Therapies I’ve tried

treatments
Updated August 2022. This blog originally focused mostly on self-experimenting with nutritional therapy, using supplements available over-the-counter (OTC) from healthfood stores. I have since widened my horizons. Here's a short intro to nutritional therapy if you're just starting out. The other entries here include products not available at retail stores, as well as energy work and, yes, two prescription drugs. See also these posts on bright light therapy, electrosmog reduction, lymph cleansers, perfume therapy, essential oils, and lead chelation (aka heavy metal chelation). 1. Acupuncture I luuuuuuurrrrv acupuncture, but I only saw results when I went to dedicated practitioners -- that is, people who took a few years to learn it, not a half-day course at a medical conference somewhere. There was a Chinese guy in Seattle, the kind with…
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Kinda-sorta helpful approaches to sciatica

symptoms and conditions, treatments
I don't know how non-telecommuting workers cope with a bout of acute sciatica if they can't take time off. There is no way I could've functioned at my desk. I tried one morning and had to return home to recline with my laptop for five more weeks, fantasizing about slitting my backside open with an Exacto blade, pulling out the nerve, and drowning it in a bin of icewater. Perhaps they're doped to the gills? All my doctor offered me was Aleve, which was a joke. Finally I went to Needleman the acupuncturist. I spent an hour on my side with needles from the nape of my neck to my ankle, like a brontosaurus. By the time I left the pain was gone, but it crept back during my 30-minute…
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