Does Gargling with Probiotic Align Help Persistent Sore Throat – and what else you can do.

Posted on March 16, 2018 by admin

Had one patient with persistent sore throat gargle with Align Probiotic with rapid improvement in pain – just used it once/day, Would be interested in anyone with similar response.

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Fibromyalgia and Going For Surgery Advice.

Posted on March 11, 2018 by admin

This advice is being circulated and I’m putting it here so it won’t be lost in ensuing weeks.

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Chronic Abdominal Pain in Children – Are They Suffering Unnecessarily?

Posted on March 11, 2018 by admin

I recently wrote about how they are only now finding certain abdominal wall injections work for chronic abdominal pain in adults – confirming source is the abdominal wall – what already???

I suspect it is even worse with children in which 30% of chronic abdominal pain is thought originated from the abdominal wall and amenable to injection.  Study in press documents features and treatment.

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What are the Causes of Polyneuropathy?

Posted on March 10, 2018 by admin

Recent study gave a breakdown of what they found re cause. Frank diabetes was eliminated from selection as the cause would be obvious? Top 4 were Idiopathic 47%, Chronic Demyelinating Inflammatory Polyneuropathy(CIDP) 38%, Pre-diabetes 16%, and Charcot Marie Tooth syndrome (CMT) 9%.

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Does Small Fiber Neuropathy Progress?

Posted on March 10, 2018 by admin

Approximately 40% of “Fibromyagia” cases are actually small fiber neuropathy (SFN). There is now evidence of how this type of neuropathy progresses. 75% remain stable and 25% progress into large fibers.

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Intramuscular Stimulation (IMS) Works Even in Rats

Posted on March 10, 2018 by admin

Intramuscular Needle electrical needling of trigger knots in rat gastrocnemius(calf)  results in less irritable sites. I use IMS for areas I wish to avoid use of local (neck, about hip where need to be able to walk after etc.).  I couple it with massage techniques to remove any residual triggers and find it helpful.  Nice to have some basic science showing it works.

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Plantar Fasciitis – New Helps – Simple PRP and Nerve Ablation

Posted on March 9, 2018 by admin

Results from simple measures such as heel cup and ankle dorsiflexion night splint are not vigorous so am forced to look further. Steroid injection in the 21st century is out because it thins the heel pad making further problems more likely. I came across this protocol for PRP that is simple and could be done by anyone with a centrifuge. All PRP studies of plantar fasciitis only talk about long term results so I suspect immediate gratification like one gets from steroids, is not likely. It uses small amounts (from 10 mls blood) weekly x3.

Nerve radiofrequency abaltion of Inferior Calcaneal nerve gives spectacular results and so could chemical ablation

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Does Ritalin Help Traumatic Brain Injury Mental Fatigue and Mental Functioning? -Yes

Posted on March 8, 2018 by admin

Two year study found methylphenidate, average 60 mg /day, improved mental functioning in TBI.

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Masseter Facial Myofascial Pain – Botulinum Treatment

Posted on March 8, 2018 by admin

Treatment of Masseter Mysofascial pain with botulinum was successful in 64% of cases.

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Nasal Neuralgias – What to Do

Posted on March 5, 2018 by admin

A Nose pain issue with pain out of control could represent a nasal neuralgia with  a treatable injection regimen.

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Lateral to Upper Eyelid Lacrimal Neuralgia

Posted on March 3, 2018 by admin

Poorly known pain condition affecting outer eyelid and temple area. Such conditions I thought no one would care about but have had thank you’s in past so here it is.

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Might Need Magnesium to Make Vit D Work Well – and Great Effects on BP.

Posted on March 3, 2018 by admin

Vitamin D is helpful in pain control and reduces cancer esp colorectal cancer – and recurrence rates.  Article makes a plausible case for magnesium needed for  Vitamin D to work.

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Cheek Pain – New Zygomaticofacial Neuralgia

Posted on March 3, 2018 by admin

The  Zygomaticofacial Foramen  is 2 cm lateral and 2 cm inferior to the lateral canthus  (edge)  of the eye. A case of neuropathic pain from there that responded well to injection is documented.

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New Test for Neck Radiculitis

Posted on March 1, 2018 by admin

I have now seen 2 cases of idiopathic cervical “sciatica”/radiculitis with stickingly bad pains in triceps. This arm muscle pains can help distinguish this from intrinsic shoulder pains and one author some years ago came up with the arm “squeeze” test for neck radiculitis

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Cutting Opioid Dose Does What? And Why is Tapering so Difficult?

Posted on February 25, 2018 by admin

Opioid deaths seem to be fueling more by Chinese derived illicit fentanyl. However, massive efforts are made to lower opioid dose. One study was successful at getting opioid consumption down  from 288 mg to 150 mg. They weren’t any better for it despite the theoretically “dangerous high levels” which would probably not be a problem if they avoided chinese imports. There was no effort to have a control group to see how many more deaths there were in the “dangerously high” group.

I have not had much luck tapering opioids and a recent analysis explains why. They claim opioids are integrated in mood, energy,  motivation,  social functioning and personality systems and withdrawing doses will effects all of it. Above study was successful because they started with 5% reductions in the first month and upped it to 10% every 2 weeks in the second month.

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Opioid and Tranquilizer Deadly Mix- How Did We End Up That Way? – Bipolar and/or PTSD

Posted on February 24, 2018 by admin

It has been said Opioids and tranquilizers can increase risk of overdose death five fold.
In my population, there is a subgroup of cases with bipolar disorder. Indeed, a meta-anlysis found 21 – 25% of Fibromyalgia disorder have it and I suspect more not diagnosed.  In a mixed state, a pain patient gets little sleep and is in considerable distress with agitation and will inadvertently be put on significant doses of tranquilizers to deal with this “pain” when tolerance to atypical anti-psychotics is limited.   March is a good time to see it and I have seen a couple cases already this year.  After the mixed state subsides, they end up continued to take them because they can contend it helped them.

It is also easy to put pain patients that don’t sleep and have restless legs, on Clonazepam which is some cases is dangerous, particularly if subjects are obese and subject to sleep apnea.

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Doctors Told To Skip Pain Severity Questions

Posted on February 23, 2018 by admin

Pain became the 5th vital sign and doctors were initially told to take tabs on severity through scales out of 10 testing. Now, out of fear severity analysis will over-treat pain with opioids, doctors in USA are being encouraged not to question pains severity and stick to level of function. There is evidence that, removed from placebo effect, opioids only reduce pain by 1/10 on average. For clinicians that are not trained in orthopedic medicine, opioids, and now marijuana, are the main tools to control pain. This is what fuels the opioid epidemic. I did an analysis of my practice and find other measures I do drops pain by 2/10 bringing pain to more acceptable levels. Those with 7/10 of more can be often dropped in pain by 3/10 for 3 days at a time by ketamine shots done 1-2 times a week and control depression. Regular treatments using alternatives written in this blog, can do more.

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Indication For Gallbladder Removal

Posted on February 20, 2018 by admin

Article starts by mentioning how up to 33% of cholecystectomy patients can have persistent abdominal pain so taking out Gallbladder (GB) is a serious decision. Indications however include frequent attacks, large stones, older age, inflamed GB attack(cholecystitis), and pancreatitis from gallstones.

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Gluteus Medius Tendonitis Injection Treatment and more

Posted on February 19, 2018 by admin

Although the question of whether one is dealing with hip bursitis or is this referred from back is important, I wanted to clarify what steroid injection would do for seemingly glutues medius bursitis. One study suggests it was good in 72% of cases at one month while another suggested it was good up to 6 weeks. Thereafter however, is problematic with PRP injection outshining it after 6 weeks. Problem is and I quote “an isolated passive intervention cannot hope to address the often complex mix of pre-existing and subsequent impairments”.

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Shoulder Operation -More Confusion

Posted on February 18, 2018 by admin

A Canadian study on full thickness tears found the no-op subgroup did well over 5 years. A Netheraland study found removing bursa (B) and taking off acromium(A) not any better than just removing bursa alone  in chronic subacromial shoulder pain. Tear progression was not statistically different though at trend for A+B. Both suffer from not examining the patient subsequently to see what troubles they did actually have. British study found no clinically relevant benefits to Arthroscopic sub-acromial decompression

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Botulinum Helps Photophobia and Dry Eyes

Posted on January 31, 2018 by admin

People who were given botulinum for migraines found coincidentally that phobia and dry eye symptoms improved as well.

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Want Do You Do For Desperate Neuropathy? – Implantable Pain Pump

Posted on January 28, 2018 by admin

Some years ago, Neuropathic study demonstrated meaningful reduction in neuropathic pain occurred in only 23.7% of cases.

Severe Neuropathic Pain – Only 1/4 Respond to Standard Drug Protocols – What Else Is There?   http://painmuse.org/?p=2640

Subject of present article was case of Amyloid Neuropathy which proved very resistant to treatment but responded “immensely” well to intrathecal drug delivery system with infusion of hydromorphone.

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Anterior Tongue Sore? – Consider Tooth Paste

Posted on January 28, 2018 by admin

3 cases submitted where the anterior tongue was sore because of the Sodium Lauryl Sulphate in toothpaste

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Post Breast Surgery Pain – Clearer Reason It’s Bad – High Prevalence of Neuropathic Pain

Posted on January 18, 2018 by admin

Literature reviews suggest neuropathic pain in 1/4-1/3 of post breast cancer surgery patient. A review of the effectiveness of neuropathic pain found only 23.7% achieved any significant relief from usual pyramid schemes of treatment for neuropathic pain
Severe Neuropathic Pain – Only 1/4 Respond to Standard Drug Protocols – What Else Is There?   http://painmuse.org/?p=2640

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Do Soft Knee Sleeve Help Knee Pain? – Yes

Posted on January 13, 2018 by admin

I was always suspicious that soft knee sleeves just cover up the pain area without helping.  However multiple studies show benefit and presence of “stay” supports does not add any benefit.

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