★★★★★
I developed polymyalgia rheumatica in 2020. I live in a small town. My doctor had almost never seen this. He had three cases in one week. This got me thinking what was everyone doing differently. With covid, many people upped their vit d supplement. I had this for nine months. Luckily I had a vit d test in late November, it was a 78. I first developed this in the middle of july. I was getting a lot of sun then. I was taking a lot of other supplements too. I'm guessing that my vit d level was over 100 in July. Too much vit d can lead to absorbing too much calcium. After a while, all this calcium in our tissues causes our immune system to attack it. I did have gout with this, during this brief time, my shoulder pain went completely away. I did have a shoulder xray that showed some calcium deposit.
So I think as we sleep we dehydrate just a little and the tendons calcify, then our bodies attack this. I also read one article talking about interluekin 6 being high. I believe one of the reasons prednisone worked was by causing you to piss calcium out, the white cloud in the toilet, but the bottle says to take milk with it. I'm not telling you not to take milk, because there are long term side effects of long time steroid use. hip replacement, cataracts. It takes months to get rid of high vit d levels. I tried serrapeptase, it worked great, but after two days I had side effects. It eats scar tissue. I had had a hernia repair a year ago and have a bad knee with scar tissue inside apparently, they both started hurting after just two days use. I stopped it and the hernia fills fine now, but if you dont have any previous injuries or surgeries it might help you.
So what worked for me. No vit d, No multivitamins, limited sunlight, no eggs.
I took magnesium malate following label. Drink apple juice, malic acid in it. Eat bananas. I took a potassium pill a day. I also had a a half teaspoon of alfalfa. I took DHEA as it will help with making hormones that get downregulated with the prednisone as you wean off. I took chanca piedra for a while. I used some CBD in drops and in a oil rub for the shoulders, I also sometimes used a product called Lymphocare by Baar for massage, it has some peanut oil in it. I took epsom salt hot baths. Fasting helped clear some calcium but increased macrophages, so didn't help too much. Exercise if you can, start small, do shoulder exercises and walk. Get a vit d test to see if that could be the culprit. I believe some other supplements can increase calcium absorption also, I had been taking multiple. I also took fish oil up to three grams, it helped a little. I believe low dose naltrexone would work, but my doctor refused.
I always take a small amount of anything new to my body to see how I handle it first to avoid any emergency room visits, have not had any but have been close. Everyone is different and may be on medications that react badly to some supplements. I am a male and weigh 250 this would affect all dose sizes to others also.
Also, look up interleukin 6 reducing foods and follow those diets. I know your pain. You can get better. It will take time. Winter is your friend, less sunlight. Mine is completely gone today. It lasted 9 months. I may be wrong, but this is what may have worked for me. Even some probiotics can change some interleukins. My tendons got so stiff in my shoulders first, then my legs, and then my chest, where my chest popped frequently.
Multiple Remedies
★★★★★
Leslie,
Sorry to hear of the PMR. It is, indeed, a difficult problem to handle without the steroids. I will try to make this as short as possible: woke up in December with pain in my left shoulder and upper arm. Shortly thereafter, both legs began to hurt - felt like shin splints. I couldn't remember any physical activity that could have been the cause. During the next few weeks, I intermittently had pain in my hips, both shoulders and trapezius muscle. I have worked in the medical "industry" all my life, and so it finally clicked that I had all the symptoms of PMR. I knew the indicated treatment was prednisone, but since I had been on prednisone for 35 years for intractable asthma (took me 2 years to wean myself off), I preferred an alternate solution. Intent on finding a non-steroidal treatment, I read every available bit of material - this site being my first go-to. Being fed up with the pain, and an impatient person to boot, I used my usual shotgun approach!
Now, it is about 5 months later, and I am almost pain free from my self diagnosed polymyalgia. You can try things one at a time if you wish, or go for my all in approach, but this was what worked for me: Colloidal silver 10 ppm 2 Tb 3x a day (there is evidence that PMR is brought on by residual virus), Olive Leaf extract (same reason), homeopathic arnica montana 30x 4 pellets 2x a day, homeopathic hypericum perf. 30x 4pellets 2x a day, rhus toxicodendrum 6x 4 pellets 2x a day, vitamin B 50, benfotiamine 300, Alpha Lipoic Acid 600mg, and Turmeric, Bromelain, and Devils Claw throughout the day (when I thought of it). Additionally, heat feels really good, and when I needed a pain medication, aspirin worked the best.
Phew! I know, it is a lot. But, for me, much better than prednisone. Also, keep in mind, I did not have an official diagnosis. I know very little about homeopathic remedies, but did an enormous amount of reading, and came up with this combo. I apologize for the length of my post, but this particular problem is fairly complicated. Hope you are feeling better soon.
Multiple Remedies
★★★★★
Regarding PMR:
Hi All, After 3 months just not feeling right and very tired my shoulder got really sore which then traveled to my arms, neck and finally to my lower back and hips. I felt very tired, mild fevers, vision changes, teary and in pain especially on waking. I am a practicing Naturopath and have cured myself of fibromyalgia and thyroid disease so there was no way I was going to believe "there is no known cure" I went back through my diary and realised I had influenza 12 weeks before and did not have enough time to rest to get over it properly as I was running my clinic. What I believe has happened in the low grade flu virus has infiltrated the joints and blood vessels causing the immune system to fight back which causes inflammation as the weakened immune system tries to destroy the virus.
After devising my own treatment, In 4 days I feel 60% better...still some stiffness in the neck and pain in my shoulders and sleepiness around the middle of the day but generally much brighter, energetic and less sore. My vision seems to be returning to normal.
My protocol:
1. Lauricidin (Monolaurin pellets) to kill all pathogens- Start low at 6 pellets 3 times a day and build up to 1 scoop three times a day. This could take weeks as the die off from the viral load can cause detox symptoms.
2. Fish Oils 10-12 grams a day as a powerful antiinflammatory
3. Essential Oil Mix to rub directly into the sore areas to kill the virus directly and releive inflammtion- THIS HAS BEEN AMAZING!
- Oregano Oil 40 drops
- Frankincense Oil 60 drops
- Teatree Oil 40 drops
- Peppermint Oil 40 drops
- Ginger Oil 20 drops
Combine in a dropper bottle and rub 4 drops into each shoulder/neck/arm with some coconut oil three times a day. DONT MISS as this continual flow of antivirals will really help reduce the viral load.
4. Rest as much as possible and eat low inflammatory food: No sugar, wheat, dairy or industrial seed oils.
This protocol is working incredibly for me. I couldn't believe after my 8 year battle with fibromyalgia I was going to be faced with another chronic inflammatory disease. My 5 years of study taught me to look for a root cause. Every disease starts for a reason and I believe polymyalgia is post viral inflammation.
