Painful Joints

[Coilte]

[quote name='AntLockyer' timestamp='1385548807' post='2289472']
I think every part of what you wrote is fine in theory I think it breaks down in real life for all sorts of reasons. I'm not good at everything but I care a lot more about the outcome than anyone else. I also know that I am very fotunate to have a massive capacity for learning which does make it all the easier for me to help myself.

I've been badly let down by the medical profession on many occasions. The last one was going to the doctor about finger pain and being told it was wear and tear.

Other groups that have let me down plumbers, electricians, mechanics, gardners etc.

Most knowledge is available to us nowadays and the truly skilled labour needed rare. Things I need others for. Surgery, playing instruments other than the ones I've practiced sufficiently, heavy lifting, things that require sign off (I get a spark to sign a piuece of paper saying my work is OK) etc.
[/quote]


You are entitled to, and I respect your opinion. However, IMO self diagnosis and treatment for certain illnesses and injuries can be a recipe for disaster. This is not to say that we should be hypochondriacs and go running to the doctor as soon as we start sneezing. A little common sense should prevail.

[AntLockyer]

[quote name='Coilte' timestamp='1385555653' post='2289543']
You are entitled to, and I respect your opinion. However, IMO self diagnosis and treatment for certain illnesses and injuries can be a recipe for disaster. This is not to say that we should be hypochondriacs and go running to the doctor as soon as we start sneezing. A little common sense should prevail.
[/quote]

I actually do agree with that point, just not the one that doctors should be blindly trusted with us being passive in that arrangement. I'm nto sure that is what you said either

[cupples]

[quote name='AntLockyer' timestamp='1385548807' post='2289472']
I've been badly let down by the medical profession on many occasions. The last one was going to the doctor about finger pain and being told it was wear and tear.
[/quote]
Yeah, I was getting those vibes from what you were saying. You sound like you've been burnt. Unfortunately that's a risk we all face when dealing with other humans, whether purporting to be professionals or not.
There is, or there should be, room for collaboration on diagnosis. Not everyone wants this - some people just want to be told what the problem is, and given meds for it, job's done. Other people want to understand their illness and get to grips with what's going on in their body - and that's great; know your enemy is a good strategy, a lot of the time. But it's also very difficult to be objective about what's going on in your own body. People quite often invest a lot of time and emotional effort in what they believe their diagnosis to be; and that makes it very difficult to start from first principles and work out, from the ground up, that it's something very different from what they themselves thought. Not all docs like people challenging their opinion - I'm afraid some of them live in an older world, where docs had authority above what they have now, and were not disagreed with - but this is not the rule. They'd rather see someone interacting and trying to understand, rather than rolling over and just acting sick.
You sound like you're fortunate to have a level of expertise at a great many things - not all have this facility. My advice is, when you do have a medical need - find a GP that you can challenge and have a debate with, who knows their stuff, who isn't too solidly planted in a Western worldview of health and causation of disease. But most of all - someone who knows the limits of their own knowledge; when to say "I don't know, but this other professional ought to".

[jakenewmanbass]

Picking up on the grains point made earlier... It is becoming more and more accepted that grains can cause an inflammatory response in the body with some very considerable medical opinion suggesting that grains and sugar are, at least in part, culprits in heart disease. Inflammatory responses can also present in the joints, and in no way would it harm anyone to take all flour and sugar based products out of their diet for a while to see if there is a positive response...
Give it a try, many many people have tackled arthritic problems with diet.

edit... if you did this for 2 weeks (no fruit or alcohol for that time either) you could expect to lose up to a stone too

Edited November 27, 2013 by jakenewmanbass

[AntLockyer]

[quote name='cupples' timestamp='1385558051' post='2289582'] find a GP that you can challenge and have a debate with, who knows their stuff, who isn't too solidly planted in a Western worldview of health and causation of disease. But most of all - someone who knows the limits of their own knowledge; when to say "I don't know, but this other professional ought to".
[/quote]

I will continue to dream of that day

Thanks for the debate.

[Blink]

Stop eating bread. It worked for me for pains in the finger joints.

[thisnameistaken]

You mentioned you're taking fish oil supplements. I don't know much about this stuff but I keep hearing that green-lipped mussel oil is supposed to be the best of these kinds of supplements, might be worth trying.

[AntLockyer]

The thing with fish oils is about swinging your Omega 3/6/9 back towards the ideal ratio (2:1:1 apparently) if you eat a lot of food you've not made yourself, things with sunflower oil, rapeseed oil or anything else like that you will be ingesting huge amounts of 6 and probably little 3. Macadamia nuts are good (and give you potassium too) but you need to cut out the bad rather than just up the good.

[dlloyd]

First thing I would do is bin the glucosamine. It simply doesn't work and taking high doses may harm you.

[Mog]

My brother swears by bananas. (He's a drummer, bassist and does a lot of long distance running so he's well used to joint pains). Apparently it has something to do with the Potassium content.

[fatback]

+1 to see a doc.

If you're (also) going to try herbal alternatives to NSAID medicines, look at proper medical research not voodoo, plenty available on the web. There's no doubt that some work as well as the conventional medicines.

For general protection of inflamed joints cod liver oil is the biz. The mechanism was discovered a couple of years ago. In inflammation, enzymes nip away at the proteins in the tendons etc. Cod liver oil (the omega 3) blocks the enzyme action. Joint damage is massively reduced, even prevented.

Technical paper here, also with reviews of white willow bark , turmeric and other substances proven to work.

[url="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3011108/"]http://www.ncbi.nlm....les/PMC3011108/[/url]

Edited November 28, 2013 by fatback

[mart3442]

Hopefully your doctor will get to the bottom of things. I suffered with something similar a few years back. Turns out the cause was simply dehydration of my body. Taking in more water and daily inputs of vitamin B6 tablets sorted it out within two weeks.
Lots of good advice been given here, hope you find the right solution.

[bassace]

[quote name='Dandelion' timestamp='1385328606' post='2287049']
See the quack. You will probably be prescribed Naproxen, which is a little more effective than Ibuprofen and safer to take long term .

It will either work or it wont.

Keep your joints moving, it is the immobility of sleep which makes them stiff.
[/quote]

Naproxen could do the trick. NSAIDs have not had the best press lately but used sparingly and with care (talk to the doc) Naproxen could be effective.

[cupples]

Naproxen is the current NSAID du jour because it is the safest (for the circulatory system) of the commonly used ones. Unfortunately, it's not that good. Ibuprofen and (especially) diclofenac are better for most people; but naproxen's what you'll usually get from most GPs, at least first time; until you go back and complain that it's not working, and persuade them that you're not likely to keel over from a stroke or heart attack anytime soon.

[Zampa]

I had Naproxin once, I was working at a hospital and gave mu back a bit of a pull...woke up in the early hours of the morning with a feeling in my stomach like I had swallowed a hot lump of coal!!...not for me.

[gjones]

[quote name='Zampa' timestamp='1385761040' post='2292048']
I had Naproxin once, I was working at a hospital and gave mu back a bit of a pull...woke up in the early hours of the morning with a feeling in my stomach like I had swallowed a hot lump of coal!!...not for me.
[/quote]

After I had surgery for carpal tunnel, I was given this stuff for the inflammation. After 3 days of horrible indigestion at night, I actually read the list of side effects, realised it was the naproxen that was causing it and threw the stuff away.