Actually John, my wife started the FB Protocol about a month ago and I think it was the high dose of R Lipoic Acid (or perhaps it was the hemp oil, who knows?) that set her into a much deeper level of pain than she had ever experienced in 6 years of dealing with this. I had read about "the awakening" that is supposed to explain this additional pain, but she just could not tolerate it and after 5 days she quit (by that last day she was in a panic at her pain level). In the intervening 4 weeks since she is still at a heightened state of pain than before. Bob, the person who seems to be the The Protocol head honcho, tries to shame anyone who decides to quit into staying with it and just having faith, but when faced with such extreme pain all of a sudden it's just not possible. I did all the upfront research, not my wife, and I guess I initially didn't tell her that for a few people the pain gets worse in the beginning (hoping she would not fall into that category) and when it happened she was upset with both the Protocol and me for a while as well. When you invest yourself in something that is touted to be "the answer" you are just not expecting to get MUCH worse right away. So that is number 73 on my list of Tales of Woe regarding all the potential cures we have tried out and discarded, as reflected by my Amazon order history. But John, I know from the FB group that some people have benefitted from The Protocol so I am not knocking it, just saying it did not work for us. Thanks, Hank