Re: MSM & Alpha-Stim

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

I take a lot of supplements, carefully chosen, and usually find if

I'm feeling more fatigued than normal that there's something I've

missed taking. I add 4gm of MSM to my morning whey protein shake and

another 2gms later in the day. If I miss it I notice.

When I first started taking MSM (two gm a day) something interesting

happened. After a week I work up very early with an amazing feeling of

lightness in my wrists. Suddenly I could walk on my heels and toes

(which I couldn't do the week before at the UCSF exam), found it

easier to go up the stairs and took the first 4mi walk in a long time.

It was hard to remember that PM walking-under-water feeling where

every movement meets a sense of resistance and that tree-stump leg

feeling. I actually began to wonder if it were all just a big mistake!

Some wierd nightmare that I had fallen backwards off a ladder when my

knee collapsed, that it was getting hard to get up off the floor

without pulling on furniture.

That weekend in reading on the WWW I learned that MSM can be

anti-inflammatory. With my EMG coming up in 10 days I reluctantly

stopped taking it and within two days the ol' legs felt like tree

stumps again and the fatigue was back. I couldn't wait to get back on

the MSM again and started back up within half an hour of the EMG.

But I've never quite regained that feeling of lightness and mobility.

I've since read that MSM can indeed give a spurt of energy when you

first start taking it. I'll never know what would have happened had I

not stopped. Would the sense of wellbeing have faded away, anyway, or

would I be climbing mountains?

So if you do take MSM, you may also get the energy spurt ... then see

whether it continues or fades away.

The closest I've come to regaining that feeling is after my first

burst of methotrexate. Can't say that I felt good ... but rather " less

bad. " That sense of underwater-like resistance to movement eased and I

walked every night and did some light weights for upper body toning.

After the second dose (last Thursday) the effect wasn't so dramatic.

In fact I slept most of the weekend! And I didn't feel like walking.

In retrospect there were several of my supplements that I had missed

and something else I didn't do.

My doc prescribed something called Alpha-Stim for my insomnia. The FDA

approves it for pain, anxiety and insomnia but insurance probably

won't cover it. Sounds a little wierd ... You attach small electrodes

to your earlobes for 20 min to an hour. It helps put your brain in

alpha-waves, which are relaxing. The first time I tried it, at a

health counselor's office I came home and bounded up the stairs! It

was amazing and this is not a listed, expected result.

I have weakness of my tongue and facial muscles. (At 51 no wrinkles in

my forehead because I can't furrow my brow if you pay me a million

bucks!) After using the Alpha-Stim there's definitely more mobility in

my tongue, lips, and smile muscles. It also helps me feel calm and

lessens anxiety.

Well, I hadn't done the Alpha-Stim for most of the week. Used it this

morning for an hour and I feel much " clearer " this afternoon.

Who knows? Placebo effect? Real results? Time will tell.

My DX is polymyositis with Sjogren's syndrome or to put it another

way, SS with accompanying inflammatory myopathy. My muscle BX was

filled with Tcells, necrotic and regenerating fibers, some type II

fiber atrophy. Two of the top pathologists in Northern California

poured over my slides and electron microscopy photos and didn't see

any vacoules or tubules, but the neuro thinks my symptoms are a lot

like IBM. He wants to treat me for PM and the SS, though, and see what

happens.

More than anyone wanted to know, I'm sure!

Tenayahh

> Hi T. I think you mentioned that you where taking MSM and I was

wondering if it was helping in any way?

> /Wa

>