Fibromyalgia - the "Catch-All" Diagnosis or Is It?
After I picked up Dr. R. Paul St. Amand's book, and read through a few pages in the store, I was WOWed! I immediately purchased it, and as of 4AM today, finished reading all 300+ pages of it! Fibromyalgia is more than what you think it is and more than what I thought it was. Most doctors, pharmaceutical companies and Fibromyalgia sufferers and their families believe this just causes painful muscles and joints. Dr. St. Amand explains that it is so much more!
Fibromyalgia (FM) symptoms include fatigue (especially chronic and severe fatigue), irritability, nervousness, depression, insomnia, impaired concentration/focus "FibroFog", impaired memory, anxiety, hunger tremors, palpitations, panic attacks, frontal headaches, occipital headaches, general headaches, dizziness, vertigo, eye irritation, nasal congestion, abnormal tastes (bad, metallic), ringing ears, numbness, restless legs, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, dysuria, pungent urine, bladder infections, vulvodynia, weight changes, itching, rashes, sensitivities (chemical, light, odor, sounds), and allergies. FM sufferers also have chronic infections, skin rashes, itchiness, digestive upset, some have been diagnosed with Irritable Bowel Syndrome, some lose their hair, and the list goes on... As you can see, the name Fibromyalgia isn't a good name. It means pain in the muscles/fibers. It is so much more than that!
You may be treated right now for these conditions separately by more than one doctor. This is how so many millions of sufferers go without treatment. They don't realize they really have one condition causing all of these things! Especially because your body goes through cycling - good days and bad days with flares then a period of remission or at least days that are better than your worst days.
FM is genetic. Parents, siblings, grandparents, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles - someone in your family suffers from FM whether properly diagnosed or not if you are a FM suffer.
FM can start in young children. Children today diagnosed with arthritis or ADD might simply suffer from FM. Most doctors wouldn't think of FM because it is such a confusing condition to many. (There's a whole book on this if you want to know if your child might be suffering - What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Pediatric Fibromyalgia by Dr. St. Amand.)
FM has no diagnostic blood test (yet!!) but Dr. St. Amand and his team are very close to making that happen! When that happens, finally, family doctors and rheumatologists can test patients blood and know right away what the problem is - Fibromyalgia. They have already proven with research that proteins in our blood are increased for FM sufferers. This diagnostic tool will make lives change forever once it is finally fully developed and in use!
Another way to confirm FM today is to do "mapping" of the body to find the lumps and bumps in your muscles that show you do indeed have FM. This can be done by a chiropractor or massage therapist or someone trained in how do perform mapping. (Your provider, if willing, can even learn more about FM and mapping by purchasing Dr. St. Amand's CD on how to do perform mapping.)
How Many of the Below 18 Points are Tender on Your Body?
What is the Reversal Treatment Plan by Dr. St. Amand? More Prescription Drugs?
No, not prescription. Not drugs with dangerous or frustrating side effects. Dr. St. Amand discovered that Guaifenisen, an over-the-counter medication in doses of 300mg or 600mg or 900mg or 1200mg twice a day will reverse your symptoms of FM! The dosage depends on how your body reacts to the lowest does and if in time, that isn't producing the reversal effects desired (more pain before less pain), then the dosage is increased until your body begins to respond - you feel worse. After so much time feeling worse, you'll finally feel amazing! You'll have good days like you haven't known in years.
After all, you cannot forget that every drug you take for the above listed symptoms only mask the pain like putting on a band-aid and does not prevent the symptoms or reverse the symptoms like Dr. St. Amand's protocol will.
Why Should Anyone Trust This Doctor's Protocol Over a Rheumatologist Prescribing Anti-Depressants, Sleep Disorder Medications, Pain Medications, Anti-Convulsants, etc...?
Dr. St. Amand has been studying this condition and its symptoms for 50 years and he himself suffers from it. His entire family suffered too. He has devoted his career to doing a study in 1995 that failed but was also successful (more on that soon), writing recently published scientific articles, and treating 10,000+ patients suffering from FM. That's a lot of experience!
The 1995 study was unsuccessful because it seemingly showed his reversal treatment didn't work. However, it was a success because he learne two new things that patients must do in order for "the guai protocol" to work for them - 1) stop using all salicylates and 2) if you are also hypoglycemic (HGs) adhere to his diet for HGs.
Thousands have benefits from his findings and have felt completely or partially cured by the guai protocol. There is a web site, support group and list or providers who guide patients through this protocol and do the mapping to test to see if the bumps and lumps are going away as you take guafenisen each day without using salicylates.
Why do FM have to Avoid Salicylates?
Salicylates block guafenisen from working properly. Dr. St. Amand describes how guai works by having us imagine there are little parking garages inside of receptors in our kidneys tubules that the guai must park in to remove the excess phosphate that is in our body. But if we are using salicylates topically or taking them in concentrated form orally, we can block the guai and the salicylate will take the space in the garages first preventing phosphate from leaving the body.
What is the Cause of Fibromyalgia?
It is genetic, as I said, and it is triggered by life events, stressors, age, hormonal changes, injury, trama, etc... Essentially, your body systems are suffering because your kidneys are not properly ridding your body of phosphate which is in so much we consume and are exposed to. This surplus of phosphate then leaks out into the cells of our body;s tissues, muscles, organs and that is why the list of symptoms above is so long - this can (and usually will after years left untreated) affect the entire body and all its systems.
What is My Plan?
Well, I'm being the good patient and am waiting for my neurologist appt mid-July 2012 to rule out neurologic conditions. Once that is done, I'm sent back to my rheumatologist who already says she suspects Fibromyalgia. My first rheumatologist suspected Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Dr. St. Amand believes both conditions are one and the same and that there are millions of suffers in the U.S.
I also have to set up an appt with someone who can do "mapping" on my body and mark on a chart where all of the lumps/bumps are on my body. This will also confirm a diagnosis of FM and give me a starting point to work from. Once I've done this, I can go on the guai protocol at 300mg twice a day and if my symptoms get worse, I'll know that it is working. If they don't do anything after awhile, my dosage will be bumped up until it does get worse. Getting worse is what I have to do to get better. I long for the good days I know are ahead of me!
In the meantime, I'll start replacing products with salicylates in them. It isn't easy but I've been practicing already on how to read the labels using the great resources in Dr. St. Amand's book and his web site. I'll also begin a journal of my symptoms so that I can know what my bad days are like now to compare them to the worse days coming when the body is ridding my tissues of phosphate and then compare that to the days I long to see - the good days when I'm symptom free!
My Hope
One day, I hope to report to you that I am free and clear of all symptoms (as long as no permanent damage has been done but I'm hoping considering how young I am that has not happened). I hope to take what I've learned and help others. I hope that all I know with symptoms like the ones above will understand each person suffers differently with FM and no two suffers are exactly alike but very similar to one another and that they will take this information and apply it to their lives and live normal again.
Many FMs stop living, live in their home, don't work, can't work, withdraw socially, have guilty feelings because of all they cannot do, don't pay bills on time, have depression from all of this, cannot stop sleeping in cars, feeling too tired to even begin their list of to-do's, can't take care of their kids/family well so their relationships suffer, have strained relationships because no one around them understands mostly because most FM don't even understand their own condition.
I don't want to be this way forever. I don't want to get worse. I want to be pain-free, live without digestive upset, have my memory back, my ability to focus and concentrate returned, my energy to be awake all day long, etc...
I will find my cure!
Resources:
The Fibromyalgia Treatment Center - operated by Dr. St. Amand and Claudia Marek, his medical assistant
What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Fibromyalgia
by Dr. St. Amand and Claudia Marek
Mapping Chart
Research behind the Guafenisen Protocol by Dr. St. Amand
Salicylate-Free Products Guide
Find a Doctor Near You that Knows of Dr. St. Amand's Treatment
Hypoglycemic or Think You Might Be?
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