Fibromyalgia Podcast‪®‬ Tami Stackelhouse

You're probably aware of the need for more research funding to help us develop new treatments for fibromyalgia. You’re probably also aware of the lack of training most doctors have when it comes to fibromyalgia. But did you realize that the two are connected? Research not only uncovers new potential treatments but also shapes how and what medical schools teach our providers.
Right now, the exact causes of fibromyalgia are unknown. We’ve uncovered many aspects of how it presents, but not enough for it to be definitively classified by medical institutions. That means we don't even know what specialists to see when we need a diagnosis.
How will this change? More research and advocacy for funding. This is a significant reason why Tami is so passionate about sharing her experience and the experiences of other people who have fibromyalgia.
Today, Tami is joined by Melissa Talwar, Executive Director of the Support Fibromyalgia Network, a national nonprofit dedicated to empowering individuals with fibromyalgia. In this conversation they discuss why the Support Fibromyalgia Network was formed and how it’s evolved since its founding, what federal advocacy looks like, tackling the lack of funding for fibromyalgia research, the need for systemic changes and research to be able to change the way medical providers are trained, the power of collaborative efforts and patient involvement in driving these systemic changes, the impact of research funding on developing effective treatments and classification for fibromyalgia, current challenges in classifying fibromyalgia, how you can get involved in fundraising and advocacy efforts for fibromyalgia funding and research, the process of going to Capitol Hill to meet with our representatives, how the Support Fibromyalgia Network supports and trains people who want to get started with advocacy, the need for preparedness in sharing our personal stories and experiences, the significance of obtaining governor proclamations and its impact on creating awareness and recognition, the power of a unified voice and collective advocacy, Melissa’s message for anyone who feels like there’s no progress despite the advocacy, being open to experimenting and layering different modalities and tools, exploring a holistic approach to improving your quality of life, upcoming initiatives for the Support Fibromyalgia Network, how a Certified Fibromyalgia Coach® can advocate for you and help you to advocate for yourself, resources you can access to learn more about fibromyalgia research and advocacy, and more.
 
 
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 resources mentioned in this episode, visit the show notes.
For daily doses of hope, inspiration, and practical advice, join Tami on Facebook or Instagram.
Need a good book to read? Download Tami's books for free.
Ready to take back control of your life and health? Schedule a complimentary consultation with a Certified Fibromyalgia Coach®.

GLP-1 medications like Wegovy, Ozempic, and Mounjaro are all the rage right now. Originally marketed as drugs to help diabetics with insulin resistance, they were later discovered to help people lose weight.
With those possibilities, GLP-1 meds are positioned to revolutionize health in the US since about two-thirds of the population is either overweight or obese and at risk for conditions like diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
But there’s been another new discovery—GLP-1 medications also have anti-inflammatory properties. Several different studies have since shown that GLP-1 medications help to reduce inflammation in the liver, kidneys, heart, and even the brain (which is of particular interest to fibromyalgia patients).
Today, Tami is joined by rheumatologist Dr. Isabelle Amigues to talk about GLP-1 medications and how they can potentially help those of us with fibromyalgia. In this episode, Tami and Dr. Amigues discuss the unusual way Dr. Amigues is incorporating GLP-1 medications in her practice, what you need to know about GLP-1 medications, the anti-inflammatory effects of GLP-1 medications and the implications, the link between inflammation and adipose tissue, the potential impact of GLP-1 medications on aging-related complications and inflammatory conditions, GLP-1 medications as a tool to get you over the final hurdle to fibromyalgia remission, utlizing mindful eating to help you make better food choices, tapping into the virtuous cycle of weight loss, breaking the stigma and releasing the judgment around our weight, factors to consider before taking GLP-1 medication, who should avoid these medications, putting the horror stories of bad experiences and side effects into context, next steps if you’d like to consult with your doctor about taking a GLP-1 medication, why it’s crucial to work with a qualified specialist, the affordability of GLP-1 medications medications, and more.
 
 
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 resources mentioned in this episode, visit the show notes.
For daily doses of hope, inspiration, and practical advice, join Tami on Facebook or Instagram.
Need a good book to read? Download Tami's books for free.
Ready to take back control of your life and health? Schedule a complimentary consultation with a Certified Fibromyalgia Coach®.

“How do you propose we help low-income individuals with CFS and fibromyalgia? Self-care and wellness are rooted in privilege, choice, fellowship, support, time, and money to invest in themselves.”
So many people living with chronic illnesses are forced to navigate the issue of how best to support themselves with limited resources. While you’ll often hear Tami talking about coaching and our training programs on this podcast, that’s not everything available in the fibromyalgia community. Tami and other organizations offer many resources that allow people from all income levels to access tools and support to improve their quality of life.
It’s also valuable to recognize that while wellness is often rooted in the privilege of having money to invest in ourselves, self-care doesn’t have to be. Self-care is about how we treat ourselves, and it’s not a direct link to our income level. In today’s Ask The Coach installment, Tami answers how low-income individuals can access help with CFS and fibromyalgia and whether you can still work with a fibro coach if you haven’t been diagnosed with fibromyalgia.
In this episode, Tami discusses the connection between wellness, self-care, and privilege, why I believe self-care has nothing to do with your income level, challenges faced by low-income individuals with fibromyalgia who rely on state healthcare programs, free resources and support provided by Tami and the International Fibromyalgia Coaching Institute, organizations that can help you implement the suggestions for improving your symptoms, patient assistance programs that can help with covering the cost of medications, tips for accessing lower-cost options for supplements and services, advocacy and support offered through organizations like Support Fibromyalgia Network, Fibromyalgia Care Society of America, and the Sherri Little Foundation, how you can advocate for fibromyalgia awareness and support, working with a fibromyalgia coach without a fibro diagnosis, training to work with conditions outside of fibromyalgia, and more.
 
 
 
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 resources mentioned in this episode, visit the show notes.
For daily doses of hope, inspiration, and practical advice, join Tami on Facebook or Instagram.
Need a good book to read? Download Tami's books for free.
Ready to take back control of your life and health? Schedule a complimentary consultation with a Certified Fibromyalgia Coach®.

Exercise is one of the foundational pillars of health, but with fibromyalgia, we have extra sensitive bodies and nervous systems, and we need to be gentle. That means finding the right exercise to meet our needs can be tricky.
Today, Tami is excited to introduce you to a tool helping her feel even better and that she’s recently been obsessed with: a T-Zone Vibration machine. These machines use whole body vibration, a modality used for decades to increase muscle strength, bone density, and more. In fact, several studies have shown the benefits of whole body vibration for improving fibromyalgia symptoms.
To explore this further and share the results of a small informal study with our students and coaches, Tami is joined by Sarah Aboody, the Owner and General Manager of T-Zone Vibration. In this conversation, Sarah and Tami discuss how whole body vibration works and its uses for improving muscle strength, bone density, flexibility, mobility, and circulation, why oscillating vibration works best for fibromyalgia, benefits and uses of whole body vibration, the results of the informal study on the use of the T-Zone Vibration with Tami and some of our students and coaches, exercise as a pillar of health and how the T-Zone Vibration machine can help to build the habit, guidance for optimizing the use of the machine, why pain and fatigue might temporarily increase after whole body vibration, adapting whole body vibration for different needs, benefits of T-Zone Vibration machines, comparison of the smaller and larger vibration machines, special offers if you want to try a T-Zone Vibration machine, guidelines for getting started with whole body vibration, important considerations and precautions for individuals for whom whole body vibration may not be suitable, and more.
 
 
 
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 resources mentioned in this episode, visit the show notes.
For daily doses of hope, inspiration, and practical advice, join Tami on Facebook or Instagram.
Need a good book to read? Download Tami's books for free.
Ready to take back control of your life and health? Schedule a complimentary consultation with a Certified Fibromyalgia Coach®.

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 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 hope, inspiration, and practical advice, join Tami on Facebook or Instagram.
Need a good book to read? Download Tami's books for free.
Ready to take back control of your life and health? Schedule a consultation with a Certified Fibromyalgia Coach®.

Rest is not a luxury. It’s required for healing your mind, body, and soul.
A month and a half into the new year, everything around us is about making this your best year ever. From classes to articles, social media posts, and podcast episodes, there’s so much messaging about becoming a new and better version of yourself.
While growth is a good thing, and the transition into a new year can be a great time to make the changes to move closer to the life you want, you might find that these messages aren’t resonating. What if you’re feeling exhausted or frustrated? What if you can’t figure out where on earth you’d scrounge up the energy to make these changes?
Today, Tami talks about the power of rest and embracing life’s winter seasons. In this episode, you’ll learn about the significance of rest and its impact on healing, exploring life's seasons and how they relate to personal growth, spring as a season of new growth, what it looks like to open yourself to new experiences, summer as the season of maturing, why we’re often more comfortable in the summer seasons of our lives, how these seasons relate to our fibromyalgia, fall as a season of harvest, acknowledging the process of letting go and accepting change, winter as a time to embrace rest as a necessary component for healing and growth, the power of winter rest, understanding what rest means, using the 80/20 rule for managing your energy, practical tips for embracing more rest in your life, the concept of deep relaxation, the benefits of embracing moments of a "blue mind state,” how to cultivate a “blue mind state,” aligning your actions to embrace the season you’re in, remembering the inevitability of spring’s arrival, things to consider leaving behind during your personal winter, ways to nurture that power of rest, the delicate balance between self-care as work and self-care as compassion and grace for individuals with fibromyalgia, and more.
While you're waiting for spring to come, lean into your winter season and accept it for what it is. It’s an essential part of life and carries a lesson for you. Get the rest you need and reach out for help to move forward into spring growth.
 
 
 
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 resources mentioned in this episode, visit the show notes.
For daily doses of hope, inspiration, and practical advice, join Tami on Facebook or Instagram.
Need a good book to read? Download Tami's books for free.
Ready to take back control of your life and health? Schedule a complimentary consultation with a Certified Fibromyalgia Coach®.