Fibromyalgia Podcast

A certified Certified Fibromyalgia Coach® is not a doctor. We can’t prescribe or diagnose, but we can help fill the gap in fibro knowledge for you and your doctors. IFC graduates have received hundreds of hours of fibromyalgia-specific training. We can teach you and your providers more about fibromyalgia and help you advocate for yourself and get better results. Today, as we continue the seventh installment of our Stories of Hope and Healing, Tami interviews two more graduates of our Certified Fibromyalgia Coach® training program. After going through both our Certified Fibromyalgia Advisor® and Certified Fibromyalgia Coach® training programs over the last two years, Penny and Ann are nearly symptom-free. In this episode, you’ll hear about their journeys and how they got where they are today. They are sharing Penny’s two-year journey to becoming almost symptom-free, the huge difference it made to work with the right providers, her experience going through early menopause as a result of a hysterectomy, how she

For many of us, the fibromyalgia diagnosis left us feeling like, “Who am I now?” Fibromyalgia changes how we see ourselves, relate with others, and interact in our lives. What if you could significantly improve your quality of life? Or have the energy to do the things you love? Or to travel and enjoy yourself? Today is the seventh installment of our Stories of Hope and Healing. Tami interviews five recent graduates of the Certified Fibromyalgia Advisor® program, and they share their journeys from pre-diagnosis to where they are now after graduation. One graduate even improved by 87%, going from the most symptomatic student in class to being essentially symptom-free today. In this episode, you’ll hear how Lisa’s fibromyalgia diagnosis led to an existential crisis and feelings of being spiritually unmoored, how her coach, Robin, helped to support her healing journey and build her healthcare team, celebrating the little wins with a “ta-da” list, the various approaches that contributed to Lisa’s 63% improvement i

Welcome to the final episode of our special Be a Coach series. So far, I’ve answered questions about our Certified Fibromyalgia Advisor® class and what it takes to become a Certified Fibromyalgia Coach®. Some of the topics covered in the first three parts of this special series were what a Certified Fibromyalgia Advisor® and a Certified Fibromyalgia Coach® is, the difference between the two, who makes a good Certified Fibromyalgia Coach® and who is better suited to be a Certified Fibromyalgia Advisor®, what you need and don’t need to become a Certified Fibromyalgia Advisor® or Certified Fibromyalgia Coach®, why the world needs fibro coaches, and why you should consider becoming one. In this final installment, I’m digging into the nuts and bolts of how you can become a Certified Fibromyalgia Advisor® or Certified Fibromyalgia Coach®; including the exact steps you need to take.       Note: This episode is not meant to be medical advice. Every person and every situation is unique. The information you learn in th

As patients, we must take control of some aspects of our health care to get what we need. Many fibromyalgia patients are familiar with the feeling that we know more about fibromyalgia than our healthcare providers do. How can you get help from someone who knows less about your condition than you? When you combine that feeling with the broken healthcare system in the US and things like fibro fog, many of us leave our appointments feeling like we’re no better off than when we went in. Today's episode is a segment from our July Fibromyalgia Stories of Hope and Healing event featuring our special guest commencement speaker, Dr. Ginevra Lipton. In her speech, Dr. Ginevra breaks down the three main friction points and how you, as a patient, can help overcome them and help your doctor to help you. Dr. Ginevra discusses the knowledge gap between healthcare providers and patients and how it impacts fibromyalgia treatment, challenges of the fragmented and struggling US healthcare system, how fibro fog and other fibro f

Welcome to episode 03 of our special Be a Coach Series. In this series, I answer questions about our Certified Fibromyalgia Advisor® class and what it takes to be a Certified Fibromyalgia Coach®. In episode one of the series, I explained what a Certified Fibromyalgia Advisor® is and what a Certified Fibromyalgia Coach® is. Episode two of the series was all about who makes a good coach and who is better suited to be an advisor. I also covered what you need and don’t need to become a Certified Fibromyalgia Coach®. In this episode, we’re taking a deeper look at why someone would want to become a Certified Fibromyalgia Coach®, why the world needs fibro coaches, and why you should consider becoming one.       Note: This episode is not meant to be medical advice. Every person and every situation is unique. The information you learn in this episode should be shared and discussed with your own healthcare providers. To learn more about the Certified Fibromyalgia Advisor® class, visit the show notes. For daily doses of

Having been through the Western medical system for 20 years without meaningful change,  Gisèle McDiarmid decided to take her health into her own hands. She felt the need to explore further and find specialists who knew about invisible illnesses, and she finally received a diagnosis and the help she needed to rebuild her health. With that, she finally had enough energy to focus on empowering herself to maintain her health and well-being as much as possible without invasive interventions. That’s when she learned about the International Fibromyalgia Coaching Institute (IFC) and our Certified Fibromyalgia Advisor® program. Today Tami welcomes Certified Fibromyalgia Coach® Gisèle McDiarmid to share her experience in our training programs. In this conversation, Gisèle and Tami discuss Gisèle’s journey with fibromyalgia, multiple chemical sensitivities, and chronic fatigue syndrome, the struggle to find the right treatments and support, the importance of self-care and learning to prioritize your own wellbeing, the b

Welcome to episode 02 of our special Be a Coach Series. In this series, I answer questions about our Certified Fibromyalgia Advisor® class and what it takes to be a Certified Fibromyalgia Coach®. I cover all the basics… the who, what, when, where, why, and even the how. Don’t understand what a Certified Fibromyalgia Coach® or Adviser is? No problem. Just pop on over to episode one of the series because that is exactly what we covered in that episode. In this episode, I’m covering the who. Who makes a good coach? Who makes a good Certified Fibromyalgia Coach®? Who makes a good Certified Fibromyalgia Advisor®? And, how do you know which one you might be? I also cover what I look for in the applications I accept into the training program and what you need and don’t need to join us a become a Certified Fibromyalgia Coach® or Advisor yourself.       Note: This episode is not meant to be medical advice. Every person and every situation is unique. The information you learn in this episode should be shared and discus

As coaches, we get a lot of questions from people trying to understand their insurance coverage. From prior authorizations to deductibles, coinsurance, and patient assistance, many moving parts need to align to maximize our healthcare benefits. To help gain some clarity around all things insurance, Tami is joined by Doctor of Pharmacy Dr. Chelsea Liebowitz. A pain patient herself, Dr. Chelsea also works for an insurance company making determinations on prior authorizations and helping with self-funded plans. In this conversation, Dr. Chelsea and Tami discuss her pharmacy background, understanding the open enrollment period, defining common insurance terms such as deductible and copay, the relationship between your premium and your deductible, recognizing that the best plan really depends on how you utilize healthcare, differentiating between an HMO and a PPO and why a PPO is often better for someone with chronic illness, why insurance plans vary widely from one employer or individual to another, how to find o

As a master Certified Fibromyalgia Coach®, author, and fibro podcaster, the questions I’m asked more than any others are: How do I get better? How do I improve my Fibromyalgia so I can get back to living the life I want to live? While those sound like simple questions, they do not have simple answers. We all have similar symptoms, what helps you feel better may not be the thing that helps me feel better. We all have to find our own magic formula for what makes us feel best. I know from personal experience just how overwhelming it can be to find that formula on your own. That’s why I created a training program in 2015 that would teach people just like you how to improve their own Fibromyalgia, and how to help others do the same. In this first episode of a special series where I’ll be answering a lot of questions I get about our Certified Fibromyalgia Advisor® class and about becoming a Certified Fibromyalgia Coach®, I want to start super basic. We’re going over what a Certified Fibromyalgia Coach® is, how that

One of the questions Tami gets most often is, “When are we going to have new fibromyalgia treatment options?” With only three FDA-approved fibromyalgia medications, many of us are on the alert for new options to address our symptoms better. To answer that question, Tami invited Dr. Seth Lederman, CEO and founder of Tonix, to talk about the fibromyalgia medication currently in phase three trials, TNX-102 SL. Dr. Lederman has dedicated his career to fibromyalgia research and has worked on this drug for almost 25 years. Today he’s sharing all the details about how TNX-102 SL could help fibromyalgia patients and walking us through the process of developing a new medication. In this conversation, Tami and Dr. Lederman talk about the process of creating a new medication and the FDA approval process, the significant challenges in the medication creation process, TNX-102 SL - the new fibromyalgia medication Dr. Lederman has been working on for almost 25 years, how TNX-102 SL is different and improved over Flexeril, t

An objective test for fibromyalgia will change everything. As a researcher, Dr. Jarred Younger’s mission to figure out fibromyalgia has led him to study neuroinflammation as a primary suspect. “What I think is happening in fibro is an overly robust immune response, an abnormal reaction to low level, daily insults to the immune system.” Having seen so much suffering with no effective treatment options, Dr. Younger has become driven to solve the mystery of fibromyalgia by scientifically uncovering the root cause. Key Points Could fibromyalgia be the result of inflammation in the brain? Find out what cutting edge science is discovering. A new tool for scanning and imaging the brain may help us finally pinpoint the pathology of fibromyalgia. The discovery of low-dose naltrexone as a treatment option occurred as Dr. Younger was testing his hypothesis on inflammation in the brain. Correcting inflammation in the brain can begin with simple (albeit difficult!) dietary and lifestyle changes. The hardest thing about r

With the lack of awareness and education about fibromyalgia, many of us go through years of chronic health issues without finding answers. You might even find that the medications, supplements, and treatments that are supposed to help you to get better are making you worse. Today’s guest, Gisèle McDiarmid, went through all of that, and today she’s sharing what she uncovered that made all the difference. While her health deteriorated over 20 years, Gisèle received multiple diagnoses and treatment options, but nothing worked. So what do you do when everything makes you feel worse? In this conversation, Gisèle and Tami talk about Gisèle’s life as a nurse, mother, and caregiver, managing her Hashimoto’s diagnosis, her deteriorating health and experience with injuries, chronic infections and allergic reactions, severe reactions to flu shots and what she learned about her ability to tolerate vaccines, why fibromyalgia awareness and education are so important, Gisèle’s health crash which turned out to be a massive f

Everyone with fibromyalgia understands how challenging it can be to explain the invisible pain and fatigue that comes with it. Despite affecting millions of people, there’s still a lack of understanding and awareness about fibromyalgia. That's where the documentary "Invisible” comes in. Through personal stories and expert interviews, "Invisible" explores the impact of fibromyalgia on people's lives and the challenges caused by the lack of understanding and research. For today’s episode, filmmaker Nick Demos joins Tami to discuss his feature documentary on fibromyalgia, Invisible. Nick and Tami have been waiting to do this interview ever since they began working on the film eight years ago. Not wanting to give away the ending before people could watch, a lot had to be kept secret during the production process. Now, they finally get to talk about it publicly. In this conversation, Nick and Tami talk about how Nick became involved with the making of Invisible, its evolution into a documentary about the fibromyal

With the sheer volume of information online, it can be challenging to know which sources are legitimate. Since ChatGPT’s launch in December 2022, we must be even more careful. While it’s an incredibly useful tool for increasing efficiency for writing blog posts, generating book outlines, and more, the problem lies with the fact that it will create a response to whatever you prompt, regardless of the facts, potentially spreading misleading information. Since many of us search for information about our health online, it’s crucial that we know that the sources we turn to are reliable. For today’s episode, Tami shares tips to help you understand who you can trust online. Tami talks about what you need to know about ChatGPT and information generated by AI, why adding the human element is critical, creative, and valuable ways ChatGPT is being used in different industries, how to figure out whether an information source is trustworthy, recognizing that the title of “doctor” doesn’t always equate to expert, website r

Fibromyalgia can feel like an endless taking away of things. Whether you’re newly diagnosed and struggling to find your way, or you think you have it all figured out, boom, life happens. We’ve all had hopes and dreams that ultimately died or were taken away. Living your best life doesn’t mean avoiding anything terrible happening - that's impossible. Instead, the key is knowing how to take care of yourself when life implodes. For this episode, Tami interviewed Dr. Ginevra Liptan, fibromyalgia specialist and author of The Fibro Manual and the Fibro Food Formula. While in medical school, Dr. Ginevra was diagnosed with fibromyalgia and has since devoted her career to helping other fibro patients. With all her expertise, it’s easy to assume her fibro would be permanently under control, but none of us are immune from life’s ups and downs. In this conversation, Tami and Dr. Ginevra discuss how Dr. Ginevra’s life fell apart during the pandemic, dealing with the worst fibro flare since she first got sick, the power of

Having good conversations with doctors can be difficult for many fibromyalgia patients. Whether it’s dealing with fibro fog or the fear of being labeled as a drug seeker, we often leave these interactions without feeling understood or confident in the action plan. So how do we have better conversations with our doctors? By finding the right practitioner and arming yourself with tools to support you during your appointment. Today Tami is joined by Dr. Andrea Chadwick to talk about current fibromyalgia research, the hallmarks of a good doctor, and simple strategies to get the most out of your doctor visits. In this episode, Tami and Dr. Chadwick discuss why she chose to work with chronic pain, the mission behind Dr. Chadwick’s Fibromyalgia and Centralized Pain Exploration Lab, the overlap between fibro and other chronic pain conditions, why it’s essential to tell our stories, research into how and why heat therapy helps with pain, advocacy for fibromyalgia research, the value of recording your pain journey and

Welcome to the final episode of our special Be a Coach series. So far, I’ve answered questions about our Certified Fibromyalgia Advisor® class and what it takes to become a Certified Fibromyalgia Coach®. Some of the topics covered in the first three parts of this special series were what a Certified Fibromyalgia Advisor® and a Certified Fibromyalgia Coach® is, the difference between the two, who makes a good Certified Fibromyalgia Coach® and who is better suited to be a Certified Fibromyalgia Advisor®, what you need and don’t need to become a Certified Fibromyalgia Advisor® or Certified Fibromyalgia Coach®, why the world needs fibro coaches, and why you should consider becoming one. In this final installment, I’m digging into the nuts and bolts of how you can become a Certified Fibromyalgia Advisor® or Certified Fibromyalgia Coach®; including the exact steps you need to take.       Note: This episode is not meant to be medical advice. Every person and every situation is unique. The information you learn in th

“If it’s in you, it’s for you.” - Katy Suik With fibromyalgia, we can’t do things the way we used to. That can trigger a loss of purpose and identity. “Who am I when I can’t do this? Can I still contribute?” While we tend to think of our purpose as a single thing that will make our lives perfect, the reality is much more expansive. Purpose is not external to you. It’s about tuning into yourself and aligning with what’s already in you. When you lean into who you are, what’s meant for you will find you. Today Tami is joined by Certified Professional Coach Katy Suik to talk about uncovering your higher purpose. Katy believes we are all born with the seeds of purpose within us, and it's our job to nurture those seeds to help make the world a better place. In this episode, Tami and Katy talk about how Katy’s quest to find herself led to developing a career helping others overcome their limitations and unpacking their purpose, the gifts that come through our experiences, recognizing that purpose is multifaceted, th

Welcome to episode 03 of our special Be a Coach Series. In this series, I answer questions about our Certified Fibromyalgia Advisor® class and what it takes to be a Certified Fibromyalgia Coach®. In episode one of the series, I explained what a Certified Fibromyalgia Advisor® is and what a Certified Fibromyalgia Coach® is. Episode two of the series was all about who makes a good coach and who is better suited to be an advisor. I also covered what you need and don’t need to become a Certified Fibromyalgia Coach®. In this episode, we’re taking a deeper look at why someone would want to become a Certified Fibromyalgia Coach®, why the world needs fibro coaches, and why you should consider becoming one.       Note: This episode is not meant to be medical advice. Every person and every situation is unique. The information you learn in this episode should be shared and discussed with your own healthcare providers. To learn more about the Certified Fibromyalgia Advisor® class, visit the show notes. For daily doses of

Treating your thyroid is a critical piece of managing fibromyalgia. It’s so crucial that Tami dedicates a whole week of the Certified Fibromyalgia Advisor® training program to teaching about thyroid. It’s also an issue that’s near and dear to Tami’s heart because it’s a significant part of her story. After years of classic thyroid symptoms being dismissed because her labs were “normal,” Tami was fortunate to discuss the problem with her fibromyalgia doctor, who ordered a full thyroid panel. That was when they discovered that she had Hashimoto’s, and treating it was a major step forward in getting her fibromyalgia under control. Today Tami has invited her thyroid doctor, Dr. Kaley Bourgeois, to the podcast to talk about thyroid issues in fibromyalgia patients. In this conversation, Tami and Dr. B discuss what the thyroid is and what it does, what thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) signals, common symptoms of hypothyroidism, why Hashimoto’s is often missed, why Dr. B always includes thyroid screening for her fib