WELCOME
If you have
fibromyalgia you
are ill.
You are NOT crazy.
"You may have been told that whatever you have
is untreatable or that your symptoms are all in your head. People think you're a hypochondriac and doctors
may not want to handle your case. Or you may have been overmedicated by
well-intentioned health care providers who wanted desperately to help
you. You may be having trouble getting refills for medications that make your life tolerable. You
may be in danger of losing your job and your relationships. You may have fallen victim to
those who are making billions of dollars a year off those
desperately searching for something, anything, that will help..."
When we first put up
this website many doctors didn't believe in fibromyalgia. As a result,
patients faced a daunting journey at odds with their physicians, families, employers and
insurance companies. But now that big pharmaceutical
companies have discovered how lucrative chronic illnesses are, things have
changed. Now everyone knows fibromyalgia is real because it's advertised on television and
in magazines. Lyrica, Cymbalta, and Savella sound great
until you read the small print or try one and it doesn't agree with you.
Then you realize these "new"* potent drugs relieve some of your symptoms while altering the chemistry of
your brain. Not to mention side effects such as weight gain, fatigue, hair loss, headaches and thinning of
your bones... If you live in Europe these drugs may not even be available because their performance
didn't outweigh their risks in studies.
*("new" is in quotes because
none of these drugs are members of a new class, rather they are cousins
of existing compounds which by an odd coincidence have recently gone
generic)
What's lost in all this commotion is that none of
these expensive compounds will actually treat fibromyalgia. They, and
earlier medications like them, simply change the way your brain perceives your symptoms.
Usually their side effects require other
medications to counteract them. So here we are in 2012, and the accepted regimen for
fibromyalgia is still a balancing act of polypharmacy while your illness continues
to get worse and eventually requires stronger
medications. To make a bad situation more dismal, many patients
are disabled and simply cannot
afford expensive medications, but the truth is that even in the best
designed clinical
trials their success rate was modest when compared,--not to other drugs--but to sugar pills.
Results are what count.
There is hope. We use a simple medication with no side effects
that can
actually reverse your fibromyalgia. As time goes by, you'll need fewer
drugs, not
more. We have walked in
your shoes. We have fibromyalgia too. Dr. St. Amand is in practice in
Los Angeles, California, and is still accepting new patients.
We are not the latest miracle cure.
Treatment
of fibromyalgia has become a multi-billion dollar industry and we have no objection
to profit.
We are often asked why the Fibromyalgia Treatment
Center does not manufacture, distribute, or promote any particular brand of guaifenesin
for the treatment of fibromyalgia. Simply, our mission is to educate --
based on fifty years of diligent, honest research. We will not risk compromising the
integrity of our work with the perception of ulterior motivation.
In 2008 we published a paper showing that some abnormal findings in
fibromyalgia were changed by patients taking guaifenesin. The link
to that paper is on the upper right side of this site. Two more
papers are currently being prepared.
If, after thorough investigation you determine that implementing the guaifenesin protocol is appropriate
for you, it is critically important that it be adhered to precisely. We
are here to help.
Now for the legalese:
