Wiet van Helmond, Classical Homeopath
Drawing from decades of clinical experience and a representative case study, this article explores how mitochondrial dysfunction, chronic inflammation, post-viral illness, psychosocial stress, and individualized homeopathic care may intersect in the management of fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome.
Why do some patients with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome recover while others continue to struggle? This case-based article examines a mitochondrial framework for understanding these complex conditions, highlighting the potential roles of post-viral illness, manganese metabolism, psychosocial factors, and individualized homeopathic treatment within an integrative care model.
Introduction
When asked to write for the NDNR, I was wondering what type of case I wanted to present. Showing something that illustrated my success seemed of much less relevance as to showing some light at a seemingly endless tunnel of suffering called fibromyalgia. Since this condition was named, it appears to me that we haven’t gotten very far in coming to solving the problem. Over time we may even come to the point where we split it up into different sub-categories of both causation and presentation. So allow me to think out loud a bit.
First of all, I don’t think there is a single cause for fibromyalgia but, like in Lyme’s disease, there seems to be ‘a path’ of triggers and expressions and certain pieces of the puzzle that are visible. Presenting with chronic low-grade inflammation, vagal nerve homeostasis issues, often a never-well-since component (which can be either cause or modality), it usually affects more women then men. Diet and gut flora are rarely healthy, and mitochondrial dysfunction seems to play a major role. And then there are the more psychological components which a lot of patients are bringing up that are less tangible but often present (for example “if you cannot say no, the body will do it for you”).
Throughout practice I’ve seen hundreds of cases and every time someone makes a leap in coming out of fibromyalgia, I spend a lot of time analyzing the case afterwards to fully understand why and how I got to this result so I can reproduce it in others.
To illustrate, I would like to present a case that illustrates both homeopathy and some new insights into fibromyalgia.
Case Presentation
The patient is a 45-year-old woman who’s been suffering from fibromyalgia since her twenties. Her parents were always in favor of homeopathy, so she’s been under homeopathic care since birth. She’s a professional nurse and single parent and she’s very responsible in both her role as a mother and as a healthcare worker. The patient comes first, and she’s very empathic, which avoids her from cutting any corners. So often she’s doing some overtime to maintain her quality standard. As colleagues will easily say “Oh, my shift ends in a few minutes so the next shift will deal with this patient,” she will do it herself because she knows how it feels for the patient to wait in this position. This behavior has made her unpopular with colleagues and has led to her changing jobs 5 times during her career. She experiences these moments as great injustices, but she’ll take the high ground and not lower her standards.
Her mother has fibromyalgia as well, and is in a more advanced state, and the patient fears her path will lead her in the same direction. Her mother has also been a single parent, as there was no connection with her father after they divorced in her early teens.
During the COIVD years, she worked a lot of overtime, and due to the shortage of hospital staff even did 20 hours shifts. She contracted COVID herself with a lot of dyspnea, and since then she’s never gotten to her old level of health and energy. She feels mentally exhausted and cannot watch a television show, read a book or have a longer conversation with friends. All fibromyalgic pains are worse (standard fibromyalgic joint/tendon pains) and she wakes up tired. And after COVID, she also developped Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS).
In the Netherlands, the government had a capricious attitude towards long-COVID. First, they considered these patients chronically ill, and they received benefits with the exemption from the obligation to apply for jobs. But twice they suddenly changed this approach, and patients suddenly had to apply for jobs as their benefits were halted. You can imagine the effects this would have on hundreds of patients who could barely come out of bed and have difficulties maintaining their own households. The stress from all these political decisions worked destructively on her system and aggravated all her symptoms, and during the peak stress moments she would wake up with a suffocating feeling. Not optimal conditions to work on your health/recovery.
Before COVID, she at least had enough energy to do something social once per week. At this point, calling one of her friends feels like climbing a mountain. She is extroverted, so this lack of energy feels even more confining. Her social agenda must be very well organized as she needs days to recover from a simple cup of coffee at a friend’s. So, you can imagine the challenge in also raising 2 girls starting puberty.
So, I started treatment with some ‘basic’ post-infection remedies that gradually improved her symptoms 30-40%. Not a result I would brag about, but for her, it opened doors to some activities that, as she said, would charge her batteries a bit further. She started meeting people again (still very dosed) and kept her own household up to a certain standard.
As these results stabilized, we both decided to wait a bit longer to see how things developed. Sometimes we don’t have to prescribe, and with a little progress a negative spiral can be changed.
But after about 5 months she phones me only to tell me there is a full relapse, even to the point of gasping for air on waking.
This doesn’t make sense to me. Why would it relapse? Sometimes when a remedy has finished working there is a small relapse, 5-10%, but going back to square one without cause … So I ask what has happened?
As predicted, her progress further improved as she was more able to go back to her more social life. She was reconnecting with people again, going to nearby parties and was even considering joining a choir. On one of these social visits, she met a man who had just gotten divorced and they connected. What started as daily phone calls quickly became visits, and after two months they were ‘officially dating’. Her first relationship in over 10 years. He lived about 150 miles away, which was still too far for her to drive, but he would come over for weekends and his presence had a healing effect. After two months of these dates, she decided to introduce him to her mother.
Together they went to her mother with a pre-cooked dinner as her mother is otherwise unable to entertain guests due to her fibromyalgia/chronic fatigue syndrome. They chatted for a long time, and they seemed to connect nicely. At some point my patient got up from the table and offered to do the dishes and left the room thinking this would help her mother and would also give an opportunity for her boyfriend to talk to her mother without her present.
When she finished she was tired and they decided to go back home. On the way back her boyfriend told her what happened. Her mother had told him he was a nice enough man, and she was happy that her daughter had found someone, but in general she wasn’t happy with the situation as it meant her daughter was spending more time with him, which meant she had to do more herself. She had gotten accustomed to her daughter cooking and cleaning for her. This was something my patient didn’t tell me, but she’d been doing it for all of her adult life. Twice per week, she would prepare food for the upcoming days, clean the house and accompany her mother on all her medical appointments (remember, her mother also had fibromyalgia).
And instead of becoming angry or at least disappointed with her mother’s remarks, she felt guilty for having a life of her own. “Maybe I’m not ready to have a relationship,” were her words, and she was seriously considering ending the relationship.
And it was after this event that she relapsed and after telling me I understood the remedy she needed: Rose Quartz
First, let me tell you of a vital component in this remedy, namely manganese. There is a small amount of manganese that provides the pink color in this beautiful stone. And it is a remedy we know very well in homeopathy as Manganum-metallicum. A remedy for people with a strong desire to help. They tend to go into professions like teaching, health care, social work, etc. They have a certain doubt about their own qualities, so they compensate by stimulating others. Often, these are the teachers we hope to get as they know how harsh and crippling criticism can be so they are gentle and supportive. As they come from the Iron-series, they tend to work hard and easily overlook themselves. A pattern that has often come as the result of a domineering parent.
And on a physical level we see almost all of the basic fibromyalgia complaints:
- Pain in trigger spots
- Pains in joints, ligaments, muscles, tendons.
- Wandering pains
- Paroxysm of pain
- Weakness
- Memory issues
- Brain fog, concentration problems
- POTS
- Tendencies to headaches
- Mood problems
- Sleep problems
- And chronic problems after an acute illness
And also interesting: manganese plays a vital role in the mitochondria’s functioning. If manganese is out of balance not only do we not produce enough energy in our cells, but we are also prone to become the victim of oxidizing stress within the cell, the results of which can explain most of the basic fibromyalgia symptoms. It plays a vital role in the glucose sensitivity/glucose balance and thus can easily create situations of chronic low-grade inflammation. And on top a recent study has shown deviations in manganese levels in fibromyalgia patients.
As such, in the homeopathic remedy Manganum-metallicum we see a lot of chronic coughs, candida, cystitis, chronic weakness, etc.
But that doesn’t mean all fibromyalgia cases require manganum or Rose Quartz. In this case you can see more elements. Rose quartz has a milky quality. It is not transparent like crystal quartz or Amethyst. This milky aspect comes from a second stone that is included in Rose Quartz called Dumortierite – an aluminum boron silicate. In homeopathy we know Silicium well, but also Aluminum and Boron. Aluminum is insecure and needs external feedback to discover how he feels about the situation. Like you need 3 GPS satellites to discover where you are exactly, the Aluminum patient often needs several people giving him opinions about who he is to discover this part of himself.
And Boron is even more insecure about his path, and is therefore closely connected to another and cannot even imagine living without this other (often the mother).
So, in this stunning pink stone we see all these aspects coming together into a remedy that can easily be mistaken for Carcinosinum – a remedy for people who sacrifice themselves for the happiness of others. And when we get a fibromyalgia case in our practice, often they’ve been given that remedy by previous homeopaths. Or they are mistaken for Ignatia – a remedy that is also idealistic with a desire to help others.
In his book on Rose Quartz, Peter Tumminello emphasizes the role of the imposed caregiver. “I’ve looked after you when you were young, now it is your turn to look after me”.
In short, the remedy fitted beautifully and within weeks, my patient had improved tremendously. Fibromyalgia symptoms improved by at least 90%, energy returned, and she felt more confident within herself. She had a good conversation with her mother, telling her she has a life’s purpose of her own. She joined a choir and a local amateur play company, and is much more socially active. And her relationship is still going strong.
References:
https://qjure.com/remedy/manganum/
https://synapse.koreamed.org/articles/1021466
Peter Tumminello – Rose Quartz, ISBN 9783943309201
About the author:
With almost 30 years’ experience in fulltime practice and teaching, Wiet is a classical homeopath specializing in complaints such as (deep/transgenerational and multiple) trauma treatment, autistic spectrum, ADD, ADHD, personality and developmental disorders, anxiety disorders, irritable bowel syndrome, menopausal and menstrual complaints, etc.
He’s build upon the great homeopathic predecessors of the past 250 years with the latest perspectives on health and disease like C4 homeopathy, crystal structures and polyvagal theory with the sole purpose of improving the quality of treatment of the patient and also offering a better perspective to the students of homeopathy.
