Tramadol

Researchers are testing certain nutritional supplements to see if they can help back pain. While these findings are still emerging, they are well worth a closer look.

Vitamin В6, which has long been used to treat carpal tunnel syn - drome, has also been used for back pain, and evidence suggests that it helps. It does not relax muscles that are tied up in spasms or restore a damaged disk, but it apparently does increase your pain resistance. When patients who are taking anti - inflammatory drugs add vitamin Вб to their regimen, they get better pain control with less tramadol online.

It may also be useful in preventing a relapse. Researchers using Вб, along with other В vitamins, in patients with acute back pain found that it cut the relapse rate in half over the following six months.22 Large - scale clinical trials have not yet been conducted.

A safe dose of Вб is 50 - 150 mg per day. Daily doses of 200 mg or higher should be avoided, however, as they are associated with nerve damage.

The amino acid tryptophan may also help. It works by increasing the amount of serotonin in the brain. Serotonin is a natural brain chemical that is important in pain control, sleep, and moods. Researchers at the Veterans Administration Hospital in San Diego, California, gave supplements of a related compound, 5 - hydroxytryptophan, to a group of men with chronic back pain due to disk disease. They found a modest but consistent reduction in pain.23 The same effect was found in healthy subjects given two grams of tryptophan and tested for their perception of experimentally induced pain.24

However, tryptophan is not currently available in the United States. It was removed from the market after several cases of an unusual blood disorder and other symptoms were linked with its use. While it appears that the problem was caused not by tryptophan itself but by a manufacturing contaminant, it still cannot be legally sold. The compound 5 - hydroxytryptophan is still available. However, it is not a naturally occurring amino acid, so it is more like tramadol than a nutritional supplement.

The safest way to boost tryptophan naturally is to eat carbohydrate - rich foods, such as potatoes, rice, pasta, and bread. They naturally stimulate the passage of tryptophan into the brain, where it turns to serotonin automatically. See post 7 for more details.

Ginger, the common spice, also appears to help block inflammation in musculoskeletal disorders. It has been found to be useful in arthritis and many other conditions, but controlled trials have not yet been conducted.

The amount used is one - half to one teaspoon (one to two grams) of powdered ginger each day, allowing four to twelve weeks for benefits to appear.25