Pain Relief Without Drugs

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Pain Relief Without Drugs

 

 

D,L-PHENYLALANINE AND VITAMIN C:

TWO DRUG-FREE APPROACHES TO CHRONIC PAIN

 

There are an almost uncountable number of brands of pain relievers on

the medical market. Were pain due to a drug deficiency, they might

have more to offer.

 

I am not in favor of pain except as a warning. Pain is often our

wake-up call to action, when our bodies need to get a message to and

an effective response from our busy brain. As protests on the Capitol

Mall get the attention of lawmakers in Washington (sometimes, anyway),

so does pain act as the squeaky wheel demanding grease.

 

Putting in earplugs does not fix a squeaky wheel. The best pain

relief will help cure the cause of pain. At the very least, we want

the hurt to go away temporarily without harmful side effects. So we

have therapeutic value and safety as benchmarks for pain relief.

 

Here are two alternatives to pharmaceutical products:

 

D- or DL-PHENYLALANINE

Unlike left-handed, essential L-Phenylalanine, the D- or

" right-handed " form of this common amino acid is not actually a

nutrient but an amino acid analgesic. It is non-prescription but is

rather costly for an effective dose. Practitioners using DLPA

(Dextro-Levro-Phenyl-Alanine) normally employ it for chronic pain that

is unresponsive to other measures. Arthritis or lower back pain would

be examples. While no substitute for medical or chiropractic care,

DLPA may well be a most suitable companion.

 

The dose of DLPA needed may vary from person to person, and is

generally determined by starting with perhaps 1,000 mg daily for two

weeks and then gradually increasing to a level that provides relief.

If 3,000 mg per day doesn't work after a month's time, it probably

will not work at all. About two-thirds of those using it will report

real improvement in this time. If they don't, then stop. There is no

point in wasting money.

 

For this stuff is not cheap. Tablet potency is commonly around 300 to

500 mg, so a person might well need to take quite a few each day. I

used to think that DLPA was way too pricey until I saw a few

prescriptions where the pills cost several dollars apiece (and this

was over a decade ago, long before the even more expensive " Viagara " ).

 

The good news is that persons reporting pain relief will generally be

able to LOWER their dose gradually and will often be able to maintain

pain-free status with less DLPA than before. It is a bit unusual for

an analgesic substance to work BETTER over time and require LESS; the

opposite is the rule. (Consider morphine, for instance.) DLPA has a

long duration of action yet the body does not seem to build up a

tolerance to it.

 

You will probably not find just " D-phenylalanine " for sale, hence the

focus here on DLPA. It is the D-form that is active; you CANNOT

therefore substitute the levro- ( " L " ) form that is so widely found, at

far lower cost, in foods and stores. The " L " form will not work. If

the bottle does not specifically state its contents as " DL, " you can

be certain they are just trying to sell you the useless " L " form.

 

Our earlier criteria for natural pain relievers included safety and

healing value. The safety of DLPA is very good indeed. It is

non-addictive and virtually non-toxic. Some estimates place its

safety on a par with vitamin C or fructose. Still, it is not to be

used during pregnancy. Persons with phenylketonuria (PKU) obviously

should not take any extra phenylalanine. Persons with high blood

pressure should take DLPA after meals. Outside of these, there are

virtually no adverse effects.

 

Added value may come from the fact that phenylalanine is converted by

the body into phenylethylamine. Low levels of phenylethylamine are

correlated with clinical depression; if DLPA raises these levels there

is a real biochemical benefit. As a pain-killer, it seems to act by

keeping enzymes called enkephalinase and carboxypeptidase A from

breaking down the body's own morphine-like natural painkillers, the

enkephalins and the endorphins. This makes a lot of sense: if the

body relieves its own pain, a safe mechanism is probably at work.

DLPA appears to assist that mechanism.

 

Research has indicated that migraine, joint pains, neuralgia and even

postoperative pain respond to DLPA, and it has been reported to reduce

inflammation. DLPA does not deaden normal sensation even when taken

for a lengthy period. Prescribed medication usually may still be

taken with DLPA without interference. Consult the Physician's Desk

Reference ( " PDR " , found at any doctor's office, pharmacy, or library)

for information on any drug you may be taking or considering.

 

The most dramatic pain-relief case I have seen was when a friend of

mine had a large number of old dental fillings replaced within a short

period of time. As a result, he experienced ongoing and severe jaw

pain that no pharmaceutical pain-killer could touch, and the dentist

tried them all. In desperation, my friend tried DLPA, about 3,000

mg/day. He reported immediate improvement, and truly profound relief

shortly thereafter.

 

REFERENCES ON D,L-PHENYLALANINE:

 

1. Balagot, R.C., Ehrenpreis, S., Greenberg, J. and Hyodo, M.,

" D-Phenylalanine in Human Chronic Pain, " Degradation of Endogenous

Opioids: Its Relevance in Human Pathology and Therapy, S. Ehrenpreis

and Sicuteri, eds. New York: Raven Press, 1983

 

2. Balagot, R.C., Ehrenpreis, S., Kubota, K. and Greenberg, J.,

Advances in Pain Research and Therapy, Vol. 5, Bonica, Liebeskind and

Albe-Fessard, ed., pp 289-293, New York: Raven Press, 1983

 

3. Beckman, H. et al, " DL Phenylalanine in Depressed Patients: An Open

Study, " Journal of Neural Transmission, 41:123-134, 1977

 

4. Budd, K. " Use of D-Phenylalanine, an Enkephalinase Inhibitor, in

the Treatment of Intractable Pain, " Advances in Pain Research and

Therapy, Vol. 5, Bonica, Liebeskind and Albe-Fessard, ed., pp

305-308, New York: Raven Press, 1983

 

5. Ehrenpreis, S., Balagot, R.C., Comaty, J.E. and Myles, S.B.

" Naloxone Reversible Analgesia in Mice Produced by D-Phenylalanine and

Hydrocinnamic Acid, Inhibitors of Carboxypeptidase A, " Advances in

Pain Research and Therapy, Vol. 3, Bonica, Liebeskind and

Albe-Fessard, ed., pp 479-488, New York: Raven Press, 1978

 

6. Ehrenpreis, S., Balagot, R.C., Myles, S., Advocate, C. and Comaty,

J.E. " Further Studies on the Analgesic Activity of D-Phenylalanine in

Mice and Humans, " Proceedings of the International Narcotic Research

Club Convention, E. L. Way, ed., pp 379-382, 1979

 

7. Heller, B. " Pharmacological and Clinical Effects of D-Phenylalanine

in Depression and Parkinson's Disease, " in Modern

Pharmacology-Toxicology, Noncatecolic Phenylethylamines, Part 1, A.D.

Mosnaim and M.E. Wolf, eds., pp 397-417, New York: Marcel Dekker, 1978

 

8. Sabelli, H.C. and Mosnaim, A.D. " Phenylethylamine Hypothesis of

Affective Behavior, " American Journal of Psychiatry, 131:695, 1974

 

VITAMIN C (Ascorbic Acid) ANALGESIA

At high intake levels, Vitamin C is known to reduce inflammation and

act to as a natural antibiotic and antihistamine. These properties

are surprising enough to many, but one of the biggest surprises ever

occurred during the 1970's in Scotland at the Vale of Leven Hospital.

There, Ewan Cameron, M.D. was giving ten grams (10,000 milligrams) of

vitamin C intravenously each day to terminally ill cancer patients.

The study was about vitamin C and cancer, but the unexpected finding

was in pain relief.

 

In Great Britain at the time, it was policy to provide terminal

patients with any and all pain relief available, including addictive

narcotics such as heroin. The argument was simply that if one were

dying anyway, a drug's analgesic value outweighs any drawbacks such as

dependency. Dr. Cameron and Dr. Linus Pauling wrote in Cancer and

Vitamin C (Warner Books, 1981):

 

Cameron and Baird reported (in 1973) that the

first five ascorbate-treated patients who had been

receiving large doses of morphine or heroin to

control pain were taken off these drugs a few days

after the treatment with vitamin C was begun,

because the vitamin C seemed to diminish the pain

to such an extent that the drug was not needed.

Moreover, none of these patients asked that the

morphine or heroin be given to them- they seemed

not to experience any serious withdrawal signs or

symptoms. (page xii)

 

Any vitamin that approaches the pain relieving power of morphine or

heroin must be considered some kind of analgesic indeed. The fact

that 13 out of 100 terminally ill cancer patients given vitamin C were

still alive and apparently free of cancer after five years is some

kind of miracle.

 

Although quite a lot of vitamin C is needed for results, it is a

remarkably safe and rather simple therapy. Additional information

will be found in Dr. Cameron's " Protocol for the Use of Intravenous

Vitamin C in the Treatment of Cancer, " (click here to read it) and in

the many vitamin C articles posted at this website (click here to do

an easy search for them.)

 

 

Copyright 2004 and prior years by Andrew Saul. From the book FIRE YOUR

DOCTOR, available from the author at 23 Greenridge Crescent, Hamlin,

NY 14464 USA .