Flares are something you experience BEFORE you started the Guaifenesin protocol.

You FLARE a bad bout of fibro for a while and experience horrible symptoms. These flares are when MORE phosphate is going INTO your deposits that are all over your body, increasing pain and/or discomfort. Your symptoms get worse with a flare and can last days to months to years and just increasingly get worse.

A cycle is what happens with the Guaifenesin protocol when your body is getting the phosphate OUT of your deposits and out of your body. This is a GOOD thing! Now you have pain with purpose! Every time you feel a cycle coming on, you can KNOW that you are getting better not worse! YAY! There is MUCH to be said for how you perceive the cycles and the hope you can have that it’s doing GOOD!!

A cycle is this: The guaifenesin opens the spot in your kidney that allows the excess phosphate to get peed out. The phosphate comes out of your blood stream first, so you feel awesome, then your body will begin to pull out phosphate from the lump and deposits from all over your body, going into your blood stream, making you feel pretty yucky again. (from what I understand from Dr St Amand’s book.)

You will NOT ever be doing both Flaring and Cycling, unless you are not doing the protocol correctly. If you are blocking or not taking enough Guaifenesin, then you can cycle while the guaifenesin is working, and then when you are not clearing or on the wrong dose, you can re-deposit all over again and feel pretty yucky, like a flare. Make sure you follow the Guaifenesin protocol exactly as written! I want you to get WELL!

Here’s some tips to getting your dosage correct: Steps to finding your Correct Guaifenesin Dosage

Click for list of FAQ about Salicylates and the Guaifenesin Protocol

and check out our list of Vocab words to understand while learning about the Guaifenesin Protocol.