My wife was hit by a car in April 2019 and I've mentioned on here before about how her sense of taste and smell was greatly diminished due to a concussion. 3 months later she started having intense back pain. The doctors were hesitant to associate this problem with the accident, so it was not included in the settlement.
Anyhow, she's found that activated B-12 works well for nerve pain and has reduced her use of steroids subsequently. I thought perhaps glucosamine would regain cartilage growth. I used it when I developed a pain in my knee and I'd feel it going up our stairs after jogging at night. Glucosamine worked well for me, at least. The problem is getting my wife to take anything at all, especially if they come in large-sized pills. She's already taking other stuff, so it would have to be good because she doesn't want to take many supplements. If people have recommendations, especially based on experience, advice would be greatly appreciated.
I've been into alternative medicine for 15+ years already, but I've learned a lot by coming to this forum. GEOTUS talks about medical breakthroughs coming and we've seen the suppression of stuff like HCQ and Ivermectin. I'd never heard of Fenbendazole before coming to this forum. Please help if you can. She goes to physical therapy nearly every Saturday. I have a stretch ball, but I'm surprised they don't have her use one at home. I use it when I have lower back pain, and bought it 12 years ago at a chiropractor's insistence. My wife was doing well over the summer, but now with the weather cooling down, she has difficulty boarding a bus with its steep steps when she goes home. What about even stuff like eating more red meat? Thanks in advance.
Inversion tables are a miracle , add sea cucumber with glucosamine and chondriton , sea cucumber is also a miracle when taken with G and C . There used to be a supplement capsule with all theee together , u can search for that . The table is life saving , People buy them and then put them in the garage and never use them and you can pick them up for 100 bucks used in in good quality shape.
.....agreed...inversion tables are good.....but strengthening the core and supporting muscles is also necessary
I agree with you : Strengthening the core and supporting muscles is not only necessary , I think it’s more important than an inversion table. It’s amazing what we can rebuild and oftentimes cure with exercise. I went off a 63 foot cliff and broke everything, My back was in pieces , I do yoga at least 5 times a week and hike constantly! I’m in great shape , but without yoga and weight training I can barely stand up , I’m like a pretzel and the pain is horrific! Amazing what simple stretching will do for our bodies!
I can help a bit. I have lost my L4/L5 and L5/S1 discs, through age-related degeneration. I have been to several orthopedic surgeons, as well as a spinal pain specialist, and they all tell me something different. Half of them are idiots. Forget about supplements. It's true that an injured disc can recover, but not loss due to degenerative disc disease.
If the DDD is relatively new, there is quite a bit of hope through stem cell injections. They are expensive, however, and not covered by insurance. The problem is relieving the pressure between the vertebrae so that any healing can take place.
The only way I can continue to function is an exercise I discovered and taught myself. It's a variation of traction, that you can do yourself in a carpeted doorway. Lie down on your back, halfway through the doorway. Hike your shirt up such that your bare back is on the carpet. Place each hand on the doorframe, and push away from your feet. It will take a bit of practice, because your subconscious reaction is to tighten your spinal erector muscles. Relax those muscles, and you will feel the pull in your lower spine. Keep pushing for as long as you are able. You are doing it right if it hurts a little. If it hurts too much, stop pushing. It's most productive to do this right before going to bed at night, so that the discs can benefit from the lack of pressure overnight.
One tip while doing this exercise: try to imagine pressing your lower back against the floor, at the same time while pulling the vertebrae apart. This opens up the passages in the posterior spine where nerves get pinched.
If your wife also experiences sciatica, then she also needs to do specific stretches, one known as "threading the needle." While on her back, raise the leg which has sciatica at 90 degrees above the waist. Push as far towards the head as is possible. Then, point the toes downwards, again and again. Repeat. This will prove beneficial over time. Keep at it.
There is only one supplement I would recommend, and that's B12 for nerve health, as you have already discovered. If there are symptoms like neuropathy, the B12 will help.
If you have more questions, I can help. There are surgical options, but none of them are good ones. If you can manage without, you are better off. I dose twice daily with 400mg of ibuprofen (ALWAYS take with food!!), and if the back pain is bad, I also use diclofenac gel.
Best wishes.
I suffered for over 3 years with a compressed neck. We called it a "crick" in your neck, where you slept wrong, and couldn't move your neck..so you moved entire head to see around you- I have an acquaintance, who I saw once a year and her and her husband built these upside down, teeter beds- and she would say, you should get on this- and I would not... then finally I gave in and said, put me on this table-- as soon as I went upside-down, I felt a pop- and immediate relief and was able to turn my head again!
depends. Is she in pain all the time? Or does it tweak really hard in certain positions?.
Glucosamine is good to rebuild cartilage. Is that what was damaged?
To my reading, the pain may be muscular tension, which developed after the injury, in which case you might need magnesium. try bathing with a handful of epsom salts in a bath as hot as she can handle.
Have you got a hot water bottle? That can help a lot to relax the tightness. This may also explain the cold weather making it worse.
She's had MRIs done and all that. It is a compressed disc. Not herniated, but just compressed. The docs said that it's because of her job as a nursery school teacher, bending over at the waist rather than her knees. Plus this is Japan, and she's Japanese. One of the first culture shocks I had when I first came here 24 years ago was seeing so many elderly permanently hunched over. Too much bending at the waist and too much soy which depletes calcium. For her now, raising her knee high enough to get onto the steep bus steps is hurting her back.
It's hard to go against cultural habits such as diet or too much bending at the waist.
Re: calcium - vitamin D is what is required to absorb calcium. You are going into winter now, so that will have to be from supplements. (The fact that she is having more pain may be because of waning vit D levels) What the dose is on the bottle is bunkum (1000 IU per day). Most peeps recommend 5000IU to 10 000IU. If she is in pain I would definitely recommend the latter. It helped me when I had bad arthritis BTW.
I have seen some academic articles about bending at knees rather than back, and the verdict is that everyone has their own way, and that those Health & Safety recommendations are just speculation, and possible harmful for some. So don't get your knickers in a twist about how she is supposed to bend over. The point is to avoid the pain, but if she can't pick up a baby without pain, she may have to avoid that, and that means a discussion with the heads of the school, which may be an issue, as Japanese do not like to argue with their employers.
Have you guys investigated some other means of helping children? Maybe setting up a daycare at home. IDK just spitballing here, again I don't know the rules in Japan.
Maybe some yoga? But that is a long term solution.
Is your bed something you can improve? Again, I don't want to infringe on any cultural or traditional beds, but having slept on a thin mattress on the floor for over thirty years, we finally took the plunge and bought a new bed with pocket springs in the mattress, after my hips were excruciating, and it's a lot better now.
Be sure to take vitamin K with your D.
I had this injury and suffered for probably ten years. It sounds silly but ddp yoga literally changed my life. It was the first thing that worked.
HIGHLY recommend it.
Absolutely!!!
To work with an Iyengar Therapeutic Yoga Teacher would be the best, as they are extremely speacialised to work even with old or handicapped people and have a lot of easy techniques at hand, which will only be changed when the patient is ready.
How about rubbing magnesium oil on the area? It would cut down on pills. NOW sells a spray and then you can make your own with magnesium flakes.
Will she try acupunture? It took only 3 sessions to alleviate my son in law's disc pain he suffered with for a decade. It has been better for nearly 2 years. Since her injury was so violent, there may be blockages that this could really help with. Be sure to get reviews or referrals to find a really good one - beware of quacks.
We did Chinese acupuncture in America and my wife got pregnant right away as a result of the doctor treating her for infertility. Our daughter is 14 now. We live in Japan now though, and they don't use acupuncture for any health problems other than pain issues. I've only done acupuncture once here and it was for pain management.
Aside from her PT appointments on Saturdays, she and I go to a Japanese-style ortho doc where we get hooked up to electrical pulse massages and physical massages. I'm dealing with tendonitis in my arm myself.
Read John Sarno's book on healing back pain.
The 'active resting position' can be very helpful for back issues.
I have had the same problem for decades. Only options I was given other than pain killers was a risky spinal disc fusion surgery with 50/50 chance of success. Steel rods and such. Recently did spinal decompression therapy for 20 sessions at Munroe Chiropractic in Williamsville, NY. Couldn't be happier with results. Reversed my spine 20 years at least.
Powdered MSM is wonderful. Osteo-biflex is pretty good too.
Sorry man, for that dudes disrespectful comments, hope you can find some answers. Sorry I don't have any.
physical therapy, better posture should take at least some pressure off the disc
Collagen! As a supplement or through eating. Bone broths, ox tail soup. Ingesting animal tissues that are rich in the tissues that she wishes to strengthen, rebuild and heal.
Rife frequencies
Look into glutamine. Helps with muscle strength https://www.muscleandperformance.com/supplements/5-reasons-to-take-glutamine/
Best back doctor I’ve ever had. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9SKuFe2SERs&t=407s
#1 The best thing is to lose any excess weight. #2 avoid picking up things especially from the floor #3 purchase the book "treat your own back", its a pretty old book but is the best resource for stretches that help.can get the book for about $5 used.
Good book. Check on anti-inflammatory foods on the internet. Make ice your friend. stay away from heat. A TheraCane has worked very well. Please stay away from benzos (cycloBENZOprene for one, muscle relaxers, the withdrawls are killer hard). Do those Squats! Gentle yoga, water exercises. of course, she doesn't have to do this all in the same day! If you need to lie down, DO SO.
I'm in the Biz and suffer from L5-S1 disc rupture and now gone, bone on bone.
I'm the overweight one. She had gained a little bit of weight 14 years ago when she had our baby, but she lost it all when she was hospitalized after her accident. The worst thing is that as a nursery school teacher, since April they've put her in with 1 year old babies and it's made her back bad. Children are her life though, so the thought of changing her job frightens her.
Yeah. Picking up those kids off the floor is gonna do it. There will be no solution unless she stops doing this.
That's hard, because babies need to be picked up all the time. She might need to change to looking after 4 year olds, or something.
Yeah, I told her last night that since her employer knows of her situation, they should not have put her in with the tiny kids who get picked up all the time. It was the first I heard of this as my wife never talks about her job. I often share stuff about my work and my students, but she never does.
I was driving her to and from work every day, leaving my own job every afternoon to drive her home, but in April she started taking the bus home and I began biking to work again. Now all that progress seems to be gone.
Just as my coil was reaching the green line...
Prone press ups should help counteract the constant forward bending, do in a pain free range. Strengthen core, (look up Sahrmanns progression for lumbar stabilization), practice good biomechanics (lift with legs), sit with lumbar roll at waistline to help with back extension. (Licensed PT) As far as supplements Cosamin brand is one of the best and has been studied for decades in the veterinarian industry, and a high quality turmeric/curcumin supplement may also help.
https://prayingmedic.org/2022/01/02/healing-prayer/
Get down on the floor with the little kids?
Thanks for the poor comment. There's been no sex since summer 2019 and at this rate there may never be any ever again, yet here you are making crass jokes about my wife's plight.
Consider the source
Asshole.
Deport, be respectful, not cool!
I tried deporting him. Let's see if the mods can ignore comments about chemtrails for a while and deport someone who actually deserves it.
I deported all his comments Fren. They were rude and uncalled for. Hopefully the mods will. I think they will. They are good at that.
You can also block him. Give the mods time to do what they need to fren. Block is a good tool.