Research results from the City of Hope, Claudia and me were published in the June 5, 2008 Journal of Experimental Biology and Medicine. We tested for twenty-five little proteins called cytokines that skip into the blood stream from several sources. Twenty-three were elevated in our yet-untreated patients. They strongly induce inflammation, but there is none in fibromyalgia: lots of swollen places, but no tissue response. This is probably why all the usual tests show normal though people suffer mightily.
It seems obvious that making a mulch of cytokines permits some to neutralize others. Evidence for that comes from the fact that guaifenesin dropped ten of them to normal, five stayed the same, and eight increased even higher as patients got better. Thus, there are good cytokines that serve to tame the effects of the bad ones. We always knew there were strange and occult abnormalities lurking in the world of fibromyalgia and we're now closer to exposing them.
The genetic part of the study is also producing results and a paper was submitted about six weeks ago. We're never sure which journal will choose such for publication. There are some mutations in about 40% of patients and our geneticists are looking for others. We're no longer in total limbo and we're in the chase to identify all the biological culprits.
A pilot study we did several weeks ago pointed to another abnormality in fibromyalgia. With our new associates, we obtained permission for a third study that is already underway. It will include one-hundred and fifty of our patients some new-untreated, and many who are on guaifenesin. I'm not yet at liberty to tell you what has already been discovered. Results should be available for publication in about eighteen months.
Pat yourselves on the back. Fibromyalgics were never crazy after all. There's plenty wrong in our genes and blood; we have a group of markers to prove it. Yet, we do not yet have the single best test we're seeking, but I think we're getting close. We can quiet the skeptics who repeatedly scoffed that guaifenesin was nothing but a placebo. Our protocol correctly done has distinct impact on reversing the ravages of fibromyalgia.
Love and thanks to each of you who, with ministerial zeal continue to promote an understanding of this right-down-to-the marrow affliction.
R. Paul St. Amand, M.D.
Associate Clinical Professor
Medicine-Endocrinology
Harbor/UCLA