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