Going Salicylate-Free

I was pretty happy to learn that going salicylate-free did not involve changing my diet (since I don't take any herbal supplements or drink tea). That was short lived when I realized what a pain it is to find salicylate-free products in the store. There is a decent list of sal-free products at Dr. St. Amand's website http://www.fibromyalgiatreatment.com/salfreeQuickRef.htm but I found the resource page in the back of his book to be the most useful. I referenced that page when looking through my own current products to see what I could keep (very little) and when buying new ones.

I started the treatment very quickly and was feeling pretty horrible, so my sal-free shopping involved one Saturday of running to three different stores and reading labels for hours in search of approved toiletries. At the end of the day I still didn't have any adult toothpaste because none of the stores carried the Tom's cinnamon flavor, but here is what I managed to round up...

This is the only dental floss I could find that wasn't mint flavored, and I ended up ordering the adult Tom's in cinnamon on Amazon.

One of my least favorite shampoo brands for my hair type, but oh well.

Good ole' Barbasol, you can use just about any razor as long as you pop out the aloe strip.

I was bummed that both of the name brands in these products contained aloe, I was in pain and desperate at the last minute so I had to go store brand.

Again I wanted the Aveeno but had to settle for store brand, love the body wash though!

I bought the travel bottle to keep soap in my purse since you never know what ingredients are in public restroom soaps.

Most of the clinical-strength deodorants are ok, not all though. I switched to Secret after this.

Since I could not find any baby wipes anywhere that I was able to use, I bought these for those times as well as using certain cleaners, clorox wipes, etc. It was $10 for a box of 100 gloves.

You may be wondering "why did she put J's on everything? so her family wouldn't use her super-cool store brand sal-free products?" Nope, to remind myself to use them! One less thing to think about and those J's have saved me in almost every shower I've taken, as I've gone to use my normal/husband's products and a row of J's pop out at me and save me from that mistake.

As far as cosmetics go, there are a few brands you'll find out there that were specifically designed for people with fibromyalgia but they are very expensive. Mary Kay has a list of products that are sal-free, so far I've been using those and I'm pretty happy with them.

Once I have more time and energy I'll find some better products to replace my emergency starters, but at least I know I have definitely managed to eliminate salicylates since I've had no trouble at all processing the guai and "reversing" with worsening symptoms and pain.

*By the way, one important note that Dr. St. Amand makes in his book and is worth repeating is this: taking out sals is not like dieting. If you eliminate 90% of the fat in your diet you're going to lose weight, but if you eliminate only 90% of your salicylates the other 10% will still block the guai from working. This is an all or nothing deal. Apparently giving up beauty products is a deal-breaker for some women (according to his experiences in the book) but it seemed like a small price to pay if I could live pain-free again...