Posts Tagged ‘chronic pain’

What are the ingredients of a good topical analgesic

Monday, November 9th, 2009

CryoDerm™ Delivers the Benefits of MSM, Arnica, Boswella & ILEX in a 100% Natural Pain Relieving Roll-On

There are several amazing ingredients in CryoDerm™ that help provide the pain relief. The main active ingredient is menthol, which is derived from peppermint oil. Other ingredients include: Arnica, Boswella, Ilex and MSM:

Arnica has been proven effective in reducing bruising, swelling, edema, hematoma, contusions, and is being used to treat muscle strains and sprains and a variety of joint problems.  Research studies completed in 2002, at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center, used an Arnica preparation to reduce bruising after surgery.  The preparation reduced bruising by as much as 41% which dramatically shortened recovery time!  Patients have reported faster recovery after orthopedic surgery including hip and knee replacement, as well as other categories of general surgery.

Boswella refers to the resin of various species of Boswellia shrubs and small trees which are found in the Red Sea region and mountains of central India. It has been widely used as an Indian herbal medicine treatment for arthritis and bursitis.

Nearly sixty percent of arthritis patients who were tested in a study at the Government-Medical College in Jammu, India experienced good to excellent results against stiffness and pain. What’s amazing is that more than three-quarters of these patients were either bedridden or unable to do normal work.

Ilex , also known as Yerba mate has been used by the Indian tribes in Brazil and Paraguay as a beverage. It continues to be a popular beverage throughout South America. Research has shown that Ilex has anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and antispasmodic properties.

Unless you have tried CryoDerm™ for pain relief you are missing out on an opportunity to achieve drug free pain control for sore muscles, arthritis pain, muscle aches, bursitis and tendonitis.

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Fibromyalgia…not just in your head

Friday, February 20th, 2009

I wanted to provide a little information on this disorder as many of my patients currently suffer from this.  Fibromyalgia is very difficult to diagnose objectively.   Furthermore, it usually is arrived at by excluding other disease processes.  The general symptoms include: marked fatigue, diffuse muscular pain, depression, difficulty sleeping, and cognitive difficulties. 

New information published in Seminars in arthritis and rheumatism June,  2007  indicate that the etiology of fibromyalgia may have a neurophysiological basis.  The authors define a new classification for this disorder as central sensitivity syndrome (CSS).   The evidence is mounting that fibromyalgia can be considered a neurosensory disorder characterized partly by pain processing in the central nervous system (CNS).

The long and short of it is whether due to chronic stress, trauma, or severe life events,  the CNS has adapted and pain is processed differently than normal.   Without going into too much detail, the nervous system has become sensitized or worn down by a traumatic event and now the threshold for recognizing pain is far lower than it should be.  This means that stimuli that would not in the non-fibromyalgia population be recognized as pain are stimuli that indeed do express themselves as painful in fibromyalgia population.   

This makes sense to me,  lowered threshold to activate the sensation of pain is why these patients have a heightened response to noxious stimuli.  Chronic pain also leads to elevated stress hormones which is another topic.   So for you sufferers, keep trying to get better.  Next article will be about methods to manage this condition from a non-pharmaceutical perspective.

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