Supplements and Chronic Pain

This has been a hard post to write. The subject of vitamins and supplements is huge. Just as with diet, what we put in our mouth and thus our bodies, does affect every part of our health!

 If you think the foregoing statement is not true, just try eating only protein, sugar, or ..... well anything single food for even a few days. It is a safe bet that you will feel the affects of whatever mono diet you are eating.

 One item to note is that any diet, supplement or vitamin regimen must be followed for at least 3 months to be able to tell if the new regimen is of any benefit! I know three months should like a long time, but less that that is usually really not enough time to tell anything. You don’t want to waste your efforts!

There are always exceptions to the above, when I stopped eating anything with aspartame! was able to tell within 1 week that I felt a lot better without it and a lot worse when I ate anything with aspartame in it!  

The only time I would quit a regimen before the 3 months is when I felt much worse after starting the diet or supplement. Then, of course I stopped immediately.

I have determined I cannot take Alpha Lipoic Acid on an empty stomach after only 3 doses.  I just seems to explode in my stomach about 5-10 minutes after I take it and causes severe stomach pain. Use your common sense when trying new supplements. 

MSM helped my sleep tremendously. With better sleep, I have a better chance of healing my bones, muscles, etc. Vitamin C is my good all around go to vitamin for preventing and staving off infection and  general all around feeling good vitamin. However, MSM did not help directly with my pain.

I have tried many supplements and vitamins to aid with my pain. Most have not yielded the results I wanted which was some good pain relief. I seek supplements that will heal versus supplements that will cover up the symptoms. 

Dr Sherry Rogers has written many books about taking charge of your own health and give numerous suggestions as what to do in the various situations. Her book on chronic pain is chock full of suggestions. Of course, you will need to try each supplement one at a time, otherwise you will not know what it was that made things better or worse as the case may be. 

To be honest, I have not found any supplement (yet) that helped much with my pain. I have tried MSM, curcumin, turmeric, glucosamine, chondroitin.  What I have found the most helpful is the not eating something. Like not eating anything with aspartame, not eating sugar,  not eating anything with high fructose corn syrup. 

My supplement regimen now consists of NAC (N Acetyl Cysteine) one, three times a day. Methyl-folate 1 a day and methyl B-12 one a day. As I suggested, I am giving it a 3 month’s trial. This regimen was suggested to me by Dr Neil Rawlins who practices in Richland, Wasington. I have been taking these supplements for one month. Hows it going so far? I don't see a down side ans it no negative side effects. I do think they are helping, but in all reality, it is just too soon to tell. Some changes are so subtle that I keep a log of how my pain is doing so that I can look back and note more objectively whether my pain is better. The placebo effect can sometime convince myself something is helping when, in the long run it is only a brief, in my mind, so to speak. I’ll let you know.

So until next time, be healthy, never give up looking for your health answers! You are your best health advocate and only you know you like you do.:-}

Healthbug

The Food Aspect of Chronic Pain

My previous post was about all the physical things I have done (or the majority of them) to decrease the chronic pain I have had. This post, I will share what I have done, food wise, to decrease my pain.

You can read all over the internet how people with arthritis, osteoporosis, etc, should avoid nightshades. Bummer for me because nightshades are a group of foods that I am most fond of. Eggplant, tomatoes, potatoes are all members of the nightshade family. So what to do? I decided a couple weeks, even a couple of months without these foods would be worth it if I received even some pain relief. Those of you with chronic pain will try just about anything that with that even suggest it might help to relieve pain!

I went not just a few weeks, but 6 months without my favorite foods, each day hoping that would be the day that I would begin to feel some pain relief. Sad to say, but that did not happen. Absolutely no pain relief from eliminating these foods from my diet! I am not sorry I tried this alteration in my diet. Now I know for sure that elimination does not help. However, there are some people who do receive pain relief by eliminating the nightshades. In my opinion it is very worth a trial run of elimination.

So carry on. one of the most helpful foods I've eliminated that does help with pain relief is sugar! Wow! I can tell when I eat something with sugar in it! I do in fact have increased pain. In fact sugar and high fructose corn syrup both add to my pain! So I eliminate them as much as possible.

Aspartame, and any derivative there of, causes me to have a ton of pain. I experience deep bone pain when I have even the smallest amount of aspartame in my diet. This is one additive I tell anyone that will listen, to avoid at all cost. I have heard neurologists tell nurses that aspartame is a neuro-toxin. Many people are skeptical when I share this, however, those that have decided that they could do without aspartame for a week just to see if they felt better, have found that they, in fact, do feel better.
 Aspartame symptoms that other people experience are, head aches, bone pain, muscle pain and uncontrolled shaking. If fact some people who are diagnosed with Parkinson's disease are really experiencing the affects of aspartame!

I continue to try to be vigilant about what I eat and how it affects how I feel. That is all part of taking responsibility for myself, my health and my life.  I also try supplements that promise pain relief. This will be the subject of my next post. Until then, be in good health!

Thanks for reading my blog.

Healthbug

Chronic Pain Update

What is chronic pain? Any pain you've had more than 3-4 months. Pain you have had for years is, of course, chronic pain. Anyone who has chronic pain or has had chronic pain knows how energy zapping this can be. My suggestion is to never give up trying to find the root cause. Even when you know it is due to degeneration of a joint, there are still healing modalities that may help your body heal these joints. Oh, I know "they" say "joints don't heal" but I don't buy into that thinking. If you do, the best thing you can do is get that joint replaced as soon as you can afford to. For me, and I believe, many others, any part of our body can heal if it gets the right nutrients, exercise, blood flow,  muscle balance, whatever, to heal. Don't get me wrong, I am not against joint replacements, they are a great thing, but for me they are the absolute last resort. Thankfully, many others think the same or there would not be so many alternatives out there to choose from these days.

I promised to fill in the gap from 2013 to present 2018. In the exercise/physical realm I tried a packaged program that is sold through chiropractic's offices that include: Chiropractic adjustments, therapeutic massage, and physical therapy. This help a little bit for a little while. Then I went to a wonderful Physical Therapist, Eric-who graciously saw me in his home as he usually does not take private clients. Eric kept me going so that I could work in a busy ER. I even kept going after I moved on for about 6 months. The hassle of traveling so far to a therapist became too much and also the benefits I gained from the exercises peaked at a level still not acceptable for me.

During this time frame I tried prolo therapy injections in both my right hip and right knee. After 11 injections in both, I and the Dr concluded that they were not going to help. I was referred to a clinic that does stem cell injections to the tune of $10,000. "gasp". No, I can't afford that but was able to find a facility that would do the injections for $2,000 and injection. Expensive, but if it worked it would be far less than surgery. Six week post injections and no improvement. Huge disappointment  here, as you might expect. What now? A specialist that said I have nothing wrong with my knee per x-ray and MRI and Avascular necrosis (AVN) in my right hip! Say what? That's a nasty sounding diagnosis. It means lack of blood flow to the joint/bone causing degeneration. Hmm.

On to Acupuncture, with Joel Dunning-Omaha, NE, goal- to open up the circulation in my hip and thus allow for healing nutrients to flow to that joint. 6-8 months into that modality and I added lymphatic drainage and therapeutic massage which was done by the Acupuncturist's wife, Theresa. Another 2-3 months and I was feeling discouraged so asked for a referral to a Chiropractor or someone else and was referred to John Macy in Omaha, NE. Two appointments with John and I felt I had some hope of better pain relief! At my second appointment with John he referred me to the Hruska Clinic in Lincoln, NE.

I Promptly made an appointment with Jason at the Hruska Clinic (Restorative therapy which uses Postural Restoration). I am now 2 appointments into this therapy which involves assessment by a trained individual and then exercises that help to restore muscles balance. This therapy is powerful, and so far I am encouraged. In fact yesterday I was able to walk with absolutely no pain! Plus my right leg felt much stronger! Yeah for exercises that are working those muscles.

Here's a thought for those thinking of joint replacement, if your posture and muscle balance is out of whack and doesn't get fixed before a joint replacement, most likely you will have the same problem/pain after the joint replacement. Just a thought.

Along with the Physical Therapy, I have tried changing up my diet in many ways to see if that would help. Without addressing diet, I believe, you are only touching one of the root causes. Diet is a huge subject and I have tried numerous diets and supplements to achieve pain relief. This is too much for this one post so I will leave that to next time.

Thank you for reading this, I hope you have a great day!

Till next time, Healthbug

Pain! A Review

Hi,
Oh my gosh!!! I have finally been able to access my blog! What a frustrating struggle. I am going to post this article I had in my drafts. A huge update needs to be added but am so excited I am finally able to access my blog that I wanted to post something right away so I am going with this. Update to come soon.....Promise!
I think pain is one of the most frequent reasons people seek medical help. Pain is a symptom. Something that should not be ignored! In the ER it is one of the things that will get you bumped to the front of the line about as quick as anything.

So what can I say about pain that most people don't know? Before you seek professional attention, or as you are going to seek professional attention answer these questions. When did it start? Was it horrible pain from the start or did it gradually get worse? What does it feel like? sharp, dull, tingly, burning, stabbing, cramping? Does it radiate anywhere? That means does the pain start in one area of your body and move to another area? What were you doing just before the pain started? Maybe you have had the pain a lot longer than you think. We all seem to put minor pain out of our mind and keep going.

Pain is a signal. It is your body's way of saying, "Hey, you, there is something not right here!" It could be something you ate, a movement you performed that injured something, or an organ not functioning as it should. Pain should never be ignored. Your body is telling you something.

In reality, chronic pain is the hardest to deal with. As that low grade chronic pain becomes louder and louder, you eventually have to begin to listen to it. What to do? I have been dealing with Chronic right knee and hip pain for years. It may have started years ago when I had a bicycle accident and injured my right knee. I have dealt with it as it has gotten severe throughout the years with chiropractic care which has taken the pain away. Since I am such a do it your-selfer, I've done trigger point therapy, which worked for a time, Chiropractic with physical therapy and therapeutic massage, to any and all nutritional avenues I could think of. Most alleviated some of the pain for awhile. As long as I was doing whatever therapy. None alleviated the pain completely. About 6 years ago this pain became more or less constant and with any amount of walking, I was in a lot of pain. Now I don't do pain medication much at all because I know it just masks the pain that we need to be paying attention to. However, I must admit to taking some Ibuprofen every once in awhile when I just couldn't stand the pain.

Sounds a bit pathetic. I am doing everything I knew how to do. I've been to acupuncturists, chiropractors, had an X-ray that showed I have degeneration in that right hip. I don't take that as the last word. I know my body can heal. My right knee was more painful than my hip but after expert examination, it seemed to have nothing wrong with it but maybe slightly stretched ligaments. Other than that the pain in my knee, I was told was from compensating for the misplacement of my hip.I spent $350 on orthoutics. OK so maybe they helped a bit. But nothing helped enough for me to get on with the living of my life without chronic pain.

Comes now the search for something else. I am working from the inside out with nutritional supplements recommended by a thorough hair analysis and still looking for the answer. Pain Free Living by Pete Escogue. Pete is a postural therapist. I had never heard of such a person. But there you have it. That is why I will never claim to know it all. There is so much out there that even with my constant research I am still running into something new to me. So Pete has been doing his thing for 30 plus years and has clinics all over the world and the US. I got myself his book and started reading. On the face, it sure does make sense that your posture can make or break you. Give you pain or give you relief.

Update, I was seen by an Escogue practitioner who did an analysis of my posture and gave me exercises to do. They helped, like all else, a little. This is something I would encourage anyone dealing with chronic pain to consider. While it has not solved my issue, it shows promise to at least help.

Just 6 weeks ago I had Prolo injections on my right hip and knee with quite a bit of help with the pain, especially in the beginning. However now I am back to hurting quite a bit.

Main thing here is to Keep searching for the underlying cause of that pain! My pain update coming soon. This was written 2013 so a lot has happened since I initially wrote this.

Till later,
Healthbug