REF NECK INJURY
NECK INJURIES
Athletic and work injuries to the neck are frequent.
The following is my own injury experience from an exceedingly rare condition that allowed me to discover MSM. Because of all the benefits MSM gave me, it motivated me to find out all the information that exists on MSM to educate myself and as many people as possible as to why and how MSM is so important in our life. And at the same time, why have we not heard of MSM?
In 1996, in my own experience at fifty-seven years of age, I had a surfing accident. I came home the next day after a few hours of work and suddenly when I bent down to remove my shoes, my head felt like it was falling and not holding to my neck. I instinctively reached to hold it with my hands and straightened my body back to bring my head on top of my shoulders. I started feeling an excruciating pain in my neck and my head. From that point in time, if I did not bend down, I just had pain, but I could not bend down in any direction as the pain was unbearable; and I always had a remarkably high pain threshold. I had many inguinal hernia surgeries, and I never took pain pills except the ones they would give me in the operating room.
My wife, a registered nurse and trigger point therapist, reached immediately to her books by Doctors David G. Simon, M.D., Lois S. Simon, M.D. and Janet G. Travel, M.D. “Myofascial Pain and Dysfunction: The Trigger Point Manual, two volumes by Williams & Wilkins publishers.
We found out that according to these doctors, many cases that involve the scalene muscles have been extremely difficult to fix. Pain medication seemed the only known way to deal with it. With this experienced diagnostic, we started looking at other modalities to treat my condition. I did not want to take medication for the rest of my life, and I still have not taken any medication for this condition more than twenty-five years later.
Now, I did not only deal with the pain and the fact that I could not bend my head in any direction, but I also had to undress at night and dress in the morning. How do you put and remove your socks and shoes without bending down? I had to go to bed at night to sleep. To do so, I had to sit on the side of the bed holding my head with one hand and my wife had to hold my other hand so I could slowly bring my torso and head down on the bed and pillow. The pillows we had could not hold my head and neck in a comfortable position and I could not lay my head without a pillow either. I had to get up and sleep in a reclining chair. The next morning, we contacted a local medical supply shop and learned that they could order a Temper-Pedic pillow with neck support that may solve my sleeping problem. When the pillow arrived, it did the task but once in bed, if I needed to turn around as I do many times during the night because the bed gets too hot under me, I had to turn my head with my hands, but at least I could sleep in a bed.
I first contacted a retired orthopedic surgeon friend and asked him if he ever saw someone with this kind of injury and he answered no. I started by visiting a chiropractor acquaintance who immediately said he believed he could treat me with success. I went three times a week for four weeks with no change.
We knew a Chinese acupuncture practitioner and again she believed she could help. I went for some ten treatments two or three times a week with no avail. She shared a practice with a Chinese herbal medicine practitioner, and he sold me some herbs that after a few months had done no improvement to my condition.
We knew a doctor who specialized in Neck and Head Pain Management, and I saw him for some eight to ten treatments with no avail again.
After about six to eight months, my wife heard from a friend who was selling MSM crystals as a nutritional supplement and that MSM was known to help muscle pain. I started taking MSM 5,000 mg twice a day.
After three days, the pain was 50% gone and I can feel my neck muscles strengthening. After a week, I was able to go to bed by myself and could turn my head in bed without holding it with my hands. I am still in constant tolerable pain after more than twenty-five years. I was able to play tennis after a few months on the MSM nutritional supplement but could not swim. I started swimming again on my back after thirteen years and do the crawl for an exceedingly small distance after fifteen years because of the fact that my neck does not turn enough in all directions, and it increases my constant pain too much.
I can tell that my neck is not as it was before my accident, I cannot rotate it as much as I used to, but I do not have discomforting pain. I can rotate my neck only ninety degrees horizontally compared to hundred-ninety degrees to two-hundred-twenty degrees as I used to, and I cannot look down or up more than forty-five degrees in each direction. If I want to look at my feet, I must bend my torso down. I still cannot bend down to tie my shoes; I sit on one chair and tie my shoes with my foot on another chair or stand up with one foot on a chair to tie the shoe on the chair.
MSM taken orally reduces the inflammation mostly overnight and the pain in a few days but most importantly it helps provide the elasticity to the muscles and tendons. In my case, we did not know of any MSM therapeutic massaging gel at the time of my accident. However, I now know from Dr. Stanley W. Jacob, M.D.’s clinical experience that the MSM therapeutic massaging gel used together with the MSM nutritional supplement is highly recommended. I have been using the MSM massaging gel since I learned this, and it gives me much additional relief when my pain is more intense. The MSM gel brings more MSM to the location of the pain.
It is suggested to take 4,000 to 10,000 mg of MSM daily in the form of crystals or capsules. Start slowly and increase the daily dose up to 10,000 mg to see the results. I take 20,000 - 25,000 mg daily and I massage my neck once or twice daily. It is worth it for being pain free and not having to take drugs with side effects and their excessive cost.
Notice: Every time you use the MSM therapeutic topical gel, make sure your hands and the massaged area are clean because the MSM penetrates the skin, and one does not want to infect the skin with dirt. Also make sure that you rub the MSM gel in until your hands and the massaged area are completely dry to avoid the MSM crystals staying on top of your skin when the gel’s water evaporates. The demineralized water-based gel contains 15% MSM, which is the maximum to avoid crystallization. So, to prevent the MSM from crystallizing in the MSM gel bottle, do not forget to close the MSM gel bottle lid after use.
The book "The Miracle of MSM" reports the following testimonials:
1.- A chiropractor from Wheeling, Illinois has been recommending MSM to his patients with neck pain or post traumatic injury for over twenty years. His patients get relief within five days to two weeks, and he never had one individual who did not feel a positive effect.
2.- A forty-six-year-old office secretary from the Los Angeles area who was suffering from osteoarthritis in her neck, due to two previous accidents, she had migraines once or twice a month and had a start of carpel tunnel syndrome in her wrists.
She started taking 1,500 mg/day MSM nutritional supplement and after two weeks, the pain in her wrists disappeared. She slowly increased her dosage to 4,500 mg/day and she is now completely pain free as long as she keeps taking the MSM.
3.- A forty-four-year-old lady from Lake Oswego, Oregon was rear ended by a car traveling at seventy miles per hour while she was waiting at a stop sign. With several disks crushed in her neck and back, she was bedridden for eight months and was told by her doctors that she would never walk or work again. After a little over two years of taking MSM sulfur nutritional supplement and using the MSM massaging gel, she is limited in her movements because of her crushed disks. However, she was able to get back to work again and even put hundred hours of work a week operating her Montessori school.
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