Pain

Kick chronic pain to the curb with powerful antioxidants

If you suffer from fibromyalgia, you’re more than acquainted with pain. In fact, it never seems to go away.

This disabling condition can twist your muscles into knots…disrupting your sleep and sapping your energy.

Most conventional doctors will just write you a script for anything from muscle relaxants and anti-inflammatories to anti-depressants; but those can leave you feeling zoned-out and not necessarily rested OR free of pain.

Now, a new study out of Brazil has revealed a natural way to lessen the pain, without the dangers and side effects of drugs. It’s a powerful antioxidant that you can find in a variety of plants, including in the skins of red grapes, called resveratrol.

And that means there’s more than one reason you may get some relief from that glass of red wine.

In the study on mice, resveratrol mixed with rice bran oil significantly reduced the symptoms of widespread pain and depression.

The study’s researchers induced the same full-body sensitivity associated with fibromyalgia in laboratory mice and then gave them a mixture of resveratrol and rice oil in either single or quadruple doses.

In both instances, the pain sensitivity lessened – but when the mice were given four doses at once as a preventative measure, their signs of depression were also reduced.

Interestingly, the rice oil alone didn’t reduce pain at all, but for some reason it helped the resveratrol work even better.

The theory is that this mixture can change the oxidative state of your spinal fluid, so your body sends out fewer pain signals.

Every case of fibromyalgia is different – and each person responds to the pain associated with it in their own unique way. That’s why treatments can vary from person to person and doctor to doctor both in mainstream and holistic medicine.

Since its symptoms can mirror a number of other conditions like chronic fatigue, lupus, and Epstein-Barr, it can be difficult to diagnose in the first place.

It’s even been found that fibromyalgia could be a manifestation of a hidden infection – which may be why the rice bran oil worked, since it’s thought to modulate your immune system in addition to acting as both an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory.

Regardless, this latest finding is good news – mostly because resveratrol is so good for you in so many ways, having been shown to fight everything from heart disease to cancer.

If you do suffer from the systematic pain and tenderness associated with fibromyalgia, you can get a quality resveratrol supplement from your local health store or online.

In addition, I often use acupuncture to treat my patients with fibromyalgia, as well as supplement with magnesium. This mineral can work miracles on fibromyalgia and a number of other health conditions.

And finally, I shared some in-depth findings on magnesium in the March issue of my Nutrition and Healing newsletter. If you’re already a subscriber, you can use your password to access the issue online. No password? No problem. You can sign up right here.

Did dangerous prescription drugs kill a rock legend?

When I heard last week that the rock star Prince had died, I was shocked.

I can’t say that I was his biggest fan -- but this otherwise healthy 57-year-old had made a point of swearing off drugs and alcohol, and maintained a healthy diet.

But when reports started pouring in that Prince was in chronic pain – and was using prescription opioid painkillers like Percocet to manage it – things started making a lot more sense.

In fact, Prince may have been another of the thousands of people that these opioid meds like Percocet, OxyContin, and Vicodin are killing every year.

It seems like underneath those fancy costumes, high-heeled boots, and outrageous hairstyles, Prince was just a regular guy…approaching his senior years…trying to make it to the next day without crippling pain.

Prince had been suffering wear and tear on his joints from years of performing marathon shows. His friends said he’d even had hip surgery a few years ago, which made him a typical mainstream candidate for an opioid prescription.

We don’t know exactly what happened yet, and it will take a couple of weeks for the toxicology reports to come in from his autopsy. But if it’s true that Prince overdosed on Percocet a few days before his death and was administered a “save shot” to clear the drugs from his body, we know the drug was probably taking a major toll on his body.

Percocet contains BOTH an opioid, oxycodone, and acetaminophen. And aside from how deadly opioids can be, combining cold and flu meds with Percocet (and Prince reportedly had been battling flu at the time of his death) can give you a toxic dose of acetaminophen.

And let’s face it – most over-the-counter cold and flu drugs are carrying a whopping dose of acetaminophen these days.

I’ve told you before about the dangers of opioid painkillers and acetaminophen, The number of deadly opioid overdoses in the U.S. every year has finally scared the FDA and the CDC into cracking down on doctors over-prescribing these meds.

And while it’s sad to think that Prince’s life and career ended too soon, there are thousands of people who aren’t in the headlines, suffering the same fate.

Statistics shows that opioids – which are readily available by prescription from most mainstream doctors – have now surpassed illegal drugs like heroin in deaths from overdose. That’s why most alternative docs like me try to steer clear of them for patients with chronic pain.

For patients experiencing long-term pain issues, I usually recommend a customized combination of acupuncture, Chinese herbs, and anti-inflammatory supplements like fish oil and curcumin.

These safer alternatives should be a first-line treatment for chronic pain – before the prescription pad ever makes an appearance.