VP Foundation Facts
| Founded | 1992 |
|
| Members (sufferers, health professionals, friends) - 1993 – 2011 |
8,435 |
|
| Average Current Membership | 850 |
|
| Regional Volunteer Leaders | 42 |
|
| Support Groups | 4 |
|
| Yearly Operating Budget (most recent fiscal year) |
$286,000 |
|
| Expenditures for Research (most recent fiscal year) |
$12,500 |
|
| Documented Recoveries: | 6,845 |
|
| Countries Represented: | United States, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, Mexico, Belgium, Finland, Sweden, Germany, France, Switzerland, Israel, Italy, Portugal, Brazil, South Africa, New Zealand. | |
A Brief History of The VP Foundation
I like to help women help themselves, as that is, in my opinion, the best way to settle
the ‘woman’ question. Whatever we can do and do well, we have a right to.
— Louisa May Alcott
The VP Foundation was incorporated in the United States (North Carolina) as a nonprofit organization in October 1992. It was started to end the isolation of women suffering from vulvar pain and related disorders, and to help them get out of pain safely through cutting-edge scientific research.
In 1993, the Foundation instituted a membership program for women, their families, friends, and interested health care professionals. Subsequently, family members, medical doctors, nurses, physical therapists, and other health care professionals joined the VPF, along with thousands of women. In recent years, men experiencing parallel symptoms have joined the VPF as well as other patient groups experimenting with a low oxalate diet, such as oxalate kidney stone formers and autistic children.
The VPF’s immediate purposes in 1993 were to reach large numbers of women suffering with vulvar pain, and to create public awareness of intractable genital pain as more than “a yeast infection.” During the next eighteen years, hundreds of thousands of people contacted the VPF as a result of publications in Ladies’ Home Journal, New York Times,Women’s Health Digest, The Scientist; broadcasts of the Bertice Berry Show, NBC News; the internet, and more.
From 1992 to 2004, the VPF sponsored 31 Research Seminars throughout the United States, and one in Canada. Nationally recognized researchers, clinicians, and therapists met with 1,787 women, men, spouses, partners, and health care professionals, resulting in recovery for the majority of sufferers.
Since 1993 the Foundation has published 37 issues of The VP Foundation Newsletter. It features articles on successful treatments reported by people who have actually recovered. The most successful treatments are a low oxalate diet, calcium citrate, and Ox-Absorb; as well as NAG (N-Acetyl-Glucosamine) and HTO (hexadecyl tetradecenoyl octadecanoate), which stabilize connective tissue; all part of the Pain Project Protocol.
Physical therapy, especially pelvic floor muscle rehabilitation, allergen therapies, topical estrogen, guaifenesin; natural therapies such as emu oil and acupuncture; and stress reduction (yoga, prayer) have also been helpful.
Based on treatment responses reported by thousands of people, genital (vulvar) pain is clearly associated with a major syndrome that also includes muscle (fibromyalgia), urological (interstitial cystitis), and intestinal (irritable bowel) discomfort. All of the symptoms respond well to reduced oxalate therapy and connective tissue stabilization.
For fourteen years the VPF Foundation worked with a renowned biomedical research scientist, Clive C. Solomons, Ph.D., director of Scientific Connections laboratory in Colorado. While conducting a large research study known as The Pain Project, he discovered the connection between periodic hyperoxaluria, connective tissue instability, and pain.
By working closely with over 3,000 study participants for twenty years, Dr. Solomons developed an effective, reliable treatment protocol based on a low oxalate diet (see Effective Treatments). He retired in 2006. The VPF continues to build on the knowledge and experience gleaned from his research to guide people to recovery.
The Foundation published the first edition of a milestone resource, The Low Oxalate Cookbook, in 1997. It collected all the information extant on the oxalate content of foods and beverages, primarily from (dated) scientific literature. Nearly 5,000 copies of the first edition were sold, including over 200 donated to libraries.
In 2002, the Foundation began collaborating with Michael Liebman, Ph.D., Professor of Human Nutrition, University of Wyoming, to assess the oxalate content of hundreds of additional foods, beverages, and natural supplements. The resulting data has been reported continuously in The VP Foundation Newsletter and The Low Oxalate Cookbook – Book Two.
Tax deductible donations may be made to The VP Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization, for (a) General Support, (b) The Oxalate Testing Fund for Foods, Beverages & Natural Supplements, and (c) General Research Support. For more information, contact the VPF at Post Office Box 755, Graham, North Carolina 27253, USA.
Updated: July 2012
