Fibromyalgia is a chronic disorder characterized by muscle and trigger point pain and tenderness. Other symptoms include:

• Brain fog

• Depression

• Fatigue

• Irritability

• Stiffness

Fibromyalgia is a very common condition, yet conventional medicine does not have a good therapy to treat it. In my experience, fibromyalgia is caused by nutritional and hormonal imbalances; correcting those imbalances with natural therapies dramatically helps this condition.

Italian researcher Antonio Costantini and his associates have written a series of articles explaining how thiamine deficiency could be the underlying factor behind not only fibromyalgia, but also multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease.

In his study, Dr. Costantini placed 15 fibromyalgia patients who were suffering with fatigue on high dose thiamine (600 to 1,500 mg per day orally, or 100 mg a week as an intramuscular injection).

These are large doses; the recommended daily allowance for thiamine is about 1 mg per day for adults.

Dr. Costantini noted that 93 percent of the subjects studied (14 out of 15) reported partial regression of fatigue. Furthermore, he found a significantly lowered fibromyalgia pain scale in those subjects treated with thiamine.

He wrote, “The patients moreover reported an almost complete disappearance of fatigue-related symptoms such as an improvement of the intolerance to heat variations, sleep disorders, depression, anxiety, irritability, dry skin, lower leg swelling and tachycardia. Motor and other neurological symptoms did not show an appreciable clinical improvement.”

Dr. Costantini also noted zero side effects with the therapy after 18 months of follow-up.

I have spoken personally with Dr. Costantini and used recommendations on many patients, and my results have not been as astounding as his. Although I have found some patients achieve miraculous results from thiamine, my findings did not match the 93 percent improvement reported.

The patients who responded best to thiamine usually had a very low baseline serum level of the vitamin.

Similar to Dr. Costantini’s results, I have also found that neurological symptoms of thiamine deficiency are often discovered late and are slower to respond than other complaints such as fatigue.