Holistic Doc's Pain Support Blog

Medical fibromyalgia treatment, such as it is

Tue, 15 May 2012 21:34:13 GMT

The last three lines of this abstract tell a common tale.
If you have widespread bodily pain and are unwell, a conventional medical assessment is really important. If it is something like hypothyroidism for which effective treatment is available and essential, well and good.
Fibromyalgia always needs more than drugs.

Belly Button Biodiversity Project

Tue, 08 May 2012 08:45:56 GMT

Now don't be disgusted, they're mostly quite nice germs.
Lots of them too. The first 100 brave souls to be swabbed, had 1400 different strains of bacteria between them.
Valuable information from gene studies.

Our babies have vulnerable brains.

Thu, 03 May 2012 22:09:06 GMT

Horrifying effects from intra-uterine exposure to an agricultural pesticide.
Chlorpyrifos is dangerous enough to have been banned from household use for over 10 years, but is still used on our food crops!
These children had it measured at birth and were studied years later. We are talking about long term effects enough to affect even the growth of their brains.

Neuropathic pain - primer in the science

Thu, 03 May 2012 11:30:07 GMT

This is well out of date in this exploding field. 2006 is long ago in science.
It is full of technical terms as well.
If this hasn't put you off and you're prepared to consult wikipedia along the way, it will be a very valuable read.

Good for Californians, good for everyone everywhere.

Tue, 01 May 2012 08:37:32 GMT

Local volunteers and global donors needed, to support legislation just to know what you're eating.
Incredible, isn't it, that food labelling is presently so slack, hiding GMO ingredients.
This has to change.

Resveratrol - valuable Polyphenol

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 23:17:05 GMT

Resveratrol is a phytoalexin antioxidant in red grapes.
Cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases, cancer, fungal, bacterial and viral infections. The list of conditions potentially helped, goes on and on.
It drops weight, blood pressure, glucose, and insulin resistance in rodents, and a human trial on this is proceeding.
Worth looking into.

That old perennial problem - the FDA of USA

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 10:06:02 GMT

This is just in case you don't already subscribe to Dr. Mercola's newsletter.
It's a problem for everyone, as lots of supplements come from USA.
Thanks for raising your voices.

Friendly bacteria cheer up anxious mice.

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 09:12:23 GMT

Quoted from Nature (http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110830/full/news.2011.510.html)
The complete original article is below. The introduction and conclusions have good information.
Do cultivate friendship with your bowel germs. What goes around comes around.

A friend from the earth - copper in your socks

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 03:53:28 GMT

Dr. Borkow co-authored a letter to Archives of Dermatology in January, entitled "Resolution of skin maladies of the trapped Chilean miners: the unplanned underground copper-impregnated antifungal socks 'trial'."
Another positive trial was reported 4 years ago. See http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20307427

Earth day is here again - and there's time to get involved.

Sat, 21 Apr 2012 00:14:13 GMT

I hope your Spring or Autumn is treating you kindly.
Here's a chance to contribute to treating nature kindly.
With love...

That's what friends are for

Sun, 08 Apr 2012 11:46:08 GMT

Andy was around for tea tonight and introduced me to 27bslash6.
Wonderful stupidity. Should be more of it.
Bit hard on chiropractors.
Enjoy.

Expert opinions on ensuring tests are appropriate.

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 21:43:05 GMT

These opinions are evidence and consensus based, and are presented by specialty.
They may give you something to usefully discuss with your doctor at some stage.

Supplements can help diabetes

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 21:38:59 GMT

600 mcg of chromium picolinate plus 2mg biotin helped more than a placebo, without any adverse effects, in this study.
This was in people not adequately helped by their drug therapy.
Attention to lifestyle and diet still remains the most important, however.

The importance of enough sleep

Sun, 01 Apr 2012 00:28:30 GMT

This study in older men regarding new onset of ("incident") high blood pressure, is applicable to all ages and most health conditions.
We repair our bodies during sleep.
Sleep before midnight is very valuable.
Worth making it a priority.

On vitamin D 3 and dementia

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 22:44:52 GMT

Beta amyloid accumulates in the Alzheimer dementia affected brain, doesn't do it any good.
The healthy brain's macrophage (big eater) cells gobble it up. This process, deficient in AD, is apparently restored by cholecalciferol.
Yet another good reason to get out in the sun.
See 5th abstract down, pp 51-62, at...

Undiagnosed Maxilliary Pain

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 10:01:06 GMT

A year ago, I had 2 teeth removed on one side of mouth, an upper 1st molar and lower 2nd molar. I still have burning pain in the upper jaw and the gum

Information you'll probably never need

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 09:28:48 GMT

Desperate situations may require desperate measures, but these ones are easy.
Doses of 1gm vitamin C, 300mg alpha lipoic acid, 200mg vitamin E and 200mcg Selenium all twice a day, are suggested as part of emergency radiation protection.
The link below is to an interesting 5.1MB pdf, but that is the basic information.

Californian ballot on GMO labelling

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 20:29:36 GMT

Live in California?
Here's your chance to help ensure you know exacly what you're buying. Your initiative will encourage people elsewhere to also take action.
Otherwise you may unwittingly be part of this potentially dangerous experiment on human health.

Too much of a good thing

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 06:08:14 GMT

American soils have plenty of selenium. Australian soils are short of it. Our food chain follows.
The rule that supplementation will confer benefit only if intake of a nutrient is inadequate, while definitely not universal, appears to apply to Selenium.
What level is adequate? There's the rub¹. RDAs are worked out from existing knowledge with a prudential margin. They're likely to be way behind the latest information, as with any consensus position.
1. http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-the3.htm

Menstrual period pain and vitamin D

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 09:44:54 GMT

A small number of women involved and only a short time of observation. No information as to when and whether a repeat dose might be useful. Lots of problems not answered by this study.
HOWEVER, where there's smoke there's fire.
Could end up being useful.

It's Fairtrade Fortnight in Oz, how about USA?

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 20:52:53 GMT

Enjoying your coffee or cocoa?
Any idea where it was sourced, or who got their income from growing it?
Here's an organization devoted to justice in that area, having their annual publicity fortnight.
Maybe check them out.

Showing your AGE affected DNA?

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 10:32:08 GMT

Sugar sticks to things, including our DNA.
More sugar, more advanced glycation endproducts, more trouble.
Note on lines 8-9 of the abstract below, the healthy volunteers with more vitamin B6 had less affected DNA.
More vitamins, less trouble.

Rotate between different classes of antibiotics.

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 22:13:19 GMT

Your resident bacteria have increased rates of resistance to an antibiotic, for up to 12 months after a course of any of that class of antibiotic.
The greater the number or duration of antibiotic courses prescribed in the previous 12 months, the greater the chance of this.
Best to ask what you can do other than take antibiotic, and if you need repeated courses ask if they can rotate between different types.

Cannabis relieves pain, could be available.

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 10:47:41 GMT

This is a relatively safe drug, here shown to be effective in people with chronic pain already on opioids.
The hemp plant has lots of other uses as well. Surely it is possible to grow it in secure establishments.
It deserves serious consideration.

Another excellent resource - on vitamin D

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 10:44:00 GMT

If you've any health concerns, there may be something here for you.
The 2000 IU/day dose for avoiding influenza is just 2 capsules. If you search the site with "dose" they have lots of suggested doses per condition. They want to see levels steady throughout the year, without rapid fluctuations.

Best 4 indicators of early cognitive decline.

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 02:36:01 GMT

http://www.alz.org/alzheimers_disease_10_signs_of_alzheimers.asp has good info. The best 4 in recent research are under results in the abstract on page 2 of the paper below.
Now is the time to introduce comprehensive nutritional treatment. Vitamin E for example, consists of eight substances (alpha-, beta-, gamma, and delta-tocopherol; alpha-, beta-, gamma-, and delta-tocotrienol.) Alpha tocopherol alone has been inconsistent, probably as it reduces absorption of dietary gamma T.

pain on bottom of toe where toe touches surface

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 08:24:48 GMT

Occasionally - no pattern yet but seems mostly mornings but not always. The underside of my middle toe at the tip - which I would call the ball gets

Or your lower back? Epidural injections can help here.

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 10:24:07 GMT

The abstract, introduction and discussion parts of this paper will give you a lot of the information.
People with facet joint pain or sciatica were excluded, leaving those who had pain possibly from discs.
Caudal injections helped more than half of these people with chronic low back pain which had resisted previous treatments.

Sore neck? Read on

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 10:21:34 GMT

"No important differences in pain were found between SMT and HEA at any time point."
Spinal manipulation therapy and home exercises were equally effective and both better than just swallowing pills.
Jaw problems and low blood sugar are also worth considering as possible aggravating factors.

Maybe better to leave our germs alone

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:10:11 GMT

Paraben antiseptics are also weak oestrogens.
In breast tissue they were found more near the armpit, probably from underarm deodorants. That's where more breast cancers are found, so questions are being asked about a possible connection.
Probably better to avoiod them.

Trauma to teeth and mouth pain

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 20:00:15 GMT

I had a rough dental cleaning that chipped teeth and took enamel off and cracked fillings. I have been with this dentist 30 years. He tried to say normal

Raw (milk) action

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 01:58:32 GMT

Some judge has denied people have the right to consume the milk from their own cow.
Something is distinctly wrong in the state of Wisconsin, and apparently in most of North America.
Please consider helping Support Michael Schmidt.

The Raw Milk Institute

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 10:57:21 GMT

This won't be news for you if you subscribe to Dr. Mercola's newsletter.
Perfectly good food, if properly produced and handled. Should be legal everywhere.
Worth some effort to ensure this.

Latest dampener on prostate screening.

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 20:53:13 GMT

Half of the men in the control arm did have at least one PSA test. This would reduce but not eliminate any benefit in the active arm of this study.
About prostate cancer screening, the jury is still out, but any benefit is very likely to be small and counterbalanced by bad effects.

Electronic cigarettes apparently acceptable

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 21:13:43 GMT

In this Italian study, 22 of 40 volunteers who didn't want to stop smoking, actually did end up reducing it.
"Participants would enthusiastically recommend the e-Cigarette to friends or relatives who wanted to stop/reduce smoking."
The full study report is here...

Dangers of self diagnosis.

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 08:48:42 GMT

These people probably had some health concern for them to consider taking supplements.
Their efforts were off the mark sufficiently often for whatever they had wrong to catch up with them and influence the statistics.
Iron deficiency in women after their menopause, needs investigation for gastro-oesophageal bleeding.

More from New Zealand on cervical dysplasia

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 21:28:57 GMT

From the land where the Cartwright Commission of Inquiry¹ in 1988 dealt with unethical research on this subject, new evidence emerges.
CIN 2 resolved without treatment in 2/3rds of the young women whose doctors considered delay was safe. None of them got cancer of the cervix.
Folate isn't enough² but I wonder if that figure would have been higher if comprehensive nutritional advice had been given.

1.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartwright_Inquiry#Green_experiments
2.http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/content/4/2/155.short

Men and fitness, chickens and eggs.

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 10:32:00 GMT

Middle aged men whose fitness increased, subsequently died less during this study. Increased fitness and death were inversely related.
Perhaps the men with (eventually) lethal diseases were less able to get fit.
Association doesn't prove cause and effect.

NRDC taking on the FDA on BPA

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 23:43:46 GMT

Don't you just love acronyms.
The National Resources Defense Council sounds like a worthy cause. They have forced the government to do their duty, clearly something which wasn't going to happen any time soon.
While on that subject, if you're not already an avaaz petitioner consider looking at them at http://www.avaaz.org/en/

A Blog about a blogger.

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 21:12:01 GMT

I was just asked to renew my subscription to the HealingWell Newsletter, and had a look at Peter's blog.
You may like to do likewise.
Good guy.

Science proves yoga benefits

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 08:16:54 GMT

Shreelaxmi Hegde and co-workers have shown what was always obvious. Yoga helps people.
The malondialdehyde is a nasty from oxidative damage of polyunsaturated oils. If you take a supplement of the latter, it's a good idea to also supplement with vitamin E to protect the oil from oxidation.
Vitamin E is recycled by vitamin C, and that in turn by glutathione and that finally by lipoic acid. These antioxidants are team players.

Hooray for the Raw Milk Freedom Riders

Sat, 26 Nov 2011 01:59:22 GMT

See also http://rawmilkfreedomriders.wordpress.com/home/
Good stuff if you can get your hands on it.

Interested in your germs?

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 20:39:59 GMT

This is pretty readable and very interesting. We've about 100 trillion germs apiece and they obviously have a large role in our health.
If you are buying a probiotic, look for one with a lot of different organisms rather than just one or two.
Feed them well. They like fruit and vegetables.

Insecticide madness - dementia actually

Sat, 19 Nov 2011 09:46:32 GMT

Xenobiotics abound - chemicals foreign to us and often disagreeable. Deltamethrin is supposed to be one of the safest insecticides, but rat brain obviously doesn't like it.
The Nrf2 protein it increases is to protect the brain, and is even touted as a treatment for human neurodegenerative dieases.
See http://www.news.wisc.edu/10564, which is a bit more interesting than the reference below...
Use mechanical methods against insects whenever possible.

Another call to action.

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 10:52:37 GMT

Hi everyone, I hope you don’t mind receiving this e-mail. I am sending it to everyone in my e-mail address book and to anyone I think can help Dr. Burzynski fight the injustice he has endured in order to bring the world effective cancer treatments. The Texas Medical Board and the FDA in the USA have taken Dr. Burzynski to the highest court in the land in order to stop him curing people of some of the most aggressive cancers such as Glioblastoma Multiforma using non-toxic antineoplastons. I viewed the Dr. Burzynski movie; a documentary movie about Dr. Burzynski’s 40 years of research and success with cancer treatment and about the corruption at the highest level of government to stop this noble doctor from saving lives and bringing the world his amazing treatments. The legal action taken against him is unprecedented, which only confirms that they are seriously threatened by this man’s discoveries. Apparently, the FDA policy is that they would not approve a cancer treatment from an individual, it has to be a major pharmaceutical company, for obvious financial reasons. While they were bleeding Dr. Burzynski financially through legal action, they stole his patents, raided his hospital and stole patient files and research files. Now they are at it again, this time stopping him from using FDA approved drugs off label which when used in combinations appropriate to the genetic makeup of the person and their cancer cells, amazing success was achieved, with rapid shrinkage of tumours. I urge you all to watch and buy the Burzynski movie and share this information with your friends. All funds raised go towards research and to pay for legal expenses. Without our help, Dr. Burzynski could lose his licence, his hospital and all future research will be halted. The world would have to wait a long time for an effective cancer treatment to be developed. Please do not ignore this call for help! Kind regards, Miryana Baran ( who relayed the message from Renee Trimble Director, Public Relations Burzynski Clinic 9432 Katy Freeway, Houston, Texas 77055 (713) 335-5697) Also see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCrsn8ziGWU

Antioxidants work in teams

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 20:14:40 GMT

Fatty liver is the most common liver disease in the world, affecting 20% of people in USA.
In this condition vitamin E plus alpha lipoic acid was better than either alone (combined with a diet.)
Very refreshing to see this sort of work being done in mainstream medicine.

Curing your new diabetes rapidly

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 21:05:03 GMT

These people had type 2 diabetes for less than 4 years, but lost it in a week!
The treatment was a 600kcal per day diet. Not an easy ask, but it shows it can be done.
An excellent way to start if just diagnosed with diabetes.

Vitamin D and breast cancer prevention

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 20:57:54 GMT

Carole Baggerly talking to Dr. Mercola about an all too frequent scenario - her own.
Enough vitamin D and breast cancer down to 50%!!
It's enough to bring a tear to one's eye.

And I like to nag or harp, on my soapbox

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 11:18:45 GMT

Hale Dwoskin has some nice little exercises here, for helping one to "get connected."
I'd like to push once again for people to learn about our banking system and credible alternatives, at Paul Grignon's http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVkFb26u9g8 video.
We need more than just protest.

And I like Ted too

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 09:36:30 GMT

You probably know him already. My son just introduced us.
This post is just in case, like me, you need new horizons opening up to wile away the (otherwise boring) hours.
I dream (when I have a minute.)