Safe Pain Relief Post Statin's

 I am not a Doctor, and this is not medical advice. It is a story about myself and severe head to toe pain. It ends with how I found resolution. Perhaps if you are one of the many older adults experiencing muscle and joint pain you write off to being, "old", this may lead you to search for new ideas and less pain.

For me, it started more than a decade ago with a family of medicines generally known as Statins. There were four different Statins that I was aware of. This may have changed by now. The first Statin I was prescribed made me almost immediately sick with an upset stomach and cramping.

I was given a second Statin. This second Statin lasted two days before the same ending took place. Ditto for the third. The final Statin had a lifespan in my body of over a decade. The supplement COQ10 was also suggested for muscle and joint pain relief from Statins, which at the time I did not seem have, but I took it as a precaution. 

Everything was good until it was not. My newest Doctor did not like the COQ10 formula and another supplement I was taking recommended years earlier by a former doctor, and I was sent to a supplement specialist Doctor.

This Doctor pointed out two of the supplements I was taking were unhealthy for me and other many people in general. They specifically said the COQ10 I was taking had Vitamin e as its carrier oil. COQ10 is absorbed better with fat at the time of taking. Vitamin e, is now thought not to be so healthy for people with a good diet.

I found the brand of COQ10 they suggested. It had no oil, and the recommended dose was 100 milligrams a day. After the first bottle ran out, I quit as it seemed to be doing nothing. Life went on as normal for a year or so until I woke in severe, (months long) muscle and joint pain.

It took two months of Doctors research and opinion, for a determination to be made: I am allergic to Statins and can no longer take them. Within a few weeks, I had less pain. That was not little enough pain to be excited about, but I thought I could live with it. As time went by, the pain continued, and my hands started hurting, both joint and muscle.

It was getting difficult to make a fist, as I noticed my hands swelling for no reason. Every day all major muscles in my body felt as if I had done a serious whole body work out the day before. Everything hurt, and no matter the day, the feeling was the same.

I needed and wanted pain relief. I thought about my time with Statins long and hard and my prior Doctor who had suggested I take COQ10 which didn't seem to do much of anything. I decided to start reading again about COQ10 as years had now passed and knowledge grows. 

I now read COQ10 is an antioxidant. It is made by almost every cell in our body. However some people )as we age) need more than our bodies produce. A safe dose is thought to be up to 1200 mg daily per my reading (not fact). That was a lot higher than the 100 mg a day I was taking.

I went out and found a bottle of COQ10 that had no vitamin e (also called wheat oil). The first day I took 800 mgs. The next day I woke up and some muscles did not hurt as bad. Rinse and repeat. The pain was going away, and my muscles now feel like they are waking from a long sleep. In the moment 800 mgs of COQ10 is working for me.

Whether my pain is from so many years of Statins wreaking havoc on my body, or another unknown cause (age?), COQ10 seems to be the magic bullet for pain reduction and relief. All my pain has diminished to very minor with more improvement every day.

I don't know where the line is drawn for pain reduction, but such a common supplement is doing wonders for me.

Forgotten Stress and Pain Release

I was watching a Documentary the other evening. I think it was called, "Heal". It was interesting, but nothing new, until they started talking about releasing hidden, forgotten and ignored pain and stress that went all the way back to childhood.

The idea is forgotten stressors act upon our body chemistry, causing autoimmune issues and certain types of disease because our body's healthy chemical balance has been suppressed for many years and less than stellar chemicals are roaming around in their place wreaking havoc on our well being.

This sounded like it was coming from Carney Row at the County Fair. I understand being stressed, but wasn't too sure I bought into the chemical imbalance that unrelieved stress brings about. Except they had a number of people including at least one person with stage four cancer who swore it is true, because they all reversed their illnesses through releasing hidden pain and stress.

The thought of buried, hidden stress release was a new idea to me. One of the experts in the Documentary said in his opinion there, 'is no one size fits all cure or fix'. Yoga and meditation in the morning may work for you, seeing a therapist for emotional issues may work better for me, as I understood his opinion.

The Documentary moved on to a Woman who was working with a practitioner who used EFT. EFT is interesting because it involves physical action to distract our brain. We repeat an EFT Practitioner's verbal suggestions while being physically distracted with tapping or rubbing or both.

At least that is my limited understanding from the documentary and one small EFT book I read some years ago. EFT is effective because it is a kind of distraction meditation. Spoken suggestions are put on a direct path to the brain because the subject is distracted with the physical distractions being induced by the EFT Practitioner.

In the Documentary, the EFT Practitioner was doing her thing, tapping away, and telling the patient to recall a painful moment, and at each memory recall, repeat the phrase, "I love you then", or something similar. Later in the show, the Woman claims her hidden pain and stress was eventually all gone (released), and her very serious health ailments had disappeared.

I like everyone else have long term and buried or forgotten pain and stressors hidden away in my brain. I decided because I meditate often, I would skip the EFT part and go with the, "I love you then" for the known stressors I could remember. I wasn't expecting a lot, because it seemed too simple. I am skeptical. I want proof.

I started with my biggest stress, 'White Coat Syndrome', and all the memories that keep it fresh and make me want to run, not walk out of Doctor and Dentist offices. The earliest memory I could recall was being six or seven years old sitting in a Dentist chair.

I was going to receive a shot of Novocaine for a drill and fill for a bad tooth. The Dentist who I suspected in later years was a drunk, put the glass Novocaine vial in the needle and moved it towards my mouth. It slipped and fell to the floor and broke.

He picked up the broken glass vial pieces and the now useless needle. He said, "This is your fault, you little shit", and stabbed the knuckles of my right hand with a piece of the broken Novocaine vial glass leaving me with a lifelong scar. Upon recalling this memory I said, "I love you then".

(The Dentist came up with a believable story he told my Mother afterward that was not questioned, of course as he was the Dentist - authority figure)

Now I am remembering other bad dental and medical memories that made their long forgotten presence known, followed with my repeated, "I love you then" comments. Time disappeared replaced with, "I love you then" comments flowing through my mind at each remembered memory.

I realized something changed after a (unknown period of) time. The voice saying, "I love you then", was not my voice. It was coming from somewhere else, and the memories of painful and stressful times of my life arrived without any prompting. I was now a watching, hearing observer of those times in my life that stressed me out or caused pain, of which I had long ago forgotten about.

When I 'awoke' some time later, I knew I still wasn't through with the memory recall and the, "I love you then", comments. Amazingly, I felt like one-hundred pounds of just below skin level stress had left me! I felt so relaxed, I thought if I were to take my blood pressure, I would probably be concerned because it would be so low.

If you are used to meditating, you may be able to duplicate the results I did without any EFT stimulus. If you do not meditate, you may want to read up on EFT, and pick a few EFT movements that feel right for you as you try out the process. Better yet, find an EFT trained person to work with you.

I do not know what exactly happened during my experience, or if my body's chemical structure has started to change, but something good definitely took place. I felt so at peace and relaxed, it felt abnormal in the moment.

Twenty-four or so hours later, it feels a little hokey writing this. I still feel very calm and at peace with the world. Something definitely changed from the time I decided to try this process to the time I stopped. I will be doing this again, perhaps many times, until I feel there is no more hidden stress and pain to release. I highly recommend you try this process. I am still skeptical about the process. I am looking forward to some months in the future to see what lasting changes have taken place.