There are some people who do not believe that the obsession with avoiding salicylates is an integral part of the guaifenesin cure. Dr. St. Amand may have gone overboard in using that as an explanation for why the Oregon study failed to show the effectiveness of the guaifenesin cure -- using time release guaifenesin tablets. As one chiropractor pointed out, and I noticed too when I started on slow-acting guai, the process of supercompacting the powder under pressure makes the tablets as hard as rocks and may be undigested by an impaired digestive system, as is common in many fibromyalgics. One will note that if one puts one of these highly-compressed tablets in water -- they will not dissolve, no matter how much time passes. So they will go through one's digestive as an irritant -- giving one no relief from irritable bowel syndrome. If that is a major marker, then not only would it not solve the problem but might even exacerbate the condition. Thus it was often noted, that many patients got worse before they got better. And so, they are warned they must be obsessive-compulsive about avoiding salicylates, which he asserts, is all plant products.
That's what causes a lot of people to be apprehensive about taking on the guaifenesin cure for fibroyalgics. One is the fear of getting worse rather than better, and two, the obsession over avoiding contact with all plant material requires a lifetime of dedication. The fact is, guaifenesin works, as anybody who's taken cough medicine knows -- along with aspirin when they have a respiratory inflammation. If it is liquifying the mucus in your respiratory tract, it is liquefying the mucus throughout your body.
It's a lot like blood thinners; it doesn't just work in the blood going to your head, or liver, or feet; it thins all the blood. Otherwise, you have an ad hoc explanation for the mucus in your lungs, in your digestive tract, in your joints, etc. The property of fluids is that they tend to equalize -- and that's what makes exchanges of fluids, gases, toxins and nutrients possible.
The doctor's cure is not the final word on this matter. If you search "guaifenesin," there are thousands of abstracts, generally narrowly focused but nobody connects all these studies into a comprehensive whole. However, each one notes very impressive properties -- one study notes that it is one of the most effective muscle relaxants. That's important because a explanation for FMS is that the cells are constantly firing -- or turned on and never gets to shut off or relax. That's the doctor's elaborate explanation on calcium regulation.
A lot of those associated with the doctor are pretty cultish in propagation of the guaifenesin cure. To these people Dr. St. Amand is a saint and his prescriptions and proscriptions must be followed to the letter, chapter and verse.
But there are a lot of others who have not been officially diagnosed "fibromyalgics." In my own case, doctors could never find anything wrong with me. That's a common experience with FMS -- that doctors often insisted it was "all in one's head." I don't go around diagnosing people as fibromayalgics but I run into a lot of people who tell me they have an arthritic knee, occasional backaches or common chronic ailments -- and I relate my experience and insight.
Lastly, I mentioned in a previous post that about 100 years ago, aspirin and guai were used as remedies for roughly the same afflictions -- and because of better marketing, aspirin became the remedy of choice for whatever ailed one. A lot of people can't tolerate aspirin and that causes its own problems -- but not in everyone! Some people can tolerate aspirin well; others cannot tolerate aspirin at all, regardless of whether they are on the guaifenesin cure or not. Rather than assuming one is aspirin intolerant, it's far better and simpler to assume one is not -- and then be more rigorous in avoiding the salicylates if one suspects he may be. Usually one knows by adulthood whether they tolerate aspirin well or not. That's why they created ibuprofen and then naproxen -- and those who couldn't tolerate those, the cox-inhibitors. But as any doctor would logically proceed, assume the simplest explanation first rather than the most complex and elaborate.