a little backround....I get really bad rashes from poison ivy when exposed so if i do get exposed i have several things i take to prevent a rash from forming. thoroughly wash area, steroid creme, subsequent use of bactene. it has worked in the past and hopefully will in the future. well this time a few days ago after hurricane irene passed through i had to put a fence back up and it had poison ivy. so i took the above and also added benedryl 25 mg. well unexpectedly the benedryl quited down the recent flare of burning and stabbing pains at night. I took it 2 times since a few days apart and it has continued to work on the burning and stabbing pains. i know its an antihistamine but i dont know why it would help quiet the pain and if that means anything as to what exactly is going on with my flare and peripheral neuropathy in general.

just thought id pass this on if it helps anyone else for those really bad nights.

Eeesh, I get horrible restless leg from it, and it keeps me up for days!

Here's a discussion in neurotalk about the use of Benedryl for pain: http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...d.php?t=135561

I have read before where it helps many with pain. It has something to do with our immune system and histimine. Have you ever looked into histamine intolerance?

Here is the Wiki on it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diphenhydramine

This effect on your pain may wear off, if tolerance occurs.

Histamine, is a neurotransmitter in the brain, and because Benadryl crosses the blood brain barrier easily (unlike Claritin and Allegra), it can block histamine's actions there. The most obvious sign of this is the drowsiness. But since histamine is responsible for triggering other neurotransmitter actions in a cascade fashion in the brain, Benadryl blocks that function.

The Wiki article mentions anesthetic actions. And serotonin effects too (this is a weak action). As people age and enter their late 50's and upwards tolerance to Benadryl becomes problematic. My doctor won't let me take it any more. I used to use 50mg at bedtime. I never noticed much PN effects, but it did help me sleep when I was going thru menopause and had sleeping problems.

Older males may develop urinary retention on this drug (do not use if you have prostate issues). And at 50mg /night doses there may be a significant hangover and dulling of reflexes. Also cannot use this if you have increased intraocular pressure, so consult your eye doctor before using.

But as a rule, if it works for you now and you have no major side effects, I'd say continue with it and see if this lasts.

I myself find that DM works better on my burning pain. But we are all different. (dextromethorphan).

I've got some promethazine (another antihistamine) for migraine nausea, but it hits me so hard (even half of one) that I only use it on rare occasion. I've never noticed any effect on PN, but it usually has me so out of it that I may just not have noticed.

If my burning/stabbing pains ever return, I'll try it and report back (if I can find this thread again).

Doc

Some people also find that Benadryl increases appetite. So watch out for that.

MrsD
I had a horrible flare-up of my EM symptoms last night all due (i think) to having several very wonderful pieces of beautiful dark chocolate. This is the first flare of this magnitude since I started taking Claritin.

Can you tell me what is in the chocolate that made me react so badly? I have had milk chocolate (not my favorite) with no adverse side effects. I will not indulge again (with the dark) but do want to avoid whatever properties caused this so if it's in other things I would like to know what to avoid.

I have given up so many things that trigger flares that I guess one more won't matter.

My flares of hot burning pain have almost stopped for the most part once I started Claritin (actually i take the generic of Claritin because it's so much cheaper and works just fine). I think I will try benedryl as well to see if it works any better, thanks for the tip.

Thank you MrsD for any insight you might have for my current problem and please forgive me if you have already covered the "chocolate" trigger.

It may depend on what else in is the chocolate. Some additive maybe. There is some magnesium in dark chocolate, but magnesium is used for Erythromelgia treatments for some patients. I wouldn't expect the small amount of magnesium in dark chocolate to be much of a trigger. If your dark was high quality it is not treated with alkali during processing. This is supposed to spare the beneficial antioxidants in it.
Chocolate, aged cheeses and red wine may dilate blood vessels and have been linked to migraine triggers too. (this is less thought so today, but some doctors still believe it)

But there are people who are intolerant of chocolate, and the dark has a higher % of cocoa, than milk chocolate. Milk chocolate is really just sugar and fat with very little cocoa.

I get burning from MSG and potatoes! Each person is different.

Claritin is really a very weak antihistamine (some studies show it no better than placebo).. You might try Zyrtec if you are feeling experimental. The Benadryl never did much for my feet when I used to use it regularly. So alot depends on the person, and what is triggering the PN.

Thank you MrsD, I really appreciate your response and I will try the Zyrtec and see what happens. I read about Claritin from someone else that has EM and she said it really helped her so I gave it a try and the response was immediate so if Zyrtec would help with the left over pain that would be a great help.

I do take Magnesium, it has helped tremendously with my "foggy" brain also with some of my depression. I take a powder form of citrate. It didn't seem to do much if anything for the EM/PN but I continue to take it. The brain fog that I had was completely debilitating so this has been a godsend.

I too have burning hot feet from MSG. I have given up my favorite Chinese restaurant even though they don't add any additional when I ask for none, there is still some in the already prepared items, so, another splurge crossed off my list. In fact I have given up on all foods with preservatives. I read labels very carefully now and eating out anywhere scares me. And sometimes I just have deal with a few days of pain because you really can't avoid every potential problem, hidden or not.

Well, back to the dark chocolate. The ingredients include partially hydrogenated veg oil (which I normally would never eat) sorbitol, disodium phosphate, potassium sorbate and gelatin then only what you would normally expect to find. I guess I will just leave the stuff alone as it's not worth what I went through.

Thanks so much for being here, you are the absolute best and such a great resource for all of us who struggle with all these newly acquired symptoms that we as of yet don't fully understand.

I think the sorbitol is a culprit. The polyol pathway is implicated in diabetic PN.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyol_pathway

Sorbitol is also very laxative. I can't stand it!