Pain Relief

[FayeBr]

Hello all. 
 

I am in the UK. I am posting here to ask what everyone takes for pain relief please? 
I have yet to find a pain killer that does not give me a reaction. I recently had a shoulder injury which was painful itself but also caused migraines. And I had Covid 2 weeks ago. I was unable to take any pain relief for anything. 
I asked my doctor for gluten-free paracetamol but they can’t help and have said that it states paracetamol will give a gluten reaction even when it doesn’t have gluten in. 
My son is visiting from the US next week and I have been researching if there is any gluten-free pain medication there for him to bring me? 
I have been Coeliac for 3 years officially now and I am finding this part the hardest. And dodging the gluten that my husband leaves behind. 
Any help or advice  would be appreciated. 
Thanks. Faye

[Rogol72]

I hear ya. I can't ever take NSAIDS because of UC. I took Panadol for a day or two for a bad cold that was going around a few months ago. I felt like I ate a few crumbs of bread, checked the ingredients before and after taking them and it only says maize starch. I react to any OTCs that contain maize starch such as antihistamines.

https://www.coeliac.org.uk/information-and-support/living-gluten-free/the-gluten-free-diet/medication/

There must be an alternative that a doctor can prescribe for mild pain relief when a Coeliac needs it. Can your local pharmacy research and find out?

Something topical for the shoulder injury maybe?

 

[FayeBr]

Thank you for answering me. I am exactly the same with reacting to any starch in medication. Which doesn’t leave me anything to take safely. 
I do use iboprofen gel on my shoulder which helps. I feel like layering it all over my body and head  sometimes 😂 My next option is going to be a compounding pharmacist and I am waiting to hear back from them. 
I said to my doctor that I can’t believe there is no certified gluten-free medication out there. All I need is basic pain relief but it’s proving to be impossible. 
I remember when I was first diagnosed thinking I would just have to eat gluten-free food. You live and learn 😊

[Rogol72]

Great idea to get a compounding pharmacist on the case. Hope they can come up with something for you.

[patty-maguire]

I take Ibuprofen (Advil) or Naproxen (Aleve) mostly.  If you're looking to avoid NSAIDs then Tylenol (acetaminophen) is a good choice.  If you react to these I'd be very surprised if its a gluten reaction.  There are no gluten ingredients and sanitation protocols in pharmaceutical manufacturing have to be very stringent.  Here is a listing of gluten free drugs http://www.glutenfreedrugs.com/

All the best

[knitty kitty]

@FayeBr,

I take some extra B vitamins when I have back pain or a migraine.

A combination of Thiamine B1, Cobalamine B12, Folate B9, and Pyridoxine B6 works as well as other pain relievers.  

B vitamins and their combination could reduce migraine headaches: A randomized double-blind controlled trial

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9860208/

And...

Vitamin B12 as a Treatment for Pain

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30700078/

And...

The Role of Neurotropic B Vitamins in Nerve Regeneration

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8294980/

And...

Mechanisms of action of vitamin B1 (thiamine), B6 (pyridoxine), and B12 (cobalamin) in pain: a narrative review

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35156556/

Hope you will try simple gluten free, filler free supplements of these vitamins.  They really do work to relieve pain.  

[Kurlykaitlyn]

On 9/8/2023 at 10:10 AM, FayeBr said:

Hello all. 
 

I am in the UK. I am posting here to ask what everyone takes for pain relief please? 
I have yet to find a pain killer that does not give me a reaction. I recently had a shoulder injury which was painful itself but also caused migraines. And I had Covid 2 weeks ago. I was unable to take any pain relief for anything. 
I asked my doctor for gluten-free paracetamol but they can’t help and have said that it states paracetamol will give a gluten reaction even when it doesn’t have gluten in. 
My son is visiting from the US next week and I have been researching if there is any gluten-free pain medication there for him to bring me? 
I have been Coeliac for 3 years officially now and I am finding this part the hardest. And dodging the gluten that my husband leaves behind. 
Any help or advice  would be appreciated. 
Thanks. Faye

Hi there, I understand your concerns as I too have felt similarly and struggled to find pain relievers. I’m from California and I don’t know the laws in UK. Honestly, the best thing I’ve found to help me are edibles with cbd, and if you’re comfortable with some thc, the one to one ratio helped me a lot when I broke a bone and when a few years back I had an almost third degree burn on my wrist. I’m not a pot head or anything. I used then medicinally for a few weeks at a time, and it truly helps me without upsetting my intestines or any other part of my body, plus relieving the pain helped me to sleep when it was really bad. If you’re talking about pain from injuries like your shoulder, it could be a good option to consider if possible where you live. 
 

[FayeBr]

9 hours ago, Kurlykaitlyn said:

Hi there, I understand your concerns as I too have felt similarly and struggled to find pain relievers. I’m from California and I don’t know the laws in UK. Honestly, the best thing I’ve found to help me are edibles with cbd, and if you’re comfortable with some thc, the one to one ratio helped me a lot when I broke a bone and when a few years back I had an almost third degree burn on my wrist. I’m not a pot head or anything. I used then medicinally for a few weeks at a time, and it truly helps me without upsetting my intestines or any other part of my body, plus relieving the pain helped me to sleep when it was really bad. If you’re talking about pain from injuries like your shoulder, it could be a good option to consider if possible where you live. 
 

Hi! 
 

It’s funny because I have just spoken to my son in the US and he suggested exactly the same thing to me. He said the edibles work great for pain relief. I am off to research what is available in this country. We are a lot stricter here but they have started to prescribe cbd for certain illnesses and acknowledge the medicinal qualities of it. A long time coming really! And you are now legally able to get certain strengths of it online. I think this is a good option for me to explore. Thanks so much. 😊

[FayeBr]

On 9/9/2023 at 4:04 AM, knitty kitty said:

@FayeBr,

I take some extra B vitamins when I have back pain or a migraine.

A combination of Thiamine B1, Cobalamine B12, Folate B9, and Pyridoxine B6 works as well as other pain relievers.  

B vitamins and their combination could reduce migraine headaches: A randomized double-blind controlled trial

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9860208/

And...

Vitamin B12 as a Treatment for Pain

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30700078/

And...

The Role of Neurotropic B Vitamins in Nerve Regeneration

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8294980/

And...

Mechanisms of action of vitamin B1 (thiamine), B6 (pyridoxine), and B12 (cobalamin) in pain: a narrative review

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35156556/

Hope you will try simple gluten free, filler free supplements of these vitamins.  They really do work to relieve pain.  

Hi! 
 

thanks for your reply and all the information. I will try anything to get some sort of pain relief! 😊
 

 

[FayeBr]

On 9/9/2023 at 2:13 AM, patty-maguire said:

I take Ibuprofen (Advil) or Naproxen (Aleve) mostly.  If you're looking to avoid NSAIDs then Tylenol (acetaminophen) is a good choice.  If you react to these I'd be very surprised if its a gluten reaction.  There are no gluten ingredients and sanitation protocols in pharmaceutical manufacturing have to be very stringent.  Here is a listing of gluten free drugs http://www.glutenfreedrugs.com/

All the best

Hi! 
 

I have tried many different brands of paracetamol and ibuprofen and reacted to them all. This is what I have read on Coeliac UK 

‘Sometimes medications can cause side effects that are similar to symptoms that occur after eating gluten. Speak to your GP if you have any unexpected side effects’ 

I do react to corn and all the derivatives though. So it may be that. My son spoke to a pharmacist over there to try and get me medication and the pharmacist said that they don’t contain gluten but all have cornstarch fillers, and that is probably what I react to. 
 

I have found corn to be so much more difficult to navigate than gluten. It’s in everything! In all different disguises. It’s not been fun for the last 3 years and a huge change to my life. 😊

[newtonfree]

I have read some direct testing reports of Tylenol and Advil products that did not detect any gluten.

If you are reacting to medications, it may be independent of gluten - people can have sensitivities and allergies to the dyes and other ingredients used in medications.

Seeing an allergist about this would be a high priority in my opinion.

The treatment of pain is my medical specialty, and I will say this: treating pain requires understanding the mechanism underlying it. There's no "catch-all" pharmaceutical or non-pharmaceutical approach to every single type of pain.

Take headaches, for example. If they're true migraines, they might respond to triptans and ergotamines. They also respond amazingly well to a sphenopalatine ganglion block, my favourite abortive approach to them, but that requires rapid access to a doctor during the migraine itself and, tragically, few doctors even know about it or how to do it (all they need is a bit of lidocaine, a syringe, and a bed or table the patient can lie on for 20 minutes).

But many headaches people call "migraines" turn out to be bad tension headaches, which have a muscular cause and therefore require muscular solutions. Hydration, magnesium bisglycinate/Vit D/Vit K2 supplementation, appropriate stretching (with target muscles identified by a good PT or osteopath), and trigger points injections or RMT are all "non-pharmaceutical" approaches to tension headaches that work far better than Tylenol or Advil.

When it comes to OTC pharmaceutical analgesics specifically, there's acetaminophen/paracetamol, NSAIDS like ibuprofen and naproxen, cannabidiol (CBD), and sometimes other options depending what country you live in, including cannabinoids like THC, opioids like codeine, and more.

But each of those drugs has their own list of benefits, side effects, and contraindications, so this is a question that needs to be posed to a doctor who knows your overall health and your country's options.

I can also tell you that we know, with absolute certainty, that any given person will find some measurable amount of pain relief with any given treatment option due purely to the placebo effect, which is very much a real thing and not along the lines of "statistical error" in studies.

In fact, while treating chronic pain, it has long been a thorn in my side that medical colleges have deemed it "unethical" for us to prescribe placebos to patients. I've seen patients undergo risky interventional pain procedures of dubious benefit (ones that showed a "statistically significant" superiority to placebo, meaning a difference unlikely to be due to random chance, but a "clinically insignificant" superiority like lowering pain by an average of 0.3/10), while we are forbidden from giving them a pill that would be nearly as effective, dirt cheap, and totally safe.

The existence of the placebo effect underscores the interplay between the mind and the body when it comes to pain.

To sidestep the pharmaceutical side of the discussion for a moment, meditation and management of anxiety are both well-known to be incredibly potent pain relievers.

The more anxious we are, the more pain we feel, and the more pain we feel, the more anxious we become. I've seen patients go from 10/10 pain to 6/10 just by aborting the panic attack they were trapped in, pharmacologically or otherwise.

Conversely, we have scanned the brains of meditating monks and witnessed them receiving pain signals in their somatosensory cortex (the "input" section of the brain for physical sensation), but without the other parts of their brain lighting up like average people.

What that showed was that they literally accomplished neurologically what they'll tell you they've done psychologically and emotionally - disconnected "pain" from "suffering." They'll tell you that there's a simple equation, "Suffering = Pain X Resistance." They learn to stop resisting physical sensations, and by lowering resistance to zero, their suffering becomes zero independent of the level of pain they are feeling.

I'm not telling people that their suffering is their own fault for not having mastered meditation, but it's a lesson I have learned is incredibly relevant to the management of pain. When I am seeing someone in acute pain, like a labouring woman for example, just by being calm, empathetic, attentive and reassuring, I find that they experience less pain from the placement of the epidural, and it "starts working" earlier as the freezing sets in. Knowing that help has arrived and that I won't abandon them before their pain is under control relieves the anxiety they've been feeling over whether they'll be able to get one "in time" and whether it will actually work...which, in turn, actually makes it work better.

Anxiety is a form of resistance to pain, to borrow some monk-inspired lingo. The medical way of phrasing it would be, "anxiety potentiates the pain response." So, if you're in pain and you're anxious about reacting to any pill you might take, you're probably ramping up the pain itself. When people take a placebo, I believe we are using a "cheat code" or shortcut to a small bit of what a monk achieves through sheer mental discipline - the belief that the pain will pass, and the certainty they can cope until it does.

It's the same reason why homeopathic remedies (a.k.a. water) and thoroughly debunked pseudoscience like cranial-sacral therapy sometimes actually help people in pain, too. 30% of anything you do for pain will help relieve it, as long as you believe it genuinely might. And doctors aren't ethically allowed to harness it, so people turn to charlatans. Such a backwards approach.

Hopefully some of the above rambling can help you, because I can't give you specific advice on pharmaceuticals without being your doctor and knowing everything about you I need to know. "What might help with this pain?" is a far more charged question than most people realize. There truly isn't a single answer, ever.

[shadycharacter]

On 9/8/2023 at 8:22 PM, FayeBr said:

Thank you for answering me. I am exactly the same with reacting to any starch in medication. Which doesn’t leave me anything to take safely. 
I do use iboprofen gel on my shoulder which helps. I feel like layering it all over my body and head  sometimes 😂 My next option is going to be a compounding pharmacist and I am waiting to hear back from them. 
I said to my doctor that I can’t believe there is no certified gluten-free medication out there. All I need is basic pain relief but it’s proving to be impossible. 
I remember when I was first diagnosed thinking I would just have to eat gluten-free food. You live and learn 😊

Have you tried effervescent pain killers? They don't seem to have the same kind of fillers as regular tablets.

[Beverage]

I have had good results with B vitamins, similar to @knitty kitty

I take a good B complex, plus b12 in form Methylcobalamin, and a B1 thiamine in form of benfotiamine. These have all really helped me with energy and especially asthma.

I have also used flush niacin for improving my energy, I'm 68 and doing really well. I noticed it got rid of the occasional headache, stuffed up sinus, or body aches from working outside all day. The flush action opens up capillaries, which is probably part of why it helps. 

I used flush niacin after covid too and energy came back faster than anyone else I know. Some of the asthma had returned after covid, I upped the B vitamins for awhile with some improvement, but not as good as I was before covid. I have recently added a 300mg Magnesium, and asthma totally gone now. 

[Nick Cheruka]

On 9/8/2023 at 1:48 PM, Rogol72 said:

I hear ya. I can't ever take NSAIDS because of UC. I took Panadol for a day or two for a bad cold that was going around a few months ago. I felt like I ate a few crumbs of bread, checked the ingredients before and after taking them and it only says maize starch. I react to any OTCs that contain maize starch such as antihistamines.

https://www.coeliac.org.uk/information-and-support/living-gluten-free/the-gluten-free-diet/medication/

There must be an alternative that a doctor can prescribe for mild pain relief when a Coeliac needs it. Can your local pharmacy research and find out?

Something topical for the shoulder injury maybe?

 

Hello FayeBr, sorry your in pain and Celiac, I know this to all to well myself! What about topical CBD for pain relief! gluten-free no know side affects and your not ingesting it anyway where you need to worry about being Celiac! Just a non-pharma alternative which has been proven to help with pain! Good Luck☘️hopefully your pain free soon! I am also a Celiac in the U.S. have been for over 20+yrs and I don’t take prescribed or over the counter pain meds especially NSAIDs because the side affects including lower intestine villi damage and stomach bleeding they can cause they are not worth it! I’ve had 2-Hernia Ops and 2-Major spinal fusions and no longer use anything for pain! The pain is still there I have just toughed it out with God’s grace being sufficient enough! Sometimes at least in my case the pain is there for a purpose! I can’t speak for anyone else, I was at two different times with the back surgeries especially on as many morphine pills as I ever wanted or even needed but I took myself off of all pain meds, muscle relaxers and nerve food meds!