Scientists, doctors, and other medical experts claim that regular consumption of honey in combination with cinnamon is a powerful remedy that can be used against many diseases.
For more than 4000 years, honey has been used as a traditional remedy for almost every disease. The Egyptians used it to treat wounds, the Greeks for long life, and the Indians to maintain balance in the body. Modern medicine shows us that these beliefs were true.
They all knew about cinnamon healing purposes as they did for the honey. Cinnamon was considered a great gift for the Monarchs cause of its usefulness in treating many diseases.
Here are some combinations of these powerful natural ingredients which can be used in the treatment of certain diseases, including chronic health conditions such as arthritis.
Add two tablespoons of honey and three teaspoons of cinnamon in a large cup. Regular consumption of this mixture will reduce cholesterol levels by 10 % within two hours.
In the morning, instead of marmalade or jam, put a little honey and cinnamon on a slice of bread. If you regularly consume this combination, it will help you reduce your blood cholesterol levels and prevent the risk of having a heart attack.
In a cup filled with boiled water, mix two tablespoons of honey and a tablespoon of cinnamon. Drink this drink in the morning and evening. With regular use, this drink will help in the treatment of chronic arthritis.
If you have any infection of the gallbladder, you can consume the above-mentioned mixture, but this time change the amount of honey and cinnamon. In the cup of boiling water, put two teaspoons of cinnamon and a large spoonful of honey.
If you have a problem with frequent colds, make a mixture of a large tablespoon of honey and a quarter teaspoon of cinnamon. This habit will help with your cold treatment, chronic cough, and sinus congestion.
The study, titled “Prevalence of Axial Spondyloarthritis Among Patients With Fibromyalgia: A Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study With Application of the Assessment of SpondyloArthritis International Society Classification Criteria,” was published in the journal Arthritis Care & Research.It highlights the importance of vigilant management of fibromyalgia symptoms by doctors and patients, taking into account the possible underlying presence of inflammatory disorders.
Fibromyalgia patients can present a broad spectrum of symptoms, including chronic nocturnal back pain, morning stiffness, and disturbed sleep. However, these are also symptoms of an inflammatory condition called axial spondyloarthritis (SpA).
The spA is a chronic inflammatory condition involving the spine, pelvis, and surrounding joints. Although SpA and fibromyalgia are very different diseases, they can overlap and share similar symptoms.
Aiming to determine the incidence of SpA among fibromyalgia patients, a total of 99 patients with fibromyalgia underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) evaluation for the identification of structural alterations common in SpA chronic inflammation1, such as bone erosion and spine deformations (sclerosis).
About 8% of patients presented symptoms of inflammation in pelvic joints, while 17% and 25% presented bone erosion and sclerosis, respectively. Despite the frequency of these symptoms, only 10% of fibromyalgia patients were positively SpA diagnosed,accordingto the Assessment of SpondyloArthritis International Society classification criteria.
“When approaching the clinical conundrum of differentiating between ‘pure’ fibromyalgia and those cases with an unsuspected underlying inflammatory disease, the physician must attempt to rely[on] onclinical judgment and on available diagnostictools,” the study’s authors, from medical centers in Tel Aviv, Israel, wrote.
Through blood tests that evaluate levels of a protein associated with inflammation, known as CRP, the authors found that the diagnosis of SpA was positively associated with increased CRP levels and physical function limitation. This result suggests that CRP could be used as a diagnostic tool for SpA among fibromyalgia patients.
“These results underscore the importance of recognizing the overlap between inflammatory and centralized pain in each patient and call for increased clinical vigilance in the process of differential diagnosis,” the authors concluded.
So much has been written about the opioid epidemic, but so little seems to be out there about what living with true chronic pain is like. My husband, the Jay, lived and died in incredible pain at the age of 58. As his wife, I lived that journey with him.
Jay is no longer here to tell his story, but I want the world to see what I saw. I want you to know how he went from working 60 hours a week doing hard physical labor until his pain grew worse and he could not even get out of a chair on his own.
I want you to know the deterioration Jay went through over the last ten years. I want you to know what a good day and a bad day are like when you live with chronic pain. I want you to know exactly what happened when the doctor decreased his pain medication. And I want you to know how my husband finally made the decision to commit suicide.
I want people to understand that when chronic pain runs your life, eventually you just want the pain to stop.
First a bit of history. I met Jay in 2005 when we both stopped drinking. Two years later, Jay began to lose feeling in his legs and started having fallen, as a result of compressed nerves in his spine. The pain was so bad Jay had to stop working and go on disability, which started his depressive episodes.
Jay had a series of lower back and neck fusion surgeries. This was when he has first prescribed painkillers, antidepressants, and anti-anxiety medications. From 2008 to 2011, Jay tried various treatments to control the pain that lingered even after third back surgery. These included steroid shots, nerve blocks, and a spinal cord stimulator. Ultimately he had a drug pump implanted that delivered morphine, in addition to the pain pills he was being prescribed.
In 2012, Jay was diagnosed with trauma-induced dementia. I believe that diagnosis was right, based on his symptoms, but not all of the doctors agreed. Some believed the confusion was due to high doses of morphine and/or his sleep apnea.
By 2016, Jay’s confusion and memory issues were increasing. He was on a steady dose of 120mg morphine daily, in addition to the medication he was receiving from his pain pump.
Jay’s depression seemed to come and go, depending on the day and his pain levels. He was weaned down on his Xanax to 2mg a day to help him sleep. He was aware of the risks of combining Xanax and morphine.
Let me tell you what a good day was like before they changed his medications. I worked a full-time job from 2 pm to 10 pm five days a week. I would get home, and Jay would have my coffee ready for me at night. We would stay up and watch TV until 2 or so. When it was time for sleep, I went to bed and he slept in his recliner.
We started sleeping apart after his first surgery in 2007. He was more comfortable sitting up in the chair, but could never sleep more than three hours at a time. He knew sleeping in bed would just keep me awake.
A good day always meant it was not cold or raining. On a good morning, he would be up first and get the coffee started. He would take our two miniature pinchers outside in the yard on their leash for potty time.
We usually had at least one appointment a week, but if not we could have a nice quiet morning. That meant coffee in front of the TV. After a couple of hours of that, he might switch over to playing his computer games, but he was never far from his chair.
A typical adventure for us would involve going to Walmart. Jay was not able to walk through the store, but he hated using the handicapped carts. I could always see a look on his face when he had to do it. After going to the store, we might have lunch or an early dinner at Steak n Shake or Cracker Barrel. It always needed to be someplace familiar and comfortable for him. More than once we sat, ordered, and then took our food home because he was in too much pain.
In the summer we might walk the dogs after dinner. Just a quick two-block walk, but a lot of times he would have to stop halfway and go back home. A couple of times I had to go get the car and pick him up because his legs just would not support him anymore.
A bad day was awful for me to watch, and absolutely horrible for Jay to live. It meant no real sleep, just catnaps in the chair whenever he could. He always made coffee for us, but on a bad day he would forget to add coffee to the coffee maker and we would just have hot water. The pain was so much he was just distracted.
On many bad days, I would look over and see tears just running down his face because he was in so much pain. It also made Jay’s depression worse. We spent many cold winter nights talking about how much pain would be too much and would make life not worth living. It is the most horrible feeling in this whole world to hear the person you love most talk about ending their life.
In January 2017 Jay’s pain clinic decided they could no longer prescribe the high doses of morphine he was on. In addition, they were not going to continue seeing him if he decided to stay on Xanax. The Xanax was prescribed by another doctor, but they did not care.
I begged the pain doctor — yes, literally begged — for some other option. The doctor said that if Jay continued the Xanax he would no longer see him. He would not give another option for medications, and at one point even said that most of his patients with pain were “making it up.”
The last thing the doctor said to us will stick with me forever. He said, “My patient’s quality of life is not worth losing my practice over.”
When we left that day, we were barely in the car and I knew what Jay was going to say to me. I will never forget how sad his voice was when he told me this was it for him. He was not going to continue to live like this.
Through the month of February, as Jay’s medication was decreased, we spent time doing things we did not normally do. We went out on Valentine’s Day, he bought me the first jewelry he had bought since my engagement ring, and we went out to a fancy restaurant for dinner. Jay tried to cram in as many good memories as he could into that last month, but I knew it was costing him.
Jay’s next doctor’s appointment was scheduled for March 2, and we knew they were going to decrease his medications again. The night before, he woke me up to tell me it was time. I knew what that meant, but I tried to be strong for his sake. We talked all night long about what it meant, and how it should be. It was the saddest, strangest, longest night of my life.
Jay knew he did not have enough pills to kill himself. He also knew that if he were to try and purchase a gun, they would not sell it to him. It would have been almost obvious what he was going to use it for.
In the end, I bought the gun that Jay used — and yes, we talked about the ramifications of that action. We went to the park where we had renewed our vows in 2015. We talked in the car for a while, and then we sat in the same place we had cut our wedding cake. I was holding his hand when he pulled the trigger.
Through the shock and horror, my immediate feeling was one of relief for Jay. To know that he was finally out of pain was a weight lifted off both of us.
Because I purchased the gun that Jay used to end his life, I was charged under our state’s assisted suicide law. This charge was later reduced to reckless endangerment, and I am currently on probation. People close to me want me to be quiet about my role in Jay’s death, and I was at first. But I cannot continue that way.
I know Jay wanted me to put his story out there. I know he wanted people to know what it was like to live with the pain he lived with daily. When the doctor took away Jay’s medications, they took away his quality of life. That was what led to his decision. Jay fought hard to live with his pain for a long time, but in the end, fighting just was not enough.
If you’re experiencing chronic pain, a doctor may recommend that you have a nerve block, a temporary or permanent procedure that disrupts specific nerve activity. It can help diagnose or treat certain types of neuropathic pain, or pain caused by nerve dysfunction or damage. Nerve blocks may be performed by injecting chemicals or anesthetics to the area or by deliberately cutting or damaging certain parts of the nerve.
Many people receive nerve blocks without even knowing it. For example, dentists commonly use nerve-blocking agents such as novocaine to numb the mouth during potentially painful procedures.
If your doctor is trying to diagnose a chronic pain condition caused by nerve dysfunction, he may use a nerve block to pinpoint the exact problem area. In addition to a nerve block, he may also perform an electromyography (EMG) and/or a nerve conduction velocity (NCV) test to narrow down the exact cause of your chronic nerve pain.
Nerve blocks can also treat chronic neuropathic pain, such as pain caused by nerve damage or compression. They are regularly used to treat back and neck pain caused by herniated discs or spinal stenosis. Nerve blocks may be used to control pain temporarily or permanently, depending on the procedure used.
A local nerve block is performed by injecting or applying local anesthetics, such as lidocaine, to a certain area.
An epidural is a local nerve block that involves injecting steroids or analgesics into the area that surrounds the spinal cord. Though common during childbirth, an epidural may be also be used to treat chronic neck or back pain caused by a compressed spinal nerve. Local nerve blocks are usually temporary, although some may be repeated over time.
A neurolytic block uses alcohol, phenol, or thermal agents, such as cryogenic freezing, to treat chronic nerve pain. These procedures actually cause damage to certain areas of the nerve pathway. This means a neurolytic block is usually appropriate only in severe chronic pain cases, such as cancer pain or complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS).
A surgical nerve block is performed by a neurosurgeon and involves surgically removing or selectively damaging certain areas of the nerve. Like a neurolytic block, a surgical nerve block is usually reserved for severe pain cases, such as cancer pain or trigeminal neuralgia. Most surgical nerve blocks are permanent.
Even a temporary nerve block such as an epidural carries a risk of permanent nerve damage. Because nerves are extremely sensitive and regenerate slowly, even a tiny error in calculation can cause devastating side effects. These include muscle paralysis, weakness, or lasting numbness. In some rare cases, nerve blocks may actually irritate the nerve further, causing an increase in pain.
Fortunately, skilled and licensed health practitioners, such as dentists, surgeons, and anesthesiologists, perform these delicate procedures.
While there is always a risk of nerve damage during these procedures, most nerve blocks successfully reduce chronic nerve pain.
You may feel temporarily numb or sore after your nerve block, and you may notice some redness or irritation to the area. This is usually not permanent and should fade with time. If you have had a surgical block, you may be asked to rest for a certain period of time after your procedure. Depending on the complexity of the surgery, you may have to spend a few days recovering in the hospital.
Some pain may persist after your nerve block, but that doesn’t mean the procedure wasn’t effective.
Additionally, some nerve blocks may cause swelling, which compresses the nerve and requires time to subside. If you find the side effects of your nerve block are lasting longer than expected, contact your doctor.
The symptoms can be frustrating, ranging from numbness to outright pain in the affected areas.
When you go to your doctor for treatment, they’re likely to prescribe pain medications, pat you on the back and tell you to continue with your day-to-day activities.
But not only are pain medications expensive – but they also come with side effects that can be even more severe than your initial sciatica.
An alternative to taking the meds is doing yoga specifically designed to treat sciatica. And while that’s certainly a viable option for those who can afford classes, not everyone can perform the most helpful posts.
Turmeric’s active ingredient, curcumin, can be used as a tonic to reduce the inflammation that occurs as a result of sciatica.
One way you can administer sciatica is by consuming it as tea. Dr. Weil’s recipe requires you to bring four cups of water to a boil, add one teaspoon of ground turmeric, simmer it for 10 minutes, strain and then add honey to taste.
If the tea is a bit too strong for your liking (turmeric does have a very distinctive taste), you can also, as per Home Remedies For Life’s instructions, sprinkle a quarter of a teaspoon of it on scrambled eggs or into soup, sauce or salad dressing. You should gradually increase the amount of turmeric you use until you make it to 1 teaspoon.
If you’re looking to skip tasting the turmeric altogether, you can also turn it into a paste that you apply on the area that is hurting.
To do this, boil half a cup of water and stir it into a quarter cup of turmeric. Reduce the heat and let it simmer for 7 minutes while you stir constantly.
The mixture will turn into a paste – once it does, take it off the heat and let it cool. If it’s too dry, add a few drops of water and leave it in your refrigerator in a tightly sealed container.
When you’re ready to use it, apply the paste to the sore areas of your skin and leave it on for 15 minutes. Then, have a shower and wash it off.
Turmeric works by lowering levels of inflammation-fueling enzymes. It’s been used as a painkiller for centuries due to its proven effectiveness. It was confirmed by Malaysian scientists in 2010 to get rid of nerve pain, but it was used all over Asia long before then.
How much turmeric is most effective? The suggested dose per adult for the purpose of reducing pain is 300mg taken 3 times a day.
Despite the claims of some government agencies, research has shown that the overwhelming majority of addictions do not start with a prescription, and most opioid prescriptions do not cause addiction.
When 58-year-old Zyp Czyk* had a serious mountain biking accident in June, she refused to go to the emergency room even though her injuries knocked her out cold and her husband pleaded for her to seek help.
Instead, Czyk slept for two days—contrary to the conventional wisdom of what you’re supposed to do after sustaining a head injury. Only then did she finally agree to go to an urgent care center, where she discovered she had broken her collarbone and some ribs and needed surgery. Czyk isn’t afraid of doctors, hospitals, or pain medication, and she’s not opposed to Western medicine. In fact, she’s been taking Oxycontin for chronic pain for nearly two decades. And that’s the problem: She feared that if she went to the hospital she might be labeled a drug-seeker, which could lead to her doctor cutting off her opioid prescription, leaving her without the treatment that makes her life bearable.
Czyk is just one of the more than 100 million Americans with chronic pain caught in the latest drug war crossfire. These patients and their doctors are often targeted by federal agencies like the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in an intensifying crackdown on painkillers that fall in the same class of drugs—opioids—as heroin. But these efforts are as misguided as most “supply-side” drug war initiatives, and the collateral damage tends to be excruciating.
Last week, the CDC released a report showing that the rate of heroin overdose deaths in America quadrupled between 2002 and 2013. In a press briefing, CDC director Thomas Friedman said that the rising use of medical opioids “primed” Americans for heroin addiction and called for “an all-of-society response,” including a reduction in prescriptions and better law enforcement. Likewise, in its 2015 assessment of the threat from heroin, the DEA reported, “Increased demand for, and use of, heroin is being driven by both increasing availability of heroin in the US market and by some controlled prescription drug (CPD) abusers using heroin.”
You’d never know it from the official government line, but while the “opioid epidemic” is linked to increased use of pain medications, the overwhelming majority of addictions do not start with a prescription—and most opioid prescriptions do not cause addiction.
All of which is to say that chronic pain patients are bearing the brunt of yet another drug war blunder.
Like Czyk, those who genuinely need painkilling drugs are now subject to policies like random reports to the doctor’s office for pill counts, prescription limits, extra refill appointments, urine testing, and other restrictions that can become expensive and onerous. Worse, they are often made to stop taking drugs that help them. While she knew she risked her health by postponing care after her crash, Czyk tells me that she felt waiting offered less risk than being falsely labeled an “addict” and was “not as dangerous as losing my pain medications.”
Opioid addiction usually begins in the same place that all other addictions start: in the childhoods, traumas, mental illnesses, and genes of those affected.
Her fears are far from unrealistic given reports of pain doctors being arrested and charged with crimes resulting from so-called overprescribing, leaving their patients to seek emergency care. Chronic pain support groups are filled with horror stories about pharmacists refusing to fill prescriptions and physicians simply dropping patients or deciding that they no longer want to risk treating pain with opioids. But according to a new study in the journal Addictive Behaviors, the greatest predictor of whether a person misuses opioids is not poor health—instead, it’s having used illegal drugs in the past year.
Drug warriors don’t like to tell this story. In the stereotypical account, addiction starts with an evil doctor—probably high on Big Pharma propaganda—hooking innocent patients. For example, when Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker was inaugurated this January, he incorrectly described the experience of the parents of a young man who died of an overdose.
“After a routine medical procedure their 19-year-old son, Evan was prescribed opiates for pain,” Baker said. “Slowly and unknowingly, he became addicted to them. When the prescription ended, he turned to heroin,”
In fact, Evan started taking drugs with his friends, who introduced him to pills the same way they did marijuana—no doctors were involved. It’s not clear what put him in the 10 to 20 percent of drug users who become addicted, but it definitely wasn’t pain treatment.
And Evan’s route to opioid addiction is by far the most common. Since the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA) started collecting this data, it has always been found that over 75 percent of people who misuse painkillers get them from friends, relatives, dealers, or other illicit sources—not physicians.
Data on people who start pain treatment yields the same conclusion: The vast majority don’t misuse their drugs.
Even among the most frequent users, less than a third see doctors get their drugs.
And there’s more research supporting the idea that the vast majority of opioid addiction starts on the street. In 2014, a national study of nearly 136,000 emergency room patients admitted for overdoses containing opioids found that just under 13 percent had a chronic pain diagnosis. And a 2008 study, this one from an addiction-ravaged region in West Virginia, found that 78 percent of victims had a history of substance misuse and nearly two-thirds possessed prescription drugs that were not prescribed to them.
Looking at people treated for Oxycontin addiction alone, a study in the American Journal of Psychiatry found that the vast majority—78 percent—never had a legitimate prescription and a similar number reported cocaine use and previous treatment for substance abuse.
Unless you’re ready to believe that doctors can turn pain patients into coke fiends, the simpler explanation is that painkiller addiction hits people who are already abusing other drugs. These people know where to buy stuff like coke and heroin, unlike pain patients—a.k.a. your parents and grandparents—who tend to be unfamiliar with how street drug markets operate.
Data on people who start pain treatment yields the same conclusion: The vast majority don’t misuse their drugs. Here, Czyk’s case is typical. Formerly a computer systems administrator, she had suffered inexplicable pain since childhood. Eventually, she was diagnosed by specialists at Stanford with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, a painful connective tissue disorder that often manifests in visible bruises. She says she has never misused her drugs, and even initially refused to take enough of them to effectively treat her pain.
In 1995, Czyk’s doctor suggested that she try a newly-introduced drug called Oxycontin. “I took it as prescribed,” she tells me. “I took as little I could as get away with.” She adds that her doctor finally sat her down and said she’d get more relief if she “took enough that it would actually work.”
Although opioids can make people sleepy, Czyk had the opposite experience. “I was able to work,” she says, “When I took the pills, my energy went up because the pain [had been] so tiring.” Ever since she says she’s used it judiciously. While chronic pain patients may suffer withdrawal symptoms if they stop using a drug abruptly, this is the not same thing as addiction, which is defined by experts as compulsively using a drug in the face of negative consequences.
Clinical studies of pain patients without a history of heavy drug use find that less than 1 percent become addicted during treatment—as summarized by a stringent review by the respected Cochrane Collaboration. (In actual pain practice, researchers find addiction rates of up to 33 percent, but this is more likely due to poor screening for addiction history and to drug-seekers faking pain than to new cases, given the rest of the data out there.)
Dee Dee Stout, an addictions consultant, and expert counselor has been taking opioids for fibromyalgia and pain from a car accident for ten years. Recently, she was refused a refill due to complex regulations that neither doctor nor patient had been warned about. Consequently, she had to spend a weekend enduring pain and withdrawal symptoms like diarrhea and restlessness until her doctor was back in the game on Monday.
“I can’t begin to tell you how stressful it’s been,” she tells me, echoing the voices of other chronic pain patients who are often ignored in media coverage of the opioid “crisis” but appear in the comments en masse under most such articles.
If we really want to deal with opioid addiction, we have to face facts. Most cases don’t start at doctors’ offices. Instead, kids get drugs the way they always have: through friends and family. To do better, we need to stop tightening the screws on chronic pain patients and start looking at why so many young people are turning to the most dangerous class of drugs.
Mistreating patients doesn’t stop addiction; that requires compassionate care.
Sometimes prescription drugs are warranted in acute conditions and can save lives. But more often than not, prescription drugs for chronic health conditions can actually deteriorate your health in the long run, and many people are overprescribed drugs that cover up the underlying health issue found in their lifestyle or diet choices.
There are some major downfalls of relying on pills for a chronic condition. Western medicine tends to focus on managing and suppressing individual symptoms one at a time, rather than carefully identifying the root cause underneath and working to improve it in a holistic way. Unfortunately, in many cases, there is also the risk of addiction to prescription drugs; abuse of medications has been increasing steadily in the United States for years. Currently, opioid addictions are more widespread than cocaine overdoses.
Not to mention, the majority of prescription drugs for chronic conditions are associated with nutrient deficiencies and a number of side effects that become another health battle of their own. Soon, patients are stuck in a cycle of prescription after prescription; trying to manage the symptoms caused by the medication that came before it. In fact, the CDC states that 48.9% of people are currently taking at least one prescription and 23.1% of people are taking three or more! The most frequently prescribed therapeutic drugs are antidepressants, painkillers, and antihyperlipidemic agents (such as cholesterol medications).
You have a higher risk of dying from a preventable adverse drug reaction than you do of dying from cardiovascular disease, lung cancer, breast cancer, or diabetes. And that’s cause for concern. While the following list compromises some of the most popularly prescribed medications with the worst side effects and risks, it by no means approaches a comprehensive list of prescriptions to be careful of. The bottom line is to do your research on every prescription your doctor recommends and talks openly with him or her about your concerns with potential side effects and reactions with your body.
Otherwise known as PPIs, proton pump inhibitors are commonly prescribed for acid reflux. You may be familiar with their brand names Nexium, Prevacid, and Prilosec. However, they have been associated with higher risks of dementia, kidney disease, and heart attacks. Furthermore, PPIs can cause chronic constipation, low magnesium levels, and increase the risk of bone fractures.
If you’ve been prescribed PPIs for heartburn, talk to your doctor or an integrative healthcare practitioner about finding natural treatments instead. Your focus should be on finding the underlying cause of your acid reflux (either an element of your diet, lifestyle, or a side effect of H.pylori bacteria). Oftentimes, the root cause of acid reflux is low stomach acid, not excess acid. Therefore taking PPIs can inadvertently make digestion and overall health worse, as stomach acid is crucial for digestion of protein, absorption of minerals, and protecting against pathogens in contaminated food and water.
Prednisone is a multi-tasking steroid often prescribed for autoimmune conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and ulcerative colitis. It works by suppressing the immune response that causes the body to attack itself, but at the same time, it is literally compromising your immune system and making you more susceptible to infections, both mild and serious. Long-term use has been associated with bruising, changes in body fat in certain locations (face, neck, back, and waist), low libido, acne, and complicated menstruation. Potential side effects also include insomnia, mood problems, headaches, dizziness, bloating, and nausea.
Talk to your doctor about alternatives to combat inflammation (such as in rheumatoid arthritis) using natural solutions.
Long-term use of statins has been linked to a deficit of coenzyme Q10 and vitamin K2 increases your risk of breast cancer and diabetes and can raise the risk of Parkinson’s disease.
If you have been diagnosed with high levels of LDL cholesterol, talk to your doctor about what you can change at home to help manage your levels naturally.
1 in 10 Americans over the age of 12 take antidepressants, according to the CDC. One in ten! And 60% of those people have been taking antidepressants for more than two years in a row. Unfortunately, their side effects are plentiful; they include weight gain, low libido, nausea, problems sleeping, constipation, irritability, and anxiety. But for adolescents and children taking antidepressants, there’s also a heightened risk of suicide.
It’s crucial to note that antidepressants do work well for some people, but for many people, they simply aren’t an effective treatment. Pay special attention to your body and your wellbeing overall and work with your practitioner to find strategies that help you manage depression. Natural options to consider are exercise, minimizing processed foods and eating a nutrient-dense diet, and natural supplementation such as St. John’s Wort, magnesium, and valerian root. Note: do not take yourself off prescription medication without the guidance of your practitioner, and keep in mind that some natural treatments such as St. John’s Wort are contraindicated with SSRIs.
If you or someone close to you is showing signs of needing help, don’t ignore the red flags. The Suicide Prevention Lifeline can be reached at any time at 1-800-273-8255
While most doctors agree with the appropriate prescription of opioid painkillers for acute pain, opioids are not an appropriate solution for chronicconditions. Moreover, because of their highly addictive nature, even people who have prescribed opioids for a brief time (such as for post-operation recovery) can very easily become addicted and begin abusing their prescriptions. For this reason, there is a growing movement to avoid prescribing opioid painkillers altogether to reduce the risk. (Not to mention short-term side effects such as nausea and constipation).
If you’re preparing for major surgery, talk to your doctor or surgeon about your recovery options and express your concerns about steering clear of potentially addictive substances. Likewise, if you struggle with chronic pain, it’s important to turn to as many natural solutions as possible to avoid dependence on drugs.
You should never remove yourself from a prescription without speaking to your medical care provider about it. You can work with your family doctor or a naturopathic doctor to determine a plan to safely wean yourself off of a prescription and replace it with a natural and safer alternative that works for your lifestyle and your body.
Remember that there are many ways to keep your body healthy, and the first thing your doctor suggests is not always the best option for you. Holistic Nutritionist, Alina Islam summarizes it perfectly:
“REMEMBER, JUST BECAUSE A PARTICULAR SPICE, HERB OR FOOD DOES NOT HAVE CORPORATE-BACKED RESEARCH WORTH MILLIONS OF DOLLARS, IT DOES NOT MEAN THERE IS NO SCIENTIFIC EXPLANATION BEHIND ITS BENEFITS. IT MEANS THERE IS LACK OF INTEREST IN PURSUING THE RESEARCH.”
If there’s one thing someone with fibromyalgia knows, it’s pain. After all, anyone living with the kind of chronic, excruciating pain that fibromyalgia causes quickly finds that their life becomes all about it.
But did you know that there are actually several different types of pain?
Doctors spend a lot of their time trying to help people in pain. And they’ve developed a system for classifying it over the years. One of these categories is something called “visceral pain.” Visceral pain can be one of the most painful kinds and is often an indication that something is seriously wrong with the body.
So, let’s talk about visceral pain. What is it? What causes it? And what can you do about it?
The most widely accepted system for classifying pain breaks it into two large categories: nociceptive and neuropathic.
Nociceptive pain is a normal response to injury or disease that arises in the tissue of the body. Meanwhile, neuropathic pain is rooted in the nervous system. And within those categories are subcategories, including visceral pain.
Visceral pain is classified under nociceptive pain because it comes from within the tissue of the body. Specifically, visceral pain affects the inner organs, or viscera. This category usually refers to organs inside the abdomen like the liver, lungs, kidneys, and heart.
Doctors used to believe that these organs were actually unable to feel pain. But we now understand that these organs just feel pain differently than the rest of the body. If you were to say, slice your liver with a knife, you may not actually feel that much pain. But if you were to twist or stretch your liver, you would experience a great deal of pain.
That’s because of the way the nervous system around these organs is structured. These nerves are very sensitive to certain types of pain and insensitive to others. And visceral pain is often very felt very different from other types of pain as well.
The pain is often described as a sort of vague, unpleasant sensation that seems to spread across the abdomen. And it is often hard to identify by the feeling where the pain is actually coming from. In addition, visceral pain can produce symptoms in your mood. Many people who suffer from this type of pain report feelings of malaise or anxiety.
That’s not to suggest that visceral pain isn’t as physically uncomfortable as other types of pain. In fact, when someone develops a medical condition that leads to visceral pain, it can be truly agonizing.
For instance, one source of visceral pain, kidney stones, is considered by many to be the most intense physical pain that someone can experience. People have even described it as being worse than the pain of childbirth. Kidney stones are caused by a build-up of minerals in the kidneys that grow into solid masses inside the organs and have to be passed through the urinary tract, a process that can be miserable to go through.
And generally, any condition that leads to inflammation or distention (being pulled out of place) of the organs can lead to extreme visceral pain. For instance, a heart attack is one of the most common conditions that lead to visceral pain. And conditions like inflammation of the liver (hepatitis) or clots in the veins that prevent blood from flowing to organs are common causes of visceral pain as well.
There are many different, less-common sources of pain in the organs, and a doctor will be able to give you a diagnosis of what is causing your pain. And that diagnosis will determine how your pain is treated.
The first step in treating visceral pain is to help the patient with the pain itself. There are a number of ways to do this, like opioid pain-relievers or a nerve block, where medication is injected directly into a group of nerves to cut off the sensation of pain.
After finding a way to manage the pain, the doctor will try to identify what is causing it. Treatment will then focus on fixing the underlying issue. For a condition like kidney stones, for instance, doctors can use a machine that sends shockwaves into the kidneys, breaking the stones up into smaller pieces that are easier to pass.
Ultimately, what type of treatment you get will depend on what condition you have. Always consult a doctor as soon as possible if you’re experiencing severe pain. They will be able to recommend effective treatment.
People around the world are becoming increasingly aware of natural remedies and alternative medicine.
However, this does not change the attitude of Big Pharma to enforce their drugs on an open-mouthed public despite their numerous and well-documented, harsh side-effects.
The almighty health benefits of cannabis are becoming increasingly accepted in mainstream society and are being bolstered by numerous recent studies.
The Foria Relief Company has even invented a vaginal suppository, based on aromatic cocoa butter, which is a perfect substitution for Vicodin, Midol, and Ibuprofen. It effectively treats menstrual cramps by relaxing the muscles. Additionally, it does not lead to psychotropic properties.
It is produced from pesticide and additive-free cannabis. Therefore, their active ingredients are used in a process without microbials and are combined with exact doses; 60 mg of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and 10 mg of cannabidiol (CBD).
The pain is blocked by the THC, which inhabits the pleasure areas of the brain’s cannabinoid system. CBD relaxes the muscles, treats the spasms, and has a favorable effect on inflammatory mechanisms within the body.
According to a woman who tried the vaginal suppository, it relaxed her clenched and cramped muscles and soothed the pain in her midriff. She explained that she felt the area below the waist to the thighs “as if floating in some other galaxy”.
Yet, this amazing remedy is only sold in California and is still not approved by the FDA. However, if you decide to use it, make sure you consult your doctor beforehand, even though there have been no complaints from people who have tried it.
A license to treat chronic pain with medicinal cannabis has been granted here for the first time, it has emerged. A 3-month agreement was given the green light by the Department of Health to use Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) people in constant agony.
THC is the principal psychoactive constituent of cannabis. It is currently illegal to use medicinal cannabis here – but medical consultants can apply for the license on a case by case basis. A three-month license can be granted on foot of an application made directly to the Minister for Health under section 14 of the Misuse of Drugs Act.
Under guidelines from Chronic Pain Ireland, the THC would NOT be consumed via smoking. A patient would ideally take it by vaping or in their tea. Under the strict terms, a medical professional would administer a starting dose, monitor the patient, and adjust the dose accordingly, they say. Patients will be placed under constant medical supervision.
Last February, Health Minister Simon Harris announced that he would implement a Health Products Regulatory Authority recommendation that cannabis–based products be made available to some patients with multiple sclerosis and epilepsy, and those suffering nausea in chemotherapy.
However, chronic pain was not included in Mr. Harris’ plan. It was on this basis that Chronic Pain Ireland applied to the minister for a license, for one of their members, along with their medical consultant.
There were no formal application guidelines from the Department of Health, so Mr. McLoughlin created one from scratch. This is now available on Chronic Pain Ireland’s website.
The application included how THC would be administered, details of the patient’s medical consultant, and what dosage they would potentially start on.
The patient can take the medicinal cannabis either through tea or by vaping.
“Some people are desperate due to chronic pain,” said Mr. McLoughlin. “I personally know of people who use cannabis for chronic pain. Some say it works, some say it doesn’t. But you must always go to your doctor.”
Professor of pharmacology and therapeutics David Finn, who is also the co-director of the Centre for Pain Research at NUI Galway, said the granting of the license was an “important development”.
“This is a very interesting and important development which demonstrates a recognition by Irish medical professionals and the minister for health of the potential therapeutic value of medicinal cannabis for the treatment of chronic pain,” said Prof Finn.
“Chronic pain is the most researched indication for cannabinoids, and the majority of clinical studies, meta-analyses, and systematic reviews conclude that cannabis or cannabinoids can be effective in alleviating certain types of chronic pain.
“Approximately 20% of the Irish population suffers from chronic pain, and up to 40% of patients report that the management of their pain is inadequate, either due to the limited efficacy of existing treatments or unacceptably high levels of side-effects.”
Solidarity-People Before Profit Alliance TD Gino Kelly has been a longtime campaigner for legalizing cannabis for medicinal purposes and brought forward an opposition bill towards this end.
The Cannabis for Medicinal Use Regulation Bill 2016, is now entering its third stage of debate and will go before the Oireachtas health committee early next year. “The tide has now turned. It is a significant day for people with chronic pain in Ireland,” said Mr. Kelly.
