posted
I hear you. Me too. I do take ibuprophen, although many people on this forum recommend caution because of how hard it is on the stomach and perhaps liver. I always take it with food.
A natural supplement recommended by my LLMD is Zyflamend. I got it online. I think I did not give it a chance -- you need to take it all the time, not just for pain.
Hot baths help me.
Other than that I have no wisdom.
Sorry you are in pain.
-------------------- Judy G. Posts: 122 | From Minnesota | Registered: Dec 2008
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TerryK
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 8552
posted
Avea - Liquid Extract, NutraMedix Boswellia Bromelain Digestive enzymes on an empty stomach Evening Primrose Oil Feverfew Fish Oil Mangosteen Nattokinase - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Noni, NutraMedix Quercitin Rutin Serraflazyme (www.Serrapeptase.info) Turmeric
Posts: 6286 | From Oregon | Registered: Jan 2006
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posted
Resveratrol (Japanese Knotweed) is suppose to help with inflammation. It also has a lot of other good things that it does.
Hope you get some relief. Ang
Posts: 55 | From ohio | Registered: Aug 2008
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luvs2ride
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 8090
posted
Fran-40,
My lyme kicked off rheumatoid arthritis which is the worst of the worst kind of arthritis. Initially, I was swollen in every joint and severely disabled. It took only 5 mths to reach its worst point.
It was at that time I was diagnosed RA and the doctor recommended methotrexate (chemotherapy drug) This is an immune suppressant and might have helped me initially but I knew I had lyme and believed I still had it, so I didn't want to suppress my immune system.
Furthermore, with that much inflammation, I was incredibly sick internally with heart swelling, palpitations, etc. I felt close to death and believe I was. I have read that if you have RA in more than 30 joints, your chances of dying within 5 yrs are 75%. I was very scared.
I refused the methotrexate and asked for low dose minocycline instead. This is a treatment for mycoplasma induced RA. I had no idea if I had mycoplasma but I knew this was an acceptable treatment for RA and it would not be adverse to the lyme like suppressing my immune system would have been.
After screaming at me, the doctor angrily prescribed the minocycline and I went in search of a doctor to help me identify what all I had and what we could do about it.
The doctor I found practices CAM medicine. I was swollen everywhere and a bloodtest (high morphology) revealed much wrong in my blood. I was horribly sick and toxic.
Right away we began IV pushes of glutathione. Weekly then bi-weekly and finally monthly. Also, high doses of supplements like Vit C (detoxifying) Vit D3 (detoxifying) DHEA (hormone) The list is long.
Point is a lot was wrong with me and a lot was needed to get me well.
In one year, he brought my RA from severe to nearly dormant. The rheumatologist was amazed.
I tried all the herbal anti-inflammatories and not one of them gave me noticeable relief. RA is a particularly nasty form of inflammation that is not easy to relieve.
What did relieve my swelling and pain was:
#1-diet. Switch to a anti-inflammatory diet. This made a huge difference in my swelling and pain and in only 2 weeks. Eat nothing off the diet.
#2-Detox. Glutathione is powerful and absolutely necessary to our health. Read up on it. It is great stuff. Many, many ways to detox.
#3-Killing the bugs and detoxing them from the body. Initially, the die off increases inflammation so detox must be ongoing.
After the 1st year, I was in a good place though not painfree. Today (3 yrs later) I am painfree most of the time and I am fully functional 100% of the time.
During the early days, I developed Herboden's Nodules on 3 fingers. The deformity was extreme and very visable. Today, the nodules are nearly gone. This is not supposed to happen, but it has.
My body is reabsorbing the calcium deposits that formed the deformities and my fingers are nearly normal again. They are fully functional.
God designed our body's to heal themselves but they can't do it if we eat a lot of junk. Once we are this sick, we need to do everything in our power to heal. Medicine alone can't do the job and even the medicine causes toxicity in our body.
We must heal the body so the body can kill the diseases.
I have taken and continue to take many things to help fight off inflammation but they do so by nourishing the body's natural anti-inflammatory system.
Much of what I do is listed in TerryK's post.
Susan
-------------------- When the Power of Love overcomes the Love of Power, there will be Peace. Posts: 3038 | From america | Registered: Oct 2005
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Shosty
Unregistered
posted
We did things similar to luvs2ride, and second the idea that food is important. Doing an elimination diet, and then rechallenging individual foods, to identify hidden allergies/sensitivities, did more for my neuropathy than 6 years of antibiotics (although antibiotics have their place and I needed them in the beginning).
It was necessary to have an MD who could approach things the way luvs2ride describes, with a multi-pronged and individualized path.
Other things that have been suggested to me include Magnesium (can be IV or oral), Omega 3 fish oil, turmeric (also kills bacteria so watch out for herxing), D3, and DHEA. (For us, IV magnesium caused depression and slowed our brains and bodies down, too much suppression,. but others swear by it; we do orals only now)
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posted
I have had severe inflammation. I would highly recommend lumbrokinase (better than nattikonase)....you can google it. It is a blood thinner and improves benefits of whatever you take. I had tons of kidney, liver, pancreas problems. This product was a miracle. Settled it all down.
#2 I took high doses of Bromelain from healthfood store to reduce inflammation. Don't take tablets (terrible absorbtion)--always capsules.
#3 "Jarrow Formulas"--google it--has THE BEST Glucosamine, MSM and Chondroitin to reduce arthritic pain and inflammation. The only glucosamine that worked for me.
Posts: 68 | From chicago, illinois | Registered: Jul 2009
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TerryK
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 8552
posted
Susan is absolutely right. Detox is critical in keeping inflammation down. If I let up at all on detox, I immediately get the snap, crackle, pop in my knees and neck which indicates to me that inflammation is an issue again.
A good book for an anti-inflammatory diet is "The Lyme Disease Solution". The book has lots of other good info too. Just be careful about eating too much fruit if you are on abx because you can foster heavy candida growth with too much sugar - even from fruit.
I've recently found that acetyl glutathione (oral) has been very helpful for detox. I'd get the IV's if I could but I just can't afford them right now. I read about acetyl glutathione in the book that I mention above.
Susan - your story is an inspiration. I have a family member with severe, disfiguring arthritis but he will not change his diet or do the other things that are necessary to deal with it effectively like you have. If only mainstream doctors would take the approach you have taken rather than surgery and drugs... Great job of taking care of yourself Susan!!! Terry
Posts: 6286 | From Oregon | Registered: Jan 2006
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Carol in PA
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 5338
quote: Over 40 years of scientific research and evidence indicates that Wobenzyme N is an effective arthritis treatment, and it is widely prescribed throughout Europe for inflammation relief.
.
You can google for Wobenzym, arthritis, to find information.
Carol
Posts: 6947 | From Lancaster, PA | Registered: Feb 2004
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Thanks! but my head is spinning really because I just want to take a magic pill to make it all go away.
I don't think I have as much will power Susan as you did with healing yourself, but I give you much credit for doing the necessary work to do it.
Money is tight for me at the moment, so some of these things are going to take me a while to get it all together.
Another question I do have. Is inflammation part of detox also?
I am feeling so much pain now throughout my body more so than before, and my blood test revealed the high level of inflammation even before I did the ABX.
Thanks for being patient with me. I am new to all of this stuff. Posts: 72 | From South Jersey | Registered: May 2009
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I found this on Wiki regarding oral acetyl glutathione. According to this, you'd be better off taking NAC or SAMe to increase intracellular glutathione levels. Careful with SAMe, it should not be taken along with SSRIs
Supplementation Supplementing has been difficult, as research suggests that glutathione taken orally is not well absorbed across the GI tract. In a study of acute oral administration of a very large dose (3 grams) of oral glutathione, Witschi and coworkers found that "it is not possible to increase circulating glutathione to a clinically beneficial extent by the oral administration of a single dose of 3 g of glutathione."[20][21]
However, tissue and sperm glutathione concentrations can be raised by increased intake of the precursor cysteine, or in chronic conditions, by S-adenosylmethionine (SAMe).[22][23] Glutathione precursors rich in cysteine include N-acetylcysteine (NAC)[24][25] and undenatured whey protein,[26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33] and these supplements have been shown to increase glutathione content within the cell. N-Acetylcysteine is available both as a drug and as a generic supplement.
Posts: 299 | From New Hampshire | Registered: Jul 2007
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luvs2ride
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 8090
posted
Terry,
I am sorry about your family member. It has been an eye-opening experience to me to run into so many people who are hurting and crippled from rheumatoid arthritis but yet they walk away disappointed when I tell them what has worked for me.
Just like Fran_40 is doing. Fran, how can you choose pain and being crippled over being well? Seriously, I don't get it. I was (and still am) willing to do whatever it took to heal.
Inflammation = damage. Toxins are one of the causes of inflammation. Your gut is almost certainly leaky and therefore, partially digested food is entering your bloodstream and your immune system sees it as a foreign invader. It launches an attack which creates inflammation.
Killing bugs releases toxic die off which creates inflammation. The drugs themselves have toxic side effects. etc.
Please research inflammation and learn all you can. Inflammation is behind diabetes, heart disease, all arthritis, pancreatitis, gallbladder disease, liver disease, kidney disease.
What you eat will either eliminate inflammation in your body or it will create it. Foods can heal and foods can kill. The choice of which foods you are going to eat is entirely up to you.
Sure taking a magic pill would be easier, but that pill doesn't exist.
-------------------- When the Power of Love overcomes the Love of Power, there will be Peace. Posts: 3038 | From america | Registered: Oct 2005
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-------------------- --Lymetutu-- Opinions, not medical advice! Posts: 96222 | From Texas | Registered: Feb 2001
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D Bergy
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9984
posted
Turmeric has many useful properties in addition to helping with inflammation. Actually far to numerous for me to even recall all of the benefits.
Some I remember is preventing Cancer and Alzheimer's.
It is antiinflammatory, antibacterial, and an antioxident.
Helps clear the liver of toxins.
Increases cellular strength against infections and improves communication between the cells.
I am forgetting at least fifteen other benefits.
Ginger has many similar benefits.
The bottom line is I take Turmeric and Ginger every week day, even before I had a reason to.
Now that I have been diagnosed with Crohn's disease, it gives me a better reason as it is also a treatment for that.
Dan
Posts: 2919 | From Minnesota | Registered: Aug 2006
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Abxnomore
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 18936
posted
You have been given some excellent advice. There is no easy answer to this illness or to any illness, if one wants optimal health.
While things may sound overwhelming these are things you do in stages as you learn to make the right changes. Lyme, RA or not, we live in a toxic world and most of us are fooled by the corporate
agri business and the media to eat and live a lifestyle that is bad for us and it leads to inflammation the most serious health problem that the entire U.S. population faces today. It's mainly brought on by processed foods and the way our livestock is raised and high fructose corn syrup.
The body can heal itself but we have to make the right choices, eat healthy and educate ourselves about alternative methods and life styles. No one will every beat Lyme with out making many of the changes mentioned abovt and the same for RA.
I know two people who had bad RA and changed their life thru diet instead of poisoning themselves with medications.
Everything is a learning process as many of us have grown up so alienated from how we really are supposed to live and eat. 99% of the stuff in the supermarket is BAD/HARMFUL to you. Eat natural, fresh real food, organic, no hormones, antibiotics, pesticides, etc. It's all adding to the toxic load and our bodies cannot handle it, especially with lyme.
Concentrated high quality Whey protein and NAC are the best way to get gluthathione into your system, other than IV. Oral pills are difficult for the body to absorb. Get sugar and artificial sweeteners out of your diet, processed foods, juice, starchy veggies and nightshade vegetables and all junk food.
You will see an improvement but this is a permanent lifestyle adjustment and it takes time and commitment.
Posts: 5191 | From Lyme Zone | Registered: Jan 2009
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posted
Also, glutathione suppositories are said to be as good as IV.
Got the info from a fellow lymer on this board.
Having thrown everything but the kitchen sink at
this thing, it's hard to say specifically what
is helping, but am 85% better now and can feel
inflammation reduction with the suppositories.
Just can't take them every day due to frequent
loose poos.
Check i-herb.com for combinations of
Curcumin (Tumeric) with Boswelli and another
with Curcumin and Quercitin. Both had excellent
feedback for helping inflammation.
Jan
-------------------- 3 Strains Mycoplasma and Chlymedia 2001. After treatment fine for all 2004. Major symptoms since 2005. Diag Aug 2008 Lyme. 400 mg/d doxy 500 2/d Ceftin Posts: 164 | From Texas | Registered: Jun 2008
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TerryK
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 8552
posted
Fran - Since part of the inflammation problem for lyme patients is related to the toxins that are produced by borrelia, detox is very relevant to your question about inflammation solutions.
Several people responded to say that the best way to get glutathione is to supplement with some of the pre-cursers such as NAC, whey etc.
Not so for those of us who have certain methylation cycle issues and my guess is that a fair number of chronic lyme patients have one or more mutations in their methylation cycle that make sulfur and/or glutathione a problem.
NAC, whey and glutathione are all sulfur based supplements. This is probably why most did not help me and likely produced more toxins for my body to have to process.
I've tried many things and to date, acetyl glutathione is far and away the most effective for me. That said, I haven't tried IV or suppositories yet. The compounded topical cream only worked for a short time for me and then stopped working. Very expensive too.
Some of us cannot tolerate SAMe so if anyone tries it, be very careful. I couldn't even tolerate tiny doses of it. Again, this is related to specific methylation cycle defects that are implicated in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. They are the COMT mutations. The sulfur are related to CBS upregulation or SUOX.
As others have said, there is no magic pill. Just take one step at a time. If you don't feel that you can make huge sweeping changes, then make small changes and eventually they add up to big changes.
Terry
Posts: 6286 | From Oregon | Registered: Jan 2006
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