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If this is your first time here, you might like to know a little about the site before you plunge into it. Here are some things you might find helpful.
What is this site about?
This site is a part of the support effort for the guaifenesin protocol, used for such diverse things as fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, multiple chemical sensitivities, vulvodynia, etc.
Those on the protocol often refer to this lifetime illness, which we have been suffering from, as the Damn Disease or DD.
For many years Dr. R. Paul St. Amand, who practices in Marina del Rey California, has been developing and using this therapy. Originally used on fibromyalgia patients, it has proven over the year to be equally
effective on many other ailments which are part of the same syndrome. The theory behind the DD, which can be found in complete detail at http://www.guaidoc.com/PROTOCOL/history.html, is
that due to an inherited defect in the kidneys, minerals such as phosphates and oxalates, are not properly processed and excreted by the body.
These materials then stay in the body, becoming deposited all throughout it. It is the presence of these symptoms which causes the many and varied symptoms collectively called the DD.
Dr. St. Amand has discovered throughout many years of trial and error, that guaifenesin (the common material found in such preparations as Robitussin) is an effective agent to allow the body to resume normal
excretion of these mineral deposits. This brings a reversal of symptoms which have been developing over many years, usually since birth.
There is another important factor in the guaifenesin protocol, one which greatly complicates the everyday application of the protocol. Salicylates, especially in topical form or as found in herbal preparation,
negates the effects of the guaifenesin. Because of this, all topical and herbal products containing salicylates must be eliminated from the life of the patient, if they are to regain their health.
Eliminating these salicylates has proven to be quite a challenge, and this as well as the intense illness, shared by many suffering from the DD has made a support effort especially important for those on the guai
protocol.
This site is a part of that effort. We didn't discover the guai, or set up the fine support groups which is currently in place, but this site is to help those dealing with this illness and it's uncertainties,
to see more clearly the nature of the enemy. We need to compare notes with one another, not just on a day to day basis, but by giving order to our often chaotic medical histories
and then sharing what we have discovered with the others who come after us.
What's on this site?
We have general info about the protocol, enough to get you started, and we have links to all of the main guai support sites. Mostly we have our bios. They make up the heart of this site.
Eventually, we hope to get literally hundreds of your stories on the site. There are currently more than a 1000 people on Internet guai support lists and this is only touching the surface. The estimates of how many people have the DD is in the millions, in America alone. We are going to try and show the wide range of masquerades taken on by this illness. Our stories are so different, yet so much alike. That is probably the most incredible thing about the guai support effort, except for the protocol itself. We have found each other. Most of us have learned that literally dozens of symptoms and problems that we have been tackling as if they were separate problems, are really a part of one overall snydrome. A syndrome which has shaped our lives every bit as much as diabetes, or hemophilia. We have found strength, care, nuturing, and love by finding one another.
Our stories are short and long. Some are about one specific problem or aspect of our lives, some are about how the whole story of our life has been wrapped up in this damn disease. I know for myself that this
disease has taken over so much of my life that as I now find myself starting to feel better, I seem to have nothing in my life but to deal with this illness by passing on what I know and have learned with others.
My profession for many years has been with computers, so doing this site was for me the most logical thing that I could do.
You will find that we have started each of our stories with a brief table giving information about what the story is about, our main symptoms, what we have tried, what has worked, what has failed.
Hopefully this will help the visitor decide which stories to read. We also have a search engine specifically for the stories, along with another one for the whole site.
Where should I start?
Well you can follow some of the links given on this page, or perhaps go to the site's search . If you would like to dive right into the stories, here's the link.
There is also a search on that page just for the story material, so you can find a particular topic easily.
How can I contribute my bio?
If you are on the guai protocol and would like to submit a biography for inclusion on this website, here's where to start.
I'd like to help. What can I do?
There is a really simple answer to this - every thing you can think of. There are so many things to be done to help get the word out to help people spot and diagnose this disease.
Especially if you are already benefitting from the guai protocol, your help is needed to get out the word of hope to others, and the expertise you have gained while on the protocol are needed in many ways. We would like to list here just a few things that you can do. Be creative in your own community; certainly you can find many other ways to help.
Contribute to the Guai Fund, set up to finance a new study of the guai protocol.
Buy one or more copies of Dr. St.Amand's book, "What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Fibromyalgia", and give or loan out copies of the book. Libraries and health care professionals are
good potential recipients
Join the Guaifenesin support group at YahooGroups, or recommend it to anyone seeking more
information. This list is a wealth of the absolutely latest information on the protocol and avoiding sal full products.
Seek out local organizations and support groups and offer to talk or write about the protocol for their members.
Submit articles or press releases about the protocol to local papers and other publications. They always need fresh material, and certainly the guai story is an interesting and enlightening
one.
etc.
Any further question, suggestions, comments about the site, etc. can be send to webmaster@guaifenesin.net Be sure to check out the other guai support sites. And you are welcome on the YahooGroups guaifenesin list. It costs nothing join, and you can always lurk while you check it out.
Again we welcome you.
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