Has anyone just STOPPED medical pain releif for chronic pain, and/or replaced it with natural pain relief?

[PavlovtheCat]

In particular back pain joint pain, arthritis etc other inflammatory or degenerative conditions (not for medical conditions or illness that will worsen/eccelerate the ill or condition without medicine) that cause chronic pain where long term (often high doses of) painkillers are needed?

I am reading about long term use of NSAIDs increasing joint degeneration, increased tolerance/reduced effects of long term us of codiene/tramadol etc, not to mention the side effects of using and then coming off them after long term use. Steroid injections can increase joint degeneration too it seems. And generally having artificial chemicals in your body For significant periods seems unhealthy in itself!

I have been reading about use of glucosamine,omega 3, ginger, turmeric, oils in evening primrose oil, and other stuff to reduce inflammation. And exercise, mindfulness, meditation to cope with pain, myo fascia, release and other massage for releasing toxin buildup in muscles.

Has anyone swapped conventional painkillers for natural remedies?, either now or ever? What do you use/what did you try?

Or, Did you find you had to take some cnvential pain releif but could reduce significantly?

leonie wow that is a lot of walking! i am not sure i could walk the school run, its 3 miles each way on a busy heavily congested (and thus fume filled) road! but, i could start walking to work again, once i am back on track, that is 20-30 mins each way (probably much more than that now!). I will talk to physio about that though, wont just go stomping off!

sirboob hello lovely. I did not know dairy was an inflammatory. i have lot of it in my diet, and wheat, which I have just read is also. But, they are not causing my inflammation, so if so, would it really help to cut those things out/reduce? DH and I have spoken before, and keep bringing up how we would probably be healthier with less of those things, but it just does not happen.

I suspect my life needs a massive overhaul in many ways

My theory is it can't hurt to try. Sometimes foods affect us more than we realise. Keeping a food and activity diary, and a note of pain level along side, can be good for getting an idea of what helps / makes things worse.

I have very severe back and pelvic problems, my Consultants are always amazed at how little painkillers I get by on. My reasoning is, they don't make that much of a difference and the side effects are bloody awful.

I was taking hefty doses of Tramadol, and it helped but it gave me migraines(about 15 a month) so there was little benefit. I have been given another, very new opiate, and the side effects are vile which is putting me off using them.

I don't take anti- inflammatories because they give me indigestion. I take regular Paracetomol, Lyrica, Amytryptiline, Accupan. I use ice packs, sometimes they are first aid ones sometimes condoms filled with water and frozen. I find heat increases the inflammation. I, also, have a TENs machine that is like my comfort blanket!

My biggest reason for not taking all the pills offered to me is that I am not going to get better, and I worry that there will come a time when my pain is much worse than it is now and there won't be anything available to me that I haven't built up resistance to.

Ah ok, it can be difficult to offer advice if you don't know what it is that's causing the pain - if it's neurological that's quite often a really different approach to a joint problem iykwim, different things can cause damage. I think as far as the trials go it can depend who has funded them, there is actually a large market for alternative health that also has a profit motive for running a trial that will enable them to sell more of their product.

leonie thats brilliant you can manage a walk like that - but with similar regard to above it's doing things like that that sent me down the route towards permanent wheelchair user. Whereas swimming (endorphins :) ) and pilates have helped me at least retain weight bearing and reduce the ammount of joint damage I cause when moving.

trickle the pain is from lumbar disc problems (degenerative disc disease), which while is not joint pain, my understanding is that some of the pain i experience, and the chronic pain at that is not completely disimilar to arthritis, and I wanted this to be more about how other people find the holistic approach works, or does not work for them, rather than going on about me again. i can then look at how people manage their own lives with pain and see what things, if any i can draw on for myself. And maybe even share some of these things with others who might read. but mostly, selfishly, for me

(some of which is neurological, and some is localised back pain, i am starting to get that meurological pain is not really very easy to take away, not without medication which makes me forget entire sentences when I try to hold a conversation!)

land i like your theory, and it is that way which i would like to be if i can make it work. I was taking diclofenac, and then as i developed indigestion, omemprozole was added, so that means i am taking a medication due to the side effects of another medication, and 4 different meds at a pop. if can get away from that, i would love to, and as you say, save it for when i might really need it.

I can't sleep well on tramadol. it makes me wired. i talk more than i normally do on it too. and i normally talk a lot . occasionally, like last weekend, i get some odd reaction going on, hot flushes, faint, threw up. so when the pain is not crippling, the meds are.

and no wine either

Fair enough :) I have friends with neuro pain and unfortunatly from what they tell me it is pretty much impossible to treat without meds. One of them is now using the new cannabis based drug, she prefers it to opiate based pain killers and I know quite a lot of people still using the illigal version as that works for them. Not advocating breaking the law but you are asking what other people use. I will say that the legal version seems to have less side effects than the illigal one - which for obvious reasons you can't take in regulated quantities at specified times and guarentee the outcome.

Also antiinflamatory gels that you rub on - they don't have the stomach problems I don't think and I find them brilliant for localised pain.

You can get capsacin cream from the GP that does bugger all heats the area to try to help. I find red tiger balm works much better but it is pretty kick ass in terms of heat - sometimes it's the pain from the heat providing a distraction that works first before it starts doing it's job of relaxing the muscles.

Pavlov I have chronic pain (although focused in a different area) and have done for years and agree with Dairy being an aggrivator for pain flare ups. Also Caffine is another one that has an accumulative affect and will trigger a flare up. A little and occassionally and neither are a problem. But in large quantities or over long periods of time is when it becomes a problem.

I the words of Tim Minchin - alternative medicine that works is called medicine.

I'd rather take a measured dose of aspirin than an unmeasured dose of willow bark.

I think 'complementary' therapy is better where you use natural thiings to help augment the medical treatments so I will use camomile tea, but I will also take my antiinflamatories. I use a TENS, I'm interested in meditation and I have also used acupuncture.

I have chronic pain and only take extra strength tylonol and aleve for it. For years I took codeine and tramacet, but they make me so itchy now I can't stand it. I am going to ask my doctor about medical marijuana. I find using ice (cold packs wrapped in soft fabric) helps me the most.
I will use muscle relaxants but only for over powering muscle spasms, which is rare for me unless I hurt myself. (finally learning my limits)
A friend of a friend has begun using Geranium Oil, or Oregano for his knee pain. I have to e-mail our mutual friends and ask which oil it is, as I am going to try it. He swears by it.

It's oregano oil I think www.disabled-world.com/fitness/nutrition/fats-oils/oil-of-oregano.php

i know several friends who self medicate with cannabis, and while i dont and wont use it myself (would not look great in my my criminal justice field of work ) they swear by it helping immensely. I would be interested to look at the medical versions at some point. I should think i need to be in the medical system having tried a million things first before they would consider me for it though, expect it is expensive. i agree with nothing helping with neurological pain other than meds, it sucks, I am living with it as I am not able to function on the meds offered so far (gabapentin).

I have been itching loads, in particular my hands and feet. i did not consider the tramadol causing it! now i know.

Pavolov Biologics are drugs made on a different way to conventional drugs.
Conventional drugs are made by combining chemicals, biologics combine human or animal proteins. Technically vaccines & insulin are a type of Biologic drug, however the phase is generally used to mean a specific type of drug that is used to tackle specific diseases like auto immune diseases as they target a very specific cell in the body's immune system & switch it off.
They are only used in specific conditions and they are quite scary (sideeffects - generally ok but huge increase in cancer risk )but are very effective. Not used too much as they are very expensive.
I love mine as they work extremely well.

I have used weed to help in the past. It does help - but makes you incredibly hungry, and to be honest, only helps for a short amount of time. xP was into weed, hence why I tried it a few times. I have a friend with the same condition as me, and he has self medicated with it for years. He now smokes a huge amount, because, just like anything else, you build up a tolerance.

However, wine fixes everything

Cannabis. All the way.

sirboob you know, I have gone right off alcohol used to love nothing more than a glass of wine or three to relax after work or at weekends. Looked forward to Friday nights of wine, cheese, crusty bread with a friend. Now, just don't enjoy it, even if I opt for ditching the drugs that evening, guess the build up and lack of meds/dependence on them degates the lovely wine feeling.

I had a relapse this morning, back went afte putting deadweight ds aged 2 onto step for the millionth time as he would not say sorry to his sister for throwing his train at her head. Within 20 mins I was bent over in tears. Did ice followed by heat immediately, and it worked wonders! Unfortunately could do keep it p due to being busy, but it made it possible for me to do some chores out of the house.

I am going to do the following: use heat/ice ASAP when needed, reduce dairy, wheat and caffeine, increase omega 3 use, keep up with my physio exercises religiously, reduce my pain releif to as low as I can possibly take, learn some distraction techniques., increase meditation. I won't stop meds realised today I cannot do it yet, although I was once again in tears at prospect of being on them long term, but I will increase complimentary treatments, with view to reducing and eventually stopping conventional medication, at least as much as I am. In particular I want to stop NSAID meds.

And I shall continue to explore other options that work for me so keep your idea and experiences coming

Pavlov - can't use NSAIDs so use topical variations. Not as easy for you due to the area but distilled witch hazel is a natural anti-inflam. Not as effective but works sufficiently to tame the edge of pain caused by swelling in the joints that are affects. Perhaps some research into other topic natural anti-inflams that are available might help give you something to help reduce the amount of NSAIDs that you have to take.

Realistically though, I don't think you will get to a point where you won't have to use the NSAIDs but I do think that you might find a point where their use is the rarity rather then the regular. iyswim.

I think I will be ok with using NSAIDs sparingly, if I can get to a point where I don't need them daily.