Getting the Book

Once my copy of "What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Fibromyalgia: The Revolutionary Treatment That Can Reverse the Disease" by Dr. St. Amand arrived, I didn't waste any time starting it. I'm almost finished with the book now, and it has been an emotional roller coaster. I've felt relief reading about how "textbook" my situation is, that I'm not losing my mind and this is a very real biological disease and hearing others' struggle with the disease knowing I'm not the only one. I've felt despair when I realize that it can get much worse, including permanent damage to my body if I don't  make some drastic changes now. And finally, I felt a great amount of hope that there really is a "cure" and I don't have to live in this much pain and limitation for the rest of my life.

Here is a VERY short summary of what I've learned about fibromyalgia:

1. It's caused by an excess buildup of phosphates in your body that have built up in your blood and redeposited into different systems-brain, muscles, joints, etc.

2. It's most likely an inherited condition (although the specific gene has not be identified yet) and women are 5 times more likely to have it then men are.

3. The phosphates cannot be flushed out of the system because of all the salicylates that occur in most of our products (toiletries, makeup, soap, etc.) and herbal supplements. The salicylates enter our system through the herbal supplements or our skin and then attach themselves to receptors in our kidneys (the very same receptors that are required to be unblocked so the phosphate can be flushed out.

4. As your phosphate deposits build-up, you will develop "lumps and bumps" all over your body-these are the most painful and sensitive areas as well.

5. 100% of fibromyalgia patients have the deposits and lumps and bumps in their left thigh (front and outer side), this is also one of the first areas to clear once you start treatment.


So if you suspect you may have fibromyaglia, it's not in your head and you need to get to a doctor for a diagnosis before starting treatment (although technically there isn't a risk to the medicine that Dr. St. Amand recommends).


Here is a VERY short summary of the treatment:

1. Start taking guaifenesin pills twice a day (you start at 300 mg. for each dose and move up as you need to). The idea is that you want to feel worse since it means your disease is reversing itself, so you will increase your dose until that happens.

2. Eliminate all salicylatese from your environment. This means taking several hours to read labels and use only safe products. Unlike dieting where if you reduce your fat intake by 50% (you will still lose weight) you will not receive any benefit at all if you reduce your salicylates even 90%, it's all or nothing.

3. Suffer. There's no way around this one. It's going to be like hitting the rewind button on your disease, all of your symptoms will go in reverse except much faster and more intense. The good news is you are now flushing it out of your system and getting better, and each "cycle" is less intense than the previous until you have more good days than bad.

4. If you do not have fibromyalgia this treatment will not work for you, you will not feel better or worse--although you need to make sure that you're not in fact "blocking" (missing some salicylates somewhere that are keeping the guaifenesin from working).


Since my brain is definitely experiencing quite a bit of the "fibrofog" I had to really focus when I was reading and I frequently reread sections because I couldn't recall a thing of what I just read. But I cannot recommend this book highly enough and I would definitely not recommend trying to the treatment without reading the book first! Most libraries have it, so you can check there first or Amazon has it for only $10.

http://www.amazon.com/What-Your-Doctor-About-Fibromyalgia/dp/0446694444/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1327256180&sr=8-1

Here is Dr. St. Amand's website that has also been extremely helpful:
http://www.fibromyalgiatreatment.com/

I've been most impressed with the medical explanations and statistical support presented in this book and am very hopeful about starting this treatment this week!