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ourherbalmedicines-blog · 6 years

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It’s crucial to good health to clear toxins, and this also helps to build immunity.

Our immune system plays a defensive role in the human body to protect us from infection. It works like an independent and invisible shield which works unnoticed in our bodies, and brings attention to itself only when we get sick; we are otherwise unaware of its existence. It is composed of many interdependent cell types that collectively protect the body from bacterial, parasitic, fungal and viral infections. The cells of the immune system can conquer bacteria, kill parasites or tumor cells, or kill virus-infected cells.

Symptoms:

The more specific signs of a weakened immune system is not just the onset of an illness, it can also be due to the effects of recurring and lasting infections in the body, permanent and constant fatigue, as well as frequent cold and flu viruses, sore throat, cold sores, herpes virus, swollen lymph glands and cancer. A weak immune system can lead to dysfunctions such as autoimmune diseases (including allergies) and tumor growth.

Treatment:

Our clinically proven homeopathic formula, BM 5, is a safe, gentle and effective remedy to help relieve these stubborn symptoms by acting as an aid to help clean out the immune system and restore proper functioning. BM 5 can also be a taken without concern of interfering with any prescribed medications.

A tremendous number of clinical and experimental studies suggest that any single nutrient deficiency can profoundly impair the immune system. The health of the immune system is also be significantly affected by a person’s emotional state, level of stress, lifestyle, and dietary habits. Thus a healthy, balanced diet, and increasing vitamin intake is usually recommended and will add to the effectiveness of BM 5. If your situation is more severe in nature, rather than a chronic annoyance, see your doctor.

Physicians who suspect low immunity will do blood tests to check the amount of immune cells, antibodies and complement (proteins). Sometimes they will prescribe immune-boosting medicines such as interferon; this includes protein which helps fight viral infections.

In certain hereditary immune deficiencies, components of the immune system, like immunoglobulin, can be injected intravenously, or transplantation of bone marrow, from which immune cells may grow, can be done.

Toxins; Food, Blood & Medicine Poisoning

TOXINS –

“Toxin” is a term which means any agent that causes poisoning or dysfunction of the human body when it enters or is created in the body. Some of the causes of toxins are: Our environment, such as pesticides, herbicides, petrochemicals that enter through your diet, air and skin; biological toxins, such as byproducts of Candida (yeast) or bacteria or viruses which are living in your body; your own hormones and cell’s natural metabolic wastes such as carbon dioxide and uric acid can also become toxins if they build up in excessive amounts or if your liver and kidney are struggling to process them efficiently enough.

Symptoms can be noticed immediately, or over a period of time. There are many possible symptoms, some that you may experience are: muscle spasms and cramps, nausea, diarrhea, gas, rashes, low energy, or just a feeling of being sick or not well.

Treatment:

BM 5 is a clinically proven homeopathic formula, which is safe, gentle and effective in relieving your symptoms, by cleansing your system and removing toxin build-up. Other useful treatments to help clean your system in addition to taking BM 5 are: Drainage, reducing your toxic burden (eg. eliminating caffeine, sugar); which can lead to reduced pain, increased energy, improved digestion, elimination of allergies, healthier skin and hair, increase mental functioning and can reverse many diseases, restoring your body to balance and health. If your symptoms are more severe in nature, please see your doctor immediately.

MEDICINE POISONING –

Poisoning occurs when any substance disturbs the normal body functions after it is swallowed, inhaled, injected, or absorbed. The effects of poisons are as varied as the poisons themselves. Symptoms can range in severity from headache and nausea, to convulsions and death. The type of poison, the amount of time and exposure, as well as the age, size, and health of the individual are all factors which affect the severity of symptoms and the ability to recover.

Treatment:

BM 5 is a clinically proven homeopathic formula, which is safe, gentle and effective in relieving your symptoms. BM 5 acts as a supportive measure for recurring problems and can be taken in addition to any medical treatments without interference. If your symptoms are more severe, please consult your doctor immediately.

Most cases of poisoning are treated by inducing vomiting, if the patient is fully conscious. If the poisoning is due to acid, alkali or a petroleum type of poisoning, the patient should not vomit as acids and alkalis can burn the esophagus, and petroleum products can be inhaled into the lungs during vomiting. Doctors will usually treat patients with a specific remedy to counteract the poison (an antidote) or with activated charcoal to absorb the poison within the digestive system. Sometimes it may be required to pump the stomach.

FOOD POISONING –

Food poisoning is a common illness. It happens when we eat food which has been contaminated by bacteria, viruses or parasites. Reactions are usually mild, but it can sometimes be a deadly illness.

Symptoms:

Typical symptoms include nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramping, and diarrhea. These symptoms usually occur suddenly, within 30 minutes, after consuming a contaminated food or drink, or worsen over a period of a few days to weeks. Depending on the contaminant, fever and chills, bloody stools, dehydration, and nervous system damage may follow.

Treatment:

BM 5 is a safe, gentle and effective homeopathic formula, which is clinically proven to be effective in removing the contaminant from your system and relieving your symptoms.

It is important to rehydrate the body by drinking lots of water.

Sometimes the use of anti-vomiting and diarrhea medications are given, as well as acetaminophen if the patient has a fever. In some cases if the patient is unable to drink fluids without vomiting, they may be admitted to the hospital to be hydrated through an IV. In severe cases the stomach may need to be pumped.

BLOOD POISONING –

Blood poisoning refers to the presence of bacteria in the blood (bacteremia) — and not a poisonous substance in the blood. Bacteria can enter the blood through a wound or infection or during a medical or dental procedure or injection.

Signs and symptoms of blood poisoning may include: a sudden high fever, chills, rapid heart rate, nausea, vomiting or abdominal pain, feeling or appearing seriously ill. A diagnosis of bacteremia is usually confirmed by a blood culture.

Treatment:

BM 5 is a clinically proven homeopathic formula, which is safe, gentle and effective in relieving your symptoms. This formula acts as a supportive measure and will help to clear your system. In severe cases, see your doctor immediately as blood poisoning may require hospitalization and require the use of intravenous antibiotics. BM 5 will not interfere with the use of these medications and will aid in your recovery. Prompt treatment is important because bacteremia can quickly progress to severe sepsis, which is a life-threatening condition.

Please note:

Although we are very confident in the safety and effectiveness of our products, it is always recommended that you consult with a professional in regards to a serious health problem. It is also important to remember that advice provided from ANY website is not a substitute for qualified medical care. Also NOTE that Homeopathic remedies do NOT cause drug interactions and there are no contra-indications.

Dosage

Adult:10-15drops, children half of the same,3-4 times a day in some water or as prescribed by a Homoeopathic Doctor.

Availability

20ml drops preserved in 40% Alcohol solution.

REVIEWS:

5.0 out of 5 stars I feel SOOOOO much better! By Cassi on November 28, 2015 I have felt bad for quite a while. I had been ill and stressed and had been on way too much medication for my taste. I began getting really tired easily, very lethargic and depressed. I really just did not have anything that ignited that spark that made me enjoy life. I mean I wasn’t suicidal or anything, just apathetic. So, I ran across this product. I had a friend tell me how I needed to detox my body. I tried to soak in apple cider vinegar and epsom salts. It helped for a bit, but I would just sink right back down a few days later. As I was browsing Amazon last month I ran into this product. I figured that it couldn’t hurt. I took it to my doctor and she told me to try it. That there was not anything in it that would interact with the medications that I was still on. I am so glad that I did. I began taking it as directed. I added additional amounts of water in my routine and found that within a day, I could see a difference. Waking up felt good. I didn’t want to pull the covers back over my head and not get out of the bed anymore. I began getting excited about things again. So, let me tell you. If you are thinking about this, then you probably need it. Check with your doctor, but you will probably find what I did

#Health Care

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fitnesshealthyoga-blog · 5 years

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New Post has been published on https://fitnesshealthyoga.com/its-a-fentanyl-crisis-stupid-national-pain-report/

It’s a Fentanyl Crisis, Stupid! – National Pain Report

By Kaatje “Gotcha” van der Gaarden, PA-C, MPAS.

Editor’s Note: This story was originally published on Dec 17, 2018 on Medium Health.

Featured Image: TEDxABQ 2018 “A Working Parachute: spinal cord injuries, ketamine & comedy” which turned into a 9 min stand-up set! Photo credit Allen Winston Photography

In 2012, life was great: I proudly wore a white coat with a stethoscope around my neck and finally felt useful to humanity. Two decades earlier, as a stuntwoman, my parachute did not quite open, and I landed on my sacrum (tailbone) at 70 mph, crushing the sacral nerves. I had lost two inches of my spine, fractured several vertabrae, and would spend a year in ICU, hospitals, and a spinal cord clinic. I was left with traumatic cauda equina syndrome,¹ suffered from residual pain, and was left with a “sitting disability.” For my atrophied lower leg and foot muscles, I used leg braces, a cane or scooter and I sat on a padded office chair. I’ve schlepped pillows and camping mats with me ever since my skydiving accident. Frequently, lying down for a few minutes was the only way to deal with my disability.

Kaatje “Gotcha” van der Gaarden

As a Physician Assistant in primary care, I loved my job and providing a true provider-patient collaboration. I had ample opportunity to prescribe opioid medications. Responsibly, of course. In my toolbox, I had excellent interview skills, the State’s Prescription Monitoring Program (PMP), and a urine test. The PMP would let me know me if patients were doctor or pharmacy shopping, although it couldn’t take into account other states. A urinalysis would tell me if the patient was taking the opioids as prescribed, or diverting, or using other, illegal drugs, or medications that were not prescribed. Heck yeah, I even had my patients sign an Opioid Use Contract.

One patient’s husband worked for the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), and he told me one that opioids went for about 70 cents per milligram on the street, in 2012. However, I never assumed someone was gaming the system and tried to keep an open mind. Some patients did want me to refill their emergency room (ER) hydrocodone prescription, for complaints like a mildly strained knee. At that point, I would print out knee exercises instead. I always tried to understand my patients’ emotional and physical health and encouraged exercise and healthy habits (even if most days, I couldn’t prepare food so I ate LAY’S® Limón Potato Chips and gummi worms).

Another patient had just moved from Arizona, with a history of using 30 mg of MS-Contin, a long-acting morphine tablet, three times a day, plus another opioid, Percocet 10 mg instant relief (IR), one tablet every four to six hours for breakthrough pain. The patient was full-time employed, doing fairly intense labor, and was incensed when I wanted evidence of his “bad back.” The patient did not bring any records during his first visit, but he later returned with a lengthy health record — his pain deriving from five back surgeries, three of them revisions for the original surgeries.

I had never heard of “ultra-rapid” or “slow” opioid metabolizers² which affect adequate treatment, and still believed the Center for Disease Control (CDC) had society’s best interest at heart. The opioid crisis seemed far away, and I believed that did not affect my patients, or myself. Mistakenly, I thought there hardly would have been an “opioid epidemic” had medical providers only accompanied any opioid prescription with this warning: “Use your IR (instand relief) opioid medication when you truly have breakthrough pain, a 7–8 or higher, or it will no longer be as effective.”

Perhaps. But complicating matters was that opioid medications did seem to be prescribed for relatively mild to moderate pain, or in situations where acute pain would soon resolve. For example, to my patient with that strained knee, seen in a Colorado ER. In 1991, I’d fractured my lower leg above the ankle, after a car stunt gone awry, and wasn’t prescribed any opioid medication. The ER doc in Florida who applied the hot pink cast, from my toes to my knee, pointed me to a Walgreens to buy Tylenol (acetaminophen) for the simple, uncomplicated fracture.

Although I was in tremendous pain myself from the sky diving accident and crushed sacral nerves, I denied suffering from intractable pain. Yet I was battling worsening neuropathic (nerve) pain, as well as residual musculoskeletal pain from the sacral and vertebral fractures, on a daily basis. I made it through each workday by lying down on the exam table during lunch. Work gave me great happiness, but physically I had no energy left to cook, maintain friendships or even have a hobby.

That year I recall having to do five mandatory continuing medical education credits by the State on “responsible opioid prescribing.” This seemed ludicrous since I always looked at the PMP before going into the exam room. Especially with a patient that was on medications that fell under the Controlled Substances Act.³ As a non-contract employee, I also paid my own DEA license at $780 every three years for the privilege of writing controlled substance prescriptions. I was ticked off with the cost, but also with what I perceived as government encroachment on my medical decision making.

Sure enough, over the years, after the CDC Opioid Guidelines came out (which are voluntary, and not legally binding), I began to realize that there is no true opioid epidemic. There’s an epidemic alright, of people taking opioids with multiple medications and then adding alcohol and other illegal drugs on top. What we most certainly have is an alcohol epidemic, with 88,000 deaths⁴ annually, and this epidemic is starting to effect millennials. I blame those hipster beers with ridiculously high alcohol percentages, as millennials are dying of liver cirrhosis in record-breaking numbers.

Despite the ongoing alcohol epidemic, from 2012 to 2016, using opioid medication became synonymous with being a “drug seeker.” The “opioid crisis” narrative was perpetuated and fueled by mainstream media, whose culpability lies in using labels like “opioid overdose deaths” instead of the more appropriate “mixed drug intoxication.” True opioid deaths (opioid medications alone) range around five thousand deaths annually, according to Josh Bloom, writing for the American Council on Science and Health.⁵ New York City’s medical examiner’s office is unsurpassed when it comes to accurately determining cause of death: in 2016, 71 percent of all drug-related deaths involved heroin and/or fentanyl.⁶

Looking at the numbers, most of the so-called “opioid deaths” seemed to be people who did not take their medication as instructed, if opioids were legally prescribed in the first place. Seriously, because who cooks their Fentanyl patch and injects it? Not chronic pain patients, who need slowly titrated medication to bathe, cook, work, take care of kids, or go to school. Patients were indeed dying from respiratory depression, caused by taking legal or illegal opiates. But how many of those deaths are suicides? If patients with severe pain, on a stable regimen, are denied access, they may turn to suicide, or illegal opioids like heroin, now tainted by illegal fentanyl. That is not an opioid crisis, but another iatrogenic consequence of the “guidelines.” The Law of Unintended Consequences never fails.

How was it that the CDC took advice from an anti-opioid advocacy group, Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing (PROP)⁸ in constructing the Opioid Guidelines? PROP had lobbied Federal officials and the FDA for years, to change opioid labels. When they were (mostly) rebutted, PROP got involved with the CDC, behind closed doors. The Washington Legal Foundation⁷ notified the CDC in 2015, as in their opinion, the CDC broke the 1972 Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) law. Washington Legal Foundation states that a Core Expert Group, advising the CDC, conducted their “research” and “Draft for Opioid Guidelines” in secret, without input from pain experts, pharmocologists, or patient groups.

Dr. Jane Ballantyne (current PROP President) was part of that Core Expert Group and is notorious for her anti-opioid stance. Another Core Expert Group member is PROP executive director, and founder, Dr. Andrew Kolodny, who refers to opiate medication as “heroin” pills and proclaimed that “oxycodone and heroin have indistinguishable effects.”⁹ Yet you oughtn’t compare a 5 mg tablet of oxycodone to IV heroin, without qualifiers on potency. Dr. Kolodny, an addiction expert, doesn’t even distinguish between “plain” heroin, and heroin cut with fentanyl, which is 100 times stronger than morphine. About 80 percent of fatal overdoses are now due to illegal fentanyl. By muddying the issues of opioid dependence, opioid addiction, and heroin use with either false or incomplete statements, PROP also does a disservice to people who are addicted to heroin or illegal fentanyl.

Research has found that 75% of heroin addicts have a mental health illness, and 50% have trauma from (sexual) abuse before age 16, something that gets drowned in Dr. Ballantyne’s simplified narrative of “continuous or increasing doses of opioids [… ] can worsen a person’s ability to function and his or her quality of life. It may also lead to opioid abuse, addiction, or even death.”¹⁰ Like many others, I argue that (illegal) fentanyl, and indirectly, profound loss of hope, is the main driver behind the current “mixed use overdose” deaths.

Dr. Kolodny was Chief Medical Officer of The Phoenix House, an addiction center, at the time he helped draft the CDC Guidelines. PROP also avoids mentioning the Millennium saliva,¹¹ or other DNA tests, to identify how individual patients metabolize opiate medication and that some are “ultrafast” metabolizers. PROP fails to mention opioid blood concentration measurements, no matter how imperfect.¹² However, no one doubts the conflict of interest: PROP Board members are involved with grants from the CDC, addiction centers, medical device companies to develop an opioid tapering mechanism, and even consulted with law firms investigating lawsuits against opiate pharmaceutical companies.

PROP was originally funded by Phoenix House, one of many addiction centers that prescribes buprenorphine. PROP is currently funded by the Steve Rummler HOPE Network,¹³ another anti-opioid group that lists Dr. Ballantyne and Dr. Kolodny on the medical advisory committee. Dr. Kolodny admitted in a 2013 New York Times article titled “Addiction Treatment with a Dark Side” that as a New York City Health official, he lobbied on behalf of the buprenorphine pharmaceutical industry. He was quoted as saying, “We had New York City staff out there acting like drug reps [with $10,000 incentives -KG].”¹⁴

Buprenorphine was the supposed miracle drug after methadone, but its known side effects include serious diversion, addiction, and possibly, lifelong treatment. Dr. Kolodny publicly promoted buprenorphine in various media outlets, despite evidence of buprenorphine overprescribing, pill mills, and overdoses. The true scale is not known, as most ERs and medical examiners do not test for the presence of buprenorphine. The CDC does not track buprenorphine deaths, despite a 2013 study¹⁵ that found a tenfold increase in buprenorphine-related ED visits, according to the Federally funded Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). As “bupe” availability increased, so did diversion and overdose deaths.

Interestingly, that Dr. Kolodny promotes the idea that heroin and opioid medications are the same molecular compound. Actually, buprenorphine has a molecular profile¹⁶ that more closely resembles heroin, than hydrocodone. Dr. Kolodny indirectly claims that CDC “Guidelines” are effective, when the truth is that by the time PROP advised the CDC, prescriptions had already tapered off. This is evidenced in his statement as chief medical officer from a Phoenix House Q&A,¹⁷ dated December 2015: “It will take some time, but we’re already beginning to see a plateau in opioid prescribing.” Dr. Kolodny appears to take credit for a trend that had nothing to do with PROP, and he omits the fact that prescriptions are down since 2011, and yet overdoses are up.

Mainstream media occasionally, and accidentally, reveals the truth. CNN¹⁸ in 2018: “Fentanyl-related deaths double in six months; US government takes some action.” Then again, the echo of Dr. Kolodny’s statements, as reported by CNN: “The recent rise in popularity of these synthetics has been called the third wave of the opioid epidemic; the first wave was attributed to the overprescribing of painkillers like oxycodone and hydrocodone and the second to heroin. The drugs are all chemically similar and act on the same receptors in the brain.” Again, not one word about potency.

Few realize that when the CDC issued the Opioid Guidelines in 2016, there was inadequate research done ahead of time to determine the true cause of the rise in opioid-related deaths. There are no long-term studies on the effects of chronic opiate therapy. Very few, if any, pain management experts or pharmacologists were consulted to determine potential impacts on their practice. Neither veterans nor chronic pain patients were given a true opportunity to issue public comments to the CDC or any other Federal authority prior to the implementation of these new prescribing mandates. The CDC ended up targeting one of the most vulnerable groups, patients with intractable pain.

The CDC’s Guidelines also affect patients with cancer and patients who no longer receive cancer treatment because, unfortunately, both groups report similar pain levels. The guidelines allow the use of opioids during cancer treatment, but they are confusing when it comes to equally severe, post-cancer treatment pain. I fear this “opioid” crisis is far from over, and yet, trust me, this will go down as “reefer madness” in another hundred years. It is a manufactured tragedy that does real harm to patients with intractable pain. The “opioid” crisis also hurts human beings who suffer from heroin, opioids or other addictions by siphoning money, goodwill, and energy.

Few people realize that the CDC hired a PR agency to help sell the American people myths on the “opioid epidemic.” The agency, PRR, designed graphics to “educate” primary care providers that “one in four patients on opioids will develop addiction.” Even the National Institute of Health,¹⁹ another federal entity, estimates this to be 5 percent, not 25 percent. Another research team²⁰ concluded in Pain Medicine that opioid therapy for chronic pain patients (note: in absence of prior or current drug abuse) resulted in a 0.19 percent incidence of abuse.

The language used by the media as well as PROP contributes to misunderstanding; using words like addiction, tolerance, dependence, abuse or opioid use disorder as if they mean the same, directs the casual observer to bias. It’s clear that PROP never was an independent, neutral entity advising the CDC, yet they ended up dictating federal policy, based on flawed evidence. Dr. Ballantyne, Dr. Franklin, and Dr. Kolodny in Politico.com²¹ in March 2018: “We agree with Satel that the answer is not to force millions of chronic pain patients to rapidly taper off medications they are now dependent on (Italics mine). But then, neither is the answer to absolve overprescribing for pain.”

I’m not a linguist, but in that essay, PROP uses the word “addiction/addicted” 16 times, and “dependence” twice. The CDC could have ensured that patients with severe to intractable pain (no such distinction is made) would not lose access to their medications. And yet, that is exactly what happened. Stable patients on long-term opioids were tapered against their will, as the CDC “Guidelines” state it is undesirable to titrate above or equal to 90 morphine milligram equivalent²² daily (aka MME/day). But this was meant for opioid-naive patients, not those on long-term opiate therapy. Primary care providers, who were forced to follow these “Guidelines,” either stopped prescribing opioids altogether or forced patients to rapidly taper to below 90 MME.

Dr. Ballantyne is correct in her remarks that it isn’t realistic to expect zero pain levels, especially for acute pain that is expected to resolve quickly, like a sprain or an uncomplicated fracture. But people with severe to intractable pain are condemned to a world of suffering. Recall my patient with the five back surgeries? I wonder about him. He was working full time, on 180 MME a day, but in his mid-fifties, arthritis would worsen soon. My own story did not end well; I ended up with yet another spinal cord lesion, a benign hemangioma at chest level, which causes “central neuropathic pain syndrome.” My old cauda equina syndrome morphed into “severe, chronic adhesive arachnoiditis.” This is an incurable, intractable, progressive neuroinflammatory disorder whose pain is considered on par with having terminal cancer pain. Still, I try to make the best of it, see my essay, On Being Bedbound.

The CDC and PROP came for me: after using opioids exactly as prescribed, and less than 30 MME daily, my primary care clinic was forced to stop my opioid prescription, and that of all patients. I was not accepted in any pain management clinic, in an urban area of almost one million. Pain clinics here no longer provide “medical management,” yet perform epidural steroid injections ($3000 a pop), which may have contributed to, or worsened my adhesive arachnoiditis syndrome. I’m lucky to live in an urban area, where the academic hospital’s pain team took over my prescription.

But what about elderly and impoverished patients, or those in rural areas? PROP and the CDC claim primary care providers “overprescribe” and are responsible for most of the opioid prescriptions. But they fail to publicly acknowledge that pain management clinics no longer accept patients. This epidemic of undertreated patients will become known as one of the cruelest moves by a Federal agency on an already compromised population. I do feel for teenagers and adults who become addicted. Yet there ought to be a different, more sensible approach towards legitimate, chronic pain patients who need opioid medications, as well as people who develop a substance use disorder, who deserve our help and sympathy.

It is a conundrum of extraordinary proportions. At a time when managed care and Electronic Health Records dictate the length and quality of an office visit, there is less and less time to sit down and connect with a patient. Not just with chronic pain patients. Medicine and society would benefit greatly from the extra time clinicians deserve, to encourage exercise, eat healthier, lose weight, stop smoking and assess if a patient needs other support, like therapy.

In my opinion, it is loneliness, the feeling of not being connected to humanity in a meaningful way, combined with economic hardship, that leads to unhealthy lifestyle choices, as witnessed by the Rustbelt being hit hardest. Research shows that rats who were offered spring water or water laced with heroin, choose heroin. When those same rats were given ample toys, space, and other rats to play and have sex with, they did not choose the heroin laced water. That’s right, happy rats don’t need no heroin!

It cannot be denied that in previous decades, pain was both undertreated, and opioid medications prescribed for relatively minor, self-resolving aches and pains. Forget for a moment, the narrative that places blame on overprescribing, the opioid manufacturers, or the pharmaceutical distributors that, for example, flooded impoverished communities like those in West Virginia.²³ Forget all that, and focus on what is going on. Ultimately, patients with intractable pain pay the price of ignorance by scientists, journalists, politicians, and laypeople alike.

For this humanitarian crisis, there are no perfect answers. For example, as Red Lawhern, Ph.D. and prominent pain advocate²⁴ recently communicated with me (12/3/2018): “there is promise in genetic testing but hasn’t yet been fully reduced to routine practice and may not be covered by insurance.” Luckily my DNA testing was covered, on the condition it tested for depression. I also discovered that ketamine infusions help me most, but will leave that topic for my upcoming book, The Queen of Ketamine. Sadly, amidst the opioid paranoia, non-invasive alternatives like ketamine infusions aren’t mentioned for neuropathic or intractable backpain, which often has a neuropathic component. Research also shows that adding an anti-seizure medication to an opiate mediation provides better neuropathic pain contral, with less morphine²⁵.

In the end, I don’t think Tai Chi, Tylenol and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is going to cut it for meningeal inflammation or other (neuropathic) pain syndromes. I believe the tide is turning. It will take time, and in that time, patients with intractable pain will choose to end their lives. But we are not alone, and it helps to know that courageous voices, notably the Alliance for Treatment of Intractable Pain, are speaking up for us. The print and online magazine Reason²⁶ has long been a voice of, well, reason. As Red Lawhern stated in a must-listen November 2018 radio interview,²⁷ “We must address underemployment, socioeconomic despair and hopelessness which are a vector for addiction. And end the War on Pain patients.”

Love, Kaatje

Kaatje Gotcha, model and stuntwoman-turned-Physician Assistant, found comedy, writing and advocacy after developing Adhesive Arachnoiditis. This spinal cord disease causes intractable neuropathic pain and leaves her mostly bedridden. Prior to that diagnosis, she’d survived a nighttime skydiving accident, landing at 70 mph. This caused Cauda Equina Syndrome; a subsequent lumbar puncture and epidural steroidal injections may have exacerbated her previous injuries.

Kaatje’s courageous spirit led to writing “The Queen of Ketamine,” available on Kindle in February. This is a comedic yet pragmatic memoir on adhesive arachnoiditis, the opioid “epidemic,” neuropathic pain, dating with a disability, while offering hope and practical advice. Kaatje’s 2018 TEDx talk and book publication will be posted on her Facebook page, at www.kaatjegotcha.com and Instagram @kaatjegotchacomedy. Find her essays on Medium, and follow her on twitter.

Cauda Equina Syndrome https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1148690-overview

Opioid Metabolism https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/771480

Controlled Substance Act https://www.dea.gov/controlled-substances-act

Alcohol Epidemic https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/alcohol-health/overview-alcohol-consumption/alcohol-facts-and-statistics

Opioid Epidemic Deception https://www.acsh.org/news/2017/10/12/opioid-epidemic-6-charts-designed-deceive-you-11935

Overdose Deaths by Heroin/Fentanyl 71percent https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/doh/downloads/pdf/epi/databrief89.pdf

Washington Legal Foundation and PROP https://www.forbes.com/sites/wlf/2015/12/15/cdc-bows-to-demands-for-transparency-and-public-input-on-draft-opioid-prescribing-guidelines/#c82eda135bc3

Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing http://www.supportprop.org/

Dr Kolodny refers to “Heroin” Pills https://www.healthline.com/health-news/secondary-drug-industry-booming-amid-opioid-epidemic#2

Dr Ballantyne’s Narrative https://www.statnews.com/2015/11/30/chronic-pain-intensity-scale/

Millennium Opioid Metabolite DNA Test https://www.millenniumhealth.com/services/test-offerings/

Opioid Serum Measurements http://paindr.com/serum-opioid-monitoring-wheres-the-evidence/

Medical Advisory Committee https://steverummlerhopenetwork.org/our-team/

NYT: Addiction Treatment with a Dark Side https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/17/health/in-demand-in-clinics-and-on-the-street-bupe-can-be-savior-or-menace.html

Sharp Rise in Buprenorphine ER Visits https://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/DAWN106/DAWN106/sr106-buprenorphine.htm

Heroin and Buprenorphine Molecular Profile http://paindr.com/heroin-hydrocodone-buprenorphine-prop-aganda/#comment-334500]

Q&A with Dr. Kolodny, Phoenix House https://www.kolmac.com/2015/12/qa-dr-andrew-kolodny-chief-medical-officer-phoenix-house/

Fentanyl, as Reported by CNN https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/12/health/fentanyl-opioid-deaths/index.html

NIH Estimates Pain Patient “Addiction” 5 Percent https://medlineplus.gov/magazine/issues/spring11/articles/spring11pg9.html

Pain Patient “Opioid Use Disorder” without Risk Factors 0.19 percent https://academic.oup.com/painmedicine/article/9/4/444/1824073

Rebuttal by Dr. Kolodny and Dr. Ballantyne https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/03/13/opioid-overprescribing-is-not-a-myth-217338

Morphine Equivalent Dosing https://www.wolterskluwercdi.com/sites/default/files/documents/ebooks/morphine-equivalent-dosing-ebook.pdf?v3

https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/cops_and_courts/drug-firms-poured-m-painkillers-into-wv-amid-rise-of/article_99026dad-8ed5-5075-90fa-adb906a36214.html

Red Lawhern, PhD and nationally known Pain Patient Advocate http://face-facts.org/lawhern/

Combining epilepsy drug, morphine can result in less pain, lower opioid dose. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140915153613.htm

Jacob Sullum, Reason journalist and syndicated writer https://reason.com/archives/2018/03/08/americas-war-on-pain-pills-is#comment

“Unleashed” Matt Connarton Interviews Red Lawhern 11/28/18 https://www.spreaker.com/user/ipmnation/matt-connarton-unleashed-11-28-18

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alexander-the-fox-blog · 7 years

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The Sick Life

So the purpose of this is to blog about my experience with being chronically ill. My hope for it is to share with those that suffer for similar reason and what I do to help, to give some perspective to those who love them, and to watch my progress.

My chronic illness peaked the summer after I graduated high school. I had spent the last 4 or 5 months of high school on anti-biotics back to back for various infections including bronchitis, sinus infections, and step-throat. I was taking my antibiotics as directed and was taking well care of myself, probably under ore stress then usual due to graduation, but besides that I was taking good care of myself. I kept getting sick no matter what though, and not just minor things.

So I ended up having surgery to remove my tonsils because they seemed to be the source of all the infections. At the same time I had some of my nasal passage removed (allergies to every type of grass that caused my air ways to swell shut) and a hole in my ear drum patched). I lost about 15 pounds after this surgery leaving me at 83 pounds. Which seems bad enough as is but let me mention the fact that I started my senior year at 114 pounds. That’s a 31 pound difference. At this point I’m stressed and a bit concerned, but hush those thoughts with the fact that I should be able to gain the weight back now that I won’t be sick at the time. Yeah..If I had have known how it was going to be I would have stayed concerned but it wasn't the months to follow the start of my freshmen year in college that I realized how serious all of it was.

I had gotten on this kick that I was going to eat healthier, and work out more, and just take better care of my body in general. Getting sick back to back like that for months on end and just feeling so terrible encourage me to take preventive action to keep from wasting another year away like that. i figured what better way to be proactive then to get in shape and eat right. I don’t even get through the first week of school without this being shut down. I start the semester off with being diagnosed with chronic bronchitis. I’m pissed and sick and annoyed but try to shake it off and keep at the health life style and focus on school and rest. After about three months of being on antibiotics for a couple of different problems (bronchitis, and strep mainly) I started to take notes of some minor side effects (or what I thought at least) that had begun to be more of a problem. I started to deal with feeling fullness after a couple of bites. My ibs was out of control that's if I was having problems on the other spectrum and just not shiting at all. I was having terrible acid reflux which turned into spells of vomiting. I kept making appointments and asking if this was side effects, flu, or something all on its own because I wasn't getting better and everything else was getting worse. I got turned away with finish your antibiotics, or its just a stomach virus going around, basically with excuses and more pills.

When I fell down to 83 pounds again and was struggling to maintain I had decided to find a professional gastro doctor of some sort who would at least be able to help me maintain weight. Unfortunately the world decided I needed to act quicker and threw a curveball at me to get my attention. The morning of my fucking final exam for my anatomy class that I had already been struggling with due to my health was the day my body decided to nope the fuck out. I got up about 8am with the intent to study a little more before my exam. I ended up getting up to puke my face off and tremendous amount of pain in my stomach. I spend the next two hours debating laying down and just giving in to the pain or going to the er and getting some help. I give in and go, which half way through the walk there I realized was the right choice because I was so dehydrated and malnourished that it took all of me to keep from passing out. I then spent the next 8 hours hooked up to an i.v. and in and out of sleep. It was laying there that I realized there was something much bigger was going on.

I mentioned all the health issues but it was causing way more problems then physical. It made going to class difficult and sometimes impossible. I had lost ability to focus and remember things. I was depressed and stressed. I had no interest in a social life due to having no energy for it. My free time had become rest time. I was sleeping 14 to 16 hours a day just to deal with the pain and try to keep my food down. Water was a no go half the time at this point. I was still trying to eat healthy but It wasn't doing any good. The leafy greens and grains were coming back up whole. I didn't understand what was going on.

I then spent the next two years yo-yoing in weight and going through doctor after doctor with no answers. It wasn't until I had a radio active egg test that I started to get some answers. This test literally is you eating a radioactive egg so that they can see how long it takes for you stomach to break it down. After 4 hours and no more then 15% being digested they had an idea of what could be wrong.

Gastroparesis “Stomach Paralysis”, Idiopathic in my case.

A condition in which the stomach is paralysed or partially paralysed and does not move food or liquids through the digestive tract. Symptoms include nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, bloating, early satiety, malnutrition, and dehydration. Currently there are few treatment options and no known cure. A disease that literally causes starvation.

Other complications; -if food stays to long in the stomach it can ferment. Bacterial growth and infections can occur from this. -Food left in the stomach can form bezoar. These solid masses cause painful, dangerous blockages.

That just a few of them but you get the idea.

I know I ranted and such but I wanted to get an outline of my journey to finding out I was chronically ill. For me personally it was not just physically but mentally exhausting and I’m sure if you are another sick kid reading this then you’ve got a pretty good idea of what i'm talking about.

This shit sucks but there is definitely a lot I have learned in the past 5 years but Ive decided to step it up and see just how much better I can treat my body and try to figure all that I can do to make this life easier and more enjoyable.

-Alex

#gastroparesis #sickkidlife #chronically ill #healthy life

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lenaglittleus · 7 years

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Post-Injury Tips to Help You Recover Faster

“Hey, don’t cry,” said the ER nurse, approaching my hospital bed. “We got that arm back in.”

Yes we did. It took two doctors, the nurse, me, the threat of being put under general anesthetic, and two giant IV bags of pain meds to do it. And it still hurt like hell. But that’s not why I was crying.

My injury was a season ender.

I had been doing a simple shoulder stretch at home—something I had done countless times before—when my shoulder dislocated suddenly. The sound was sickening. The pain was immediate. And after trying (and failing) to get my shoulder back into its socket on my own, I headed to the ER. Again.

It was the first time I had dislocated my shoulder while stretching, but it was the third time in as many years that it had popped out of its socket and refused to go back in, landing me in the ER. And as the doctor explained, strike three meant surgery.

That was in August 2016. I had surgery less than two months later, becoming yet another pro athlete with a career-pausing injury.

It is a universally acknowledged truth that injuries suck, and for an athlete, the pain isn’t even the worst part. If you live to compete, the most excruciating aspect of becoming injured is being unable to do what you love (training and racing). Most of us experience that disappointment at some point. Injuries are frustratingly common in endurance sports. We push our bodies to their limits, asking them to cover hundreds of miles each week across multiple athletic disciplines. It’s hardly surprising that they sometimes break and fail.

Until it happens to you. Then it’s definitely surprising and more than a little heartbreaking. If you’re lucky, and your injury is relatively minor, you can heal it yourself in a few days or weeks with a bit of smart self-care and rehab. But if your injury is serious enough to require prolonged medical attention—as mine was—you’ll need to play the long game, and how well you play it will determine how long you have to. Here’s what I learned from nearly a year on the sidelines, and how you can recover faster after an injury.

Find the Right Doctor

Finding a healthcare professional who knows your sport and has both an excellent reputation and extensive experience treating athletes is key for expediting your diagnosis and recovery. That’s because they’ll understand how your injury will affect your ability to move in the context of your sport, thus allowing them to customize your treatment plan and develop a realistic prognosis for how long it will take you to return to training and racing. Believe me when I say that such “insider” care can make a world of difference, especially when it comes to minimizing your recovery time.

How do you find such a physician? Ask friends and training buddies for recommendations, consult with your coach, and (most important) do your own research. Before finally settling on a doctor to perform for my surgery, there wasn’t a shoulder surgeon west of the Rockies that I didn’t Google-stalk. I ultimately chose the one that I did because he had been a competitive cyclist, had a successful track record treating athletes, and came highly recommended by a friend who’s a physical therapist, and whom I trust implicitly. When my friend said “EK, I would trust him with my shoulder, and I’ve seen hundreds of his patients,” I knew that I had found the right doc. It’s your body, and you want to make sure you have 100 percent faith in whomever you choose to repair it.

Accept Your Situation

As the saying goes “Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.” When you receive your post-injury diagnosis and prognosis, be ready to accept them regardless of whether or not they’re what you hoped to hear.

I came by that advice the hard way. When I went to see my shoulder specialist to learn the results of my MRI, I expected him to tell me that I could fix my injury with intensive physical therapy. Instead he told me that without surgery there was a 100 per cent chance my shoulder would dislocate again. “Surgery is a when,” he said, “not an if.”

His diagnosis hit me like a freight train. I wanted to cry. I struggled not to scream. I bit my tongue, fighting back the urge to tell him that his years of medical experience must have been ill spent if he couldn’t see that my injury wasn’t serious.

I was wrong and he was right, of course, but It took me a while to accept that. Some people liken the psychological process of dealing with a serious injury to that of grieving, suggesting that both follow the same progression—denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. I’m still not sure which phase I was in when I went under the knife a couple of weeks later. I knew it’s what I had to do have any hope of remaining a professional athlete, but I definitely had not accepted my situation yet. I just didn’t see any other option that had any chance of helping me return to racing.

Learn from my mistake. If you are recovering from an injury—especially one that required surgery—I urge you to do all you can to move through the grieving process as quickly as possible. That’s easier said than done, but if you surround yourself with strong people you trust and love—and who feel the same way about you—it expedites the process tremendously. They can help you see that your injury is just a blip on your athletic journey. It doesn’t define you, and it won’t last forever. It’s almost a rite of passage. When you realize all of that, you can finally start healing.

I speak from experience. After I reached the acceptance stage, everything—and I mean everything—became a whole lot easier. It took me almost two months to get there, but once I did, I stopped trying to rush my rehab, and I committed to following my treatment plan to the letter. Almost immediately, my progress began to pick up speed.

Treat Rehab Like Training

Endurance athletes are incredible creatures. To succeed at what we do, we need intense focus, a strong work ethic, and an unwavering dedication to our sport. All of these things help us through the highs and lows of training and racing, including getting injured.

Although it took me a while to accept my post-injury situation, I eventually threw myself into my rehabilitation with the same guts and gusto with which I train. I went to three one-hour physical therapy sessions a week, and did two sessions of mind-numbingly tedious rehabilitation exercises a day. Don’t get me wrong—my path to recovery wasn’t smooth. Far from it—my arm/shoulder complex had been unstable for years, and I had learned a lot of dysfunctional patterns to compensate for that. Unlearning those patterns took longer than anticipated, but I stayed focused, tried to remain positive, and kept telling myself that it would all work out in the end (which, of course, it did).

Through it all, I refused to allow myself to be just an “injured athlete,” waiting idly for my shoulder to heal. I used all of the free time that would otherwise have gone to training to pursue other passions and pastimes. That helped me keep my head in a good place. I also learned how important it is to maintain a sense of humor. The road to rehabilitation is not always an easy one, so staying upbeat is a key part of remaining motivated. Indeed, maintaining the ability to laugh at oneself during bleak times can be powerful medicine.

Focus On What You Can Do, Not On What You Can’t

It’s easy to get hung up on everything that you’re missing after an injury. Your training buddies might be posting all sorts of PRs on Strava and talking about upcoming events with the same excitement and fervor that you typically do. Competitors might be winning races that you feel you could have won. And you might find yourself filling out race refund requests instead of registration forms. But you need to learn to shut all of that out and train your brain to focus what you can do, because, trust me, there is still a great deal that you can do to stay in shape and work toward your goals.

Even though my right arm was completely out of action, I managed to swim using only my left arm three or four times a week from mid-November through March. That’s nearly five months of one-armed swimming, but it meant that I could get in the pool, see my teammates, and maintain my feel for the water, which is important for swim stroke mechanics. I also spent a lot of time in the pool doing vertical kicking and kicking with fins or a kickboard, all of which turned me into a total demon kicker; there’s no one on my team who can touch me at kicking now!

Outside of the pool, I began going on long walks, running on an AlterG (anti-gravity) treadmill, riding gently on the trainer, and working with my strength coach in the gym (mostly on core and lower body conditioning). Progress was slow, but my coach and I were able to gradually increase my training volume the so that by April/May I was putting together a 13 to 15-hour training week. Granted, that’s less than half of the time I usually spend training each week, but it was progress, and it felt good.

Focus on Prevention

Once you experience the sidelines, you never want to return to them. The best way to do that is with “prehab,” which means incorporating exercises that can help prevent future injuries into your training program. Even though my shoulder is healed, I continue to do a lot of joint-specific strength and mobility work to keep it healthy, for example.

I also can’t advocate enough the importance of following a total-body strength and conditioning program. You don’t need to hit the gym nearly as often as you run, swim, or bike, but logging a couple of hours there each week can increase your speed and power, and greatly reduce your risk of injury.

The winter months are the perfect time to build a strength base, which will help ensure that your body is robust enough to handle all of the miles you plan to put it through come spring. So will eating healthfully, sleeping adequately, and engaging in regular self-care (foam rolling, stretching, mobility training, etc.). If you look after your body, it will reward you.

from News About Health https://www.beachbodyondemand.com/blog/recovery-post-injury

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