Accidental knowledge
Thanks to my cold, I accidentally came across something that’s baffling my mind and making me wonder why I had to find out about it this way and nobody ever told me about it.
When I woke up this morning, my cough was terrible. Cheyenne, bless her heart, showed up with a cough drop and some “mothering” advice: “Here. This will help. Now, keep it in your mouth until it’s gone. Don’t chew it. If you chew the candy, it doesn’t work”.
Well, I chewed it. I chew my candy, ok?
Anyway, I searched for cough syrup in our med cabinet after that and took a dose. Shortly after, I was not only not coughing anymore, but also, get this, hardly hurting from FM.
A thought crossed my mind. I googled “cough syrup fibromyalgia pain”, and it turns out that I’m not the only FM patient who had this weird side effect.
Some Dr. Roland Staud, MD, FACP, FACR, Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology at the University of Florida, published an article about how cough syrup decreases FM pain.
The article says that an ingredient in cough expectorant, guaifenesin, makes both healthy and FM subjects feel less pain. “In fact, it has recently become a target as a street drug because it makes the user unable to feel pain.”
Are you kidding? There is such a thing? I’m an FM patient. Pain is my life now. Give me a choice of not being able to feel pain and see what happens.
The article also says it’s needed to be taken in dangerously high doses for it to have effect. I guarantee you that this was not the case with me. I can’t explain why my pain level is down after a normal dose. It just is.
I think someone with the know-how and means to research guaifenesin and FM should take a deeper look into Dr. Roland Staud’s findings for our sake.
In the meantime, whether the syrup really had something to do with my sudden decrease in pain or it was just a strange coincidence, not only did I gather some accidental knowledge, but also am enjoying an almost pain-free day with my family without taking any painkillers for once.
Julie…with my lung problems I cough a lot and I keep tussin/robitussin products handy, and guaifenesin is the main ingredient in them. The kind I take also has the decongestant as well as the cough control. Store brand tussin syrups generally cost less, and the Dollar Tree here even carries two different types for $1 a bottle. Robitussin now has and extra strong something or other out now which tastes really nasty so it probably works better. I’m glad you discovered that!
