I certainly empathize, Graybeard. Cluster headaches make me feel suicidal. Those are completely nonresponsive to pain medication. The only solution is to prevent them from starting. After they start, hold on for life for about 60-90 minutes.
Posted on 02/14/2005 7:03:46 PM PST by neverdem
I've had migraines all my life. The new Triptan drugs were a Godsend for me, I never leave home without my Zomig. Another good one is the medicine that is delivered by means of a nasal inhaler. I forget the name of it, something like Dihydroergotomine. Prayer sometimes works too. Good luck.
I have spinal arthritis and 2 bad disks- I am on ultram and baclofen- started going to an accupuncturist with herbs and the needles- have been able to do more than I have in years- more energy and less attacks of pain and spasms. Have been taking lots of fish oils, glucosamine, lyprinol oil instead of the celebrex - some days I wish I could go back to one vicodin a day and do things I used to like tennis,working out etc but the Dr's are scared to death to order anything- and I would hate to have them cut me off once I got used to them- as they are prone to do. The pain clinics around here do a lot of nerve blocks and transmitter implants....Try an antidepressant for help with the pain despair-ps I am a nurse - ruined my back lifting people in ICU for 15 years
I'm a chiropractor. Have you seen one? I have relieved many bad cases of sciatica permanently. Go see an S.O.T. chiropractor. There is no reason to live in pain, unless you have severe nerve damage, which is rare.
Just anecdotal but my niece had horrible migraines and Feverfew worked. You take it just like aspirin, when the pain starts, unlike most herbal remedies which you usually have to take for months to see any improvement. It's cheap and if it worked it would be great.
Regarding choosing an acupuncturist, people often get referred through word-of-mouth and that is at it should be. I would much rather hear a personal recommendation than look up an ad in the yellow pages. We are lucky in my small town to have an M.D. Internist who is also certified in Traditional Chinese Medicine (he is from Taiwan). This way you get the western and eastern approaches in one package. State laws vary as far as certification for acupuncturists.
BTW, my family recently had some experience with the ICU staff. We all had to compliment them as some of the most professional individuals we had ever observed.
About two years ago, I thought I'd never walk again.
When I was a child, doctors told me I had arthritis and would be crippled by the time I was an adult. Then, they said, "Doctors could operate." "And then I'd be all right?" I asked hopefully. "No, but then they can operate," the doctor replied cynically.
So I started exercising with light weights because I noticed increasing the circulation in that way relieved the pain. After a year of doing that, somebody asked if I ever considered entering a bodybuilding competition "because you're the most muscular guy around." Doctors who saw me said I was probably the healthiest guy they had personally seen -- but once a year I'd come down with severe back pains for about two months and for another two months, I'd have a bad case of bronchitis.
Then two years ago,it seemed the back pain wouldn't go away this time and I could barely walk ten feet in excruciating pain. I thought about getting an electric scooter with a seat. But just then, I noticed an article in the newspaper about a doctor who claimed he had found a surprisingly simple cure for fibromyalgia -- which seems to include 90% of the chronic symptoms most people complain about. The cure was guaifenesin.
I knew nothing about fibromyalgia but I was very familiar with guaifenesin because I took it to cure my bronchitis -- and noted back in the mid-80s that it made me feel good. I thought one should take it regularly as a health tonic like Geritol. Health professionals I suggested this to warned me against becoming addicted to cough medicine because shortly before this time,codeine was the main ingredient in cough medicines. Now, the new and improved wonder formula was guaifenesin. I thought it was so good I went and bought 1,000 shares of AH Robbins, the patent holder; they corroborated my suspicions that there were promising other as yet unspecified cures for guaifenesin. They did not materialize by the time of the stock market crash of 1987 and so I sold it and forgot about it.
So guaifenesin I knew something about and bought a few bottles before attending the lecture that weekend. I had been reluctant to continue taking the product except when I had bronchitis symptoms since the label warned against it -- as standard protocol. I learned at the lecture that there was no known negative side-effect with prolonged use. I searched the Internet to find what studies I could on guaifenesin and was impressed that there was no known negative side-effects but it seems, many positive ones.
Apparently guaifenesin does not only liquefy the mucus in the lungs when one has a respiratory inflammation but liquefies the mucus throughout one's body. The major lubricant in the body is mucus. As a joint moves, the cartilage releases mucus to provide lubrication for that movement.
As cells age, they tend to become less liquid and fluid, so as they congeal, they eventually cease functioning as cells, which requires the proper viscosity to continue optimal functioning. The pioneer of this cure is St. Amand. The cure is an underground sensation, spawning support groups around the world.
What convinced me was that a week into the regimen, I noticed my old high school football knee injury of thirty-five years disappeared completely and hasn't returned, nor have I had debilitating back pain or bronchitis since. The exciting concept here is that all the cells in the body may be breaking down due to the same universal cause rather than that only the heart, lungs, joints, digestive tract, etc. tissue are malfunctioning while all the others are perfectly all right. It may be that it is just noticed in one tissue or organ before the others -- but the whole body is disfunctioning in this way -- because the essential liquidity of the body is too thick to allow for proper cell functioning.
Most of those I've shared this cure with have noticed that there was a period of pain-free functioning that is pretty inobtrusive. And when they noticed painful episodes in their lives thereafter, they noted coincidentally, that they weren't using it. It is pretty similar chemically to aspirin; in fact, it was a rival to aspirin that lost out a hundred years ago -- but maybe should have been the path we went down. Rather than causing digestive upset, it seems to cure it -- along with many other chronic conditions.
Bump for later.
I meant same as the Mucinex brand.
There is a feeling among many that the quick-acting tablets are actually preferable because the patented process to make the tablets slow-release may render it indigestible with people who have digestive difficulties, as many who have FM do.
So the quick-acting tablets are available for around $10; one chiropractor even suggested that the reason the study failed to prove the guaifenesin cure was because they were using the extended release tablets, and he found in his own patients, many for whom extended release tablets did not work, quick-acting does. When a tablet is indigestible, it may cause digestive upset; that doesn't seem to be a problem with quick-acting tablets.
Interesting comments, thank you.
Some things just make sense.
Usually when there is a breakthrough in understanding, insurmountable, ever-multiplying complexities give way to a universal, unifying simplicity.
That is the history of human understanding.
bttt
I wonder if any Drug War (i.e. ONDCP) money was used to promote "new improved" painkillers?
Did you know that Rush Limbaugh was put on Vioxx while in rehab?
Bit of a tradeoff, eh?
I certainly empathize, Graybeard. Cluster headaches make me feel suicidal. Those are completely nonresponsive to pain medication. The only solution is to prevent them from starting. After they start, hold on for life for about 60-90 minutes.
There are some people who do not believe that the obsession with avoiding salicylates is an integral part of the guaifenesin cure. Dr. St. Amand may have gone overboard in using that as an explanation for why the Oregon study failed to show the effectiveness of the guaifenesin cure -- using time release guaifenesin tablets. As one chiropractor pointed out, and I noticed too when I started on slow-acting guai, the process of supercompacting the powder under pressure makes the tablets as hard as rocks and may be undigested by an impaired digestive system, as is common in many fibromyalgics. One will note that if one puts one of these highly-compressed tablets in water -- they will not dissolve, no matter how much time passes. So they will go through one's digestive as an irritant -- giving one no relief from irritable bowel syndrome. If that is a major marker, then not only would it not solve the problem but might even exacerbate the condition. Thus it was often noted, that many patients got worse before they got better. And so, they are warned they must be obsessive-compulsive about avoiding salicylates, which he asserts, is all plant products.
That's what causes a lot of people to be apprehensive about taking on the guaifenesin cure for fibroyalgics. One is the fear of getting worse rather than better, and two, the obsession over avoiding contact with all plant material requires a lifetime of dedication. The fact is, guaifenesin works, as anybody who's taken cough medicine knows -- along with aspirin when they have a respiratory inflammation. If it is liquifying the mucus in your respiratory tract, it is liquefying the mucus throughout your body.
It's a lot like blood thinners; it doesn't just work in the blood going to your head, or liver, or feet; it thins all the blood. Otherwise, you have an ad hoc explanation for the mucus in your lungs, in your digestive tract, in your joints, etc. The property of fluids is that they tend to equalize -- and that's what makes exchanges of fluids, gases, toxins and nutrients possible.
The doctor's cure is not the final word on this matter. If you search "guaifenesin," there are thousands of abstracts, generally narrowly focused but nobody connects all these studies into a comprehensive whole. However, each one notes very impressive properties -- one study notes that it is one of the most effective muscle relaxants. That's important because a explanation for FMS is that the cells are constantly firing -- or turned on and never gets to shut off or relax. That's the doctor's elaborate explanation on calcium regulation.
A lot of those associated with the doctor are pretty cultish in propagation of the guaifenesin cure. To these people Dr. St. Amand is a saint and his prescriptions and proscriptions must be followed to the letter, chapter and verse.
But there are a lot of others who have not been officially diagnosed "fibromyalgics." In my own case, doctors could never find anything wrong with me. That's a common experience with FMS -- that doctors often insisted it was "all in one's head." I don't go around diagnosing people as fibromayalgics but I run into a lot of people who tell me they have an arthritic knee, occasional backaches or common chronic ailments -- and I relate my experience and insight.
Lastly, I mentioned in a previous post that about 100 years ago, aspirin and guai were used as remedies for roughly the same afflictions -- and because of better marketing, aspirin became the remedy of choice for whatever ailed one. A lot of people can't tolerate aspirin and that causes its own problems -- but not in everyone! Some people can tolerate aspirin well; others cannot tolerate aspirin at all, regardless of whether they are on the guaifenesin cure or not. Rather than assuming one is aspirin intolerant, it's far better and simpler to assume one is not -- and then be more rigorous in avoiding the salicylates if one suspects he may be. Usually one knows by adulthood whether they tolerate aspirin well or not. That's why they created ibuprofen and then naproxen -- and those who couldn't tolerate those, the cox-inhibitors. But as any doctor would logically proceed, assume the simplest explanation first rather than the most complex and elaborate.
Thanks so much for your informative reply. I just checked, and the Mucinex I bought IS the extended release. Does Mucinex make a fast acting tablet? If not, where can I find it?
"I assume that guaifenesin is a prescription drug and am wondering if her doctor, who is a general practioner is knowledgeble enough to prescribe it for her if she asked him to."
Guaifenesin used to be available both over-the-counter (fast-acting) and as a prescription (slow-acting, extended release) until the FDA decided there's no reason to keep it as a prescription medication since there's never been a problem with it.
Previously, whenever doctors prescribed guaifenesin, it had to be the extended release version because drug coverage would not cover over the counter medications -- but only prescribed drugs. Therefore there was this bias towards the extended release version -- for patients with drug coverage and quite a number of fibromyalgics were on permanent disability. So when the extended release no longer was a prescription drug, everybody had to buy their own -- whether extended or fast acting, the latter being considerably cheaper. At that point, there was tremendous confusion because although guaifenesin is really a cheap generic, the process for making it extended release is patented -- and not guaifenesin itself.
Immunesupport.com and http://www.guailife.com/ are the cheapest, easily available sources I know of without any complications of pretending to make it rocket science or in need of a presciption. If somebody can figure out how to order and have it shipped from Canada, in bulk (powder) form they are really cheap -- about 1,000 capsules worth for $10. They make a profit on selling the gelatin caps to put them in. Their sites are not user-friendly.
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