A Product Whose Time Has Come
In the last several days, I was highly motivated to find a substitute for the NSAIDs I had been taking for the last 30 years to nullify chronic pain (arthritis, back, injury, headaches), while largely ignoring its major side effects, of gastrointestinal upset as a tolerable tradeoff. There have been times though, when the gastrointestinal upsets overwhelmed the chronic aches and pains -- and at such times, can be even life-threatening. At times such as that, one is well-advised to cease everything one is doing -- and pay attention to what the body (symptoms) are telling him in response to everything he is doing.
I could sense for quite a while now that my gastrointestinal system was compromised and deteriorating rapidly into a melodramatic urgency -- when in preparation for a root canal, I answered quite innocently, “I don’t think I am,” to the question, “Are you allergic to penicillin?” The wrong answer was like being shot out of a cannon -- and revealed vulnerabilities that under most circumstances are merely tolerated as the normal trials and tribulations of life -- especially to those who have known chronic pain all their lives.
Chronic pain is not something the medical profession or the drug industry has been unconditionally successful at addressing. In this, they are as successful as anybody offering any other explanation and remedy, such as meditation, exercise, relaxation, counseling, acupuncture, hypnosis, etc. The recent findings that the COX-2 inhibitors increased the probabilities for a cardiac event, stuck a dagger into what until then was a promising prospect into a new generation for abandoning the previous generation of Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), which while effective at pain relief, was also notable for producing gastrointestinal distress in a significant portion of users, especially over time. The NSAIDs are commonly aspirin, ibuprofen, and naproxen.
And so it seems that all the reliable remedies eventually proved to have side effects that overwhelmed the relief they could bring until the bomb went off. But in desperately searching (on the Internet) for an answer to the calamities and consequences I was presently experiencing, I noticed that there was one product which was often lumped into the discussion that actually didn’t belong in the same category of well-known negative side-effects, and in some cases, was even the cure for the side-effects of the others.
Yet it is not highly touted -- while it should be. That product is acetamenophen (paracetamol), commonly known as Tylenol. It is not an NSAID, and in fact, is often prescribed as a treatment for gastritis -- because it does not upset the stomach, and may in fact, cure it. As a pain reliever, it is the equal of the NSAIDs and COX-2 inhibitors. The score in which it is deficient is just the one of not being an anti-inflammatory. That is, it does not relieve swelling in the tissues.
What does reduce swelling (bloat) in the tissues, as I have frequently written about, is producing a pulsing contraction at the extremities of the head (neck), hands and feet -- compressing fluids back towards the heart and excretory organs. With those complementary technologies, the pain associated with arthritis, etc, can basically be eliminated, with minimal negative side-effects.
Acetamenophen is such an overlooked product in the arsenal against chronic pain that generically, it is the cheapest drug that can be purchased at the drug store. It is a product that though overlooked in the past, is really one whose time has come -- given the present dilemma and discoveries. The question about acetamenophen has been about its effectiveness rather than its side-effects, which generally, have not been notable except for those deliberately using high dosages to attempt a suicide.
Because the inflammation has been regarded as integral to the explanation of the pain, it seems to have not been questioned that it may be coincident to the pain, rather than the exclusive cause of it -- and that the inflammation can be effectively addressed in the manner I have described as the fundamental effector of well-being in the human body -- to enhance the circulation of fluids in the body by mastering this return (contra) pulse exercise.
posted by Mike Hu @ 6:38 PM
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6 Comments:
The chronic pain conundrum is good example of there being many different alternatives as a solution, and the one that wins out, turns out to be a dead-end, while the better answer withstands the test of time and is eventually “rediscovered” as the better solution. About the same time aspirin was discovered and marketed as a panacea in the mid-1800s, there were several other home remedies competing as a cure-all for whatever ails one. For whatever reason, aspirin won out and was regarded until recently as the standard prescription -- that if nothing else, could do little harm and buy enough time for the natural healing process to kick in -- which cured 90% of ailments.
Even ulcers tended to reoccur periodically and go away, like the more common ones in the mouth. Eventually the body just loses its recovery ability because of some particularly traumatic event that turns a tolerable chronic condition into a severely acute one. Until then, it is not regarded as a problem. And then the remedies include a higher degree of invasiveness rather than the recognition that the original solution may have been the problem -- and one has to desist immediately, and find the more productive (less intrusive) path.
That’s been my contention with the conventional recommendations for exercise -- that the premises and presumptions are mostly wrong. My closest friends have remained interested in developing high intensity workouts -- for world-class athletes. My feeling however, was that those who could benefit themselves and society most greatly by increased health and well-being, were those traditionally not targeted as participants -- which are the intellectuals, usually divorced from the world of physicality because of the movement towards professionalization and specialization -- that dismissed whole, complete development as the ideal, as well as the necessary practical.
That split between the intellectual and the individual of action, has even deeper roots in Western civilization. This is also reflected in the acceptance of the notion of duality -- engendering division and conflict. At the same time, there is a smaller impulse advocating “Wholism” (holism) -- usually as a trendy concept, rather than eventually the only way that offers a real solution to the ever-increasing problems of hopeless fragmentation. In the medical view, that reaches its greatest extreme in the notion that a disease in one part of the body has nothing to do with the functioning in any other part -- as though they were all mutually exclusive parts, they don’t relate to one another.
A clear example of that dichotomy is still reflected in the expression, “Is it in one’s head or in the body?” -- as though that could be clearly delineated. It’s like the conundrum of physics in the late 1800s -- “Is light a particle or a wave?” The answer was both. But the ancient method considered knowledge to be mainly a matter of placing phenomena in the right categories -- and not the observation of integral process.
Unfortunately, that is still the kind of thinking that pervades much of conventional education these days -- the implication that it is just the passing down of ultimate truths from those who receive it directly from the gods. Which is of course, a primitive notion of understanding -- and finding out the truth. Even science has been largely displaced by scientism -- that one learns who the right people to believe, rather than that one should ever discover the truth of any matter for themselves. That’s not in the curriculum.
That’s why the great promise -- as well as the challenge of these times -- is creating viable alternative sources of information, rather than allowing the self-selected, self-interest group to maintain a monopoly on information into perpetuity. Ultimately, their pronouncements are what is “politically correct,” and broadcast through the popular media, as though there can be nothing else. That manner also specifically forbids listening to anything else -- which of course is intellectual/cultural suicide. They have drunk the Kool-Ade of their own propaganda.
Members of the status quo support each other -- and a threat to one is considered a threat to all, that is a clarion call for all to mobilize to justify the old ways, the old hierarchies, the old power matrixes.
The first response is to send in overwhelming and intimidating show of force -- a successful ploy against the merely uninformed, deluded and confused. When that doesn’t work, they go to pull out their facts and supporting documents, and realize the drawer is empty, and what they presumed they knew, was only what somebody told them to. This happens a whole lot in every field of study -- that everybody else assumed that somebody else really knew what was going on, and so they went along.
The “information” professionals know how to exploit those vulnerabilities -- that trust and confidence. That is the skill of the marketers of information (propagandists, public information specialists, lobbyists, political demagogues, etc). The story they tell is often not the story the original source intended -- but has been vastly “improved” to be something else, sometimes something else entirely. That is compounded at some institutions by only having certain designated persons empowered to speak to any other organization or agency -- who may not have a full understanding of the issues, but must act as though he does -- in the scheme of the bureaucracy they have become.
One obvious response is that entirely new organizational structures become manifest -- eliminating the layers of bureaucracy that prevent the intrusion of outside interactions. Meanwhile, the new organizations mine the value of these interactions as information, as the relevant. There is nothing more important that they have to do.
The primary value of past information and knowledge, is simply to prepare the foundation for what one is learning now -- and is capable of learning. Those full of knowledge who cannot or will not learn anything new -- are the useless bloat of institutions that eventually suffocate them.
New and different ideas are always these kinds of challenge to the entire status quo -- while meaningless “more” information and knowledge, poses no such threat, but reinforces and reconfirms the existing status quo -- which has become the categorical imperative of that organization, to perpetuate itself at whatever cost, whatever it takes. It becomes ultimately ruthless in that suppression, repression, and oppression. Eventually, even its staunchest defenders want out -- as the remaining few can only pick and prey on one another. That is the natural rise and fall of organizations, cultures and societies.
Embracing radically different information is this kind of revolutionary action -- because all our thoughts are related to all our other thoughts. What we’ve assumed to be true our entire lives -- turns out to be not, but the new truth, turns out to be far simpler than we could ever have imagined it being!
The 1800s was a great time of discovery in many areas; it was the culmination of the renaissance and the scientific revolution -- the steam engine, light bulb, telephone, Standard Oil, etc. The American Civil War, the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution, the transcendental movement, the golden age of literature (Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Whitman, Thoreau), while the great contribution of the 1900s was making those discoveries the common experience -- in the process, often standardizing on one model and then mass-producing that one only. What was often inadvertently lost many times, was the best and the better, because they could not be so easily replicated -- or unfortunately, was not as profitable to do so. That is a major dilemma for those on the cutting edge of research and development -- that in eliminating the problem, one destroys the market opportunity, and so the strategy often adopted, is to perpetuate the problem.
This is particularly true of the major expenditures of society/government, which have become education and health care -- even though those expenditures have grown astronomically out of control. In anything in life, one would eventually regard that the solution they have chosen to solve the problem, is the wrong solution -- or maybe, even seeing a problem where none exists -- oftentimes, anymore. But because societies become creatures of habit, tradition, pomp and circumstance (status and power), it may have long outlived its original purpose and intent.
So now, modern “education” must create the perception of ignorance -- when learning is an inevitability of contemporary life. A study may point out that only 40% of the population knows where Iraq is -- as though that was some great failing of society that we need to hire many highly-paid government experts to rectify. And next year, the question will be, “How many know where Uzbekistan is?” -- as more proof of how far Americans are falling behind in “critical” knowledge. Undeniable proof that we need to hire even more highly-paid government experts/educators.
The fact is, with modern information/communication culture and technology, it is virtually impossible not to learn something new all the time; the problem is filtering out the bad education, or propaganda, that is likely to be distributed by the mass (mainstream) media, because of the confidence and trust they built in the past as frequently the only sources of information readily available. But when information becomes abundant, those traditional sources of the past may fall down the list of useful, reliable and credible information. Because while the mainstream media of the past may have been the best in the past, given the technological limitations in which it evolved and flourished, when the technology is no longer that limit, its own traditions (conventions) may now be revealed as its limitations.
In the newspaper world, the convenient and expedient excuse was that due to deadline pressures, they couldn’t do a thorough job of “vetting” the information. In the age of Internet publications, the only pressures and limits are the ability to create quality, original content -- 24/7 -- at any time, all the time. In other words, there are no excuses; you have to get it right -- which is another game entirely.
Another popular “rediscovery” of a rather innocuous miracle drug that can be produced cheaply and has time-proven effects sworn by millions, is guaifenesin, the product people are used to using when they have a cold or the flu.
Desperate for a remedy to a crippling back pain a few years ago, I attended a free seminar on a doctor’s claim that guaifenesin was the cure for fibromyalgia, the latter which I was not familiar with. That syndrome turned out to be virtually a roll call of the symptoms I had experienced throughout life -- and learned then that it was characteristically undiagnosed in most who have that condition. They just kind of muddle through their whole lives adapting to one health episode after another thinking they are unrelated. So fibromyalgia was the syndrome that tied these symptoms together.
I was mainly attracted to the seminar because having used guaifenesin before (the active ingredient in cough syrup), I suspected it had curative properties beyond just being an effective expectorant (liquefying mucus), as it always gave me a feeling of well-being -- so much so that I recommended it as a better product than Geritol, until I heeded warnings from health professionals that cough syrup wasn’t good for you -- that it might be addicting. And there is a stern obligatory warning on the bottle not to continue use for more than 5 days, or some such disclaimer from liability that usually makes the product useless.
Virtually immediately on regarding the information at the seminar as a sanction not to regard that product ominously anymore but liberally without the negative side-effects -- that have never been documented although implied, I noticed that long-standing injuries and pains disappeared. Mucus is the basic fluid and lubricant of the human body, and as such, it just makes sense that the body functions well when that viscosity (fluidity) is high, as opposed to when it becomes gummy, as in the discharge from the respiratory system during the flu or cold (bronchitis). And it turns out, that the cartilage on the joints secrete mucus preparatory to movement -- as a lubricant.
Like a car, viscosity is good; sludge is bad. But within the cells, unless fluid behaves like fluid, optimally, cell and tissue function will be less than optimal until they eventually break down and die because the expected diffusion that takes place in a liquid medium cannot take place as a cell congeals into more solid form. In those with fibromyalgia, a characteristic marker is this “lumpiness” under the skin rather than the more normal sensation of uniform liquidity under the skin.
But even while the severe pain of arthritis largely went away for me, there was still the nagging pain of arthritis that necessitated the use of a pain-killer, and most health professionals dismissed acetaminophen as not being as effective as NSAIDs -- because it does not have the anti-inflammatory effect. But that anti-inflammatory effect is caused by creating gastric distress -- much like the butterflies in the stomach of an athlete anticipating his event. For that effect, NSAIDs were also abused preparatory to athlete contests as a way of psyching up, as well as for the treatment of pain after strenuous activity. It probably contributes to premature burnout by over exhausting the recovery ability -- in that constant use requires the body to be “on” all the time, producing a long-term stress.
Discontinuing NSAIDs immediately led to a 20 point drop in both my diastolic and systolic blood pressure readings -- which had perplexed me for several decades -- concurrent with my use of NSAIDs. The medical profession calls these “iatrogenic” diseases -- in which the cure, over the long term, turns out to be the cause.
The good news is that many common and heretofore extremely debilitating conditions, may be “cured” by the most commonly and cheaply available products yet known to man. But it is not inconceivable that there might pop up attempts to scare people away from such solutions, as one saw recently a study purporting to show that cough medicine doesn’t work -- and is no more effective than a placebo. Right. Next, somebody will be tampering with the Tylenol bottles to undermine that product.
Of course medical professionals don’t like it when you treat/cure yourself -- demanding that exclusive right of control over everybody else. In this, they are not unlike every other self-interested (professional trade association), whose highest cause is their own profitability and self-advancement. With insurance in the picture, the real cost is taken out of the picture.
But one of the things about information and its deliberate specialization, compartmentalization, and fragmentation, is that it is open to those who can make those connections. The critical piece that leads to a logical conclusion is missing, withheld, not forthcoming. Instead, the “professional” inserts themselves in where there would be a logical next step -- which the consumer is forbidden from entertaining. It’s a business strategy built upon co-dependency -- so that the more one avails themselves of that “help,” the weaker one becomes -- like an addiction to anything else. It’s obvious with the drugs but less obvious in the dependence on “experts,” and ultimately, on bureaucrats. Those are people who serve no actual function but one has to obtain their stamp of approval to do anything -- or at least they want you to think so. Such people might demand to see one’s certificate in creating writing as a proof of competency in creative writing.
That sounds absurdly preposterous, but a lot of people don’t think they are “well” unless they’re diagnosed as such, or “unwell,” for that matter. If somebody says there’s nothing wrong, then there is nothing wrong -- despite the fact that one may be in constant pain, torment and discomfort. It is what the expert says it is. Such people are also susceptible to manipulation -- from con-artists obviously but not so obviously, by all those who enjoy the control and manipulation of others.
In that way, there are a lot of people doing everything the fitness experts tell them they should be -- committing as much time and energy to such matters as they’ve been instructed to, yet they are not in the shape/condition they want to be in -- and instead, think the only way to achieve that condition/shape, is by surgical intervention. It’s because their exercise/conditioning practices, are totally ineffective -- despite putting in long hours and large sums of money at it, as prescribed by their “professional, certified” advisors.
It doesn’t seem to occur to such people that there can be anything else -- because a great part of that advice is that there is no other. Those are the people who can be persuaded that that which is not true is true and that which is true is too good to be true, and should not be believed. That is the culture of conventional wisdom -- in which things are true because the authoritarian personalities says it is so. Some cultures have more of these authoritarian tendencies than others. Those are the prescientific societies that depend on hierarchies of authority -- rather than verifiable, self-evident truth. In fact, the great commandment of such dogmas, is that one should never attempt to do one’s own thinking for themselves -- but must rely submissively on the “proper” authorities.
The most obvious and visible of such demagogues are of course the newspaper editors and columnists -- who would have us believe, are the smartest, most honest people in the world. No wonder the future always looks so bleak -- and there is absolutely no hope for humanity -- but only doom and gloom as far as they can see.
One week after having a near-death experience caused by an allergic reaction to penicillin, revealing an underlying gastrointestinal weakness caused by the chronic use of NSAIDs for pain relief, for thirty years, that urgent cessation in favor of remedy fo first choice (acetaminophen) has produced an instant cure of many other chronic problems one just gets used to and would never re-examine unless there is this kind of desperate necessity. Unfortunately, that’s how the major changes and shifts in people’s lives happen. Very few can just sit down calmly and dispassionately and decide to choose and do all the “right” thing.
The major changes have to be a matter of life and death -- and pivotal decision that really matters. Not to have them in one’s life, and to be sheltered from making those decisions, is ill-preparation for those moments one eventually has to make such critical choices -- alone. Those who are “conditioned” to it, will have a much better chance of making changes -- while those who have been taught to ignore their own senses, will not be able to break out of their habits, conditioning, indoctrinations -- even at their own peril.
They’ll be bent over in pain, and the doctor will say there is nothing wrong with them. Few people have had the extraordinary experience of being a “professional” research subject, and so will have been intimately involved with medical procedures and protocol. As a “Conscientious Objector” in Vietnam era, one of my options for alternative service was as a medical research subject. According to the doctors then, I was the first human in the world they had ever encountered with an allergy to milk. “Milk,” they claimed, “was the perfect food.” And so all their test formulas were designed with that unquestioned truth in mind.
Ten-fifteen years later, I ran across a book that claimed to be the first ever written on the suppression of evidence of milk (dairy) intolerance. And in fact, the data supported the author’s contention that the majority of adults in the world are lactose intolerant. There is a survival imperative at work here -- because it impels the young to become independent for their nutritional needs. So while it is understandable for the infant to tolerate milk well, not doing so for a prolonged period, favors individuals who mature early and break that dependence on another for one’s continued sustenance.
Independence and freedom is this great hallmark of maturity and strength. Occasionally, ideologies gain favor in which the weakening of individual competence and resolve is undermined in favor of almost complete dependency. The major collectivist message will inevitably be, “You are nothing as an individual -- and only by banding together in our cliques, can we ever expect to rise by dominating and exploiting the weaker others.” That is the familiar rise of tribal identities and urban gangs that produce the factionalism encouraged as destructive “diversity.”
The cultural impulse that is healthy is the regard of individual integrity -- which is the integration of the individual, as the truth of the matter. One is not 45% allergic to milk, penicillin, etc, but is wholly so -- or not. That is the common misperception of phenomena as the intellectual understanding supercedes the actuality of the specific case. The generalization is not any truth at all -- yet that is all that many people know, and think that is reality.
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