[texasgeek]

Anyone notice a connection between eating spicy food and PN pain that follows about 30 minutes later?

I was trying to do the "no nightshade" diet which means no potatoes, tomatoes, eggplants, bell pepper or any other kind of pepper (black pepper is okay). I occasionally slipped but did stop buying and cooking with jalapenos as much as I had been.

I recently started buying jalapenos again and cooking with them, fresh minced, about one (with seeds and membrane removed) per 4 servings in my stirfrys. The PN pain afterwards definitely does seem to increase.

I'm wondering if there is more to this "nightshade-free diet" than I thought related to PN. It is touted to help with arthritis for many people (though not all). Maybe it helps PN too? I hate to give up my jalapenos.

Anyone else see a similar connection?

[Wing42]

I manage to eat salsa, tomatoes, eggplant, or chile peppers most days with no noticeable bad affect.

On the skin is another matter. Capsicum creams are recommended in some of the PN organization web sites, and in the book "Numb Toes and Aching Soles" (Amazon link http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0967...60#reader-link ). My experience when trying it was about three hours of incredible agony that nothing helped alleviate. I was even dumb enough to try it again with a weaker cream. It hurt just about as bad, and for as long. Doh!

Several other people in the old Braintalk forum had the same experience.

[MelodyL]

Oh brother, I will never forget that night as long as I live. He was on the 50 of the fentanyl at the time. It must have been 4 or so years ago. He had just been increased from the the 25 patch.

Someone told me to buy Zostrix creme. It was new at the time. Use Zostrix for pain and you're pain will go away. Doesn't work like the rubs, it takes time to get into your system, but when it does, BAM, it's supposed to take the pain away.

Yeah, right!!! We didn't know that Alan had a scratch along the top of his foot. It was barely perceptable. So I get some of the zostrix creme and rub it go into his foot. Well, it was 1 a.m. and he jumps out of bed and starts running around the room screaming. I was beside myself, I had no idea what to do. He kept screaming, "I'm on fire". "I'm on fire". I quickly got an ice cold compress and washed off the creme but he was still screaming.

Since I didn't know what else to do, I just grabbed a 25 patch of the fentanyl and slapped it on his back. In 30 seconds flat he went "oh thank God".

Never went near that creme again. BAD NEWS if you have a scratch or abrasion.

jeez.......

mel

[Yorkiemom]

Aaah... "P" the pain messenger. This is what Zostrix is supposed to gradually lower... I did not even have an open cut or a scratch and I thought I was in the fires of hell when I tried it...

This from a website selling it:

Zostrix is not only effective; it’s also safe. Zostrix has no known systemic side effects or drug interactions. This means that you can feel comfortable knowing Zostrix will not interfere with the oral medications that you may take for arthritis or other conditions.
Top of Page

HOW DOES ZOSTRIX STOP THE PAIN?
Zostrix works with your body's chemistry to lower your level of Substance P, the body's "pain messenger." When Substance P is reduced, so is the pain. By using Zostrix regularly, 3 to 4 times a day, capsaicin builds up, Substance P fades, and so does your pain.

Probably the reason they sell a lot of it is that everybody tries it "once."

Cathie

[MelodyL]

Can you just imagine rubbing this into an open scratch.

NEVER AGAIN!!!!!

BUT!!!, it did work on my back pain. Cost $37.00 a tube way back then!!!

mel

[Wing42]

Originally Posted by MelodyL

...
BUT!!!, it did work on my back pain. Cost $37.00 a tube way back then!!!

mel

That again illustrates the great difference between nurologic pain and "normal" pain. Normal pain is mediated at the pain receptor, as interpreted by the brain. Nerve pain is the brain's response to inappropriate nerve activity over many days, months, and years, 24 hours a day. The brain doen't know what these inappropriate signals mean, and so interprets them as various types of pain: burning, shock, achyness, tightness. Substance "P" at the nerve receptors has little or nothing to do with neuropathic pain.

As time goes on, the brain becomes hypersensitive to the activity in the feet, hands, wherever the PN is occuring. That's the acute phase of PN, when pain increases rapidly. That's also why tranquilizers and anticonvulsants help somewhat...they reduce the brain's hypersensitivity. And, that's why Capsicum is so godawful painful for neuropathy; it increases nerve activity in the peripheral location, without calming the secondary source of the problem, the hypersensitive sensory receptor areas in the brain.