Originally Posted by Wide-O

I can only briefly comment on the weed... I wanted to try it, got a vaporizer specifically for cannabis, and found out it's not easy to find weed that is geared to pain control in Holland. Most weed is selected for high THC content, and what we normally want is CBD.

After I found some very mellow weed with minimal THC I tried it, and although I can't say it did nothing - it made me calmer for a while - I can't (and never could) get used to the feeling of "not being in control" that weed seems to give me. I know, that sounds a bit strange for a confirmed alcoholic... but that's how it works for me.

I don't know what the possibilities are in your state or if it's even appropriate to mention, but if you want to try it you really want medicinal weed and not "medicinal wink wink" weed if you catch my drift. Vaporizing it is - after ingestion - probably the cleanest way, but a decent device is not inexpensive and needs to be learned on how to use it.

In the end, I think - if it works for you - that it's a temporary relief, and not something that you want to use 24/7. It would more be like taking an occasional break - at least, that's how it would work for me if I can ever find a version that doesn't increase paranoid feelings.

My best longer term bet is still the Zone diet/fish oil that I talked about so much. Did you give that a try? It's pretty easy to do, and you should notice some improvement after about 30 days. If it doesn't work for you the worst that can happen is that you may lose a few pounds or get addicted to broccoli.

Originally Posted by Wide-O

I'd recommend reading "The Inflammation Zone" to get a good handle on what he is trying to do. It's one thing to hear it from me, it's another to have a good in-depth explanation from someone who has been working on this for a good while.

Yes, he has a commercial interest - he sells fish oil - and many of his books are repetitive, but I have seen it work first hand, and many of his findings are repeated by others. Most docs would say that lowering your triglycerides by 60% in 6 months with or without medication is impossible, but it's exactly what happened to me: from 200 to 70, which is quite spectacular. You basically control your hormones, reduce internal inflammation, and this has a good effect on PN too.

Obviously, it's about more than just the PN: even though I did not follow everything to the letter (if I eat an egg I also eat the yolk, bite me ), and allowed myself the occasional "day off", correcting cholesterol levels in such a way and losing 70 pounds (ending up with a BMI - for what that's worth - of 21) without too much effort really did me a lot of good.

Originally Posted by Wide-O

Yes, Barry Sears. Forgot to say that you obviously don't need to buy the fish oil from him (d'oh!) but do make sure you get high quality fish oil. Like with everything the quality can wildly vary. Good luck, and give it some time - I know how rotten it feels when the pain gets worse.

Originally Posted by Wide-O

Sorry to hear that Ice. The difference between the best days and the worst days is baffling indeed. I comfort myself that both have moved in the good direction though, where during the best days I have no pain or discomfort what so ever. But falling back to a previous level (with discomfort) makes you scratch your head, and can be very discouraging. It leaves you wondering "what am I doing wrong now?"

As for the fish oil - it all depends on your current diet. I know it sounds a bit like snake oil*, and if you currently eat a lot of fresh fish it might not really help you at much at all, but it is a fact that for most of us our diets lack (for several reasons) omega 3 fatty acids.

I know that it helped me a lot. It could be coincidence - I'm skeptical enough to take that into account - but I don't think so.

* anecdote: it is assumed that snake oil actually used to be a real thing, taken from sea snakes from the Chinese sea, and ... containing a lot of omega3. But then it was copied and the bottles filled with "whatever" - hence the saying. Mind you, it's a nice story, but it could be an amusing hoax.

Edit: although, this is a good read: http://patients.about.com/od/decisio...a/Snakeoil.htm

Originally Posted by Wide-O

As for the fish oil - it all depends on your current diet. I know it sounds a bit like snake oil*, and if you currently eat a lot of fresh fish it might not really help you at much at all, but it is a fact that for most of us our diets lack (for several reasons) omega 3 fatty acids.