Do natural methods work?

[linsweber]

Does anyone have any success with natural treatments?

[PlateletGal]

Thank you for posting your testimonial ! My motto is, "don't knock it until you've tried it !"

http://www.medhelp.org/user_journals/show/53989

[PlateletGal]

I have been reading Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum's book, "From Fatigued to Fantastic" and I'm happy to see that Dr. Teitelbaum, who has FM/CFS himself, discusses many natural remedies in his book. He also discusses prescription medications and which ones he has found to work best for our condition. And he discusses mycoplasma in his book... something that Dr. Garth Nicolson had recently discussed with us in his Q & A session here in October.

I highly recommend this book to everyone here. I can tell you that the homeopathic remedy for fibromyalgia that Dr. Teitelbaum has found to be helpful for pain is called "rhus toxicodendron". It is very inexpensive (probably around $6 for about 30 pellets).

[Lowen]

I don't know if this really counts as a natural remedy, but I found that giving my diet a make-over kind helped me a little with symptoms. The impact wasn't super substantial, but I am a believer that if it provides even slight relief--go for it. A little relief is better then no relief right?

Anyhow, I started eating as many unprocessed foods as possible and also try to buy organic. This doesn't always work in a budget, but if you know how to shop Trader Joe's and Whole Foods, you can get some pretty good, "clean" food without breaking the bank. Many Whole Foods actually have little mini-classes on how you can shop there without spending a ton of money. But, what I found is--that many foods we buy and eat are very processed and are filled with chemicals. Cola soda is a good example, something like Cup-O-Noodles... These things, although quite tasty in my opinion, can have detrimental affects on someone who generally doesn't feel good--due to fibro ect.  

It's so much extra work for your body to have to process these kinds of of things and that may be easy and totally fine in a healthy person, but for someone who's body is already under physical stress from chronic pain and fatigue, it's harder. A good starting point is to maybe cut out products containing high fructose corn syrup and white flour. Actually, if a person eats to many foods containing white flour, it will probably make fatigue worse. Also, buying dairy products that are guaranteed to be from cows that were never exposed to any kind of growth hormones is good too.

Anyhow, this has helped me out-so I thought I'd share!

[HelpinUtah]

I've used Magnesium and St. John's Wort and it did take away my pain.  Since some other problems have come up and I'm on Wellbutrin now I can no longer take St. John's Wort and my fibro pain has come back.  

[PlateletGal]

Cher was just on Access Hollywood. She talked about her illness (CFS due to EBV) and how she goes to Germany for her treatments. Before I even had a diagnosis, I had success with homeopathic remedies that just happened to be made in Germany. When the reporter asked Cher if she lost faith in western medicine (I think that was the question), she answered "not completely".

[Kenderyl]

I am extremely interested to hear on this as well. I am dreading the possibility that I'll get my Dx and will be asked to load up on pills - it's just not my style or preference. If any of you have tried natural methods and they did work, what were they?