Guaifenesin || Melissa Congdon, MD, FAAP || Fibromyalgia, Fatigue, and Chronic Pain Specialist and Consultant || Marin County and the San Francisco Bay Area, California

The Sweet Spot: I have Fibromyalgia and I feel wonderful

August 10, 2015 By Melissa Congdon, MD, FAAP

I had just finished seeing my last fibromyalgia patient of the morning, and I was getting chicken salad out of my lunch bag and had time to take a deep breath and check in with myself. Ahh, my body felt great–my muscles moved easily and I didn’t feel pain anywhere. I had plenty of energy, my mind was clear, and looked forward to the afternoon and the weekend.

I had hit the “sweet spot,” the spot where my system was in balance. How did I, someone with fibromyalgia, achieve this balance? I try to practice what I preach: in order to have the best chance of recovery from fibromyalgia symptoms I find that I and my patients need to:

1. eat foods that help you feel well–we are what we eat, it is that simple.

2. get consistent aerobic exercise–we all need at least 20 minutes of aerobic exercise 4 times a week to feel well. Put comfortable shoes on and get moving. You will build new mitochondria over time which will give you more energy and help you feel better.

3. clear well on the guaifenesin protocol–this treatment has proved so successful for me and many of my patients.

Do I feel wonderful all day every day? No, but I feel a heck of a lot better now than I felt 7 years ago when I was first diagnosed. Do your best to follow the 3 guidelines to give yourself the best chance to hit your sweet spot. This is my wish for you.

The Making of “Fibromyalgia: Getting Our Lives Back,” Behind the Scenes Part 1: A Surprise for the Doctor

February 23, 2015 By Melissa Congdon, MD, FAAP

Even though I had a vision in my head about what I wanted the fibromyalgia film be I had no idea how to get there. How could I help my patients communicate what they had been though? During a patient appointment I ask pointed direct questions (what is the severity of your pain? How is your energy? Has your fibrofog eased at all?) These questions are designed to give me the information needed to quickly and accurately assess how the patient is doing before I exam them and then make an assessment and plan. But making a good movie is different than structuring a good office visit. Luckily filmmaker Tylor Norwood had it all figured out.

“Ask your patients to tell you their story” Tylor said. “Sit in a chair across from them and ask them and listen. I will film it all.” It was that simple but that profound. This was not a situation where the doctor controlled the visit, this was the patient’s chance to describe what was important in their healing journey: to reveal the struggles to get diagnosed, the disappointment when medications and treatments failed to work, and the joy when the pain and fatigue started to ease on the guaifenesin protocol. I had known most of these patients for over a year and yet I learned things about their journeys that I had never known–important and profound things. All I had to do was listen.

How I Know Guaifenesin Works–Experience with Children and Input from Bodyworkers

October 11, 2012 By Kerri Marvel

One of my patients, Libby H., contacted me last week to ask for a guaifenesin refill. When I asked her how she was doing, she said, “I am doing fantastic!! It is truly amazing, I have a life again….I feel so good most of the time that I forget I have FMS. I am so grateful.” I called in the prescription and then contacted her to let her know the medication was ready. She then asked me, “As an MD do you completely believe guaifenesin is the answer for Fibromyalgia Syndrome or do you think it could be something in our minds that reverses it because we finally have hope? I know I see the results but every other doctor I talk to except Dr. St. Amand and you just don’t believe. It seems so bizarre to me that the medical society buys into one explanation that benefits Lyrica yet won’t even consider guaifenesin.”

The following is a summary of what I said to her:

Libby, you and I know guaifenesin reverses the symptoms of fibromyalgia because we can personally feel the difference in our bodies since we started the medication. I have not seen any evidence that anything “in our mind reverses” which allows guaifenesin to work. My patients who are improving on the guaifenesin protocol say the same thing.

One of the most compelling examples of how guaifenesin works without the mind being involved is with children. I care for a number of children who have fibromyalgia and they are too young to focus much on it (my youngest patient is a 5 year old). When they start guaifenesin their symptoms lessen very quickly (usually within 6 weeks). These young patients are not participating in any activity that would cause their mind to “reverse.” They are not seeing a therapist, they do not meditate or do any kind of mind-body therapies. I can feel the lessening of spasm in their muscles, tendons and ligaments that I feel with my older patients. They take guaifenesin, go about their normal kid activities, and start to feel better. One of my very young patients has stopped taking her guaifenesin (no matter how her parents disguise the granules in pudding, juice, etc she just won’t take it because she does not like the taste) and her mother has been heartbroken to see her little girl’s fibromyalgia symptoms return one by one. Luckily she is my only patient who has refused to take guaifenesin.

Body workers (such as Chiropractors, Osteopaths, Massage Therapists and Feldenkrais Practitioners) can feel the difference when patients start to improve on the guaifenesin protocol. My patients tell me that after approximately 9 months on guaifenesin their body workers comment that their bodies are more easily aligned and their muscles are more flexible and have less spasm.

Kaz Shibao, GCFP, COMT, is a certified Feldenkrais Practitioner and Orthopedic Massage Therapist at the California Pacific Medical Center’s Institute for Health and Healing in San Francisco. His work is respected by physicians and well loved by his patients (just look at his reviews on Yelp). He called me last week and said “I now KNOW that the guaifenesin protocol works. I started seeing one of your patients before she started the protocol and now that she is one year into the protocol her body feels completely different to me! She is so much better.” Indeed our mutual patient is feeling much better. She has less pain and more energy. She is well on her way to reversing her symptoms of fibromyalgia.

This is more objective evidence that the guaifenesin protocol can produce positive change in the musculoskeletal system.

Stay tuned for my next blog–my take on why many physicians are so negative about the guaifenesin protocol.