Dr. R. Paul St. Amand, in his book *What Your Doctor May Not Tell You
about Fibromyalgia*, discusses his theory as to what causes the
disorder and the method he uses to treat it. (See www.guaidoc.com for
info). In his opinion, the root cause of the disorder is the body's
inability to excrete phosphates (or possibly another, similar
substance) and the resulting build up of said substance in the body
over the course of years or decades. He recommends a widely used
medicine called guaifinesin that, he contends, causes the body to
begin excreting phosphates. This process eventually heals the patient.
However, as the doctor himself warns and as I know from personal
experience, it takes a long time (years, most likely) and is extremely
unpleasant. My own doctor read about some researchers who were
attempting to use a process similar to dialysis to remove the
phosphates much more rapidly. The information I have on this project
is vague, but I'm told it met with serious problems and that those who
were conducting it did things they weren't supposed to. In any case,
I'm very curious about this project for a number of reasons. I'd like
to know where I can read about the project and/or how I can contact
the people responsible for it. I'm afraid I don't even know whether
these were professors in some university or alternative health
practitioners in some town somewhere. In any case, some hard
information on this subject would definitely be worth a few bucks to
me. Thanks

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Request for Question Clarification by pinkfreud-ga on 24 May 2004 11:10 PDT

Regarding the procedure which resembles dialysis, this could be
extracorporeal photopheresis (also known by several other names,
including photoluminescence and ultraviolet blood irradiation).

Last year I answered a question about this medical procedure:

http://www.answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=198377

Does this sound like the treatment you heard about? If so, I'll be
glad to gather further information for you.

---

Clarification of Question by imcurious-ga on 24 May 2004 12:38 PDT

pinkfreud;

Thanks for the response. 

I read through the article to which you linked. As I understand it,
this "extracorporeal photopheresis" process you describe involves
blood being being removed from the body, exposed to radiation in order
to kill certain organisms, and reintroduced into the body where the
dead organisms encourage the immune system to produce antibodies.

In the process I have in mind, blood would be, likewise, removed from
the body. However, instead of killing organisms in the blood, the
process would physically remove excess phosphates. It would be a
filtering process rather than a disinfecting process, if that's not to
gross of an oversimplification. If I understand correctly, dialysis is
a filtering process; one in which waste material is "cleaned" out of
the blood.

So I guess I'd have to say that the process you describe is, while
interesting and somewhat similar, isn't really close enough to the one
I have in mind to be of immediate use. I will, though, remember it and
mention it to others.

Thanks

IMcurious

---

Request for Question Clarification by voila-ga on 16 Jun 2004 10:04 PDT

Hello imcurious,

I wonder if you could be thinking of blood ozonation therapy.  They
use an ozonation as a filtration process to trap phosphates at water
treatment plants.  I suppose it would act on the same principle if
applied to blood products, but I'm not a scientist and I'm not sure if
this is even what you're looking for.

"Ozone has the ability to remove solids from wastewater by oxidation
and physical floatation. A foam develops when wastewater is ozonated. 
It has been found that this foam traps a significant amount of solids
and nutrient material such as phosphates and nitrates."
http://water.me.vccs.edu/courses/ENV149/ozonationb.htm

Ozone therapy and oxytherapy (ISSOT) have been used quite extensively
in Europe and other parts of the world but not in the US.

"AIDS, herpes, hepatitis, Epstein Barr, cytomegalovirus and other
lipid envelope virus are readily destroyed by hyper-oxygenating the
patients blood with ozone. This was demonstrated by among others Dr.
Horst Kief in Bad Hersfeld, West Germany. Dr. Kief has already cured a
number of AIDS victims by drawing blood, infusing it with ozone and
returning it to the patient, at regular intervals until all the virus
is gone."
http://www.startfinish.biz/wise/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=184

Medizone
http://www.aegis.com/news/pr/1997/Pr971206.html

FotoZone
http://www.ciloz.com/FotoZone/FTZ_how_it_works.htm

I hesitated to post you these links as the deaths and personal
catastrophes (under "are these coincidences?" section) surrounding the
use of this therapy read a little like a movie plot.

All the researchers here at Google Answers try to be ultra-responsible
with information presented; however, it is up to the customer to
listen to their 'expert' regarding a treatment's efficacy.  I do know
Anthony Fauci, M.D., an AIDS heavyweight, has spoken on this therapy
many times.  Again, this is cautious advice and meant for information
purposes only.

Best regards,
V

---

Request for Question Clarification by voila-ga on 16 Jun 2004 10:46 PDT

p.s.  I neglected to mention blood chelation as it's been on the
medical landscape for a number of years.

However, some peripheral information related to fibromyalgia is a new
SNRI (milnacipran HCl) in Phase III clinical trials and a branded form
called Ixel for relief of associated pain and fatigue symptoms.

http://www.immunesupport.com/library/showarticle.cfm/ID/5251/e/1/T/CFIDS_FM/
http://www.cypressbio.com/corp/products.jsp
http://www.allnationspharmacy.com/content/azmedicines/milnacipran.html

Hope this is helpful,
V

---

Clarification of Question by imcurious-ga on 16 Jun 2004 13:53 PDT

voila,

Thanks for the response.

I'd heard of ozone and oxygen therapies being used in alternative
medicine, but it never occured to me that they might be useful with
respect to the phosphate issue.

I should mention that when I began asking doctors and such about this
hypothetical treatment, those who didn't immediately write me off as a
lunatic seemed to think that the difficult part of the process would
not be removing the phosphates from the blood but, rather, drawing the
phosphates out of their hiding places (as it were) in the muscle and
bone cells and into the blood stream in the first place. According to
the information I've read, either the thyroid or the parathyroid gland
(I'm sorry, my memory isn't the best)regulates the phosphate content
of the blood so that it doesn't build up more than the system can
handle. So if you wanted to extract large amounts of phosphates from
the tissue and flush it into the blood stream, you'd have to deal with
the bodily defenses which are there precisely to prevent such a
buildup *and* figure out a way to keep the process from killing the
patient. A tall order to be sure.

But in any case, it's this first and more problematic step in the
process which I'd most like to explore. However, I will definitely
read up on the ozone/oxygen process you mentioned and see if it may be
relevant to the second step. Thanks for your help.


imcurious