posted
While waiting to see an LLMD and my igenex results im finding it truly difficult to cope with pain.. As im sure so many of you are.
A previous psychiatrist prescribed me tramadol to take some edge off the pain .. Do you guys take any pain killers aside to help or should I stay away from any of that right now ??
Posts: 123 | From New jersey | Registered: Oct 2015
| IP: Logged |
Shixiao San, Jin Lingzi San, Liang Fu Wan, and Baishao Gancao Tang
by Subhuti Dharmananda, Ph.D., Director, Institute for Traditional Medicine, Portland, Oregon
excerpt:
. . . Corydalis is added "to increase the pain-relieving effects of this prescription."
Corydalis . . . enters the liver and spleen meridians . . . to promote blood circulation and remove congealed blood . . . very effective for relieving pain.
This is an excellent formula, intended for use before going to bed (follow instructions and caution with driving until you get used to it. Do not mix with sedative or alcohol).
Ingredients; Corydalis root, jujube seeds and Schisandra fruit.
Jujube is also called zizyphus. Schisandra is also spelled schizandra. Both can be searched at PubMed and at The One Earth Herbal Sourcebook ( http://oneearthherbs.squarespace.com )
posted
Yes to curcumin for pain relief - I second Lymetoo in suggesting try that first. I get it in bulk at the health food store and dip 00-size capsules into it. Pain relief happens pretty quickly.
Before I found out I had Lyme, I had fibromyalgia pain. I found that if I only took one kind of narcotic for it, I would get tolerance to it quickly. So I learned to rotate narcotics and pain meds, taking a different one each day. I think I was rotating around four of them. I did this with pain management specialists who knew I was doing several for this reason.
This plan worked for 17 years and then I got sick on all and backed off to only using tylenol, and when that one bothered me, then aspirin only.
That's why I'm happy the curcumin really helps.
Another pain reliever for topical pain, like a surface neck pain, or whatever, is 2-5% lidocaine patches. Very helpful when we just want to cover up a painful surface area.
Posts: 13117 | From San Francisco | Registered: May 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
If you feel you cannot get by with NSAIDs like Motrin and need to move to a narcotic, you should consider Buprenorphine before a straight opiate like Vicodan or stronger.
Tramadol does bind to opiate receptor plus has some antidepressant effects. But its also easier to prescribe due the recent change in opiate laws which has doctors running scared.
Opiates have a lot of downsides so are a last choice. They only help for certain types of pain.
They cause constipation which is not helpful with Lyme since it can cause toxins to back flow into your system through your intestinal walls. That can cause hypersensitivity reactions.
Why?
Buprenorphine is a mixed agonist and antagonist with some properties better than the standard opiates like Vicodan.
Its taken sublingual so is very fast acting and does not pass through your gut which contains many opiate receptors. It is directly absorbed under your tongue and goes straight into your blood avoiding any direct gut issues.
It only needs to be taken once per day which prevents the "I need a pill problem" which is part of the opiate addictive mechanism like needing to hold a cigarette.
With short acting opiates like Vicodan, you lose pain relief in 2 hours and will begin withdrawals in much less than a day. Withdrawals can be mistaken for Lyme symptoms just adding yet another problem. You don't need that.
It does not get you high or create the elation of standard opiates which helps drive the "I need another pill" problem. No high or elation means less psychological addiction potential.
Its impossible to accidentally overdose since its a partial antagonist and will not stop your breathing like a standard opiate overdose.
It contains no tylenol so cannot destroy your liver.
Its used commonly in Europe for pain management but in the US, its not as popular because of its stigma of being used to wean opiate addicts. But if you take opiates for more than a few months, you will need it to be weaned.
If you took opiates for a year and went to a pain/addition specialist, you would be weaned with or transferred to Buprenorphine.
Like any opiate, it does slowly form a physical addiction with withdrawals but its once a day and no high minimize any psychological addiction.
Typical Vicodan users "want" another pill because it feels good and relieves both physical and emotional pain. That's in part why there is such a large Vicodan/opiate problem in the US with many overdoses and people moving to Heroin because its often easier to get than Vicodan.
People who exceed the recommended Vicodan daily dosage will overdose on Tylenol. You need a healthy liver if you have Lyme.
Its often used to wean standard opiate addicts off opiates by slowly lowering the dosage so it comes in a form that can be made smaller and smaller that allows easy slow weaning when its time to quit.
Its not as potent as the standard opiates but if you have one bad breakthrough pain, you can take more and then back off without any difficulties.
Buprenorphine has a higher affinity to opiate receptors than opiates like Vicodan. So if you cheat and try a Vicodan while taking Buprenorphine, it WILL DO NOTHING.
It blocks standard opiates until it wears of in around 48 hours. So its very hard for people who like opiates to cheat since they must wait a few days and risk withdrawals.
If you need to have surgery, you need to tell the surgeon and wean down before. Otherwise it will block the opiates given for surgical pain. Not good. But a good anesthesiologist knows how to over-ride it as long as you let them know.
That being said, opiates should be reserved for pain that cannot be dealt with in any other way.
The DEA recently rescheduled Vicodan to schedule II which makes it complex and worrisome for the doctor. But only approved doctors are allowed to prescribe Buprenorphine which is why its not well known.
Buprenorphine is a schedule III so can be refilled and is known to be overdose free and much easier to avoid long term addiction and easier to quit.
So No its not good to use opiates but when the pain becomes unbearable, there is another option of last resort before a real opiate.
posted
I guess we all have our own experience with pain med - not surprising, since our responses to treatments seem to always vary!
For me, I started with vicodin, and I took only the smallest amount of it, which was just a tiny particle of the tablet, basically. Then that amount went up very slowly for years. Any amount that I took covered up pain for several hours.
At the point that I got beyond a tablet, that's when I switched to another narcotic med, and I was able to again drop the amount of vicodin I used.
So my experience with vicodin was one of tolerance rather than a high or withdrawal - I had none of that problem.
The only med that caused me withdrawal problems was valium, which was the first med I ever took for unknown Lyme - had to get off of it 4x, and after that, didn't want to bother with it.
Posts: 13117 | From San Francisco | Registered: May 2006
| IP: Logged |
The Lyme Disease Network is a non-profit organization funded by individual donations. If you would like to support the Network and the LymeNet system of Web services, please send your donations to:
The
Lyme Disease Network of New Jersey 907 Pebble Creek Court,
Pennington,
NJ08534USA http://www.lymenet.org/
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic