***Dealing With Pain

There are lots of prescription drugs that deal with all types of pain, but there aren't as many people that know about two non drug (and safer) pain relievers.

Aloe Vera is the absolute best for relief of any type of burning pain. It seals the area, and within seconds, pain is lessened if not gone. I used to keep an aloe plant in my "garden", or in an indoor pot. (Living in Florida, that's easy. ) Now, I keep a bottle of the Juice always handy. Just take a drop or two out, and put it directly on the wound or burn area. Trimming off the spines takes too much time if you're hurting IMO. And, it's tough to keep aloe alive in the northern winter.

There is a very interesting fact about aloe. The King James English translation from the Greek was done in England. Aloe vera does NOT grow in England so the translators couldn't know what it was, and seemingly translated that "aloe" as "alloy", and got gold. So, the three gifts of the Magi, have been known since as Frankincense, Myrrh, and Gold. (Two medicinal plants and a mineral - kind of incongruous isn't that?). The actual 3 gifts of the Magi, (if that mythical story is true, would have been - Frankincense, Myrrh, and Aloe. Makes more sense. ( I have to wonder how many other such mythical stories are distorted.)

There's another story I heard long ago about aloe vera. It seems that in the middle of the last century, a burn that covered over a major portion of a body meant death in all cases. However, the story As I recall it, has a boy in Key West Florida getting burned over 3/4's of his body. A black nanny got people collecting aloe plants, and trimming them and covered the burned areas with it, changing them every so often, and the boy recovered. As I recall that story, he didn't even have as much scarring as would be "usual".

The second is DMSO. The following is an abstract from googling DMSO.

Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), a by-product of the wood industry, has been in use as a commercial solvent since 1953. It is also one of the most studied but least understood pharmaceutical agents of our time--at least in the United States. According to Stanley Jacob, MD, a former head of the organ transplant program at Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland, more than 40,000 articles on its chemistry have appeared in scientific journals, which, in conjunction with thousands of laboratory studies, provide strong evidence of a wide variety of properties. (See Major Properties Attributed to DMSO) Worldwide, some 11,000 articles have been written on its medical and clinical implications, and in 125 countries throughout the world, including Canada, Great Britain, Germany, and Japan, doctors prescribe it for a variety of ailments, including pain, inflammation, scleroderma, interstitial cystitis, and arthritis elevated intercranial pressure.

Yet in the United States, DMSO has Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval only for use as a preservative of organs for transplant and for interstitial cystitis, a bladder disease. It has fallen out of the limelight and out of the mainstream of medical discourse, leading some to believe that it was discredited. The truth is more complicated.

Well, all you readers know what I think of the FDA, and its "pandering" to Big Pharma. If every;body knew about DMSO, how many millions would big Pharma lose in aspirin, and other pain relievers? Every other country (not controlled by Big Pharma) uses it , and every veterinarian uses it. MD's "brainwashed by Big Pharma don't, so most people don't even know about it. Another case of ""Educational Handicapping".

The most amazing thing about DMSO is the immediate relief of muscle and joint pain. The next amazing thing is that if mixed with other chemicals it has the power to "carry" it thru the skin to underlying areas. Dr Bill Douglas got me to remember it, and I now keep a bottle handy. (Right next to my bottle of Aloe). I consider those two be among my top items in my medical closet.