Don't Knock Alternatives For Neuropathy! You Never Know!

Today's short post from themighty.com (see link below) says a great deal in a short piece of text. it's true what she says: if nothing is helping, you'll end up trying just about anything to make life with neuropathy just that little bit easier and if that falls under the category of 'alternative' therapies or supplements then so be it - if it works...don't knock it. Now of course, you should get professional advice; especially if you have other conditions and take other medications but neuropathy is one of those diseases where the patient is at the forefront of the research because the research throughout the  decades just hasn't thrown up anything that truly works in reducing nerve pain for all. So millions of people across the world, are trying this, that and the other remedy because they've heard it benefits some people (this blog is full of them) but gradually, one or more supplements gain a widespread reputation of having an effect and the snowball rolls. (Always avoid anything with the word 'cure' on the label though - it's a lie!) Eventually the science catches up and proves or disproves the theory. It may be risky but neuropathy patients are dogged folk and god loves a trier!!
 

Why I Don't Roll My Eyes at Alternative Treatments Anymore
By Michele Kleinmann Contributor I write about Chronic Pain
 
I used to secretly (OK, sometimes not so secretly) roll my eyes at people who poured money into alternative therapies or swore by specific diets or vitamins. If there wasn’t robust medical literature to back something, I wasn’t buying it. That is, until I found myself buying miso soup on a 100-degree day for the potential benefits of seaweed on my neuropathic pain (as advised by my acupuncturist). Or until I found myself falling asleep every night to my pain relief hypnosis app. Or until I found myself calling the compounding pharmacist, who I’m on a first-name basis with, to ask whether he had any calf-liver pills. That must have been a sight — me standing on a busy street corner yelling into my phone, “C-A-L-F liver, like the cow.” Ultimately, I didn’t proceed with that one, but that’s beside the point.

The point is, I now understand that when you’re desperate for pain relief, you’ll try just about anything. That’s not to say that I don’t still immediately go to PubMed or “Doctor Google” to research whatever has been proposed to me (once a skeptic, always skeptic-ish), but I’m a whole lot more willing to try things. I don’t care if the relief I might find is only due to the placebo effect. The placebo effect can be powerful and, at this point, I say bring it on.

Moving forward, I will try my best to refrain from judging others’ regimens, however strange they may seem. I will instead hope that they are getting relief from whatever it is that plagues them. And I ask that next time you see me buying copious amounts of blueberry juice while on the phone with my acupuncturist, you do the same (hope I get relief, not buy blueberry juice).

https://themighty.com/2016/08/why-i-dont-judge-alternative-pain-relief-treatments-anymore/