What you experience as energy – mental or physical – is the end result of a series of chemical reactions that take place in every cell in your body. Nutrients from food combust with oxygen to make a unit of cellular energy in the form of a chemical called adenosine triphosphate, or ATP, which in turn makes muscles work, nerve signals fire, and brain cells function. If we are missing vital nutrients, we are less able to extract energy from the food we eat. This results in low energy levels, weight gain and food cravings.
Because fibromyalgia is akin to an energy crisis, nutrients are vital to metabolism that can energise your system from a cellular level. D-Ribose has been proven to be especially beneficial in treating fibromyalgia.
D-Ribose benefits for fibromyalgia
D-ribose (Corvalen) is a nutrient that has been shown to play a highly beneficial adjunctive role in the metabolic treatment of fibromyalgia. It provides the structural foundation – the backbone, if you will- of the energy compound ATP. ATP is the primary source of energy for all living cells and is made from ribose. In tissues facing metabolic stress of low oxygen, dysfunctional mitochondria, or poor energy metabolism – as in the case with fibromyalgia, ATP is broken down, and the metabolic machinery used by the cell to re-cycle expended energy is disrupted. These reactions ultimately lead to increased concentrations of metabolic by-products that must be recycled or removed from the cell. Up to 90% of these metabolic by-products can be removed or salvaged, but if they are not recovered quickly, they are washed out of the cell and lost forever. The loss of these by-products has the effect of draining the cell of energy and, over time, draining your whole body of energy.
In the cells, the process of salvaging energy by-products begins with D-ribose. In fact, the process cannot continue without ribose. As long as enough ribose is available, the process of energy salvage goes smoothly and quickly, but if ribose is not available in sufficient quantities, the process halts and energy is lost. Although the body makes ribose naturally, it does so slowly and cannot keep pace with the demand. Most tissues of the body lack the metabolic machinery to produce adequate amounts of ribose quickly. For this reason, when your body faces severe energy stress, supplementing with ribose helps keep energy in the cells and enables energy balance to be restored.
Ribose is also needed to make new energy compounds. The energy molecule ATP is made from ribose. Beginning with ribose, the body goes through a number of metabolic reactions to produce ATP. If there is not enough ribose in the cell, the process of making ATP cannot proceed. This explains why chronically stressed tissue and muscles, as in fibromyalgia, have such difficulty regaining an energy balance. Muscle cells cannot make ribose quickly, and the energy needs of muscle in fibromyalgia outpace the cell’s ability to supply the energy it needs. Ribose supplementation helps the muscle speed the process of energy salvage and energy building, leading to a return of energy. Ribose supplementation provides the metabolic support the body needs to bypass the slow process of natural ribose production and stimulate the muscle’s energy recovery.
Recently published studies have shown that after supplementing with D-ribose, fibromyalgia and chronic-fatigue syndrome (CFS) sufferers enjoyed an average of 44 percent increase in energy after only three weeks, and an average overall improvement in quality of life of 30 percent. Improvements were noted starting at twelve days, and two-thirds of the fibromyalgia and CFS patients felt they had improved. When you realise that a 10 percent improvement for a single nutrient is considered excellent, 44 percent is nothing short of amazing! The D-Ribose benefits for fibromyalgia are without a doubt outstanding and a must for anyone suffering with low energy.
Visit www.corvalen.com for more information pertaining to studies related to improvements in fibromyalgia using D-ribose.
I personally use Solgar D-ribose as a dietary supplement when I’m feeling really low in energy and I take one (1) teaspoonful one to three times daily, with meals, mixed with water.