One of my favorite sites is cpnhelp.org, formed to help chronic disease patients suffering from infections with Chlamydophila pneumoniae, a parasitic intracellular bacterium. When I first discovered this site I immediately recognized many of my own symptoms in the reports of other patients. Although I had already cleared many symptoms through diet and supplements, cognitive and neuropathic symptoms remained, and my doctor agreed that the evidence for a persistent bacterial infection was strong. Three months of antibiotics cleared nearly all my remaining symptoms.
I’m far from the only chronic sufferer to benefit from antibiotics. Yesterday cpnhelp had a lovely and inspiring post from Ladybug, an Australian painter who suffered from fibromyalgia, a condition that produces debilitating muscle pain. She describes her condition:
The hallowed shrine of my body was invaded by ugly bugs. They put on their own ugly bug ball in my central nervous system and invited all their friends and relatives. They feasted and made merry and committed unspeakably rude acts wherever and whenever they wanted. They poured waste matter down the drains and left rubbish lying about all over the place. [1]
The medical professional has badly failed at diagnosing and treating chronic disease. I’ll have more to say later about why that is – partly it has to do with the ineffectiveness of antibiotics on a bad diet, and partly with some defects in modern medical research and clinical practices. But there is hope for chronic disease sufferers:
I [have] really overcome the scourge of fibromyalgia, despite the rhetoric carved into the stone walls of western medicine:
Australian Association of Musculoskeletal Medicine (AAMM): “What is fibromyalgia? Pathology: not identified.”
Australian Rheumatology Association: “Currently there is no cure for fibromyalgia.”
American National Fibromyalgia Association: “The underlying cause or causes of FM still remain a mystery.”No cure, eh? Mystery, eh? Pigs’ ears!…
“Living Well With Fibromyalgia” my foot. I’d just as soon live well without fibromyalgia, thank you very much….
I, Ladybug, fell ill in 2000 and was diagnosed with fibromyalgia in mid 2005. I had so much pain and confusion, I was barely crawling through the day. Five years on, thanks to Dr Powell’s [2] antibacterial, antiviral and detoxification therapy, I am leading a pain-free existence. [1]
Congratulations, Ladybug. We can be grateful that, thanks to the impetus and insight of frustrated patients and a few creative doctors and scientists, there is growing hope for complete cures for chronic disease.
[1] Ladybug, “Life After Fibromyalgia,” June 20, 2010, http://cpnhelp.org/life_after_fibromyalgia.
[2] Dr. Michael Powell of the Fibromyalgia Treatment & Learning Center, http://www.fmtlc.com/.
via this link:
Beginning a site kind of similar to yours got me to start some research and I found your post to be really useful. My site is centered around the idea curing cancer by halting the angiogenic process. I hope of you good luck with your work in the future and I’ll definitely keep an eye on you.
So Im confused. I have had fibromyalgia for 10 years. Do antibiotics fix everyone with this condition? What are the first steps?
Hi Davy,
That’s the $64,000 question. I believe that fibromyalgia is almost invariably caused by infections. Whether antibiotics will cure it depends on whether (a) the pathogen in question is bacterial or protozoal or fungal or viral; (b) the antibiotics being tried actually work against that pathogen – antibiotics work best against bacteria, but intracellular bacteria are often little affected by antibiotics, and often a combination of antibiotics is needed, to target multiple phases of the pathogen’s life cycle; and (c) whether the diet is properly supporting the immune system and refraining from feeding the infection. A high-carb diet raises blood glucose and feeds bacterial reproduction, while a low-nutrition and high-toxin diet undermines and diverts the immune system.
The reason doctors have failed to recognize the infectious origins of diseases like fibromyalgia is that usually these three conditions are not met and so they have a long track record of trying antibiotics and seeing them not work. However, in the right conditions they will work.
First steps: I would do these things:
(1) Optimize vitamin D status. Get sunshine on bare skin, supplement with 3000 IU/day vitamin D3, and get your 25(OH)D levels measured in a month. Adjust dose from there. This is critical for intracellular immunity.
(2) Go to cpnhelp.org and search the blogs for “fibromyalgia” and read other people’s stories. Then look at their “Getting Started” guide to consider antibiotic therapies.
(3) Keep reading this site and optimize your diet and nutrition. Please feel free to ask me any dietary questions at any time. If you email me a question, I will try to do a blog post on it in short order.
(4) You may wish to find a doctor with experience in treating chronic infectious diseases. Dr. Powell in the story specializes in fibromyalgia, you could try contacting him. Lyme doctors are often good bets. Some primary care physicians may be good about this.
Good luck!
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17 years ago, I suffered with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. I was tested positive for lyme disease, but it was not a strong positive. (The testing for lyme disease was not very accurate back then.) My neurologist happened to be one of the world’s experts on lyme disease and although he did not fully believe I had lyme diease, he did treat me for it with 30 days of antibiotics. I was also given a sleeping pill which helped with my poor sleep. Gradually, over several months, I got better. So the antibiotics happened to be what worked for me!
On another note, I’ve been doing low carb for 11 years now and have lost about 70 pounds. (The weight was gained during and after the fibromyalgia and CFS.) As long as I stay on the low carb, I’m lean. The few times I have gone off it, I gained some of the weight back. It had been more of a struggle to stay on the low carb because for most of that time, I was doing low carb and low fat, thinking it would be healthier and keep the weight off more easily. Only problem is that the cravings are strong with low fat/low carb. Now I know that certain fats are healthy, I have incorporated them (butter, coconut oil, olive oil and avocado) into my diet. The low carb lifestyle is much easier to maintain now!
Really enjoy your new book and your blog. Thank you so much for all your research and for sharing your knowledge – I feel my health has been enriched so much!!!
Best wishes,
-Connie
Hi CW,
Thanks for sharing your story! Antibiotics are still the most under-appreciated therapy in the doctors’ arsenal. I’m glad you’re healthy and enjoying a fattier diet!
Best, Paul
I have terrible fibro so I’m going to look into this. Thanks paul
I think you touched on a few extremely important points here. Primarily, that fibromyalgia CAN be beaten. Too many clinicians continue to tell patients that there is no cure, and I have seen time and time again that fibromyalgia can be overcome. Secondly, is the approach needed to overcome fibromyalgia. While the ‘one disease-one drug’ mindset can be well applied to infections and some disorders, it is extremely lacking in the context of chronic diseases like fibromyalgia. These types of multi-system diseases need a multi-systemic investigation and treatment in order to overcome the condition. Thanks, and keep up the great work!
i have suffered with fibromyalgia, since 2007, and have tried almost everything there is from a doctors point of view,and the only thing that gave me relief, was predizone and antibiotis for 20 days, and now it is back, so bad again, i can hardly stand myself.
the doctors will not give me antibiotics for this, i am also going to take zija once again. even if i cant afford it. right now, if i was given an antibiotic for a few months, i know it would be helpful to me. and i understand this would be a bacterial infection !! huuum interesting what a person learns from a computer !
Best of luck Mary. It is hard to get doctors to prescribe speculative or experimental therapies. But they should for these serious illnesses!
Hi, I just happened to come across your website when I did a Google search for Fibro and antibiotics. I have Fibro and over the last 10 days I have been taking some antibiotics for a UTI. I started to notice that my legs weren’t hurting so much and then it dawned on me that it could be the antibiotics. I told my partner and she didn’t believe it. I am glad that I came accross your website! Thanks
Hi Paul. I hope you still check this site! I am 17 and I used to be an athlete but had to stop all activity due to a sudden bout of muscle pain. This was 5 months ago. Since then I have been struggling with psychological, digestive, and muscular symptoms. I thought maybe it was due to good sensitivities and I have been eating a nearly paleo diet and was going to try gaps until I found your site. I also thought oxalates might not be a problem but I suddenly have so many food sensitivities that I don’t want to eliminate healthy food unless necessary. I have an appointment with a functional medicine doctor in a month but I’m not really sure what to do until then. I should add that coconut gives me extreme cravings and anxiety so maybe it’s candida. Any advice at all would be appreciated.
I have suffered with fibromyalgia for about three years, constant pain in joint and incredible tireness.
Recently I have had a bad case of flu and an unspecified infection. I was very poorly. Docs gave me 500mg Amoxiillin three times a day. All my symptoms of fibro have gone!! I can walk up and down stairs with ease, have no joint pain and have slept through the night for the first time in years. My worry now is what will happen when I finish the antibiotics?
At least you know it’s bacterial in origin. That’s at least half the battle.
how can you be sure its bacterial in origin if one responds to antibiotics for a time? what if it is another pathogen – some undiscovered virus, perhaps – that is weakening the immune system and allowing some bacteria to over-populate, thus resulting in the symptoms?
I have suffered with fibromyalgia for over 20 years and have tried many different things. During that time I was living in Africa (Uganda, the malaria capital of the world) and I took low dose doxycycline for a year as malaria prophylaxis. I returned to the States for a summer, and when I restarted the doxycylene, I got a terrible fungal rash in skin folds and had to stop the antibiotic. In the next 6 years I had malaria 8 times, and all the antibiotics and anti parasite treatments made my fibromyalgia much worse. I think your symptoms and illness is all coming from what happens to be colonizing your gut. I was told years ago by a naturopath who had healed herself of fibromyalgia that you have to heal your gut. To that end I am doing the GAPS diet (after a year of vegan which didn’t do it for me). After 4 months I am noticing small positive changes – I can stand for longer periods of time, I have a little more energy, breast cyst has flattened and is no longer painful. I’m going to keep on with GAPS for another 2 years.
With all due respect to Paul, I strongly disagree that antibiotics are under-used for chronic conditions, let alone necessary.
Go on any Lyme site and there are patients wiping out the microbiome by taking antibiotics for YEARS on end, with no real improvement.
There are probiotic strains that have antibiotic properties. Correcting and improving the gut by using specific probiotic strains, along with soil-based organisms, is the answer, IMO.
Hi Kelly,
Perhaps a better way to say it is that antibiotics are mis-used — they aren’t prescribed in many cases they would help, and they are prescribed in many cases where they do harm. I’ve experienced both situations myself.
Doctors urgently need better diagnostic tools to guide them, as well as better antibiotics.
Best, Paul
I have had fibromyalgia since I was 25. That is 16 years. It’s only gotten worse since I am older. I wish I knew how to proceed. It appears that Dr. Michael Powell is deceased now. 🙁