2 will cause the most prolonged type of Fibromyalgia/CFS, with 3 being mostly related to the type of post viral illness PVFS caused by EBV, in otherwise healthy patients this will usually dissipate over a period of 6 months to a year and should not necessarily result in or be classified as Fibromyalgia/CFS.

So what is the strategy that will improve the symptoms caused by type 1 and 2 by 300%?

The strategy I am going to outline is multi pronged and it is so for a reason.

Fibromyalgia/CFS of Type 1 etiology will have been activated by borellia burgdorferi or a sub strain or a mycoplasmal infection, or ehrlichiosis, babesiosis or a host of other infectious agents. Please note that I use the word activated and not caused.

There is currently a lot of research into Lyme’s disease and similar infections as a theory and subdivision of research in Fibromyalgia and CFS.

These infections may present in conjunction with each other and a variety of others which are beyond the scope of this document. If you have been traveling in tropical or subtropical regions prior to onset of your condition you should primarily present at a tropical disease clinic.

For the purposes of this document I am concentrating on viral and bacterial infections which are causing Fibromyalgia/CFS symptoms in North America/ Canadian States and European countries.

Bacterial infections are notoriously difficult to diagnose, they are transmitted by a variety of ticks and insects. Your doctor will most likely not even attempt a diagnosis.

However, and this is key what we are trying to achieve.
The core treatment is the same for Fibromyalgia and CFS types 1 and 2, but a separate regime can be added to deal with type 1 which will facilitate quicker overall recovery.

Why is this, what is going on?

A healthy functional immune system should be able to cope with these bacterial and viral invasions or chemical exposure over a period of time.

Where bacterial invasion is suspected a short course of antibiotics should be adequate to return the patient back to full health.

Similarly with viral/chemical invasion we do not have the luxury of antibiotics, but a normal immune system in conjunction with the bodies normal defense mechanisms and organs of elimination should regularize your system within a few weeks or so, indeed almost the entire population shows evidence of being carriers of borrelia and its subtypes, so there’s no doubt that the presence of these organisms is certainly NOT the direct cause of Fibromyalgia and CFS.

So why do these agents trigger Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome seemingly at random in a significant percentage of people.

It’s our theory that a chronic infection of these types can, in those predisposed, be the trigger for an episode of Fibromyalgia/ CFS, and indeed be a sustaining factor in the disease etiology in much the same way that viral and chemical attacks are known to trigger an episode.

None of these agents are by themselves the cause. Most Lyme’s patients make a full recovery over a period of a few months. Most viral episodes and chemical exposures are dealt with over the short to medium term by the body’s normal defenses..

The cause of these prolonged episodes of Fibromyalgia and CFS which can go on for years or even a lifetime, is that at the time of exposure in those patients musculoskeletally compromised the body’s immune and nervous system, known as The Autonomic Nervous System effectively blew a fuse.

Pardon the unscientific language, but this is actually quite an effective analogy.

This article is continued in:

What causes Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome? : Part 2

Mark J Shaw (B.A, M.Sc, PGD)

Mark is the author of a new digital book and training manual
“Beat Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome”

http://www.beatfibroandfatigue.com/

Fibromyalgia, CFS, The Internet, Miracle Pills and the Birth of Quackery

In this article, I am going to explode a few myths.

There are thousands upon thousand of companies trying to sell you Fibromyalgia/CFS cures on the internet; all of them have a similar story. Take their pill or supplement, follow their diet or detox, or maybe even avoid certain foods, and you will be miraculously cured of your illness pain, and fatigue.

There are detox regimes, candida cures, herbal supplements, vitamins and minerals, hormone supplements, liver cleanses, amino acids etc etc etc.

Some of the more convincing advertisements for these products are disguised as articles backed by trials involving 10 or 20 subjects against placebo. Despite what they may advertise, these are NOT clinical trials, they are small scale trials run by the manufacturers of the product and surprise, surprise, the results are always positive.

So what’s going on and why are we all still suffering?

The majority of these pills and supplements are useless in terms of their advertised qualities i.e. they will NOT CURE true Fibromyalgia or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

Some have a degree of validity and may reduce one or more of the symptoms of your illness, much as paracetamol will rid you of a headache for a few hours.

They may work in the short-term, indeed it is a strange anomaly that placebo cures often work in the short term, and this is all due to the power of our minds, the psychological response, and our overwhelming desire to get well again.

Or, if your condition is not true Fibromyalgia/ CFS and your body is suffering from dietary deficiencies, then in stands to reason that by supplementing and removing the deficiency you may experience an almost instant cure.

Such cases are relatively rare in modern society, however it must be noted that cases of malnutrition in North America are growing fast due to our fast junk food diet. However this document is aimed at accurately diagnosed sufferers of Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

Statement of Fact:
NO PILL OR SUPPLEMENT WILL CURE YOU of Fibromyalgia or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

From a dietary perspective, you should be following the much vaunted, generally accurate advice of eating 5 or more portions of fresh, raw fruit and lightly cooked vegetables per day, with a good balance of protein and carbohydrates.

Avoid red meat, too much sugar, too much dairy, and alcohol I’m afraid has to go, at least for the next 12 months.

With this balanced diet you will not be deficient of any nutrients your body needs, or which could possibly cause fatigue, or limit your recovery from your condition. And, you will not be putting undue strain on your digestive system, which is currently malfunctioning.

I WOULD advocate taking a high quality multivitamin/multimineral supplement to top up any shortages you may have on a daily basis. They will certainly do you no harm and for a small price will eliminate any worries you might have over dietary deficiencies. Always take them with food.

Any good health store will do a good range, there is plenty of competition, speak to the manager and they will recommend a good quality balanced supplement.

Avoid those sold in chemists and supermarkets. The manufacturers hedge these supplements to well below the RDA’s in order to protect vendors from the latest craze of litigation by people claiming their livers have been damaged by excess vitamin A or whatever the current trend (when in fact they are alcoholics).

There is evidence that powdered capsules may be more absorbent in the gut than the solid variety but I cannot personally verify this it seems credible.

Another industry which is profligate on the back of the Fibromyalgia/CFS epidemic is food allergy and intolerance testing, and candida cures.

Again hundreds of companies selling you testing kits, candida cures, allergy cures etc etc. It really is soul destroying.

Everyone on the planet will tolerate certain foods better or worse than others, this can be down to inherited genetic and cultural makeup or environmental factors.

A FOOD INTOLERANCE DOES NOT MEAN A FOOD ALLERGY.

For example, a majority of people on the planet will have an immune reaction to cow’s milk. What this means is that there is a degree of stress to the digestive system in terms of breaking down lactose which is notoriously difficult to digest.

In turn this can stimulate an immune response which to people with Fibromyalgia/CFS/CFIDS causes an immune over-reaction and a prolonged immune response, and therefore an exacerbation of their symptoms.

The only way to find out effectively and accurately which products cause an immune over-reaction is an antibody blood serum test, you should be able to find a company that does this for around $300.

You pay them their money they send you a test kit, you prick your finger to provide a small sample of blood which you send back to them and they test the reaction of your antibodies against a hundred or so food products and families.

Reactions will be classed as slight, considerable or extreme, the extreme ones, usually dairy/ yeast/ gluten or albumen and alcohol should be considerably restricted or even eliminated for a while to see if your symptoms improve.

I would advocate this as being well worth doing to get “quick wins” in respect of your overall fatigue. It’s certainly a good start and if you have been eating a lot of a food product which stimulates a strong immune over-reaction and you have true Fibromyalgia or CFS then you may get a noticeable improvement in your symptoms by removing it.

However your immune system is still damaged, and I will be talking about the techniques we use to stimulate healing of the Autonomic Nervous System later.

Finally, to put the record straight on a few other points.

You CANNOT tell if someone is intolerant or allergic to foods using hair analysis, or prodding an electrode catheter into acupressure points linked up to a computer or any of the other new age rubbish being touted around. This is a new craze and snake oiling at its lowest ebb!!

Similar rubbish is touted about liver and colon cleansing. They are organs of cleansing and elimination i.e. they do it themselves. They are self cleansing, self regulating organs. Do not try doing these.

Please DO NOT have your dental mercury amalgams removed unless you have extensive testing indicating that they are somehow corroding and poisoning your system. This is extremely unlikely to happen if they were installed correctly in the first place.

There are two supplements which I recommend to sufferers as part of my protocol. There is huge movement and a growing body of evidence for one in particular. One is very helpful in the early stage of recovery, and the other is essential in the latter stage of recovery. I will be writing about these in forthcoming articles.

Mark J Shaw (B.A, M.Sc, PGD)

Mark is the author of a new digital book and training manual
“Beat Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome”

http://www.BeatFibroAndFatigue.com