Guaifenesin Protocol - History

History

This theory arose when St. Amand noticed that patients with fibromyalgia symptoms had an increase of tartar on the teeth in the form of calcium phosphate. Crystals are also often found on urinalysis, which further points to calcium phosphate, and muscle biopsies show an steady state of phosphate in the cytosol as well as a dearth of ATP and phosphocreatine. The implication is that insufficient energy formation is the basis for the generalized cellular fatigue expressed in many tissues of fibromyalgia. Lesions of muscles, tendons, and ligaments can be felt by simple palpation. St. Amand calls this 'mapping' and uses it to confirm the diagnosis and in followup reversal of fibromyalgia. He feels that a genetically induced retention of phosphate also draws excess quantities of calcium into cells and exhorts them into overdrive. Contracted musculoskeletal tissues are the result and they produce the palpable lesions.

The treatment was discovered serendipitously when the physician found that uricosuric drugs for treating gout also coincided with relief of fibromyalgia symptoms. Guaifenesin is mildly uricosuric but, unlike standard uricosuric drugs, has almost no side-effects. St. Amand therefore began to study whether guaifenesin might relieve the symptoms of fibromyalgia while causing fewer side-effects than the earlier medications.