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Results matter. Congrats on getting some relief.Originally Posted by Clifford McGuire
When I have a flare up, I drape a bag of frozen peas over my elbow and drink my beer left handed.
This Voltaren stuff has worked, too. Check with your doctor first - it interacts with blood pressure medication.
https://www.voltarengel.com/what-is-voltaren/
I did a stretch with what looks like a glorified marital aid, Theraband (red) with great effect.
https://youtu.be/PEvcYqyuI-0
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I knew I liked you.
Sharp solves all manner of problems.
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In the 1960s, 100 candlepower lighting was required at the work surface in drafting rooms. I doubt that many workbenches have that. I recently had cataract surgery. That took me from 20/40-20/50 corrected vision to 20/25-20/30, uncorrected. I’ll find out next week what if any correction I’ll need. I have gone from seeing “60w incandescent” to “LED white”. FWIW, I have two 5000 lumen 4ft LED fixtures above my workbench and a 3400 lumen LED fixture above my table-saw (oops!). I can’t wait to get back to my shop, still slightly hybrid.
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Mark interesting input, agreed on the Mayo sites main purpose, get more patients...
As for tennis elbow, I had it so bad for years, from actually playing tennis. Treating the elbow is important at times, but often, alter what u are doing which is causing the problem. An odd approach in these modern times of - treat the symptom mindset. Just changing strings and a few lbs loosened tension and problem resolved itself. Other problems like plantar fasciatus and achillies tendonitis, can take years to go away... cortisone injections made it worse.
I marvel how some recover so fast from injuries, while on the other end of the spectrum, seems some of us never heal, the injury is just lessened, but always ready to rear its ugly head..
years of severe back pain, lived at Mayo clinic, finally they just randomly start injecting me with cortisone, it worked... but had to get them constantly for 8 yrs, not safe... then, I went Gluten Free, and the back pain was gone for good, 6 yrs now... and I do more hard work now than ever. Its not in the medical books, and I thought it was a quirk till I ate gluten again! Then I advised some friends with serious back issues, and nearly all of them also rid their decades long pain. So never think its over for good, as u never know where your solution might come from. Often medical workers don't have all the answers, not their fault, science is not there. And, always remember, u go to a surgeon, he wants to operate, u go to a yoga healer, he wants to meditate the pain way... only u know the bigger picture...
I really commend the ww who get serious arthritis in their hands and hang in there. I keep saying if that sets in for me really good, I am done with ww. truly amazing how much we use our fingers in ww. I had one knuckle that become arthritic from an injection I used to take for migraines... and my gosh, just ONE knuckle can make my ww experience miserable at times. Cant fathom if it was all my knuckles like this. It doesn't matter, if hand tools or power tools, u are holding either the tool or the material, all fingers.
As for vision... light is the key..the eye is only sharp when the pupil is dilated down to about 3mm or smaller, its just the physics of the eye. The eye is an optical camera, and all lenses have an MTF curve (Modular Transfer Function), and this curve dictates what aperture diam, or f stop will yield the sharpest vision. With the human eye, the fall off of acuity is remarkable as your pupil is wider than the optimal 3mm range. Brighter light, dilates the pupil smaller. And what is really sad is, as we age, our eyes eventually will NOT dilate down to 3mm in bright light. Just like our accommodation (focus distance range) reduces every few years after 40 till about 80-85, where we have no accommodation left, i.e. our eye settles on ONE focus distance and everything outside that distance requires correction. Yes, we go from 40 diopters of accommodation at age 16 down to zero at age 80+. Our pupils age similarly, with young people can range from 2-8mm pupil diam, as we get to 80+, we can be reduced to very small pupil diam. range, such as 4-5mm, which is why night driving is so hard, as our retinal gets 75-95% less light than a 20 yr old.
Seems as if there is never ending hurdles u must overcome that age, or body breakdowns can come at any age. Thankfully, we have tremendous aids, when applied right, (can take a lot of trial error) can help overcome many of these hurdles.
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One of the problems with the medical world is for ages it has been controlled as much by those seeking to profit from it more than the people who merely want to help patients heal and recover.So never think its over for good, as u never know where your solution might come from. Often medical workers don't have all the answers, not their fault, science is not there.
My curiosity about herbs has led me to different ways to treat pain. One in particular is for indigestion or heart burn. An odd plant, that taste strongly of celery, called lovage. It is an almost instantaneous relief. One of my favorite dishes is chili verde chicken or pork. Cooking it with celery usually gave me a little indigestion. One time when celery wasn't available lovage was used instead, it is also a culinary herb. There was no indigestion. Since then lovage is used for my chili verde and many other dishes.
Mentioning this to a doctor often gets a strange look.
Not long ago (if it isn't still) as much as half of the American pharmacopeia was derived from plant sources.
There is evidence of being able to treat rheumatoid arthritis with a change in diet from > https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/326554
Anyone have a doctor recommend this before writing a prescription?“A plant based diet comprised of fruits, vegetables, grains, and legumes may be tremendously helpful for those with rheumatoid arthritis. This study offers hope that with a simple menu change, joint pain, swelling, and other painful symptoms may improve or even disappear.”
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
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I will have to look into this lovage herb, I suffer from indigestion horribly...
not to sound like a quack.... but since this is the thread subject...
my body can turn very arthtritic, every joint and tendon hurts...
after years of research, I learned that some people can not breakdown oxalates...
which are in many plant foods...
going on an very low oxalate diet, and my body feels 40 years younger...
no doc would ever come up with that...
now the hard part, sticking to it... I have a great month, and then fall of the wagon...but always get back on, as I hate that achy feeling specially in the shop... a sure motivation destroyer...
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There is a lot of good info here. I’ve been doing more machine work of late so haven’t been posting much. I have dealt with arthritis issues for half of my lifetime. 74 years old now. I love my time in the shop and not going to give it up. My take is this, you have to have a multi-faceted approach. Diet, medication, appliances and activities. A good doctor that knows you and your situation. If you get passed off to a pain clinic you have been put into the money generation mill. Here is what my routine is. Try to break up the work. Don’t be too repetitive. If your are doing dovetails cut one corner of tails than make a few straight cuts than chop a bit. In other words mix it up. In my case I’ve found that repetition irritates the same areas. Practice using that other hand, that’s why you have two. Stop worrying about how you look or whether your using the “right” tool. If it’s comfortable to use a hacksaw, cold chisel, ball peen hammer and your rubber ducky ball cap for dovetails it’s okay. Good shoes are important. Gloves are good for hand work but never machine work. Read a lot about your medical conditions so you are well informed. That pain clinic doctor doesn’t know one thing about you, I know this from experience. Above all keep moving. Any parts that don’t get used just get worse. Even just a little movement is better than zero. Make plans for your next day in the shop.
Last edited by James Pallas; 02-15-2021 at 9:32 AM.
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“A plant based diet comprised of fruits, vegetables, grains, and legumes may be tremendously helpful for those with rheumatoid arthritis. This study offers hope that with a simple menu change, joint pain, swelling, and other painful symptoms may improve or even disappear.”
I have a cousin who did just this and her recovery is nothing short of amazing. Changed her diet, drinks ginger/turmeric/black pepper tea and has gone from almost immobile to completely healthy.
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Yes.
Unfortunately the Dunkin Donuts drive through omits this choice. I've lived places where easy access to safe food is reserved for elite society members.
We are among the (historically) few that have greater health complications from excess rather than starvation.
You're absolutely right in this regard, as we get older, the list of the things we should eat is shorter than the list of what we can eat.
When coffee, Rum and bacon are off my "can eat" list, I'm ready for the long nap.
[OP]
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There is considerable anecdotal evidence for non-standard treatments.
Acupuncture works.
Essential oils work
CBD Oils work
Eliminating grain works
The problem is what they work for and whether they work for any one person is an unknown. Depending on them for anything more than the occasional ache or pain is probably dangerous.
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Reading through this sounds all too familiar, thin skin that cuts easily, aching joints after using a mallett for an hour, a
500 lb cabinet I built refusing to move!
A knee problem preventing me from walking very far. The chiropractor hooked it up to an untrasonic machine that “beats it up so bad” your body wants to fix it. Pretty sure that added a year to my recovery.
Good things: Custom insoles are amazing. The worlds best hernia repair surgeon. Really good tweezers. 2% saline for removing blood stains. Fifty pressups every morning.
You can do a lot with very little! You can do a little more with a lot!
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Since diets have come up, I have personal experience of two diet choices that have worked for multiple patients of mine.
Not saying either one is right for "you" but I know of folks who were able to get off their prescriptions with these two:
gluten, if you drop gluten and feel better but there is still "something wrong" read up on glyphosate. It is a pesticide. When the triticalines are about to be harvested (wheat, barley, etc) the fields are sprayed with enormous amounts of glyphosate to dry out the grains while they are still on the plant. When someone cuts gluten, they are also cutting out a bunch of glysphosate residue. The annual "dirty dozen" of foods with the highest glyphosate content is a thing, if cutting gluten 'helped', try cutting the rest of the dirty dozen from your diet to see if that doesn't finish the job.
bloating. If you got bloating, read up on the FODMAP diet, pioneered in New Zealand I think. It is a hard diet to follow and not healthy long term, but it is only 6-8 weeks and then you can start reintroducing regular foods to get our nutrition back on track.
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And I just found it this morning, as of 02-14-21 Voltaren gel (diclofenac, 1%) the FDA moved this drug from the Rx list to the OTC list, so now we can buy it over the counter. $9.99 per tube at my local Walgreens, and they just texted me it's ready for pick up. My observation from working with patients mostly over the age of 65 is this drug as a topical is the best of the NSAIDs for joint pain - not for everyone but for most of mine.
[OP]
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That is good news! It really helps on my thumbs and neck. It does not seem to penetrate deeply but the penetration can be increased by using a menthol based cream after the Voltaren has dried.
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If I win the lottery I'm installing one of those "endless lap pools" full of Voltaren. Nothing else works so well on my aching hands and ginchy ankle.
A little goes a long way.
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