September 2005: A Message from Dr. Murphree to those suffering with Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
“I’m so disgusted with all my doctors!”
This wasn’t the first time I had heard one of my patients say this, in fact it’s quite common.
In this month’s letter I’d like to share the story of Susan N. Unfortunately I hear similar stories quite often. Although her past doctors had been competent, well meaning and in most cases, sincerely interested in her illness, few knew how to help her beyond using the typical "cookbook" medical drug approach. This approach is based on a patient entering with symptoms X, Y, Z and lab work which reveals A, B, C. Take this result and here is the drug we use for this illness. The problem is, Fibromyalgia doesn’t conform to traditional medical cookbook recipes. Doctors who treat this illness must learn to think outside the box. If not, the patient ends up on dozens of potentially dangerous medications which can often cause the very symptoms associated with fibromyalgia.
I encourage doctors to think like detectives, to use the symptoms as clues, but treat the person and not the symptom. Find the cause and correct it.
The Susan N. Story
Susan N. had been suffering with fibromyalgia for almost 11 years. She had been to numerous doctors, had tried dozens of different medications, yet each year she felt worse than the year before.
Up until 1993, she had been reasonably healthy and had only taken the occasional medication that most people do. She enjoyed being a full-time mother taking care of her 3 young boys. She even found the time to do 20 hours of volunteer charity work each week.
Her illness began after having a hysterectomy in November 1993. A few months after her surgery she says she never felt right. She began to have problems with her sleep, sinus infections, chronic headaches, and her neck hurt all the time.
In 1995, her muscle pain had become so bad that she wound up in the emergency room of her local hospital late one night begging for help. She was prescribed Naprosyn (NSAID) and Flexeril (muscle relaxer). These medications helped relieve the chronic tight achy muscles but made her feel sedated and “so tired she could hardly get off the couch.” She continued to struggle with her sleep. The Flexeril, when taken at bedtime made her feel hung-over the next day. However, she found if she didn’t take it, she couldn’t sleep at all.
In 1998, she began to have pain all over, in her back, legs, knees, feet, hips, and arms. She tried one drug after another but nothing relieved her chronic pain, which now kept her awake almost every night despite the Flexeril.
Some doctors said she needed to lose weight, exercise, get more sleep, or she was just depressed. One doctor suggested she see a psychiatrist who could help her with her “illnesses.” She felt like her life was slipping away. She was referred to a rheumatologist who diagnosed her with fibromyalgia, put her on Klonopin, Paxil, and referred her to a neurologist for her tingling arm and leg pain. The neurologist did several tests, all were normal, and then recommended she start taking Neurontin. She noticed little relief from pain all over her body, fatigue, sinus infections, and headaches, but her sleep did seem to be better. In fact, now she felt like sleeping all the time. She quit her volunteer work and would often fall asleep on the couch for a few hours each day. Her house work, marriage, social life, and health continued to suffer.
Her family doctor referred her to an endocrinologist who found she had low thyroid, she was put on Synthroid.
Susan N., who in 1992 hadn’t been on any regular medications, was now taking Klonopin (anti-anxiety), Neurontin (nerve pain), Synthroid (low thyroid), Celebrex (anti-inflammatory), Paxil (SSRI anti-depressant), Ambien (sleep drug), Norvasc (for high blood pressure), Lipitor (high cholesterol), and Flexeril. She was taking NINE different medications by the time she first consulted with me in 2004.
Susan had the following symptoms: insomnia, diffuse chronic muscle pain throughout her body, fatigue, IBS, depression, anxiety, poor memory, tingling in her hands and feet, high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol, headaches, bloating, gas, indigestion, unwanted weight gain (30 pounds in last year and half), poor immune function (frequent colds, flu, sinus infections), dizziness, hair loss, mood swings, dry skin, and loss of her libido.
In taking her history it became clear that she had been under a great deal of stress prior to her hysterectomy. The surgery was the last straw; she had used up her stress-coping savings account. Her low serotonin state led to poor sleep, depression, increased pain, IBS, anxiety, and decreased mental clarity.
Her poor sleep led to more stress, pain, fatigue, immune dysfunction, and headaches. Her chronic stress led to low thyroid or hypothyroid. She had all the classic signs of low thyroid; fatigue, weight gain, elevated cholesterol, frequent sinus infections, hair loss, tingling in the hands and feet, etc.
Her low thyroid then led to elevated cholesterol and a prescription for the statin drug Lipitor. Unfortunately, this is one of the worst drugs she could have started taking. Statin drugs deplete a person’s CoQ10 levels. Low CoQ10 leads to chronic muscle pain, fatigue, and nerve damage. I have a whole chapter devoted to this subject in my new book “Heart Disease: What Your Doctor Won’t Tell You.”
Click here to learn more about my new book and to links to a gift of two free information packed free chapters from it.
Drug insert literature for statin drugs plays down muscle pain and weakness and suggests that they occur in about 2 percent of the patients taking statin drugs. However, one study found that 98 percent of patients taking Lipitor and one-third of the patients taking Mevacor (a lower-dose statin) suffered from muscle problems. I find that the majority of my fibromyalgia patients feel considerably better once they stop taking statin drugs.
The Lipitor was contributing to some of Susan’s symptoms including diffuse muscle pain, tingling in hands and feet, poor memory, and fatigue.
I encouraged Susan to work with her doctor and wean off Lipitor. Two weeks after stopping Lipitor, Susan’s symptoms of fatigue and muscle pain drastically improved.
The Celebrex and other NSAID medications are, most likely, what caused her to have high blood pressure. NSAIDs can cause high blood pressure. In one study, 41% of those who had recently started on medication to lower their blood pressure were also taking NSAIDs. NSAIDs more than double a person’s risk of developing high blood pressure. For more information please see my book “Treating and Beating Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Patient’s Self-Help Manual.”
Click here to purchase "Treating and Beating Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Patient's Self-Help Manual." Normally this sells for $69.95. For a short time it's has a special price of only $24.95!
The Celebrex wasn’t helping reduce Susan's pain and may have been causing some of her recent problems with heartburn. She quit taking Celebrex and didn’t notice that her diffuse muscle pain was any worse after stopping it.
I recommended that she begin using my high blood pressure protocol; high doses of inositol hexaniacinate (no flush niacin), CoQ10, and extra fish oil. By using this protocol for a few weeks she was able to discontinue the potentially deadly calcium channel blocking drug Norvasc. Calcium channel blocking drugs also increase the risk of heart attack and stroke.
For more information about the potential dangers of high blood pressure medications please read chapter 2 from my “Heart Disease What Your Doctor Won’t Tell You.”
CHAPTER 2 - Heart and High Blood Pressure Medications
Susan's low thyroid was being treated with the synthetic T4 drug, Synthroid. However, Susan was one of many of my fibromyalgia patients who wasn’t getting any benefit from being on Synthroid. Even though she had been on Synthroid for a number of years and her blood tests always looked “good,” she continued to have numerous symptoms associated with low thyroid. One month after I placed her on GTA Forte, a natural T3 thyroid hormone, she started losing weight, no longer had the dizziness or hair loss, felt more energetic and less depressed. For more good information on thyroid disorders and what to do about them, please see my past newsletter about thyroid disorders.
Click here to read my newsletter about thyroid issues
Get GTA FORTE II here
The Neurontin which Susan used for seizure disorders and nerve pain, wasn’t helping and since many of its potential side effects could have been contributing to her symptoms, Susan was weaned off this medication over a 2 month period.
The side effects associated with Neurontin include somnolence (prolonged drowsiness or a trance-like condition that may continue for a number of days), dizziness, weakness, fatigue, double vision, edema (fluid retention), ataxia (muscular in-coordination), thought disorder, possible long-term ophthalmic problems (abnormal eyeball movements and disorders), tremors, weight gain, back pain, constipation, muscle aches, memory loss, asthenia (weakness), depression, abnormal thinking, itching, involuntary muscle twitching, serious rash, and runny nose.
Don’t these side-effects sound like some of the symptoms associated with FMS and CFS?
She felt much better after she was off Neurontin. Her chronic achy low back pain, bad memory, and low energy problems, drastically improved after discontinuing this drug.
The Ambien, Flexeril, and Klonopin weren’t helping Susan sleep. They had long since stopped working. The Klonopin contributed to her depression, next-day hang over, and short term memory loss.
The Ambien may have been contributing to the short term memory loss, depression, fatigue and most likely to some of the diffuse muscle pain Susan was experiencing (all are potential side effects of Ambien). Many of my patients are quite chagrined to learn that one of the common side effects of Ambien is flu-like symptoms; achy muscles, fatigue, headaches, etc.
The Flexeril which had been producing deep restorative sleep, quit working and was leading to morning hangover which extended into early afternoon. And Flexeril can cause depression, fatigue, and dependence.
Susan was able to work with her medical doctor to slowly wean off all 3 of these medications, one at a time, over a 6 month period. I recommended 5HTP, 300mgs at bed and when that didn’t consistently work, I added 3mgs of sublingual melatonin (6mgs if needed).
In one month after starting 5HTP and melatonin, Susan began to consistently sleep through the night. Her pain, fatigue, depression, anxiety, and poor memory improved considerably over a 2 month period. Her IBS disappeared within 2 weeks after starting the 5HTP and the CFS/Fibromyalgia Formula. Most people don't know that you have more serotonin receptors in your intestinal tract than you do in your brain. This is one reason why you may get "butterflies" when you get nervous. Serotonin controls how fast or slow food moves through the intestinal tract. Low serotonin leads to IBS. 5HTP along with certain vitamins and minerals creates serotonin.
Click Here for More Information About 5HTP
Once Susan started sleeping through the night she started having more energy, less pain, and found that she was getting her life back.
The NSAIDs, including Celebrex had most likely caused some, if not all, of her digestive problems, bloating, gas, and indigestion.
A person taking NSAIDS is seven times more likely to be hospitalized for gastrointestinal adverse effects. The FDA estimates that 200,000 cases of gastric bleeding occur annually and that this leads to 10,000 to 20,000 deaths each year.
I also recommended that Susan begin taking a digestive enzyme with each meal and within 2 weeks her bloating, gas, and indigestion were gone.
Click Here for More About Digestive Enzymes
Susan’s Brain Function Questionnaire showed that she was very low in serotonin.
See the Brain Function Questionnaire Here
The Paxil wasn’t really helping by the time she saw me. It had most likely caused her 30 pound weight gain. Paxil and other serotonin re-uptake inhibitors and anti-depressant drugs (SSRIs) don’t make serotonin; they only help a person hang onto serotonin longer. These drugs are like gasoline additives, but Susan didn’t have any gasoline, she was running on fumes. There was no serotonin to re-uptake. Instead of using a gasoline additive, I recommended that she start taking 5HTP, which makes serotonin. She stayed on Paxil for 6 months while we built up her stress-coping savings account and then weaned her off Paxil over a 2 month period. I’m happy to report that she’s lost 20 pounds over the last 7 months. She lost almost 10 pounds in the first 2 months by using my elimination diet (included in both fibromyalgia books).
Susan has been able to discontinue all her medications over the last 8 months. She was able to find a medical doctor to switch her from Synthroid to Armour thyroid and has been able to discontinue taking GTA Forte. She will occasionally use her Flexeril at bedtime, but rarely.
She’s taking my CFS/Fibro Formula, digestive enzyme, adrenal cortex, 5HTP (these 4 products make up the Jump Start Package) and when needed, she adds 3mg of sublingual melatonin. She still has some periodic days with pain and fatigue, but she is 80% better. It may take several more months, if ever, for Susan to be back to 100%, were she was before her initial symptoms of fibromyalgia began in 1993. However, her recent email from a grueling vacation in China indicates that she’s doing quite well.
Not all of my patients respond as well to discontinuing their medications as Susan did. However, many do. Until a person starts exploring the cause of their illness, they are doomed to using drugs and just cover up their symptoms. Drugs can be very helpful, but they can be a contributing cause of poor health as well.
I encourage you to read about the drugs you’re taking. See if they may be causing some of your symptoms. If you suspect they are, work with your doctor to slowly wean off these medications. If they are helping you can always start back on them if needed. If you’d like to see how I’ve been able to help thousands of fibromyalgia patients feel better, discontinue most of their drugs, and get their life back, please read my past newsletters or one or both of my books on fibromyalgia.
Jackson Hole Wyoming
I’ll be speaking at The Teton Health Festival in Jackson Hole Wyoming September 25th. Wayne Dyer is the keynote speaker.
I hope I’ll see of some of you there.
Note: “Heart Disease: What Your Doctor Won’t Tell You” is now only available through my office. It will be available in book stores next Spring (2006)
Next month, I’ll be sharing information from my recently completed book, “Treating and Beating Anxiety and Depression With Orthomolecular Medicine.”
2005 Speaking Schedule
Click here to see my schedule.
My books are available online here
Heart Disease: What Your Doctor Won't Tell You
Treating and Beating Fibromyalgia
Treating and Beating Fibromyalgia: A Patient's Self-Help Manual
Visit my website @ www.DrRodger.com
Dr. Rodger H. Murphree
3401 Independence Drive Suite 121
Homewood AL 35209
To set up phone or office consults,
Call Dr. Murphree's office directly - toll free @ 1-888-884-9577.
Birmingham, Alabama USA.
Dr. Rodger Murphree's Email Address:
DrRodgerM@yahoo.com