FDA-approved pain medicines are dangerous, but the government is systematically attacking safer, non-addictive natural treatments. Action Alert!
A recent study in Switzerland found that acetaminophen poisoning increased by 40% following the approval of 1,000mg doses. This is just the latest data to indicate the public health problems caused by this commonly used pain drug, which is the active ingredient in Tylenol.
Despite the dangers of FDA-approved pain drugs, the federal government aggressively attacks and censors natural pain medicines like homeopathic treatments, CBD, medical foods, and supplements. This needless suffering must end.
We’ve written for years about the dangers of acetaminophen. It is the most commonly prescribed class of drugs despite causing50 percent of all liver failure in the US. According to the FDA’s adverse event database, acetaminophen has caused more than 100,000 adverse events and more than 78,000 serious adverse events, including 24,000 deaths. It has also been linked to asthma and hearing loss.
Now consider the federal government’s approach to natural pain medicines. The FDA essentially banned all injectable homeopathic medicines, which includes Traumeel, a prescription-only homeopathic medicine for pain with an extremely robust safety profile.
Previously, the FDA went after Limbrel, a medical food for the treatment of osteoarthritis. In a letter to Primus, the FDA stated that 194 adverse event reports for Limbrel were received between 2007 and 2017—about 20 a year.
Then, of course, there’s CBD. The federal government’s approach to CBD right now is frankly a mess, and we’ve sifted through the details in previous coverage. In short, hemp and its derivatives have been legalized at the federal level, but FDA laws still apply to products containing hemp, such as supplements, lotions, cosmetics, etc. Since 2018, the FDA has been trying to figure out how it will treat these products. Recall, too, that the agency has approved a CBD drug, and according to FDA rules, this means that CBD cannot legally be sold as a supplement.
We ultimately don’t know how the FDA will treat CBD supplements. If history provides any clues, the FDA will protect the drug-approval process and ban CBD supplements. To add to the confusion, Congress is directing the FDA to release an interim policy (called a policy of enforcement discretion) explaining how it will treat CBD products in the marketplace as the agency develops its final regulatory framework. Will the FDA release an interim policy that allows CBD supplements for the time being before banning them outright when a final policy is released? We just don’t know, but we should assume that the FDA will not do the right thing, especially when Big Pharma profits are at stake.
It is unconscionable, but unsurprising, that the FDA would reduce access to safe, non-addictive alternatives to dangerous opioid drugs that killed 30,000 people in 2018 alone. We’ve also seen basic information on natural health censored to protect drug industry profits during the COVID-19 pandemic. This cronyism has to stop.
Action Alert! Write to Congress and the FDA, telling them to issue a policy of enforcement discretion that protects consumer access to hemp-derived CBD supplements at therapeutic levels and full-spectrum hemp oil. Please send your message immediately. By sending this message, you will also be supporting our petition to ungag doctors so that they can share with patients the benefits of supplements and natural treatments for COVID.
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**Comment**
Our government shuts down anything that competes with its own lucrative products.
Looking back on her teen years of Lyme-related pain. (Life’s better now!)
By Resiliently Rachel
I sit in my wheelchair at the front office of my junior high. Tears sting my eyes as I explain to the school receptionist I need my mom to pick me up. She doesn’t understand. She asks why I need to go home.
Why? My feet and legs are on fire. It feels like pins and needles stabbing me everywhere at every second. I’m hanging on by a thread, using up everything I’ve got just to tell her I need my mom. As I start to panic, my friend steps in and repeats we need the phone so we can call my mom. I’m not well.
We don’t yet have words for what’s wrong with me. That answer won’t come for another six months. I watch as my friend reaches over me to bring the phone closer so I can dial the number. I feel the receptionist judging me, but I avoid eye contact and dial my home phone. My mom picks up on the first ring and before I can get a word out, I burst into tears. My mom says she’s on her way.
No one knew why I was in pain
This was my new reality. I went from being a healthy, athletic 13-year-old soccer player, to a girl who could barely sit up in a wheelchair. My knees hurt so bad, and my back felt like I was being stabbed in my spine, over and over again. It was constant.
Rachel age 13
We went to what felt like every doctor in California. Each week, it seemed I saw a new specialist who would take more blood, more x-rays, more scans… only to find out no new information. No one knew why I was in pain. And no one knew why the pain was spreading.
It started with my knees. Then my back, and my neck. Soon my shoulders were so hypersensitive even a feather-light touch could send me screaming in agony.
I described it to my family and friends as ‘being stung by a thousand bees’ but it wasn’t even that. There was no word in our language to describe what it felt like when someone touched the skin on my shoulders or upper back.
I learned to be on the lookout constantly, protecting myself from simple things such as a gentle pat by a well-meaning stranger.
This new and unforgiving symptom was especially hard, because at a time when I could have really used a hug… I could not receive one. It would be more than three years until my parents could hug me again.
Finally, a diagnosis
After six months of doctors’ visits, hospitalization, and no concrete answers, we finally found our first bit of hope. I was diagnosed with Lyme disease. After months of uncertainty, we had found the root cause of my pain. But it was still a long road ahead.
I began the prescribed antibiotic treatment, and within days, I felt worse than I ever had before. The pain was excruciating, the fatigue was overwhelming, and suddenly, I struggled to breathe when I was sitting up straight or lying down flat.
We tried propping me up with pillows and found being at a reclined angle made it easier to breathe, so we rented an adjustable bed from a medical supply company. The bed helped somewhat, but I still got sicker and sicker.
There was no way I could continue the eighth grade, and at this point, the pain wasn’t even the only issue anymore. I could no longer focus. I couldn’t think properly. I struggled to remember simple things that had happened hours earlier. A home health teacher came to my house twice to attempt some sort of education, but that was not in the cards for me.
The longest year ever
The year 2006 was the longest year ever. Although my own life seemed to have stopped, somehow the rest of the world kept going. Each day while my friends were at school, I would count down the hours until someone would be able to sign on to our instant messaging chat room.
I spent my time adding new movies to my Netflix queue, pondering life’s big question of which movie I wanted to arrive in the mail first. My family bumped up our plan to five DVDs at a time, so we had a constant rotation of movies coming to the house via snail mail. There were no video streaming services back then. Kids these days won’t ever understand the satisfaction of seeing those bright red envelopes in the mail.
I spent my days either watching TV, looking at the TV guide to find more shows to watch, or watching DVDs from Netflix. I spent all of my nights awake in bed, listening to infomercials through a 10-foot long headphone cord attached to my TV. I listened to the Home Shopping Network—or that guy selling barbecue grills—while playing solitaire on my mom’s laptop.
For a large portion of 2006, I got only a few hours of sleep at best each night. It was a constant nightmare I couldn’t get away from until we finally found a sleeping pill that worked for me. I didn’t care for infomercials, but I also didn’t want to be alone while the rest of the world was asleep without me. Each night, I listened to the voices of people trying to sell me gadgets I didn’t need, while I passed the hours until dawn.
I longed for connection to someone outside our house. When my friends were busy living their own lives, in their own homes, instant messaging was it for us. This was way back before we had all the social media sites so many of us now find so addicting. I couldn’t mindlessly scroll through Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest to fill my time. I didn’t even have a cell phone, so texting wasn’t an option.
I was stuck in bed for eight months. My lowest point was when I hadn’t seen my own kitchen or living room for 30 days—since my last medical appointment. A combination of terrible insomnia, constant pain, and gripping depression controlled my mind and thoughts and made my life unbearable. I was exhausted, encompassed with despair, and had no hope for a bright future.
One shining light
But there was one shining light that kept coming back each day. That light was my neighborhood group of friends. I had grown up with these kids. Together we had climbed redwood trees, played tag until it was too dark to see, and spent hours picking cherries from the orchard by my house. My world was very different now. There were no more trees to climb or games of tag.
Instead, my friends came over—sometimes alone, and sometimes in twos or threes—and sat by my bed to keep me company after school or on the weekends. We rarely left my room. My standard wheelchair required me to stay in an excruciatingly painful position, so I used it as little as possible.
My neighborhood buddies found a partial solution to that problem. One day, my friends Julianne and Tenaya showed up with a reclining patio chair strapped to a wheeled platform. My chariot had arrived!
It was eccentric looking, to say the least, but it was also my passport to the outside world. After months of seeing nothing but the four bright green walls of my bedroom, I was escorted around the neighborhood, feeling the sun on my face and breathing fresh air. I couldn’t stop smiling.
The last time I had seen the trees outside, they had been barren from winter. Now they were budding with bright green leaves, bursting with color in early spring. I enjoyed seeing all the green as I sat with a fuzzy blanket on my lap, being pulled through the streets of my neighborhood by friends who were only slightly grunting at the combined weight of me and this cumbersome contraption. Eventually, my family procured a reclining wheelchair, which made forays into the outside world even more attainable.
A beauty makeover
On another day, my friends gave me a makeover, doing my hair and makeup in bed, followed by a photo shoot.
I could only sit up straight in a chair for a minute at a time, so we did the photo shoot in short bursts: one minute of rapid-fire picture taking, followed by a rest back in bed. Then repeat. It was moments like these that brought life back into my room. Back into me.
Alternative reality
Another thing that brought me joy was learning to shoot and edit videos. Working on my videos pulled me into a blessed alternative reality where I could somehow get away from my pain.
We used a hospital bed table—the kind that swings over the bed—to hold my computer and put a wireless mouse and keyboard on my lap.
I spent hours editing. I filmed music videos of me lip-syncing in bed. I filmed myself taking pills. Getting my PICC line dressing changed by a home health nurse. Playing games with my friends on the PlayStation. I filmed everything.
I was always in need of more footage because while everyone else was spending eight hours a day at school, I needed to cling to something that gave me a reason to keep fighting. That something became my passion for film making.
Then things shifted
Three years later, my reality changed again when I stood up and walked for the first time.
After recent work with a specialized upper cervical chiropractor, I had noticed a big decrease in pain. Almost like a switch had been turned off after years of malfunctioning.
Just a week prior, we had been able to adjust my wheelchair to sit up straighter. I could once again breathe in different positions. Now here I was, alone in my bedroom, standing up on crutches.
I stood there for a moment, looking at myself in my full-length mirror. I felt the hardwood floor under my bare feet, and I watched my reflection as I called down the hall for my parents to grab the video camera. I knew we would want this on film.
It took me 15 minutes to graduate from walking on crutches to a walker to just holding on to my mother’s arm for support. In 20 minutes, I was walking on my own, unaided, giving myself a tour of the house.
Everything felt different now. I was used to looking at the world from the vantage point of my wheelchair. Now, I stood taller than I ever had before, since I’d grown an inch and a half over the past three years.
To my surprise, I had to bend down to wash my hands in the bathroom sink. To my delight, I could see inside the microwave oven and easily retrieve a water glass from the kitchen cupboard. As I explored my new world that whole magical night, I kept ducking as I passed through doorways, afraid I might hit my head as I went through!
My journey wasn’t over…
Rachel and Bryan
I had a long journey ahead of gaining back strength in my legs and body, but I wasn’t wasting any more time. Three days after I was on my feet, I got my driver’s permit. I was turning 17 and I wanted to finally have a normal life!
I wouldn’t necessarily say it turned out normal—but I graduated from an independent study high school. From there I went to community college while I continued health treatment at home.
Two years later, we packed up the car and drove to Portland State University, in Oregon, where I transferred as a junior. While I was moving into the dorm that day, a guy on my floor remembers looking out his window and seeing me walk into the building. We didn’t know it then, but five years later, that man would be my husband.
My health challenges have no doubt helped shape me into who I am today. For most of my teenage years, I felt I was being dragged through life. I didn’t know how to imagine a future where I could be healthy. I didn’t want to hold hope for anything, in fear it would never be realized, and I’d be stuck where I was forever.
But something changed in me after I began walking again. I had done what I thought would never be possible, and it forever altered my outlook. Even with the wheelchair gone from my life, I would still face struggles with my health, but I now knew about resilience, a gift silently bestowed upon me during those many long years in bed.
Resiliency
Resiliency became my motto. After a difficult battle with toxic mold exposure in college, ‘Resiliently Rachel’ became part of my identity as well, as I launched a blog to create a space for me to share my journey with Lyme and mold.
Over the next few years, I dealt with new and scary health challenges, which brought me into the world of neuroplasticity and learning about the power the brain has over the physical body.After countless hours of brain retraining work, I overcame the last of my symptoms that had been lingering from mold and Lyme treatment, specifically food allergies and chemical sensitivities.
I now live in Arizona with my husband and dog. I work in an elementary school doing speech therapy, and in my free time, I enjoy hiking, as well as filming and editing videos—an activity that still brings me happiness and peace. I wouldn’t change any part of my story growing up with Lyme disease. It made me who I am, and it allows me to give back to others by sharing my story and hopefully inspiring those facing similar challenges to keep holding on a little while longer.
Every August 8, my family celebrates what we call “Walking Day.” Here’s a video I put together about it.
Since Lyme/MSIDS patients can experience pretty much everywhere, chiropractors need to be educated about tick-borne illness as they will often be sought out first by patients.
When someone suffers acute pain from an accident or injury, a positive consequence is that it evokes care and compassion from others. However, when that pain becomes chronic, you don’t often receive flowers, cooked meals and offers of help. Your social connections may suffer, too.
That’s not a small issue for pain patients. A 2008 study found that maintaining social activities are just as important for people in pain as many of the physical and psychological consequences of chronic pain.
Let’s take a look at a short list of five ways that chronic pain challenges the maintenance of social relationships. (See link for article)
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**Comment**
An unfortunate truth not only experienced by pain patients but any chronically ill person.
New Guidelines Issued on Medical Cannabis for Chronic Pain
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— International task force shares recommendations for dosing, administering
by Ryan Basen, Enterprise & Investigative Writer, MedPage Today September 13, 2020
Chronic pain patients can be treated with medical cannabis following one of three protocols based on patient characteristics, according to an international task force at the virtual PAINWeek meeting. (See link for article)
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Among their recommendations:
Treat the majority of patients along the “routine” scale. This means starting patients with 5 mg of cannabidiol (CBD) twice daily. Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) should only be introduced if patients do not respond to at least 40 mg of CBD daily, starting with 2.5-mg daily THC doses. THC doses should be capped at 40 mg daily.
Frail and elderly patients, and those with severe co-morbidity or polypharmacy should be treated via a conservative route. This means starting the THC dosses at 1 mg daily and titrating up the THC more slowly.
Patients suffering from severe pain and those who have significant prior cannabis consumption can follow the rapid protocol. This mean starting with a CBD-THC balanced dose of between 2.5-5 mg per each compound once or twice daily.
The task force recommends starting with non-psychoactive CBD as many have benefitted from it but they encourage providers to consider medical cannabis for patients dealing with neuropathic, inflammatory, nociplastic, and mixed pain.
A task force member admitted there is a major barrier to overcome due to a knowledge gap regarding medical cannabis.
When it was introduced in the mid-1980s, naltrexone was used for blocking opioid receptors. These receptors are meant to be activated by hormones produced by the body called endorphins and enkephalins. However, opioid drugs also stimulate these receptors.
Large doses of naltrexone were originally used for treating drug addiction by blocking the body’s opioid receptors, and therefore the effects of opioid drugs, completely. In doing so, however, it completely blocked the body’s endorphins and enkephalins as well. This was ultimately harmful to health since these hormones play critical roles in myriad parts of the body, such as the immune system.
In contrast, low doses of naltrexone act by temporarily blocking opioid receptors.This causes the body to increase its production of endorphins and enkephalins. In turn, these hormones work to relieve pain, reduce inflammation, and contribute to well-being while avoiding the adverse health effects associated with larger naltrexone doses.
Studies have shown that low-dose naltrexone (LDN) offers multiple health benefits. It has been used in a wide range of treatments for a variety of conditions, including:
LDN, Autoimmune Disorders, Cancer, Treating Pain, and More
The late Dr. Bernard Bihari discovered and developed the therapeutic use of low-dose naltrexone (LDN) in the mid-1980s while practicing internal medicine in New York City. He was treating drug addicts with a new drug, Naltrexone, which blocked the heroin “high.” Unfortunately, 50 milligrams daily had unpleasant side effects. When his addicts started dying from AIDS, he began to search for a drug that would help them.
Dr. Bihari knew that endorphins, small neurochemicals produced by the body, had pain-relieving, anti-inflammatory properties. Dr. Bihari and his colleagues hired a lab scientist to measure patient endorphin levels. He discovered that his HIV patients had sub-normal endorphin levels. His team determined that LDN doses ranging from 1.75 to 4.5 milligrams increased endorphin levels by two to three hundred percent. By blocking the body’s endorphin receptors, LDN caused an overproduction of endorphins.
Dr. Bihari then started a small foundation to study the use of LDN in HIV patients. After one year, he discovered that the patients who took LDN had an eight percent death rate while patients taking placebo had a thirty-three percent death rate. He and his colleagues went on to treat hundreds of patients with LDN.
Endorphins have a positive effect on the immune system by increasingT-helper and natural killer cells. Not only does LDN help people with autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis (MS), it also seems to be beneficial as an adjunct treatment for certain types of cancer. (See link for article)
If you are a Lyme/MSIDS patient and do not know about LDN, please learn about it and talk about it with your doctor. Many patients have benefitted from LDN which is an inexpensive, compounded drug that helps so many things patients struggle with. For more:
prescribed antibiotic treatment, and within days, I felt worse than I ever had before. The pain was excruciating, the fatigue was overwhelming, and suddenly, I struggled to breathe when I was sitting up straight or lying down flat.
Three years later, my reality changed again when I stood up and walked for the first time.
Madison Area Lyme Support Group 