Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I used to run but my pinched nerve got to be so painful I stopped running (which any lifetime runner knows is your therapy).
It’s been going on for two-three years, I did physical therapy last year and it did cure it for awhile, I had to pay a lot of it out of pocket and it was expensive.
But afterwards, I started running- fast forward 6 months and it started to come back. I tried acupuncture and that helped temporarily, I got a cortisone shot and that took the pain away for a few months but it came back with a vengeance.
Now, I’m going to my chiropractor and it temporarily relieve some pain but not enough for me to run, the chiropractor says my days of a running is over, I disagree. I asked him about the pinched nerve clinic I see advertised and he said they don’t work. I used to sleep on my left side and now I can’t although if I wake up on my left side -I feel the pinched nerve flairs up. Btw, I’m 68 years old I don’t know if it matters but full disclosure.
Any ideas, I’m running out of options. No pun intended.
I used to run but my pinched nerve got to be so painful I stopped running (which any lifetime runner knows is your therapy).
It’s been going on for two-three years, I did physical therapy last year and it did cure it for awhile, I had to pay a lot of it out of pocket and it was expensive.
But afterwards, I started running- fast forward 6 months and it started to come back. I tried acupuncture and that helped temporarily, I got a cortisone shot and that took the pain away for a few months but it came back with a vengeance.
Now, I’m going to my chiropractor and it temporarily relieve some pain but not enough for me to run, the chiropractor says my days of a running is over, I disagree. I asked him about the pinched nerve clinic I see advertised and he said they don’t work. I used to sleep on my left side and now I can’t although if I wake up on my left side -I feel the pinched nerve flairs up. Btw, I’m 68 years old I don’t know if it matters but full disclosure.
Any ideas, I’m running out of options. No pun intended.
If it has lasted this long, make an appointment with a neurologist. They’re the experts and should be able to tell you about any treatments and prognosis.
I had my first bout of 'sciatica' when I was aged 52. The theory then, and still is, that peripheral pains such as sciatica or, as in your case, is due to a 'pinched nerve' at the spinal area where it enters the backbone. In my case, a high dose of medically prescribed non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) produced a remarkable improvement. I'm still taking a lower dose of the same NSAID 38 years later.
Such a response suggests that the pressure on the nerve entering the spine is due, not so much to a mechanical pinching of the nerve so much as it is due to inflammation fluids at that point of entry. Otherwise, NSAIDS would not have any effect.
You could hypothesize that the inflammation is caused by neighbouring vertebrae becoming too close and that with aging wear and tear, occasional unusual posture is causing the inflammation. In such cases, chiropractic manipulation makes sense.
The question then remains as to why we get wear and tear of our spines as we age.
I've mentioned this in other posts, but my hypothesis now, in view of my own spectacular reversal of back pain, osteoarthritis of the ankles, and repetitive bouts of angina, is that backbone degeneration of the discs, the vertebrae and the facet joints are due to artery disease causing poor circulation to those end organs.
And the evidence suggests that such artery disease is caused by a dietary lack of vitamin Ks. I've been using a high dose for 7+ years now. The Health professions have yet to catch up.
So my suggestion is to get some prescribed NSAIDS, and then start supplementing your diet with 10 times the recommended dosage of both vitamin K1 and K2. There is no reason why you shouldn’t use chiropractice as a temporary relief.
I think it is pertinent to mention here that the main role of vitamin Ks is to activate raw proteins that are produced in healthy people by vitamin D. That's another story. Although I've researched hundreds of trials of vitamin Ks against a variety of cardiovascular diseases, NOT ONE research group so far has checked the vitamin D status of their subjects during the trials and a number have used vitamin K1 in cases where only vitamin K2 has had any effect.
Anyhow, that's my 10 cents worth on 'pinched' nerves.
I thought my problem was a pinched nerve (sciatica) too. Turns out that isn't what it is for me. I got the exam, the xray, and the diagnosis from a medical doctor (an internist who works in a large medical group affiliated with the hospital). Diagnosis: severe osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, and bursitis.
I go in for my second cortisone shot next week. My first was around a year ago. If needed, I can have one more in my lifetime. After that - I'm looking at hip replacement surgery.
As Ghaati has pointed out, the differential diagnosis of pinched nerves from from bursitis of tendons around the hip, and of osteoarthritis may require the medical expertise of radiologists and neurologists. But it's the understanding of the causes and therefore long-term subsequent control and/or treatment of the conditions in which the Health Professions appear to be behind.
There is mounting evidence that osteoarthritis and osteoporosis are also due to poor circulation associated with vitamin K and/or vitamin D deficiencies. In fact I was on crutches 7+ years ago because of osteoarthritis of an ankle and heading for a wheelchair. The pain on weight-bearing disappeared and the crutches discarded within 3 weeks of high vitamin K supplementation, even though I now have a residual inch high osteophyte on the medial aspect of that ankle. I can walk 2 or 3 kilometres a day.
As far as osteoporosis is concerned, there are two or three main proteins involved in the deposition of calcium into bones. Matrix-glutamic acid-protein and osteocalcin at least are required. Both are produced in our body with the aid of vitamin D, but both need to be activated by vitamin Ks. Adequate vitamin D and adequate vitamin Ks are both required to prevent osteoporosis.
Similar evidence is available for the roles of vitamin Ks (and vitamin D) and atherosclerosis in the etiology of dementia and strokes, plus a raft of other conditions.
Does it make sense to you, that if the blood supply to any end organ or tissue deteriorates, then that organ or tissue will show some degeneration. My vitamin D is naturally high and I have not had to take supplements for it. I have shown ultrasounds of my own arteries in previous posts showing reversal of atherosclerosis associated with high vitamin K supplementation.
I have supplied evidence. It's your choice of course. There is evidence that high doses of vitamin K are quite safe by the way and I will gladly supply that if anyone is interested.
I had my first bout of 'sciatica' when I was aged 52. The theory then, and still is, that peripheral pains such as sciatica or, as in your case, is due to a 'pinched nerve' at the spinal area where it enters the backbone. In my case, a high dose of medically prescribed non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) produced a remarkable improvement. I'm still taking a lower dose of the same NSAID 38 years later.
Such a response suggests that the pressure on the nerve entering the spine is due, not so much to a mechanical pinching of the nerve so much as it is due to inflammation fluids at that point of entry. Otherwise, NSAIDS would not have any effect.
You could hypothesize that the inflammation is caused by neighbouring vertebrae becoming too close and that with aging wear and tear, occasional unusual posture is causing the inflammation. In such cases, chiropractic manipulation makes sense.
The question then remains as to why we get wear and tear of our spines as we age.
I've mentioned this in other posts, but my hypothesis now, in view of my own spectacular reversal of back pain, osteoarthritis of the ankles, and repetitive bouts of angina, is that backbone degeneration of the discs, the vertebrae and the facet joints are due to artery disease causing poor circulation to those end organs.
And the evidence suggests that such artery disease is caused by a dietary lack of vitamin Ks. I've been using a high dose for 7+ years now. The Health professions have yet to catch up.
So my suggestion is to get some prescribed NSAIDS, and then start supplementing your diet with 10 times the recommended dosage of both vitamin K1 and K2. There is no reason why you shouldn’t use chiropractice as a temporary relief.
I think it is pertinent to mention here that the main role of vitamin Ks is to activate raw proteins that are produced in healthy people by vitamin D. That's another story. Although I've researched hundreds of trials of vitamin Ks against a variety of cardiovascular diseases, NOT ONE research group so far has checked the vitamin D status of their subjects during the trials and a number have used vitamin K1 in cases where only vitamin K2 has had any effect.
Anyhow, that's my 10 cents worth on 'pinched' nerves.
Are you aware that NSAIDs cause kidney and/or liver damage, even in small doses? And especially in larger doses? I think people should be very careful in advocating that people take these drugs.
WHY on earth would someone even think of recommending - let alone someone believing that you should take 10X dose of ANYTHING let alone unproven things?
You haven't talked about how you know this to be a pinched nerve and if it's actually been diagnosed as such by way of medical testing. I experienced something similar along my lower back down my left hip and leg and eventually in my left knee began to stiffen up. It was a real B because, like you, being active is important to me. I never had a problem like that before and I couldn't imagine where it was coming from. I began an intense stretching routine daily. I did acupuncture and deep tissue massage with a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner. Over time (almost a year) it was noticeably better but, like you, it came back especially when I ran or took very long walks.
Backtrack to my 20's and 30's and I used to run a lot and then started having issues with Plantar Fasciitis. I was diagnosed with pronated arches and got orthotics which helped to get it under control, although it would flare up occasionally if I ran or walked a lot. I even had a cortisone injection in the heel of my foot which gave me temporary relief. Over the years I reduced the amount of running on pavement and stuck to a few miles on treadmill. I also started not using the orthotics because my feet felt okay with what I was doing.
To make a longer story shorter, I did a lot of research and found that improper support of the feet can cause and/or exacerbate the mysterious "sciatica" issue in many people. I never thought that those problems could be connected, and it didn't occur to me because I had not been having heel or foot pain. Anyway, I started wearing the inserts again, continued the daily stretching, and it's been getting better and better despite long walks or runs on pavement.
This may not be your issue, but it may be worth looking into whether your leg problem is beginning in the arch of your foot. If your feet are off balance it can affect your whole body, most especially up to your hip and pelvic region. Even if that's your issue it will take some time and some work in stretching to get it under control but if it's originating from your feet it could possible be controlled or eliminated. I don't know if that's your particular situation but just tossing it out there as a possibility, if you don't already know what the problem is. It may also be useful to others.
Last edited by bostongymjunkie; 05-27-2022 at 05:18 PM..
thinking and wondering. Yes, I am aware that there are side effects from some NSAIDS, but it’s a matter of balancing their value against their side effects. I’ve had remarkable results on my osteo-arthritic knees before I had to have them replaced at the age of 72, that’s 20 years after I started using them for a ‘pinched’ nerve at age 52. I’m still using a small dose at the age of 90. In the sentence in which I mentioned them, I also pointed out that they need to be prescribed and that means under medical supervision.
In the case of a single pinched nerve, the use should only be temporary before the vitamin Ks and chiropractice do their job.
It's a matter of sensible user choice in conjunction with medical supervision.
.................................................. ............................ Flamingo13, I’m glad you asked that question. This 2021 website -- https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminK-Consumer/ recommends 120 micrograms (That’s millionths of a gram) daily for adult human males. It is apparently based on the amount needed to ensure that blood clots normally. But it does not take into account the fact that vitamin Ks also activate the anti-coagulant Proteins C and S, activate the proteins that deposit calcium in bones, play an important role in brain development and function, and most importantly keep blood vessels healthy.
Regarding the latter, atherosclerotic lesions in arteries have been found by pathologists in infants, becoming more prevalent in teenagers and increasing generally as we age.
This site (Blood Vessels | The Franklin Institute (fi.edu)) claims that the average child has something like 60,000 miles of blood vessels if the capillaries, veins and arteries were laid out end to end. The figures sound extraordinary, but let’s just imagine that there was only one mile of arteries and imagine the amount of work needed to keep that mile of artery healthy. There are two main proteins (Protein C and Protein S) responsible for doing just that (keeping arteries healthy) and both need vitamin K to become active.
They play a very important role in preventing atherosclerosis.
Ten times the above suggested dose rate of 120 micrograms a day may be even a bit conservative.
The evidence for the safety of vitamin Ks includes the following:
1) If you search Google Scholar or PubMed under the keywords, SIDE EFFECTS OF ORAL VITAMIN K, you will find NO side effects for vitamin K1 or K2 oral supplements; a synthetic form of vitamin K3 which is no longer available had a few minor problems, and the base of an injectable vitamin K (not the vitamin K itself) is recorded as causing some cases of anaphylaxis.
2) As far as safety goes, the following paper is the only toxicity study that I could find, and it was conducted 80 years ago in 1940. Molitor and Robinson (http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/...79727-43-11118) attempted to find the LD50 of vitamin K in rats. This LD50 is an old yardstick of toxicity; it represents the lethal dose required to kill 50% of a batch of rats or mice and is now abandoned. Molitor and Robinson found that they could not kill a rat with an absurdly high amount of 25 grams (That's 25,000,000 micrograms) per kilogram body weight, compared with the recommended human dose of approximately 1 microgram per kg body weight. My calculation says that this amount is the equivalent of feeding two kilograms to a person such as myself, weighing 80 kilograms. It probably explains why there are no other references to cases of toxicity.
3) Over 20 years ago, Ronden et al (1997; https://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...21915097000877) in a paper titled ‘Modulation of arterial thrombosis tendency in rats by vitamin K and its side chains’, used a rat aortic loop model to observe the coagulation rate of blood. They reported that very high doses of vitamin K (250,000 micrograms per kg body weight per day of either phylloquinone or menaquinone-MK4) affected neither the blood coagulation characteristics nor the blood platelet aggregation rate.
4) Pucaj et al (2011; https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full...16.2011.568983) could not identify any side effects of the administration of 10 million micrograms of vitamin K2-MK7 per kg body weight per day to mice for 90 days.
5) There are a few reports of the use of supplements as high as 45,000 micrograms per day on human beings without any side effects reported.
Forget the myth that excessive vitamin K causes pathological blood clots. It is one of the safest substances on the planet.
Ten times the recommended daily dose may be conservative. I’ve been using that high dose for almost 8 years and would have been in a wheelchair or even underground by now without it.
WHY on earth would someone even think of recommending - let alone someone believing that you should take 10X dose of ANYTHING let alone unproven things?
I've just had some further thoughts about this statement by Flamingo13. I think I may have answered the question about using 10 times the recommended dose in cardiovascular diseases, but the term 'unproven things' has been coming up in my subliminal thinking.
In one way, it could be said that my last couple of posts may have been a bit long, but they are long, only because I have provided much evidence to back up my statements. I felt it necessary to do that simply because we have no PROVEN cures or preventatives yet for pinched nerves, osteo-arthritis, degeneration of vertebrae, or vertebral discs, and particularly atherosclerosis in general.
I have offered a substantial body of evidence justifying the serious consideration of high doses of vitamin Ks as a preventative or therapy of a number of conditions that do not yet have proven cures.
To date, I know of only one therapeutic trial in which the subject has had plenty of vitamin D and in which a high dose of vitamin Ks has been used, and that is my own self-medication based on the evidence above plus much more.
Ultrasound tracings of my lower aorta before and 14 months after high vitamin K therapy show that a 50% stenosis reversed to a normal tracing. The lumbar arteries that supply the vertebrae, branch off this part of the aorta and any deficits in circulation result in degeneration of parts of the vertebral column, resulting in back pains and other effects such as 'pinched' nerves.
Of the hundreds of therapeutic trials like the ones I've listed above, none have checked on the vitamin D of subjects; some have used only one instead of both vitamin Ks; almost all have used doses that are too low. In spite of their limitations, all of the results have shown promise. These studies have been going on for over 25 years.
My question is whether I should wait another 25 or more years until researchers finally set up plausible trials, or should I present evidence as above, that could be useful to some people now?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
