Hands up! - Who thinks pain is caused by a shortage of aspirin in the body? - Or by lack of antidepressants?

Hands up! - Who thinks pain is caused by a shortage of aspirin in the body? - Or by lack of antidepressants? - Well I hope that none of you has your hand up. I hope that when you think about it you agree with me that pain is your body's signal to your brain that there is something wrong with your body. You know the sort of thing: you step on something sharp when you are walking around barefoot and you feel pain. If your body hadn't sent the message to your brain you might be unaware that there was something wrong and might continue walking with the wound exposed to possible infection. - And I hope you agree with me that the way to deal with the pain is to deal with what is causing the pain, i.e. move your foot away from the sharp stone, clean up the wound and apply a sticking plaster or bandage, perhaps, to keep it clean and prevent infection. You need to deal not with the pain, but with the cause of the pain. And the cause of pain is in your body, not in your mind.

Now if you happen to think that the way to deal with pain is to 'kill' it, with aspirin or another pain-killer, then I wonder if you are someone employed in the pharmaceutical industry perhaps? or a shareholder in a drug company? - Or one of their dupes? - And if you think that pain is caused by 'depression', are you a medical student or doctor who has been conditioned/brainwashed to believe such nonsense by attending lectures and seminars funded by drug manufacturers who need medics to prescribe drugs in order to swell their profits? - Or are you a dentist who believes that a woman who has agonising toothache is only 'claiming' to be in agony because that belief allows you, the dentist, a good way of covering up when you or your colleagues have failed by incompetence or negligence to diagnose an acute abscess and you lack the moral courage and honesty to admit your fault/mistake? And are you more afraid of criticism and humiliation than you are afraid of leaving a fellow human being in needless, prolonged agony which appropriate dental treatment would remedy or ameliorate...

Remember, pain is a signal from the body to the brain. A signal to you that there is something wrong with your body. It is one of your body's defence mechanisms. It is not a signal to someone other than you that you are 'depressed'. That does not make evolutionary sense. - It is a very foolish idea. Do not entertain it.

Pfizer Research Scandal: FDA debars fraudster doctor, Scott Reuben

He was accused of faking research for a dozen years in published studies suggesting after-surgery benefits from Vioxx and Celebrex. Last year, he was sentenced to six months in jail plus three years supervised release after pleading guilty to fraud. The former chief of acute pain at Baystate Medical Center received grants from various drugmakers but never performed the studies, fabricated patient data and submitted info to journals that was unwittingly published. Now, the FDA has permanently debarring [sic] him from providing services in any capacity to a person that has an approved or pending drug product application, according to the debarment order, which was published today in The Federal Register.
Read article at pharmalot.com

Personally, I favour avoiding painkillers. - I've had two major operations and I refused painkillers for both of them. Yes, it hurts a lot when you come round from the anaesthetic, but you know the pain will gradually get less severe and you can steel yourself to cope with it. But with painkillers - especially the 'strong' ones - there are always adverse side-effects. And, as in this case, you cannot be sure that you have been given the facts about drugs. Drug companies indulge in criminality, including bribing key opinion leaders such as Scott Reuben was, to recommend their drugs, falsifying drug trial data, corrupting medical journals, etc. Painkiller drugs in particular seem to be problematic. The most recently publicised settlement for criminality of a drug company of which I am aware is the Merck/Vioxx scandal reported on the BBC News website last Tuesday. (Vioxx was a prescription painkiller.) Sadly, although Merck have had to pay almost $1bn (£640m) in settlement, this will not deter them from their criminal practices. That huge sum is insignificant in comparison to the colossal profits they garner from the sales of their dangerous products. Criminals, in my opinion - criminals whose crimes destroy the lives and health and happiness of millions of innocent people the world over - should be punished with the utmost rigour of the law, and that should, of course, mean imprisonment for the people at the top of the company, the people who instigate, fund and perpetuate the criminality.

I took my pain to Brighton once - Short Story by Margaret Wilde

I took my pain to Brighton once. We hadn't been there before. On the way I rang an investigative TV programme. I rang from a callbox and got them to reverse charges because I didn't have enough change to speak for long on the phone. They were a little incredulous at the request but they complied.

I told them about my pain and how I could find no way to get the causes dealt with. I told them I had finally decided to put 'faith-healing' to the test and had arranged to visit a faith-healer in Brighton: a guy called Tom.

I found an inexpensive hotel in which to spend a night. I left my things there and went to the home of the spiritualist healer. He charged no fee. They make a big thing of it, these 'healers'. That they charge no fee. But they go on about the time and spiritual energy they spend praying, and, in those days, about postage and stationery costs. They clearly expect you to pay, to make a 'donation'. I forget how much I put into the collection plate that was prominently on the table beside me. Was it £2 or was it a fiver? I think it was a fiver. I forget. Whatever it was, it was money wasted...

Late that evening as I walked around not far from the hotel, I came across a sort-of drop-in centre cum coffee bar. I forget exactly what it was. At any rate, there were evangelical Christians there wanting to convert people, or help them, or discuss issues of faith or something. I had a coffee and told a young woman about the pain and what had caused it. I asked her if she would help me. She said she would pray for me. Did she pray for me? I don't know. If she did, it didn't help.

I took my pain to Brighton once. And I brought it home with me again.


Margaret Wilde © 2011

The trouble is I went to church on Easter Sunday

The trouble is I went to church on Easter Sunday. The nice young couple who used to live near me invited me to go and I was tempted by the prospect of meeting people. 'She' picked me up and took me there and brought me back afterwards, but it was really all too much for me. I was desperately tired and in excruciating pain - pain made so much more intense by the unforgiving hardness of the floor to walk and stand on, and the hardness of the pew to sit on. I've been in a really, really bad way since. - When they ask me again, as they surely will, I must regretfully decline and follow my own sensible advice to listen to what my body is telling me and not stick out the torture for the sake of politeness.

Circumcision: this morning on BBC Radio I heard a soundtrack of an infant circumcision being carried out

Circumcision: this morning on BBC Radio I heard a soundtrack of an infant circumcision being carried out - by a doctor, in England, on an ironing board, in the home of the baby's parents. If I remember correctly, the baby was 8 days old. The doctor does many of these operations, privately, as with this one. The baby's father held the baby still, with his legs apart. The doctor injected the baby with something to kill the pain; I think it was lignocaine. The baby screamed and screamed and screamed and screamed. The doctor reassured the parents that the baby was not in pain; the lignocaine made the operation painless.

It is too easy to say that another suffering person (or animal) is not in pain. That poor little soul was most certainly in pain: in agony and in terror. A baby in terrifying pain to satisfy the religious beliefs of his parents. - Welcome to this cruel world, Baby!

I am very tired and in very great pain.

It is a bit of an embarrassment for me to write that I am very tired and in very great pain because I so often write that cutting down on salt/sodium reduces tiredness and reduces pain. Maybe you think, reading this, that I should practise what I preach, and you are right. I should practise what I preach - and I do.

Late in 1997, when I first began to discover the benefits of eating less salty food, I was, literally, so tired I could scarcely even summon the energy to blink! I am not exaggerating. And I was in so much pain that to walk even one step was like torture, and lying down in bed was so fraught with pain it was like lying on a bed of nails. I would certainly have died before the end of 1997 if I had not started to cut down on my salt intake, even though I already ate very little salt.

If you are reading this while you are very tired and/or in constant or intractable pain, I urge you to consider reducing your intake of salt and salty food. Try it! - Go on! - It is a truism that what can't be cured must be endured, but by cutting down on salt you really will feel better than you do now. There are many, many health benefits that result from eating less salt. I invite you to visit my website and find out more about how to reduce your salt intake, and about other natural, drug-free ways of improving your health and well-being.

Medical Sexism in the Midlands

When I was serving as an elected Vice-President of the College of Health, there were three serious wrongs that I was campaigning about: the cruel uselessness of the NHS Complaints Procedures, the need for a rational approach to the treatment of pain, and the sex prejudice of doctors that led to failure to investigate and treat women's physical problems. As a result, I received post from people damaged by the system. Most of this post was about the great suffering caused to women by the sex prejudice of doctors.

This is the letter I received from a woman in the Midlands:

Dear Margaret Wilde

Following the item by Peter Pallot in the Daily Telegraph I write to support your view that women, in particular, are too often dismissed as neurotic by their doctors, and no real attempt is made to find the real nature of their illness.

As a member of the Endometriosis Society - recently appointed a National Trustee - I know of many sufferers, including myself, who have for years been treated as neurotic before emergency admission to hospital has revealed the real cause of the symptoms.

Endometriosis is a very debilitating disease and the symptoms can be very vague. Many sufferers say that only when they pluck up the courage to say that intercourse is very painful that doctors do something about their problems. It is felt that when a man's pleasure is affected 'that can't be allowed!'

My own case with Endometriosis began with painful periods at the age of fifteen. I was treated with tranquillisers, over a number of years. I was told 'to pull myself together', by all the doctors in my practice. I did to some extent accept that what they said about me must be correct. (Now this makes me angry to think about it.) Just three weeks before emergency surgery in July 1971 - age 27 years - I was threatened with admission to Psychiatric Hospital if 'I didn't pull myself together'. On the day of my admission to hospital my GP said I had a pulled stomach muscle! Later that night my left ovary was removed in 'a near gangrenous state' and half of my right ovary. The surgeon, a lady, was very angry about my treatment, as I had the most advanced case of endometriosis she had ever seen.

In 1978 I began suffering again and had the galling experience of repeated visits to the doctors who still treated me as neurotic. In the spring of '79, almost 12 months later, a laparoscopy was done (to shut me up) and I was found to have Chronic Pelvic Inflammatory Disease, Multiple Adhesions and Chronic Infection. No wonder I had felt so ill!

Almost 5 years ago I began an association with the Endometriosis Society which is a self help support group. My aims were to try and do something to prevent other women going through my horrendous experiences. The most recent effort with this aim in mind has been the production of the booklet 'Endometriosis' for General Practitioners. At the moment its distribution has been limited to Coventry, Warwickshire, two London boroughs, Lincoln and Humberside, although when local groups raise the funds all General Practitioners throughout the country will receive one. Unfortunately Coventry and Warwickshire doctors have not returned the feedback sheets (only 2 out of 600) - but in the other areas the reception has been marvellous.

Thank you for doing this work on behalf of women.

Any further help you require, please contact me.

I have enclosed a copy of the booklet for you.

Kind Regards

Kay Adcocks
(Kay gave her permission for her name to be included here.)
..............................................................................................
You can read HERE about some of my own experience of terrible suffering and permanent harm done by the sex prejudice of health professionals.

Medical Sexism in the South West

When I was serving as an elected Vice-President of the College of Health, there were three serious wrongs that I was campaigning about: the cruel uselessness of the NHS Complaints Procedures, the need for a rational approach to the treatment of pain, and the sex prejudice of doctors that led to failure to investigate and treat women's physical problems. As a result, I received post from people damaged by the system. Most of this post was about the great suffering caused to women by the sex prejudice of doctors.

This is the letter I received from a suffering woman in the South West:

Dear Margaret Wilde

An article in the Daily Telegraph alerted me to your work concerning the treatment sick women receive at the doctor's surgery. I hope my story will interest you and add grist to your mill. At least that way something positive will have been salvaged from an otherwise horribly negative experience.

In short, I can vouch that sick women truly do get treated as neurotics when they actually have some real and serious condition. The doctor's surgery is a place where women can meet indifference, complacency, and downright negligence all cowering under the prejudice that the greater part of a woman's problems is simply that she is a woman and therefore must be neurotic and nowhere near as ill as she claims to be. I am allowed to use as strong words as I please because I have nearly died not once but twice and am still ill and am still battling against the old black magic called the NHS.

My story is long and complicated so I shall try to be as concise as possible. The original problem that I suffered from was not complicated at all. At 22 years old with a small baby I was suddenly overtaken with terrific pain in my back. The attack lasted for a few hours. I was alone, no telephone, no neighbours, and had to wait till my husband returned before I could see the doctor. With very little ado he diagnosed that I had an infection in my water that travelled to my kidneys, and prescribed antibiotics. Over the next six years and through repeated attacks of terrible pain he stuck to that diagnosis and kept writing out the prescriptions for antibiotics, never once bothering to confirm or deny his critical diagnosis by any test or examination or referral to another doctor. My condition of course grew worse but that didn't seem to bother him. Time and time again I was offered Septrim and Flagyl for my 'infection' and nothing else. Even at the point when I lay dying in my bed for five days with pain so bad that one doctor administered shots of morphine to me, when he, my doctor, managed to visit me, all he offered was a cheery smile and a prescription for Septrim and Flagyl and hurriedly left. The next day, though called out first thing in the morning, he breezed in at four in the afternoon. Five days I lay prostrate in my bed, the culmination of a long period of illness, and he did not consider me to be seriously ill. Perhaps he thought that young women took to their beds as a matter of course.

I was finally admitted to hospital where it was discovered that I had an Ovarian cyst that had strangulated my ovary rendering it gangrenous and causing peritonitis. The explanation for his tardy treatment was really quiite simple. He thought I was neurotic; he made me feel I was neurotic. At one stage he implied that I was wasting his time by continually visiting his surgery. He had many patients to look after and most of them were far sicker than U was. Those were his words. When my husband saw him about a sore throat he said, "It's amazing how someone like you never comes to see me unless they are really bad, when other people are here all the time over every little thing." My husband took his inference that the other people referred to meant me. A man with a sore throat is automatically assumed to be truly suffering while a woman with a persistent pain is a persistent nuisance. That he never took my suffering seriously is confirmed by the fact that he never bothered to investigate the series of infections that I was supposed to be suffering from.

The operation to remove my ovary saved my life. But it left me with a shattered digestion and a series of terrifying abdominal spasms. Down to my new doctor's again. That went on for another four years. Was it taken seriously? Was it heck. Though I repeatedly maintained that it was caused by the operation, I was told that it was my gall bladder, that I was allergic to wheat, that it was simply bellyache caused by adhesions and it was not at all serious. Why was my suffering never taken seriously? Why? Why? Why? In August last year I suffered a spasm to end all spasms. My bowel was dangerously involved with an adhesion and finally won by twisting itself around the adhesion and strangulating itself. There is no way to describe the pain of that.

Another emergency operation. Gangrene again. Lost six inches of bowel. Recovery from that operation was marred by abscesses. When they eventually disappeared I realised that I was not going to recover normally. I am in pain all the time. But what has enraged me beyond words is that I still meet with the same old cavalier attitude from doctors. My God, what does a woman have to suffer from before she is treated with the same respect as a man? If I suffered from a heart complaint I'm sure I would be taken seriously. After all it kills men. But death by adhesions though agonising is a lesser form of death. After a lot of pushing I'm finally going for a barium meal X-ray. But how I have had to push for that! I find writing this letter hard as I am still very weak and distressed. I have had two serious conditions that have been ignored by doctors till they nearly killed me. I am left to pick up the pieces of my shattered life in pain and virtually told that there's not much can be done for me. I could not have received worse treatment if I tried. A witch doctor in Africa would at least have cared for my spirit, and a money-grabbing doctor in America may not have respected my sex but he would have respected my money. I would rather be faced with the prospect of a large bill than a life of pain. But the NHS cares for neither God nor Mammon, so the likes of me get lost along the way. I am suing everybody that I can but that is no consolation either for my pain or the lost years. Most of all I wanted the world to know what can happen to a young woman who develops a simple complaint like an ovarian cyst and what the system can do to her.

Then I came across your article in the paper and suddenly felt that I was not alone. On behalf of women like me I want you to scream from the rooftops that lives are being shattered by this prejudice. My list of complaints against the NHS is endless. But the prevailing factor has been that of prejudice, the old prejudice that most of my trouble lies in the fact that i cannot cope either with my pain or my life. The fact that my distress may be genuine is the last one to be considered.

I hope you find my story appalling. I hope it will help you in some way. Here in Cornwall I shall try to do all I can to expose the complacent attitude towards women. Please write to me if I can be of further help to you. You have my best wishes.

Yours
..............................................................................................
You can read HERE about some of my own experience of terrible suffering and permanent harm done by the sex prejudice of health professionals.

Medical Sexism in the North East

When I was serving as an elected Vice-President of the College of Health, there were three serious wrongs that I was campaigning about: the cruel uselessness of the NHS Complaints Procedures, the need for a rational approach to the treatment of pain, and the sex prejudice of doctors that led to failure to investigate and treat women's physical problems. As a result, I received post from people damaged by the system. Most of this post was about the great suffering caused to women by the sex prejudice of doctors.

This is the letter I received from a suffering woman in the North East:

Dear Margaret

I'm so glad that at last someone is going to do something about women's ailments being called PSYCHOLOGICAL. I myself have had this label put on me for the last twenty one years. For five years a lot of years ago I was told that the bleeding and terrible pain I was getting was all in my mind and given all drugs for nerves. At last someone listened to me. One examination revealed I needed a hysterectomy. I was told afterwards my womb was like a fishing net. It was full of holes. The disease I had was ENDOMETRIOSIS. It had eaten its way into my stomach. About a year later I had terrible pains. I was told nerves - more nerve tablets. I was like a zombie with them. My memory is still terrible. I blame all the drugs I was given over the years to shut me up. Anyway I was rushed into Hospital. I had adhesions. Then it happened again. I was rushed into Hospital. I was told I had mass adhesions Bowel Bladder and Intestines, which I still suffer with. Yet when they flare up I'm told it's wind. I get blockage of Bowel and Bladder. One doctor years ago had the nerve to say to my mother-in-law I was too tense to pass water. I was in Hospital next day with stoppage of Bladder. I've been on water tablets years. I've been in Hospital more times than enough with blockages and stoppage yet I still have that label on me. Four years ago I was getting severe pains neck and back. I was told for six months it was nerves. Seen a consultant Private. He showed me X-rays. I had severe spondylosis plus two discs out in my neck and three out in my spine. Even though I have a very good doctor now I feel when I go he takes notice of my Records which have that label all through them. There is much more I could tell you but I soon weary. But the medical profession has robbed me of the best years of my life. My four sons have never had a healthy mother. I'm divorced. If I'd been healthy this might never have happened. Spelling which was my best subject has gone, along with my memory. I'd love to get my Medical Records with some experts and correct all the times when I was really ill so I could lose that label. I still feel I'm treated like a Hypochondriac.I now have an abdomen with four horrible scars and a lot of pain. I can't do Housework or anything much. All I want to do is feel strong enough to look after my sons, do housework and go back to work in a shop, which I loved. There have been times I could have ended it all. Only my Faith in Jesus Christ kept me going and the strength he sent me to bear the pain. One night I was in agony with my back pains and the doctor came in and said, "Get out of bed; the pain's all in your mind." He sent me to three psychiatrists who said there was nothing wrong with my nerves at all and told me to throw the tablets out as I did not need them. The next time my back went he said I wanted to be ill but it was so deep-rooted I did not realise it. He wanted me to be put under hypnosis to prove this. I changed my doctor. I wish now I had to prove him wrong. I'm now 44 years old. 21 years of my life have been spoilt. Thanks be to God I do have some good days but I'm never without pain altogether. I get mobility money and severe disablement but money does not make up for 21 years of life.

God bless you in your work. I wish I could help you.

Please excuse writing. I'm tired. Thank you.

Forgot to tell you when I had my third son I could not look after him for 8 weeks. I was delirious for days and in bed for weeks. Was told it was a virus. I've never been fit since. This was 22 years ago. I was strong as a horse before that. Worked full-time. I'm sure something was left in me that caused my later problems.
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You can read HERE about some of my own experience of terrible suffering and permanent harm done by the sex prejudice of health professionals.

Melatonin: I take a 3mg capsule of melatonin near bedtime to help me to sleep

Melatonin: On most days I take a 3mg capsule of melatonin near bedtime. It is a natural human hormone that has many roles, but it is as an aid to sleep that I take it. There are many possible causes for a person not secreting enough melatonin. One of the causes is prescribed medication: e.g. beta-blockers such as propranolol can deplete our bodies of melatonin. So if your sleep has deteriorated and you are puzzled as to what has caused this, it may possibly be a side-effect of tablets you are taking or have taken.

But it may be that, like me, you are in a lot of pain and that pain is keeping you awake. - You may feel pretty desperate at times because of severe lack of sleep. You may be wondering whether sleeping pills would be helpful. - I hope you will decide against that course of action. - If you look on the internet you will find a wealth of research findings about the adverse effects of sleeping tablets, or hypnotics as they are also known. And these side-effects are even more harmful to older people. Sleeping tablets are harmful and dangerous and should be avoided, especially by older people.

Doctors often confuse pain, insomnia and depression, so they sometimes persuade patients, particularly female patients, to take antidepressants when they are in pain. Antidepressants do not work for depression and seldom help with pain. They are sometimes helpful for insomnia, but most of them cause serious weight gain and many other adverse side-effects and also cause brain damage years later, so they are better avoided.

The other medication you may be considering, or have very likely tried, is analgesia/painkillers. And you may, like me, have found that they do not help at all with the pain or with the sleep problem. Or you may, like me, be concerned about the many harmful side-effects from them. And you may, like me, prefer 'natural' help when possible, rather than pharmaceutical products.

Well the natural ways to reduce chronic pain are to avoid salt and salty food, and avoid dieting and calorie-counting. And obesity is linked to poor sleep and to greater sensitivity to pain, so it is helpful to lose excess weight. Eat good, nutritious food, preferably low carb, low sugar and high fat of the good sort, such as from grass-fed cows. See LCHF. Make sure you get enough calcium and vitamin D. - See this Fat Retention page, with further information about calcium and vitamin D.

And one of the ways to help with poor sleep is to take melatonin. I believe it is safer than hypnotics, antidepressants and painkillers. - I'm assuming you have already made sure the bed is as comfortable as possible and that the curtains keep out unnecessary light, etc.

Steroid injections for tennis elbow do more harm than good in the long term

Australian researchers analysed the treatment of tendinopathy in more than 2,600 patients from 41 past studies. They compared results using steroids with results using placebo, and they looked at results in the short, medium and long term. In the short term steroids reduced pain more, but in the long term the use of steroids made the pain worse. The researchers recommend exercise as the best way to cure tendinopathies.
Read the very interesting article about this on the BBC News website.

Poem for Good Friday

1982

I perch in the teeth of the adversary,
But "I" am not really here.
I have been taken over
By the body, mind and spirit snatcher,
Pain.

Rodents gnaw.
Other tormentors hover,
Ready to pounce at any
Lack of vigilance.

Warily, fearful of jarring
The enemy into fiercer attack,
I move and switch on the TV.

The coloured, flickering light
Has no meaning.
My concentration is inward. - I
See,
Hear,
Taste,
Think,
Feel,
AM
Pain.

Where is the life of the intellect?
What of happiness?
Spirituality?

Let me die!
I want no resurrection.
Let me sleep!

I'll change places with You anytime.
Your crucifixion lasted only hours.

O God Who does not exist!
Make the pain stop!


Margaret Wilde © 2010

Researchers find that copper bracelets and magnetic wrist straps do not reduce arthritic pain or stiffness

BBC News reports that copper bracelets and magnetic wrist straps do not reduce arthritic pain or stiffness.

If you want to reduce arthritic pain without using drugs you can do so by cutting down on salt and salty food. As well as reducing pain, cutting down on salt has many other health benefits too, including weight reduction and reducing the risk of stroke and heart attack.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver damage and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better! See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk

The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

UK Government declines to help Vioxx victims in their legal fight with drug company, Merck.

Read this Timesonline report.

I have written many times about the problems with the painkiller, Vioxx. If you click on the Vioxx tag in the Labels list that is at the end of this post, you will find my previous posts about it.

A drug-free way to reduce chronic pain that many people have found helpful is to avoid or cut down on salt and salty food. If you suffer from pain and would prefer not to take drugs, you may like to give it a try.

Cherry Juice Could Help You With Your Pain

The Telegraph reports study findings of unsweetened cherry juice relieving muscle pain after exercise. The researchers believe this could be because of natural anti-inflammatory and antioxidant compounds called anthocyanins which also give cherries their bright red colour. It is being spoken of as the new sports drink.

It is suggested that cherries could also reduce inflammation related to heart disease and arthritis, and could help sufferers from the chronic pain of fibromyalgia.

A drug-free means of pain relief/reduction is to be welcome, especially as so many painkillers have adverse side-effects.

NICE is going to back acupuncture for back pain

BBC News reports that the NHS's NICE is going to back acupuncture for back pain. According to this article, "Low back pain is a very common problem affecting one in three adults in the UK each year, with an estimated 2.5 million people seeking help from their GP."

And "NICE says anyone whose pain persists for more than six weeks and up to a year should be given a choice of several treatments, because the evidence about which works best is uncertain.

In addition to painkillers and regular advice to stay active and carry on with normal activities as much as possible, patients, together with their doctor, can decide to opt one of three complementary treatments.

This includes up to eight exercise sessions or 10 sessions of acupuncture over 12 weeks, or a course of manual therapy, which includes up to nine sessions of spinal manipulation, mobilisation or massage."

Personally, I've found acupuncture useless, but I have, for some problems, found manipulation by an osteopath helpful for backache. And remember - pain is not caused by aspirin deficiency!

But a cost-free, safe measure to take is to try cutting down on salt and salty food. This helps with headaches and migraines particularly, but also helps with arthritis and with back pain/backache and many other sorts of chronic pain. - Why not try it for your pain? - It may help, and it will certainly improve your health in many other ways - by lowering your high blood pressure and your excess weight, by giving you more energy, etc.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it!

See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Sodium in foods

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

Doctor accused of faking studies

A widely known Massachusetts anesthesiologist whose research has influenced how doctors treat surgery patients for pain has been accused of fabricating results in at least 21 published studies and, in some cases, even inventing patients. Physicians and journal editors said the allegations, if proven, could constitute one of the largest and longest-running cases ever of medical research fraud.
Read article in The Boston Globe (USA)

Poem by Margaret Wilde

Dare you go exploring

Into the place of pain?
Among the ridges?
The sharpened edges?

Press the points?
Touch the throbbing masses?
Taste the tenderness?
Envelop the engorgement?
Skirt the swollen sores?

Engage with the deep, dark, hidden adversary?


Margaret Wilde © 2009

Rosehip could be more effective than painkillers at easing the pain of arthritis sufferers, scientists claim.

Rosehip 'better than painkillers' for arthritis

Extracts from the Telegraph:

"The pain-relieving properties of rosehip, which has previously been linked to reduced inflammation in osteoarthritis, have been suggested for decades. Now scientists have found that powder made from a wild variety of rosehip, Rosa canina, is better at reducing pain in patients than paracetamol."

"A review of studies, published in the medical journal, Osteoarthritis and Cartilage, looked at the effect of the powder on more than 300 patients who were given different pain-relieving medications for an average of three months.

They found that rosehip was almost three times more effective than standard paracetamol at relieving pain. It was also almost 40 per cent more effective than another common therapy, the drug glucosamine.

Rosehip powder also did not have the side-effects associated with other pain medications, including constipation and drowsiness.

The team which conducted the study, led by Dr Robin Christensen, of the Frederiksberg Hospital in Copenhagen, believes the powder works by also tackling the inflammation associated with osteoarthritis.

Dr Kaj Winther, an inflammation specialist at the Frederiksberg Hospital, said: "This is very exciting news for arthritis sufferers. Some of the main advantages of taking an alternative medication such as rosehip to reduce pain are that, firstly, it is readily available over the counter and, secondly, unlike traditional painkillers, it does not produce unpleasant side-effects.""

Many pains, including the pain of osteoarthritis, are reduced/relieved by avoiding salt/sodium and salty food. - See Sodium in foods and Associated health conditions

Bisphosphonates alert! - Adverse side-effects of prescribed drugs.

Information on Bisphosphonates
(marketed as Actonel, Actonel+Ca, Aredia, Boniva, Didronel, Fosamax, Fosamax+D, Reclast, Skelid, and Zometa)

Extract:

"FDA ALERT [1/7/2008] - FDA is highlighting the possibility of severe and sometimes incapacitating bone, joint, and/or muscle (musculoskeletal) pain in patients taking bisphosphonates. Although severe musculoskeletal pain is included in the prescribing information for all bisphosphonates, the association between bisphosphonates and severe musculoskeletal pain may be overlooked by healthcare professionals, delaying diagnosis, prolonging pain and/or impairment, and necessitating the use of analgesics.

The severe musculoskeletal pain may occur within days, months, or years after starting a bisphosphonate. Some patients have reported complete relief of symptoms after discontinuing the bisphosphonate, whereas others have reported slow or incomplete resolution. The risk factors for and incidence of severe musculoskeletal pain associated with bisphosphonates are unknown."