Hi Gail and Val! Good to see ya here.....

Val, I have had tolerable pain for years. Was diagnosed w/ FMS about 8-10 years ago, but didn't believe I had it. Was Rxed w/ antidepressants, which I never took.

Not everyone has all of the symptoms, and individual's symptoms change from time to time. I have had pains in my shoulders and mid-back, many years ago before the diagnosis had profound fatigue at times, have trouble sleeping through the night, cannot go back to sleep if I wake before morning, get very tired and sleepy in the afternoon, then cannot go to sleep at night, headaches, chronically stuffy nose for many years. I also have "fibro fog", especially after eating carbs, notably wheat. I get very groggy, cannot push a thought from one side of my mind to the other and usually don't feel better until I have slept.

I began taking 400 of Fast Acting (FA) guai twice daily just twenty days ago. I began cycling that very day! It was my dose, so I didn't have to do any adjusting at all. I take an Aleve twice a day and that helps the pain of cycling a lot.

I feel great, my aches and pains are still tolerable, I believe that I am reversing the process and am looking forward to the day when I am completely cleared and the process is completely reversed. I cannot recommend it too much!

Gail, if you tried guai and it didn't work for you, there are several things that could be operant. You may not have FMS. 40% of all women in the US have it, 20% of all men. You may not be one of the groups that have it.

You may not have cleared all salicylates out of your life. Sals compete for the same receptor sites in the kidney that guai does, and as sals are a better fit than guai, your guai may have been blocked and you got no results from taking it. There is lots of information on salicylates on the St. Amand website. I cleared out my sals in one day. It's really easy. The only things I had to replace were deodorant and shampoo.

You may not have found your clearing dose. Dr. St. Amand has results w/ about 80% of his patients on the 300 mg twice-daily dose. Others need more. If you are absolutely certain that you are sal-free and that you do have FMS, then the only problem is insufficient guai.

There are many things that help somewhat, but guai *reverses* the process as no other substance can do. If you have FMS, if you are sal-free and if you are taking enough guai, it cannot fail to reverse the process.

You cannot map your own body. It takes someone like a physical or massage therapist or a physician who is familiar w/ how tissues feel to identify the lumps and bumps, and can reach places you cannot. Regular mapping, preferably w/ the same person doing it, is the only way you can actually prove that you are clearing. I am not able to locate anyone to do this and was not willing to wait, so I just cleared out the sals and began taking guai. My pains increased; I believe it's working for me. I'm willing to go w/ this for now and get mapped when I can.

But I'll leave you both to read further on it and to decide if you want to do the protocol. St. Amand's website is pretty much what you need to do it.

Good luck! Come back when you have questions to which I might help you find the answers.