Friday February 3, 2012
One theory of fibromyalgia (FMS) and chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is that oxidative stress plays a key role and possibly a causative one as well. Evidence in support of this theory is growing - I recently reported on the latest study of oxidative stress in ME/CFS. (You can read that, along with an explanation of what oxidative stress is and how antioxidants help, here: Oxidative Stress in ME/CFS.)
You've probably heard a lot of hype about antioxidants and how they're essential for staving off myriad diseases. While some of the information in the popular media is over blown, there is solid evidence behind the benefits of antioxidants at countering oxidative stress, which can trigger illness - possibly including heart disease and cancer.
So how do you get more antioxidants? Food and supplements are the main ways.
Antioxidant-Rich Foods
According to a USDA study, several of the best common-place antioxidant-rich foods are beans and berries. My About.com colleague Cathy Wong, Guide to Alternative Medicine, has a list of the USDA's 20 top foods: Best Food Sources of Antioxidants.
Several of the foods profiled in my Food of the Week series contain antioxidants, including:
A lot of products in the grocery store are labeled as containing antioxidants, but the best sources are generally the natural ones - which are often less expensive and better for you over all.
Antioxidant Supplements
You have a lot of choices when it comes to antioxidant supplements, including:
Along with increasing antioxidant intake, you can combat oxidative stress by avoiding things that cause free radicals in your body. I'll have more on that soon.
Have your symptoms improved due to antioxidants? Which kind(s) did you use? What was the effect? Leave your comments below!
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Thursday February 2, 2012
Research Brief
A new study supports the theory that chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) may be related to oxidative stress, and that oxidative stress may play a key causative role in the illness.
This was the third study in a series looking at several possible components of ME/CFS:
- Ventricular lactate
- Cortical glutathione
- Oxidative stress
The earlier research had uncovered significantly elevated levels of ventricular cerebrospinal-fluid lactate in ME/CFS, as compared to generalized anxiety disorder and healthy controls. In this study, researchers wanted to see if the high lactate levels could be caused by increased oxidative stress, low blood flow to the brain, and/or mitochondrial dysfunction (which involves the building blocks of cells.)
They say results showed significantly high ventricular lactate in participants with ME/CFS compared to healthy controls. They also report an insignificant difference in measures of cortical glutathione and no difference in markers of mitochondrial function.
In addition, ventricular lactate was highest and cortical glutathione was lowest in the most severe cases.
Rsearchers concluded that this study supports the pathphysiological model of ME/CFS with oxidative stress as a possible underlying cause.
What is Oxidative Stress?
The atoms in your body are supposed to have an even number of tiny particles called electrons. When an atom (or molecule) has an odd number, it's out of balance and roams around your body in search of an electron to steal in order to balance itself. In this way, they create other free radicals, damage your cells and DNA, and keep your body in an unbalanced state.
Free-radical damage may contribute to diseases including heart disease and cancer. Some researchers have theorized that it's involved with ME/CFS and related conditions such as fibromyalgia, PTSD and Gulf War illness.
Free radicals are a normal part of your body and we do need some of them, but at high levels they become destructive and put your body into a state called oxidative stress.
Things that can cause an increase in free radicals include air pollution, smoking cigarettes and a poor diet.
You've probably heard a lot about antioxidants. They've been loudly touted (and sometimes over-hyped) for several years because can counter oxidative stress by neutralizing free radicals.
For this reason, some doctors recommend antioxidants for ME/CFS and similar illnesses, and some experimental protocols involve high levels of them (most notably the Pall Protocol.)
Evidence for oxidative stress isn't strong enough yet for doctors to universally recommend antioxidants for these conditions, but the body of work is growing and continuing to point to oxidative stress as an important factor.
Learn more or join the conversation!
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Tuesday January 31, 2012
Pain and fatigue are hard to quantify, and with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome we generally have more than our fair share of both. Even without a foggy brain, it can be hard to compare how you felt a week, or a month, or a year ago to how you feel today.
To keep a realistic view of our progress (or lack thereof), it helps to have some kind of measurement. Then we can more accurately gauge how successful our treatments and lifestyle changes are.
However, our illness aren't like, say, diabetes, where a simple blood test can give you and your doctor a snapshot of how you're doing. Some doctors use periodic tender-point exams or re-tests for infectious agents when those things apply, but even those aren't terribly good at showing how we're feeling and functioning day to day.
I've unintentionally come up with a few real-world measurements of how well I'm functioning, and they can open my eyes to changes I may not have been fully aware of.
For example, the 2 doctors I see the most are on the third story of a clinic with really high ceilings. Before I had fibromyalgia, I would always walk up the stairs. Afterward? No way. Just looking at them as I hobbled toward the elevator made me tired and achy.
I surprised myself a couple of years later. One day, I felt pretty decent (for me, anyway) and decided I walk up the first flight, then take the elevator. It didn't kill me. The next time I was there, I walked the whole way up. Since then, I've paid attention to how I feel walking up those long staircases. At times, it's gone back to being a struggle, and that's helped me realize I need to make changes, or get better about some aspect of treatment or management.
My work here has given me a good way to monitor my mental function. Most of us have a problem with short-term memory, which makes us wonder why went to a certain room or forget the time of an appointment immediately after it's made. Writing isn't always a good test of how bad my fibro fog is - writing is fickle, and on some days the words just come harder than on others.
However, some of the more rudimentary, short-term-memory-dependent things I do can be very telling. For instance, when I add a photo to something, I need to put in a few bits of information - the code for the image, the size, and the copyright holder. I used to open the file where my images are stored, copy and paste the code, go back to check the size and get that entered, then copy and paste the copyright credit.
Now, at least most of the time, I look at the size and copyright while copying the code and actually remember it all! If I find myself struggling with that task, it lets me know that I need to do something - take a nap, eat better, manage my stress, increase a supplement, etc.
Most of us eventually get to a point where we subconsciously monitor our symptoms all the time, but for me, having these little measures of where I am have become fairly valuable.
Do you have measures of function like this in your life? What are they? How have they helped you? Leave your comments below!
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Saturday January 28, 2012
Research Brief
A study published this month in the journal Pain Medicine supports earlier findings that noninvasive cortical electrostimulation may be somewhat effective against fibromyalgia symptoms.
In noninvasive cortical electrostimulation, a practitioner attaches electrodes to the outside of the head and delivers an electric current to the cerebral cortex (outer layer of gray matter on the upper part of the brain.)
In this study, researchers say participants had modest improvements in pain, tender point count, fatigue and sleep without significant side effects. They're recommending it as a part of the fibromyalgia treatment regimen, not as a stand-alone treatment. (It's rare for any single treatment to adequately manage all fibromyalgia symptoms.)
Learn More:
Have you tried this form of electrostimulation for fibromyalgia? How did it work? Leave your comments below!
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