Fibromyalgia

[lah]

Just wondering if anyone here has fibro, and if following this WOE has helped them. I have fibro and am using the Guaifenisen protocol expounded by Dr. St. Armand. He also espouses a low carbohydrate diet in conjunction with the avoidance of topical salycilates and supplementation with Guaifenisen. I am waiting for my PPLP book to arrive so I can thoroughly look into this WOE. In the meantime, I would really like to hear from folks in this thread.:)

By the way, Dr. St. Armand also feels that Cronic Fatigue Syndrome, Chronic Muscle Fatigue, and Fibromyalgia are different facets of the same problem.:eek: So anyone with these problems that has been helped by this WOE, feel free to hop in with a comment!

Thanks!
lah

[banshee]

Low carb did help with my fibro, and my doctor agreed with me that low carb was an excellent diet for fibro patients, although by itself it wasn't enough to get off medications. (It was enough to reduce them, though.)

However, for me, a very large part of my pain and fatigue was also caused by a magnesium deficiency, and adding a magnesium supplement was enough to get rid of all my symptoms. I'm no longer on any medications for pain/fatigue, and I rarely have symptoms anymore, although on the rare occasions when I need my massage therapist, she says my muscles still feel like "fibro muscles".

My doctor was surprised that magnesium helped me that much, since she had tried it with other patients without success, so your mileage may vary. But I suspect that there is a subset of patients with fibro who either have magnesium deficiencies on top of their fibro, or who have magnesium deficiencies *instead of* fibro. The symptoms of magnesium deficiency are almost identical to the symptoms of fibro.

The Dr. Eades are big supporters of magnesium supplementation, and I've read somewhere that it is suspected that most Americans don't get enough magnesium through their diets.

Anyway, that's been my experience with fibro. Low carb helped a lot, low carb plus magnesium supplements "cured" me.

[Grandma Moe]

I found a Dr. who practiced a thing called total body modification, (TBM). I think you could google it and see if there was someone in your area who practiced it. It got me off of all meds except thyroid. Which he promised would eventually happen. I was put on an LC Diet and he had "rolfing" done on me too. That is a very deep tissue movement to put your muscles in proer alignment. My DR. was in Salt Lake City, UT. I had a great massage therapist who didn't hurt me, (I've heard that this can be very painfull and rough and sometimes even impossible to do if the therapist is not trained properly in quality of touch) and I regained the full inch and a half of my height I had formerly lost after five pregnancies. (I was 5'10 in highschool and have been 5' 8 1/2" for over 20 years. Now I am 5'10" tall again and have been for over a year)
This Dr. gave me back my brain, and so much of my health that I feel almost fine now. He made me drink a boat load of water. 6 quarts was what he started me at and during the detox phase I got up to 9 quarts a day. I did not have detox symptoms though on all that water.

As far as this diet goes. I am worried about really bad lipid ratios so I have come back here to see if I can do this mostly vegetarian. While I was on the diet before my cholesterol was always high but my ratios were always great. If I get them back to the safety zone, I'll be in a position to experiment with more meat and keep track.

I was under huge stress when I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia. My brain was so fogged that I did not even feel the pain in my muscles. The problem was that as I ate sloppier and sloppier I got sicker and sicker. I think this diet overall is a good one to deal with all those related diseases. I did the guifenisen protocol too. It helped my chronic sinusitis but over all I did not see real change in my fibro. My Dr. and bio-meridian stress tester both knows Dr. St. Armond and they both independently said that their records do not match his experiences nor could he possibly have seen and treated the number of patients he claims to have seen in forty hour days every day for his entire life time. I was told by medical Drs. and naturopaths that avoiding salycilates was virtually impossible to avoid, but I do know that my friends with fibro who do their best do avoid them see real improvement in their overall feelings of well being with or without the guifenisen.

Hope this helps and take care, moe

[Bonnie]

I find that my fibromyalgia is pretty much kept at bay when I'm low carbing. Like Mary, I find the magnesium supplement to be a life saver. My IBS went away when I added magnesium.

And I agree with Moe, stress and fibromyalgia seem to go hand in hand.

Bonnie

[lah]

Thanks for your replies! It is amazing the difference of opinions on various treatments. I personally know several people, myself and my older sister included, who have benefited tremendously from the Gui protocol. It is a bit daunting to ferret out all the forms of topical salycilates in our products. I sure am glad that doesn't extend to dietary salycilates, except for mint, of course! But as with anything, ymmv, strict compliance is the only way it works.
I will definitely look into the magnesium supplements. That is something that I could well be deficient in.
Thanks again for your replies.
lah