Archive for the ‘Pain Management’ Category

Live Tonight: Lyme Disease & Chronic Pain Webinar

Live Webinar: Lyme Disease & Chronic Pain – Dr. Bill Rawls

erasing pain, hand written word on blackboard being erased concept

The list of symptoms that can come with chronic Lyme disease is long and varied, but pain — in the joints, muscles, nerves, neck, eyes, even teeth — seems to be a common denominator.

Why are Lyme sufferers so prone to chronic pain, and what can you do to find fast and lasting relief?

Join a live webinar with Dr. Bill Rawls, author of the bestselling book Unlocking Lyme, who knows firsthand what it’s like to live with chronic Lyme disease and related aches and pains. He’ll shed new light on the underlying forces that drive persistent pain, and share natural ways to resolve them so you’re not just managing discomfort, but overcoming it.

PLUS: Don’t miss an exclusive gift for webinar attendees, and have your questions ready for a LIVE Q&A on Lyme and chronic pain with Dr. Rawls.

Watch June 17th, 8pm EDT

Lyme & Chronic Pain – Live Webinar

  • The causes and telltale symptoms of different types of pain
  • How Borrelia burgdorferi and common Lyme coinfections like Mycoplasma, Bartonella, and Babesia contribute to pain
  • The best herbs and natural remedies for immediate and long-term relief
  • Additional diet and lifestyle tips to help keep symptoms at bay 
  • Numerous insights during the live Q&A with Dr. Rawls 

RESERVE MY SEAT »

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For more:

Category:

Herbs, Lyme, Pain Management, Supplements

My #1 Headache Trigger? Lyme Disease

https://globallymealliance.org/my-1-headache-trigger-lyme-disease/

Listen to the audio version of this blog below:

Skiing has always been part of my life. I went to a college in Vermont that had its own ski run. After graduation, I moved to Colorado to teach high school, and to become a ski instructor. It was supposed to be the high point of my life, and in many ways it was, but there were also some very low points because I was wrestling with undiagnosed tick-borne illnesses.

One such low found me on the bathroom floor, writhing in pain from an excruciating migraine. The throbbing started over my left eye, working its way up over that side of my head and around the back to my neck. I felt as if my brain was going to explode out of my skull.

“It’s probably from the altitude,” a doctor later told me. In the years since I had started developing strange symptoms—fever, joint aches, exhaustion, hand tremors, hives—I grew accustomed to doctors writing them off with a simple explanation.

But altitude was not causing my migraines. In fact, I was suffering from Lyme disease, Ehrlichia, and Babesia, the last being a tick-borne parasite that consumes oxygen in red blood cells. Due to these infections, a scan would later show that I was not getting enough oxygen to the left side of my brain. Living at a high altitude certainly didn’t help this situation, but the root cause was the fact that my oxygen levels were already compromised by infection.

Babesia is not the only tick-borne disease that can cause headaches; so can Ehrlichia and relapsing fevers. But with or without co-infections, the vast majority of Lyme disease patients complain of headaches as a chief symptom, with pain ranging from moderate to severe. Many patients, myself included, have encountered migraines so debilitating they’re relegated to bed in a dark room due to pain, light sensitivity and nausea. Though tick-borne diseases can cause pain throughout the cranium, migraines are usually focused to one side. As a child, I had four surgeries to correct weak muscles in my eyes, especially on the left, leaving scar tissue over that eye. I later learned that Lyme bacteria, spirochetes, like to hide out in scar tissue, which may explain why my migraines always started over that eye.

So why are headaches so common for Lyme patients? Spirochetes can enter the central nervous system by crossing the blood-brain barrier. This barrier is supposed to protect the brain from infection, but spirochetes are tricky and swift and can coil their way across, causing headaches for their victims.

Lyme is an inflammatory disease, so once spirochetes enter the central nervous system, they cause swelling there. In his book Why Can’t I Get Better? Solving the Mystery of Lyme & Chronic Disease, Dr. Richard Horowitz equates this inflammation to a fire that ignites heat, redness, pain, and loss of function.[1] Feeling like my brain was going to explode out of my skull was not really hyperbole; my head was indeed swollen, but I just couldn’t see it the way I would be able to if  I’d had a swollen ankle or knee.

At my lowest points of illness, I got migraines several times a week. I tried to try to push through the pain. I wanted to be living my life, teaching and skiing. But I always paid a high price for not listening to my body—or in this case, to my brain. Ignoring the headache only increased the pain, sometimes sending me to bed for two or three days at a time. I got prescription medication, which I learned to take as soon as I felt a headache coming on, rather than trying to wait it out. I also found that staying hydrated, eating foods rich in iron, and stretching gently—to help increase blood flow—sometimes helped alleviate my headaches.

The best treatment, however, was rest. If you have a swollen ankle or knee, you stay off that joint, giving it time to heal. The same is true for your brain. Your head needs time to recover from inflammation, and nothing has helped that process more for me than sleep. Though I rarely get migraines these days, I still get pressure on the left side of my head when I get tired or neurologically overwhelmed. I never want to spend a day in bed, but one is better than being there for several days—and it’s certainly better than writhing on the bathroom floor. A day spent recuperating means more days on the slopes, and I’ll take as many of those as I can get.

[1] Horowitz, Richard I. Why Can’t I Get Better? Solving the Mystery of Lyme & Chronic Disease. New York: St. Martin’s Press. 2013. (186)

Opinions expressed by contributors are their own.

Jennifer Crystal is a writer and educator in Boston. She is working on a memoir about her journey with chronic tick-borne illness. Do you have a question for Jennifer? Email her at  jennifercrystalwriter@gmail.com

 

 

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**Comment**

Headaches with Lyme disease can be excruciating – particularly if you have Lyme and Babesia.  Bartonella also can give severe head pain.  Since I had all three, the head and spine were always my thorn.  I wondered if I’d ever have a day free from head pain.

Please know that appropriate treatment is necessary for this and YES, I am free from head pain after 5 years of treatment and a few relapses.  While I give credit predominantly to antimicrobials (for me, antibiotics) here’s a few things that seemed to help:

Lastly, I know of a few Lyme patients that also have a Chiari diagnosis.  In short, this is when inflammation from an infection causes the brain to be pushed through the opening at the base of the skull.  Since this is where most of my pain was I had a MRI to rule Chiari out.  Read about this condition here:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/04/02/chiari/

Category:

Lyme, Pain Management

Woman Tripped 34 Hours on LSD. Said it Cured Pain From Chronic Lyme Disease

https://www.insider.com/woman-who-overdosed-on-lsd-said-it-cured-lyme-disease-2020-2

A woman who tripped for 34 hours on LSD after taking 550 times the normal dose said the drug cured her pain from chronic Lyme disease

Julia Naftulin
Feb 25, 2020
psychedelic trip

Photo by Horacio Villalobos – Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images

During the first 12 hours, the woman blacked out for most of it, but remembered vomiting a lot.

  • A woman overdosed, but didn’t die, after consuming 550 times an average dose of the psychedelic drug LSD. She had mistaken it as cocaine and ended up tripping for 34 hours.
  • Following her overdose, the woman microdosed LSD and found it eliminated her chronic pain, a symptom of her Lyme disease.
  • Other psychedelics like DMT and psilocybin also have been shown to manage conditions, like anxiety and depression.  (See link for article)

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**Comment**

Case report found here:  https://www.jsad.com/doi/10.15288/jsad.2020.81.115

Important excerpt:

She’d stopped taking morphine for five days after her LSD experience, and then her chronic pain returned, so she decided to take the morphine again but at a lower dose, and to also microdose LSD, every three days. A microdose of LSD is about a quarter of the typical 10-milligram dose and doesn’t cause a hallucinogenic effect.

Three years later, the woman was able to completely stop using morphine to manage her pain and said she had no withdrawal symptoms.

The pain Lyme/MSIDS can cause is of a magnitude that makes life unbearable.

I remember the story of a woman with Lyme who went into the garage, took a hammer and broke all her fingers on one hand to get her mind off her shoulder pain.

Category:

Lyme, Pain Management, Psychological Aspects, research

Testosterone Replacement in Chronic Pain Patients

https://www.practicalpainmanagement.com/treatments/hormone-therapy/testosterone-replacement-chronic-pain-patients

Testosterone Replacement in Chronic Pain Patients

By Forest Tennant, MD, DrPH and Lisa Lichota, DO

Adequate testosterone serum levels are required in males and females not just for libido and sexual function but also for cellular growth, healing, maintenance of muscle mass and bone, and central nervous system maintenance of opioid receptors, blood- brain barrier, and dopamine-norepinephrine activity.

Testosterone deficiency in chronic pain patients has now been recognized by many observers.1-6 Due to its critical biologic functions in pain control, testosterone testing and replacement (TR) should now become a mandatory component in the treatment of chronic pain. This paper summarizes the physiologic actions of testosterone relative to pain management and lays out practical guidelines for testing and treatment that can easily be adapted to pain practice… (See link for article.  It is excellent and very needed information.  Please read about my personal experiences below.)

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**Comment**

I’ve self injected testosterone for years and I’m a woman.  My husband also injects T.

Are we crazed body builders?  Hardly….

For me, it started as severe PMS that I had pretty much my entire adult life.  I had one good week out of the month and that’s an understatement.  Not only did I struggle with pain but I struggled mentally.  It was as if someone painted my world gray.  I also riveted on things that normally I should be able to drop.  Thankfully, I had a holistic doctor who specialized in pain management as well as breast cancer.  Little did I know – testosterone helps both.  He actually told me one day, “I have no studies to prove this, only 35 years of experience but if you give testosterone to women, their breast cancer dries up.”  After trying progesterone cream with little effect, he asked if I’d like to try T.  Within 20 minutes, I felt it.  I felt it mentally, as if I could see color for the first time in my life.  Physically I felt blood rushing into areas I thought were dead.  Yes, it helped sex drive, but it did so much more than that.

Recently, I lowered my dose as I appeared high on paper.  Within weeks I developed the old familiar ovarian pain and then lower back pain so severe I could hardly stand.  I called my hormone doctor to run it by him, wondering if the two could be related.  He said that yes, they could be related and to go back up on the dose I was previously.  I had a female physical to rule things out first.  I also shared my theory for the pain (lowering my T) with the physician’s assistant.  Our conversation was interesting.  She said I was blessed to have found doctors willing to treat me with testosterone as the results were clear. She also said I would not receive that type of help in her mainstream facility.  This isn’t the first conversation of this sort I’ve had with mainstream doctors who admit that their hands are completely tied to convention – in spite of results and science. I also tried to convince Physician’s For Women and the Wisconsin Fertility Clinic to adopt using various forms of testosterone for suffering women – to no avail.

Armed with the knowledge I was normal physically I went back to my regular dose.

Within ONE injection, both the ovarian and back pain were GONE.

I tell this story to demonstrate how hormones can help dramatically with pain.

My husband’s story is similar, albeit different. Before he was diagnosed with Lyme/MSIDS it was discovered that his testosterone level was nonexistent and he had severe joint pain.  He started injections as well but the pain, although diminished, was still there.  Eventually, he developed a whole battery of symptoms consistent with tick-borne illness and he was diagnosed with Lyme/MSIDS.  For him, T has helped his mood as well as pain.  At various times he’s gone off T for certain tests. Every single time, PAIN comes back with a vengeance and he becomes depressed.

So why do I bring this up?

I don’t think we are alone.  Due to environmental toxins and estrogens (xenoestrogens), many are estrogen dominant.  “The Textbook of Bio-Identical Hormones,” by Edward Lichten M.D. shows in detail how estrogen disorders are prevalent.  Did you know that testosterone is a treatment for diabetes in men?  I didn’t either until I read the book.  It does so many things.

According to this article,

Estrogen dominance has also been linked to allergies, autoimmune disorders, breast cancer, uterine cancer, infertility, ovarian cysts, and increased blood clotting, and is also associated with acceleration of the aging process.  https://www.drnorthrup.com/estrogen-dominance/

https://www.johnleemd.com/estrogen-dominance.html  Put simply, estrogen dominance is an elevated estradiol to progesterone radio.

But for me, the addition of progesterone wasn’t enough.

And to counter the argument that hormones aren’t “natural,” please understand hormones are made from cholesterol – all of which is within the body and is completely natural.  There are obviously synthetic forms of hormones used for specific purposes but bioidential hormones are as natural as you can get.  For a great read:  https://metabolichealing.com/cholesterol-your-body-is-incapable-of-making-hormones-without-it/  Essentially, we’ve been told cholesterol is the bad guy.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  We need cholesterol.  The article also points out that toxicity, mercury poisoning and fluoride toxicity all contribute to hormone disruption.  Mercury can interfere with the conversion of progesterone into cortisol.

Unfortunately, hormones, like cholesterol, have been mischaracterized by mainstream medicine and are currently classified as class 3 substances along with Vicodin and Ketamine.  A class 3 drug has, “accepted medical use in treatment in the United States. Abuse of the drug may lead to moderate or low physical dependence or high psychological dependence.”

To understand why Medicine hates hormones:  https://www.acesototalhealth.com/why-medicine-hates-hormones/

In a nutshell Medicine (and pharmacists I might add) hates hormones due to a study called the Womens Health Initiative (WHI) trial which had numerous design flaws.  Researchers concluded things that weren’t verified in the data and over time many statements were retracted, but this little detail didn’t make the evening news, and medical professionals still tout the study as if it’s settled science – much like the Klempner study is used to keep Lyme/MSIDS patients from further treatment for continuing symptoms.  Also, they used Premarin, a synthetic hormone.  They never looked at bioidentical hormones.

Excerpt:

Since the WHI, there  have been hundreds if not thousands of research articles identifying bio-identical hormones as safe and effective.  However, in the medical community, the thought is “If Premarin is bad, then you have to assume that bio-identical estrogen is bad also”.  The statement is logical, but unfortunately it has not been proven in the literature; in fact just the opposite.  Bio-identical hormones have been shown over and over to not have the same deleterious effects that there synthetic counterparts have, and yet, doctors continue to assume that bio-identicalls and synthetics are the same.

I will also add that another very real reason steroids are frowned upon is that they are cheap and natural and would solve so many problems that it would affect Big Pharma.

And just to play devil’s advocate, I’ll stick up for synthetics for just a moment.

I know of a patient who has severe endometriosis.  Her pain was of a magnitude that made life unbearable.  She tried everything mainstream medicine had to offer and actually had memory loss after one injection of Lupron. Under the supervision of a MD she is currently taking two synthetic steroids for severe endometriosis.  The results are clear – her pain is GONE.  She is enjoying a normal life. The use of these two hormones (nandrolone and stanozolol) lowers the sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG), which stops the bleeding, and the pain.  As I write this, 10 million women worldwide are suffering lives not worth living due to the pain of endometriosis.  It is the number one reason for infertility.  But, doctors are so afraid of hormones they would rather watch women suffer than learn for themselves the effectiveness of this simple treatment.  The other key ingredient that stops the androgenic effects (voice lowering and acne) is spironolactone.  To learn more about this cutting edge treatment: https://www.theendocure.com

So once again we see that for a certain subset of patients, a synthetic version may be more helpful and it’s, “the dose that makes the poison.”

Our family was forced to find these answers and testosterone has made all the difference in the world to our current health.
 I hope this helps someone out there.

 

Category:

Pain Management, Treatment

Innovative Pain Treatment Strategies Podcast

https://livingwithlyme.us/episode-101-innovative-pain-treatment-strategies/

Cindy Kennedy, FNP, is joined by nurse practitioner Jackie Orent-Nathan to have a frank conversation surrounding her approach to working with patients who deal with chronic pain. Jackie has found great success in educating her patients about the physiology of pain and why current medical therapies are not the answer.Jackie specializes in pain management at a large primary care practice. Understanding offers a way out of the despair of persistent pain. Jackie facilitates a program that combines pain education with yoga to empower pain sufferers to take back control of their lives as they reduce their fear of movement.

Join our Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/Livingwithlyme.us

Check out Pursue Wellness: https://pursuewellness.us/

SHOW NOTES

What are modern thoughts about pain?
What is the association with the brain?
Jackie’s pain treatment strategies.
How does the Mind-Body approach work with handling pain?
Other co-factors when dealing with pain.

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For more:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2020/01/09/10-ways-to-ease-pain-in-patients-with-chronic-lyme/  Please see comment section for more ideas

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2020/01/02/acetyl-l-carnitine-for-neuropathy-pain-relief/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/11/10/new-research-shows-spinal-stimulation-may-work-better-than-medication-for-long-term-pain-reduction/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/04/18/ketamine-reduces-depression-related-behaviors-in-mice-limits-bb-in-vivo-relieves-chronic-pain/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/09/14/iv-ketamine-in-ptls/

Category:

Pain Management, Treatment