Life and Love

Have you ever really in truly thought about what you put into your body? Me neither! Well today I had an awakening, more than before, to pay even more attention to that very thing.

I have some health concerns that, to me, aren’t really “concerns” but rather just a daily reminder that I have issues from never having a day free from pain. I stay in pain twenty four / seven due to them, but the one I want to talk about today is the fact that I suffer from fibromyalgia.

Now, for those of you that do not know what that is: MayoClinic.org explains it this way; Fibromyalgia is a disorder characterized by widespread musculoskeletal pain accompanied by fatigue, sleep, memory and mood issues. Researchers believe that fibromyalgia amplifies painful sensations by affecting the way your brain processes pain signals. Having said that, I take medicine daily for the many different pains I live with. Occasionally though, I will have what is known as a “flare”. A flare is when symptoms intensify without warning and can last anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. One just never knows when it will come on or even how long it might last.

Having said all of that, I wanted to blog about it because I watched a YouTube video today that shed some light on the subject for me that I had never seen before. It taught me that someone with fibromyalgia that consumes foods with copper should not do so. Copper, in anything if ingested, can have lots of repercussions for someone with fibromayalgia. We can receive significant pain from it.

First of all, I had no clue that copper was even found in foods, vitamins, and even in our water. What!?! So I did what anyone that had just learned something new would do, I googled it. It gave me a list of the top ten foods to avoid that contain copper and wouldn’t you know some of those foods would be my FAVORITES to eat!?! For instance, DARK CHOCOLATE contains copper…..no way! Another one of my faves is CRAB LEGS! It also stated that pork of any kind contains copper. NOT MY BACON!!!! Anything processed or containing something from the intestinal parts of an animal, such as liver, gizzard, etc., will contain copper.

I might as well just stop eating all together and just live on protein drinks, chips, and Dr. Pepper!! I mean just about everything I eat isn’t good for me now a days any way right, especially now that I know about this new found copper knowledge.

Anywho, now that I have learned to pay closer attention to things I consume for an ingredient known as copper, I will be checking all the labels as I go. But the one thing I refuse to give up is my Dr. Pepper a day. I will consume that until the day I die or I can not lift the can myself anymore. But wait, that’s when a straw will come in handy…LOL!