Reduce Your Aches and Pains Through S.H.I.N.E.

Want a shocking but liberating thought?

Pain is not your enemy. Like the oil light on your car's dashboard, it's your body's way of telling you that you have a problem that needs attention. So though no one enjoys it — it's actually your friend. Once you know how to make it go away.

To extend the analogy of the oil light, when you add oil, the annoying flashing red oil light goes off. When you give your body what it needs to optimize function, as shown in our published research, the pain usually decreases and often goes away. Don't know what is causing the pain? Here are the key areas of health to optimize:

• Sleep
• Hormones
• Immunity
• Nutrition &
• Exercise as able

This is the same S.H.I.N.E. that causes the human "Energy Crisis." So tune up your body with S.H.I.N.E. When you do so, you may find your body no longer needs pain to get your attention.

Why S.H.I.N.E. Helps

One of the reasons I created S.H.I.N.E. was to define a framework for holistic care of your body. Though its main objective is to optimize energy, it has a side benefit of helping you reduce pain. Let's briefly review the five areas of S.H.I.N.E., the roles they play in managing pain, and  natural alternatives that can also help you get pain free.

S.H.I.N.E. Protocol

In his 35 years of clinical experience treating CFS/FMS, and in his landmark published research on CFS/FMS (published in the Journal of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome), Dr. Teitelbaum has found that his S.H.I.N.E. approach is successful in the large majority of patients. S.H.I.N.E. identifies five key areas related to the body that, when addressed in combination, provide a blueprint for promoting optimal energy. Tending to these can help you maintain healthy energy levels when you are well, and can help support recovery when dealing with CFS and fibromyalgia.

1. SLEEP: Get adequate sleep, preferably eight to nine hours a night. Sleep replenishes the body's energy and heals its muscles. Inadequate sleep will leave you exhausted and in pain.
2. HORMONES: Get tested for hormone deficiency and treated if needed — even if the blood tests are "normal." Hormone deficiencies can contribute to fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome.
3. IMMUNITY: Get treatment when symptoms of infections occur. The lack of restorative sleep in CFS/FM leads to dysfunctional immune systems. Underlying viral, bacterial, bowel, sinus and yeast infections are common and can be a contributing cause or result of CFS/FM.
4. NUTRITION: To maintain normal health and optimal energy levels you need to be sure your body is getting a proper balance of nutrition, particularly as nutritional deficiencies can result from CFS/FM. Ribose, Vitamin B-12, magnesium, CoQ10, Acetyl L-Carnitine, glutathione, as well as your basic A, B, C and D vitamins are especially vulnerable to depletion from this.
5. EXERCISE: Exercise as able. After 10 weeks on the 4 steps above, you will be able to slowly increase your exercise-without being wiped out the next day!

The free Energy Analysis Program can help you in your approach in following the S.H.I.N.E. protocol. It is a specially designed, patented, questionnaire (a tool) that helps you pinpoint individual lifestyle and nutritional factors that are impacting your energy and vitality and overall wellness. You can complete this simple questionnaire in about 10-20 minutes. The free program analyzes your answers (and even pertinent lab results if available) using special algorithms developed by Dr. T and then suggests where you may need support for optimal performance of body structures and functions, along with recommendation on how to optimize those areas.

What to Expect

S.H.I.N.E. helps most people optimize energy and function. For those of you with CFS/FMS, it took months to fully manifest. It can similarly take several months to start feeling better. Following the guidelines in S.H.I.N.E. will give you the fastest path to healing. After feeling better for 6-9 months, people find they can often wean off most of the treatments.

Supporting Research

In our published research study, over 90% of patients improved with treatment, with an average improvement in quality of life of 90%. Pain decreased by over 50% on average. Many patients no longer even qualified for the diagnosis of CFS or fibromyalgia! Interestingly, many of the same principles for treating fibromyalgia also apply to myofascial pain syndrome (muscle pain).

That the vast majority of patients improved significantly in the active group while there was minimal improvement in the placebo group proves two very important things. The first is that these are very treatable diseases. The second is that anyone who now says that these illnesses are not real or are all in your head are clearly both wrong and unscientific.

In support of our work, an editorial in the April, 2002 journal of a major multidisciplinary US medical society for pain management noted "the comprehensive and aggressive metabolic approach to treatment detailed in the Teitelbaum study are all highly successful approaches and make fibromyalgia a very treatment-responsive disorder. The study by Dr. Teitelbaum et al. and years of clinical experience make this approach an excellent and powerfully effective part of the standard of practice for treatment of people who suffer from fibromyalgia and myofascial pain syndrome."

It is important to recognize that these syndromes can be caused and aggravated by a large number of different triggers. When all these different contributing factors are looked for, and treated effectively, patients improved significantly and often get well!