Fibromyalgia, Fodmaps and Dieting

FODMAPs are short chain carbohydrates and monosaccharides which are poorly absorbed in the small intestine, including fructans, galactans, fructose and polyols. The term is an acronym, deriving from "Fermentable, Oligo-, Di-, Mono-saccharides and Polyols".

From Wikipedia!

Where some people react to Salycilates, Amines and Glutamates in food, my IBS seems to be linked to FODMAPS. All of these are naturally occurring chemicals which make your food tasty. I never reacted before but as the years go by with Fibromyalgia (over 20 years) other ssymptoms such as IBS kick in. So now I can't food with garlic or onion and a whole bunch of other things which I really enjoyed.

Fibromyalgia is hard to live with and unfortunately led to my marriage failing after being together for 18 years.

Thank you for your support. I will do my best to support you too :-)

Shreck - You sound like you might feel guilty because you can't work outside the home. Sounds to me like you have a full time job in the home!! Sometimes that is all we can manage, and you should be proud of what you do. I am lucky to have a job where I have alot of paid time off, so on days when the pain is unmanageable I just work from home, or take the day off. I have been at this job for 17 years and if something happened, I probably wouldn't be able to find another job that could work around my Fibro. If we all just do what we can, than be proud of that!! Good luck with your weight loss. They keep telling me that walking or swimming is the best thing. In Northern Wisconsin, it is hard to get out and walk, brrrrr and we don't have a public pool, so we have to pay big money to use the hotel pools, and those often aren't made for "swimming". But those are excuses I have to get over, just don't know how?

Unfortunately I do feel quilty. I worked a fulltime job outside the home most of my life. I enjoyed working and contributing to my family household. NOW I feel worthless. My husband and family says they understand but my heart is broken from this. I'm not the person I used to be. I was active and outgoing. Now I stay home alone with no friends because I can't commit to any outings. I loved coaching my children sports but I can barely get out of bed to drive them to practice. I'm depressed and overweight with lots of pain physically and emotionally. So I'm starting here to hopefully see a little light in this dark tunnel of mine. Yes, I am seeing doctors for all of my problems including therapy. No, I don't want to harm anyone. I'm giving you a little bit of my background.

My hips can't handle walking they hurt too much. Swimming is a great idea but I'm not sure if I'm comfortable doing that. No excuses, right? :happy:

In many ways I know how you feel and it makes me remember my own flare up. I spent 10 years at home and lost my best friend at the height of the flare-up (and it turns out - my husband as well). Neither of them ever understand what Fibro though my husband did try. I fought hard to do art because it was the only thing that kept me sane and took me away from the house to visit art galleries and classes. It hurt though.

We were under financial pressure and me not working became a source of frustration. He now thinks I am working because our separation prompted me to act and he refuses to concede that the reason I am working these hours now is because I am currently able to. But they are not pain free and by using a computer my right side is constantly stiff and sore. Your friends can come to you and if they truly love you they will. But sometimes it is worth choosing to have pain in order to have a "real life" - but you need to plan for it - diet and exercise before and after, arrange for a friend to help with the kids two days later etc. For me there is a two-day rule: 2 days after I REALLY hurt.

You have to let go of the guilt - trust me- it just adds more stress on top of everything else. It may be inconvenient to others but we are the ones who can never escape the pain

Yes I know you will not harm anyone - to be honest people with Fibro don't hurt others - our psychology means that we internalise everything. It is not coincidental that we are literally too sensitive. The trick is to find something not food related that triggers the "happy" chemicals. Exercise is supposed to do that but I find there is a point of pain when things go from being helpful and become so painful that your muscles end up in knots. Sex can help, so can laughter on a regular basis.