Fibromyalgia
The CAUSE ~ The CURE
MY STORY
I Have Been Pain-Free for 10 Years!!!
At the age of 25, I started to have pain in my neck. It soon spread to my head, shoulders, and upper back. It felt like I had been in a car accident and it continued to get worse. Over the course of several years I had x-rays, an MRI, and numerous other tests. The doctors told me it was stress related. The extreme pain continued in my upper body; however, it wasn’t long before my entire body ached and I felt extreme fatigue.
After several years of being told that my pain was stress related, I was diagnosed by my doctor with “Fibromyalgia”. This was confirmed by a Rheumatologist. I met all of the criteria for Fibromyalgia including the “trigger points”. Fibromyalgia was first defined by the American College of Rheumatology in 1990.
During the winter, in the beginning of 2007, I was inspired by a doctor, that I had seen for the first time, while at an urgent care visit. After this appointment, I spent many, many hours doing research on the internet. I made an appointment with this doctor, Dr. Haland, and told him that I needed a Vitamin D test. I showed him documentation of the research that I had done. He ordered a 25(OH)D blood test.
My Vitamin D level was 11 ng/ml which is “severely deficient”. The Vitamin D Council recommends a minimum level of 50 ng/ml. There is a lot of research to support why this level is necessary for our health; unfortunately, most of the medical establishment is still behind in this knowledge.
Thankfully, Dr Haland got himself “up-to-speed” quickly when I showed him the results of my research. He put me on 50,000 IUs of Vitamin D twice a week until my blood level reached an optimal level of 50 ng/ml. I continue to take 4,000 – 6,000 a day to maintain my level.
My “Fibromyalgia” was a Vitamin D deficiency! The deficiency was corrected and years of pain ended! Thank you Dr. Haland for giving me my life back!!!
Dr. Haland was and is the best doctor that I have ever seen. He did not act like “Dr. God”. He listened! Shortly after treating me, Dr. Haland left the clinic to take a hospitalist position at a hospital. I was very saddened by this; however, I was and am very grateful that he hadn’t left before making a HUGE IMPACT on my life. THANK YOU DR. HALAND!
After suffering years of extreme pain and fatigue, you can hopefully understand why I feel sad and angry when labs and doctors say that Vitamin D test results in the 30s (30 ng/ml) are normal. I’m sure you can also understand why it saddens and angers me when I see commercials on TV for drugs to treat “Fibromyalgia” and what these commercials say Fibromyalgia is “thought to be caused from”.
The pharmaceutical industry has an unquestionable economic and political power in the US and the rest of the world. Big Pharma seeks huge profits at the expense of the world’s health and well being. This power-hungry, revenue-hungry, disease-mongering corruption interferes with the promotion of public health, the development of knowledge, and drug safety.
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) updated it’s official Vitamin D recommendations in 2010. They increased their recommendation from 200 IU a day to 600 IU a day for people between the ages of 1 and 70. Harvard and the Vitamin D Council recommend from 2,000 to 5,000 IU a day.
Why are the IOM’s Vitamin D recommendations absurdly low? According to the Alliance for Natural Health, the Institute of Medicine stated that only Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) can show a causal relationship between an intervention and an outcome. In other words, the IOM is holding a vitamin to the so-called pharmaceutical gold standard. There’s a reason there are few RCTs for vitamin D: it’s not a patentable substance, so no big pharmaceutical company stands to make a bundle of money from it, so no one will shell out the millions of dollars necessary for a decent randomized controlled trial. It’s the proverbial Catch-22.
