herbal relief from pain

This off the subject alittle but does anyone remember the clove cigarettes we had back in the 80's?

Embers,

    I usually use NOW brand products. On the bottle for Kava there is a warning for rare but severe liver damage and it list the things to look out for. I stopped taking it after 5 days. The Q-10 I use is Now and is a powdered capsule. I found I had the beginning of peridontal disease so I started using a liquid Q-10 from Wal-Mart and rubbing it on my gums at night. They look normal again.

     I did 3 hours pushmowing today. Good to be mobile again. I ran out of gas or else I'd still be out there. I got about1/2

acre done with a lot more to go.

                       NM

Just an update. I've hit 2 weeks without pres or otc painkillers. Thankfully the super cissus has a built in painkiller.

when I'm achy at night I take my pm dose and a hot shower and go to bed. I still wake up sometime in the middle of the night. I got some new stuff from a local vit. shop and will probably try it tomorrow nite. The guy that works there uses it off and on for sleeplesness. It's out in my car so I'll post tomorrow nite what it is.

The knee is doing much better. The vacation has helped as I'm not putting all that extra weight on it. I've gotten in about 3 hours mowing in 3 days this week. Maybe sometime I'll get the lawn under control. It looks better already.

I've been very lucky this year as I've only been to the Dr. once and that was for a sinus infection. He wanted to put me on lyrica. At $172 a month it just isn't worth it, especially after reading the side effects. Scares me.

Maybe it's just me, but I just got a new copy of Arthritis Today in the mail. It was very enlightening. Modern medicine

strikes again.  Side effects of those nifty drugs from the dr.....dry mouth, joint problems (isn't that why we got them

in the first place?), hives, skin problems, brain injury, heart problems or failure, nervous systems disorders, liver

or kidney damage or failure, blood disorders, vision problems, weight gain, breathing problems, and one that I really love, various types of cancer especially lymphoma.

In the same issue it has 20 herbal helps for arthritis and the worse case senerio was do not use with blood thinners,

one may make blood pressure higher, give you acne or lower your HDL, a couple may give you diahreah or nausea.

There's a lot of good ones for arthritis but I think this one might work best for fibro.

SAM-E.......600mg-1200mg for OA or fibro; 200mg-1600mg for depression

Sam-e is an anti-inflamatory and analgesic. By increasing the availability of neurotransmitters, it elevates mood.

SAM-E works closely with folate and B vits so you need to make sure you get enough daily. When using 1200mg

of SAM-E after 2 months it's as effective as 200mg of Celebrex. One review found it decreased the number of

tender spots in people with fibro in 5 out of 7 clinical trials. Do not use if you are bi-polar or have parkinsons.

Stinging Nettle......different ways to take it (pills, tea ot tincture)

Anti-inflamatory substance which suppressed several chemicals that cause inflamation  in joint diseases.,

Of 1528 people with arthritis those who took 770mg twice daily used 50% less NSAIDS. Using nettle with NSAIDS

or ALONE people reduced their resting pain by 52% and moving pain by 45%

It's the Sept-Oct issue and is very informative

             Nana Monster

Hi Jane,

    For yeast I use acidepholis to help if in the early stages, for full blown Usnea (fermented tree lichen) is

great. Works on trich infections, too. For a natural immune booster, Colustrum (bovine breast milk) is the best

I take it everyday with hylaronic acid and healing ability is wonderful. Until this year, I've gotten sliced up

at least once or twice a year. Either lypoma, female surgeries, etc. I've healed up and went back to work in

record time.

    My "Herbal Bibles" are Prescription for Herbal Healing and Prescription for Natural Healing. They list a lot

of what the herbs or minerals do and side effects or considerations if any

I'm glad someone posted more herbel remedies. I take between 25mg to 200mg of Ground Clove for my pain and it helps with sleep to. It knocks me out better than the Oxycodone I have (at times).  I take 25-50mg of Ginger for my inflamation. I take some Burdock Root to cleans my bowels. I'm working on Spearment for my headaches.

 

It's really different when I'm burping up different flavors to. It makes it kind of fun at times....LOL

 

 

HARA

Just chiming in on the Kava - Kava has been my life saver in dealing with my fibro.

At one point I was on 12 prescription meds just to control the pain...and they didn't work very well at all. :o\ My first discovery was Malic Relief Formula - and it was amazing at stopping my constant foot pain that I'd had for over 2 years...it stopped it in less than 48 hours. :o) Then after trying Valerian to try to get the "right" kind of sleep - and it not working...I discovered Kava. I started out by taking straight Kava - 2 capsules twice a day (it was made by 21st century). The improvement was monumental - I was able to get off of every prescription drug....that was about 10 years ago and I'm still free of them! After about 6 months - I was down to just two kava at night and by a year, I was down to one except during flare-ups which I tied to stress and hormones...then I'd take 2 a night for a couple of days.

On my 2nd year - 21st century stopped making Kava...so I headed to the health food stores. A year later - the health food stores were down to only a couple of brands - one was a liquid and the other was a mixture of kava and other herbs (called Happy Camper). I dreaded the liquid, so opted to try the Happy Camper (after all ...it came with a free Yo-yo! LOL). A friend actually managed to find me some regular Kava - so I put aside the HC and took that. This sudden shortage of Kava concerned me - so I headed onto the internet to find out what was going on.

After a lot of searching and reading - I found out the cause was that Germany had declared Kava unsafe and other countries were following suit. The manufacturers of Kava literally stopped making it out of fear of lawsuits. :o\ The FDA had issued an alert to US doctors to report any suspected side effects of Kava, especially liver related. I also found a study done by a grad student at a German university where they analyzed the 39 cases of liver failure deaths that were attributed to Kava. In 35 cases, the patients were on a lot of prescription medications and had at least one drug (most had multiple) that had known documented liver toxicity issues and had known deaths related to them. 1 case didn't have enough data to make any accurate determination of the role of kava. 1 case was caused by severe overdosage of Kava (IIRC it was somewhere in the double digit percentages above the recommended doses). I think I'm missing one - it's been a while since I read the study. But anyway, out of the 39 cases - only ONE person seemed to have liver damage directly related to Kava usage...but it is still possible that the person may have had an underlying undiagnosed liver condition unrelated to Kava. Now when you consider the 10's of thousands of cases of liver damage caused by Tylenol (acetiminophen) in just ONE year.....it's really hard to believe that Kava is dangerous.

I also contacted the FDA and relayed the information I had discovered and asked them specifically if Kava was likely to be banned - and if so why when compared to Tylenol it seemed relatively harmless. They responded saying that while they were investigating it - there was no indication that it would be removed from the market.

As someone mentioned earlier - it's the stems and leaves that are believed to have been the culprit in some liver issues. To me, from the start of the "scare" it just seemed fishy. Kava has been used for over 2000 years and in all the studies made of the peoples that have used Kava during that time...they never found liver issues.

Since this time - Kava has returned to the shelves and I no longer have any trouble buying it. And now, even though I can buy it - I don't need it :o) Wikipedia seems to really cover the toxicity issue well:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kava

As my fibro continued to improve (and in wanting to save what I had for when I was REAL bad), I started taking the Happy Camper in place of the full strength Kava. Again, I was taking 2 caps a night and over time reduced it to one and late last year, I realised that I wasn't taking it at all. You know when you feel bad you never forget your meds and when you don't feel so bad you can actually forget about them? That's what apparently happened to me. LOL I now only take the HC when I'm having a flare-up.....which of course I don't recognise it's sneaking up on me until it gets to where I can't function and then after a couple nights of HC, I kick myself for not taking it weeks ago!!

Right now, I'm in a flare-up and last night when I found this forum I kicked myself for not recognising it and started on my HC - today, I'm in only half as much pain and I actually woke up with energy to get some housework done. :oD

So that's my personal odyssey with Kava and why I won't ever be without it. :oD

ST. JOHNS's Wort and Happy Camper

For many years I relied on St. John's wort to help me stay asleep at night.  It didn't help me in falling asleep, but it did keep me more drowsy if I woke up, so falling back to sleep was less of a problem.  I'm not currently taking anything for sleep ... but with recent sleep troubles being problematic again, I just might have to go back on them.

My sister takes St. John's wort to help with her moods ... she calls it her "happy pills." 

My hubby also takes St. John's wort to help with his seasonal depression.  Additionally, he also takes a daily dose of the supplement called Happy Camper, which is an herbal combo meant to boost both mood and energy.  By the way, he is the only member of his family that isn't on a prescription for depression.

Here's a link to Happy Camper's website:

http://www.naturalbalance.com/cgi-bin/showproduct.pl?Item=12304

I'm not able to take Happy Camper because it's too strong for me ... but it's a lifesaver for my hubby.  I have recommended it to others that would prefer to not go the RX route for helping their mood and have had positive feedback about the results.

A side note about St. John's wort:  I was extremely sun-sensitive when I was taking it ... less than 10 minutes in the sun could mean a nasty burn!!!  ... Also, it is known to combat fungus in the body, it even helps with athlete's foot ... a nice additional-effect for my hubby.  (An FYI for anyone with that kind of trouble.)

 Happy Trails to you ~*~ Karen  free2bfree

Dear Nana Monster --

 

If you do decide to try the St. John's wort ... I think the Nature's Way brand is one of the best.  Reasonably priced, too.  I don't go for the "standardized" or "optimized" formulations ... I prefer the plain old regular formulas that have the whole plant in it.

 

As for Happy Camper ... it's quite widely available.  I've even seen it in some grocery stores in addition to the health food stores.  But ... I do caution that for someone that's sensitive or feeling "weak" at the moment, it can be rather strong.  It's combination of herbs both energize and calm at the same time.  I think it's the "energize" parts that don't agree with me.  LOL  Darn.

Hey NM,

Is "Bio-sil" the brand name - I saw one by Lorna Vanderhague...is that what you are taking?

Also, my healath food store had not heard of super cissus. Is this something you have to order online or get at a body building shop? Any recommendations of where to buy it?

thanks, embers

I get my Nature's Made brand supplements at Whole Foods ... used to be Wild Oats.  I used to get it also at Fred Meyers/Smith's Marketplace.  (The particular line of Nature's Made herbs has a green lid.)  I also buy the Happy Camper at Whole Foods.

I hate to admit it, but I rarely buy my supplements at Walmart.  I buy most everything at Walmart, except supplements and a few other odds and ends.  Does that make me a Walmart snob?  LOL

Embers,

    I'm hoping to get up to Vit Warehouse tomorrow after we go to the fair. I'm going to try the SAM-E.   I'm

going to check on the P-28 bread. I'll also ask if he knows of anything that may take the place of flexoril as many

of us are either taking it or only need it now and then.

     If anyone has any good herbal advice please post it here so others can see it. It's great to know that so

many use alternatives. Plus it's much cheaper than the dr. drugs.

     I seen that USP labs has another new product out there, I may check on that, too. It increases natural

production of HGH by up to 200%. Leaner bodies and less gray hair......I can live with that.

          NM

Embers,

   Your're right on the price of SAM-E.  Even the stuff at Wal-Mart is expensive. I went to the herbal shop today.

The P-28 bread is $5 a loaf, and is pretty good sized. I got a book on HMB and am going to check it out.

    I talked to Mike (the owner) and he said he does ship to Canada. Over $50 is free shipping. His website

is under Vitaglo and the name of his shop is Vitiman Warehouse. The lady who came in after me was down from

Canada getting some stuff.

   I got another bottle of Malic Acid, Bio-Sil and Super Cissus RX. Going on month 5 of this stuff. Only took  2

doses of OTC painkillers this month. I told Mike how well I'm doing on this combo......I walked around the State Fair

for 5 hours today, then had lupper (lunch and supper), and topped it off by walking around Great Northern Mall.

I took my morning dose, then a second with my milk from the dairy bar. I was even able to walk up the catwalk

to the upper parking lot without stopping...Now there's a first!!