Hand cramping and arthritis

[Roger Taylor]

At age 80, my shop work was severely hampered by arthritis to the point where everything I picked up seemed to end up on the floor. Inside the house, drink spills had me in the dog house on a regular basis. In the shop, even as i tried to keep hydrated, I would experience painful hand cramping and would have to stop shop work for the day. Thankfully, a combination of hand physical therapy and 250-400 Mg. of Magnesium supplement have relieved the pain and discomfort and I am back to active shop work. Consult your doctor before taking the Magnesium; for me it was a real game changer.

 

[GreenTwin]

I had that all over, and it turns out it was Celiacs, which is allergy to glutton.

I stopped eating gluten and the problem vanished in 5 days.

Glad you figured it out.

.

 

[GreenTwin]

And I ate less too, so my glutton problem went away also (inside joke).

.

 

[almega]

And I ate less too, so my glutton problem went away also (inside joke).

.

I saw that right away. Same with me, I just moved away from guttony.

 

[user 52078]

At age 80, my shop work was severely hampered by arthritis to the point where everything I picked up seemed to end up on the floor. Inside the house, drink spills had me in the dog house on a regular basis. In the shop, even as i tried to keep hydrated, I would experience painful hand cramping and would have to stop shop work for the day. Thankfully, a combination of hand physical therapy and 250-400 Mg. of Magnesium supplement have relieved the pain and discomfort and I am back to active shop work. Consult your doctor before taking the Magnesium; for me it was a real game changer.

I am nearly 69 and also having cramp problems and found magnesium was a game changer, same dose as you. Arthritis is another issue and a few minutes with an infra red lamp on the affected bits works wonders. Hope that helps other senior members.
Martin
P.s Still into gluttony though!

 

[PeterDRG]

At age 80, my shop work was severely hampered by arthritis to the point where everything I picked up seemed to end up on the floor. Inside the house, drink spills had me in the dog house on a regular basis. In the shop, even as i tried to keep hydrated, I would experience painful hand cramping and would have to stop shop work for the day. Thankfully, a combination of hand physical therapy and 250-400 Mg. of Magnesium supplement have relieved the pain and discomfort and I am back to active shop work. Consult your doctor before taking the Magnesium; for me it was a real game changer.

I find that at the faintest twinge of cramp, Quinine Bisulphate tablets work a treat. Why? I have no idea, but the method was passed to me by a German lawyer friend 40 years ago.

 

[abby]

Thank you !
This could be one of the most useful posts yet , at 76 I also suffer badly from hand cramps and often have to give up work after an hour.
As a type 2 diabetic I have found that eating even a small amount of chocolate also seems to cause cramps too , so I guess I will be trying the magnesium soon but I will check with my GP before I add anything more to my already heavy medicinal drug list.
If it works I may finish my current project.
Dan.

 

[packrat]

I take Gabapentin for my nerve pain. I am 81, and yes it is hard to pick up small parts.

 

[Steamchick]

Most useful thing I ever picked-up was my Missus, 40 plus years ago... Maybe she'll marry me one day?
Heard her talking to a friend once about picking-up "small parts..." but missed the rest of the conversation.
I am just glad I am still a young boy with minimal Arthur-itis. (Been 37 for 30+ years... keeps me young - on paper.). Avoid gout (mostly) by high water intake and keeping the protein level down. But COLD hurts the swollen Arthur-itic joints... Partly genetic, partly "motorcycling"...
Apparently an "acid-free" diet works well for serious Arthur-itics. Met a guy once who was crippled until he went "Acid-free" - but it is not good for anyone who loves fruit, wine, cheese, soft water, Whisky, Brandy (Not gin, Vodka, beer), etc... Half our food intake is acidic.
And for Gout avoid PORK, LAMB, TURKEY, BEANS, Bread (gluten is protein - lots in bread), eggs, prawns, Nuts, Coffee, chocolate, skimmed milk (the whey is all protein!), so all you are left with are fish, carbs and fats...
Maybe some of the Gluten problem is GOUT? I understand Gluten intolerance goes through you in very quick time.... I worked with a bloke who had to run half an hour after eating normal bread... But the high protein in bread certainly makes my joints swell (arthuritis) due to gout triggering the inflammation. - Hours after eating bread, cakes, etc. to excess. Try getting your protein levels (intake) below the "recommended daily amount" on packaging. But it isn't just the quantity, as some proteins are very complex e.g. carnivorous animal and rich meat, (lots of gout) and some simple proteins. (white fish protein, etc. = less gout).
Its a matter of controlling what the body needs, not wants. (I fail in that respect, frequently).
And as we are all different, what works well for some may not do much for others. - But every little helps...
Keep on Keeping on!
K2

 

[GreenTwin]

I went to three different doctors complaining about joint pain in all my joints, especially after I worked out a few days in a row.
They all said "Well, you are getting old, and that is what happens when you get old".

It finally got to where I was about to have to order a wheelchair, and could hardly walk or use my hands.
I told my wife to start looking for a good cemetery plot, as I was not going to be around much longer.

Out of sheer desperation, because basically I was dying, I looked up the symptoms of Celiacs, and bingo, I was a poster child for most of those (but not all) symptoms for Celiacs.
Celiacs can show up in different forms in different people.
Across my family of 6 siblings, 2 don't have Celiacs, 1 has severe symptoms (if she eats gluten), and 3 have symptoms that vary across the Celiac symptom range, such as severe stomach inflamation, intestinal inflamation, etc.
Mine went into athritis.

Looking back, I think my mother died from Celiacs.
She kept saying someone was poisoning her, and we thought she was wacky.

So after finding the symptoms of Celiacs online, I got off of all gluten products, and five days later, all my athritis vanished, and has never returned, unless of course I inadvertently eat some gluten, in which case the joint pain will return for about a week.

My doctors wanted to prescribe all sorts of anti-inflamation medicine, and they never questioned what the root cause of the inflamation was.
Most cases of Celiacs are never diagnosed.

Doctors are not taught to recognize it in school.

Early man did not have agriculture, and eating grown grain came along about 10,000 years ago.

The Romans had industrial grain and flour production, and so they weeded out anyone in their empire, since those who could not eat grain did not make it.

Many folks came from outside the Roman empire, such as from Scandanavia where my folks came from, and so were not exposed to grain much, or so they say.

It is really simple to get off of gluten for a week; and costs nothing.

It quite literally saved my life, and no doctor could figure it out.

And those "glutton-free" flours are grain-based, and I cannot eat those either.

.

 

[Steamchick]

Most interesting! - I eat rye and oats instead of wheat - just because I like the taste. Must check if gluten is affecting my joints though... I don't think I have any gastro problems with wheat products so had not previously bothered to check.
Thanks.
K2

 

[SmithDoor]

I went to three different doctors complaining about joint pain in all my joints, especially after I worked out a few days in a row.
They all said "Well, you are getting old, and that is what happens when you get old".

It finally got to where I was about to have to order a wheelchair, and could hardly walk or use my hands.
I told my wife to start looking for a good cemetery plot, as I was not going to be around much longer.

Out of sheer desperation, because basically I was dying, I looked up the symptoms of Celiacs, and bingo, I was a poster child for most of those (but not all) symptoms for Celiacs.
Celiacs can show up in different forms in different people.
Across my family of 6 siblings, 2 don't have Celiacs, 1 has severe symptoms (if she eats gluten), and 3 have symptoms that vary across the Celiac symptom range, such as severe stomach inflamation, intestinal inflamation, etc.
Mine went into athritis.

Looking back, I think my mother died from Celiacs.
She kept saying someone was poisoning her, and we thought she was wacky.

So after finding the symptoms of Celiacs online, I got off of all gluten products, and five days later, all my athritis vanished, and has never returned, unless of course I inadvertently eat some gluten, in which case the joint pain will return for about a week.

My doctors wanted to prescribe all sorts of anti-inflamation medicine, and they never questioned what the root cause of the inflamation was.
Most cases of Celiacs are never diagnosed.

Doctors are not taught to recognize it in school.

Early man did not have agriculture, and eating grown grain came along about 10,000 years ago.

The Romans had industrial grain and flour production, and so they weeded out anyone in their empire, since those who could not eat grain did not make it.

Many folks came from outside the Roman empire, such as from Scandanavia where my folks came from, and so were not exposed to grain much, or so they say.

It is really simple to get off of gluten for a week; and costs nothing.

It quite literally saved my life, and no doctor could figure it out.

And those "glutton-free" flours are grain-based, and I cannot eat those either.

.

I had same problem with doctors missing the problem.

The one thing I avoided is high fructose corn syrup. Keep my salt low and fat low.

Dave

 

[GreenTwin]

Most interesting! - I eat rye and oats instead of wheat - just because I like the taste. Must check if gluten is affecting my joints though... I don't think I have any gastro problems with wheat products so had not previously bothered to check.
Thanks.
K2

I think rye is gluten ? Check me on that.

I cannot eat rye or oats either.

Some of it relates to the fact that some humans are alergic to a wide variety of grains (me) regardless of whether they contain gluten or not.

Many plants/grains have a naturally built-in poisoning effect to discourage animals from eating the seeds/grain.
Humans only recently started eating a lot of grain.

.

 

[Richard Hed]

Often, it is not necessarily any one food that is the problem, notably wheat which takes a lot of blame, rather it is the AMOUNT of that food that is consumed. Animal bodies (and most likely plant bodies, too) are made to have a "wash" of food types, that is like the waves on the sea which wash in and out bringing different nutrients all the time, This means we need to vary our food intake constantly. Fruit today, vegetables tomorrow, a bit of meat too, then a different fruit, vegetable and so on. The problem with wheat is that it is endemic!, that is, it is in nearly every processed food! It is in soup, it's what makes up regular pastas, anything that is baked usually has it. NOt only that, but the wheat has jiggered down to just a couple types of wheat. There used to hundreds or thousands of types of wheat. Worse yet, the wheat is grown for it's ability to store well!

I learned a long time ago, if a food does not mould or rot, I should not be eating it! (margarine anybody?) Again, the modern flour we use or eat has usually been "bleached" and the "germ" has been taken out--the germ being the part that grows into a plant. What this means is that all the nutrition has been taken out and what is left is nearly pure STARCH! So before selling flour to sukkers, it is "enriched", other words it has had a few vitamins and minerals put back in, just enough that it will not mold or rot. If you bake bread, what you really should be doing is buying whole grains and grinding them yourself before using. That is to ensure that the grain itself does not mold or rot, and that you get all the good that your god or godz put into the grain. Believe me, the bread or other product TASTE so much better and of course are FAR more healthy.

If you get a chance, look in the grocery carts of immensely obese persons and you will see that there are no foods in the cart. Pop, beer, potato chips, fake cheese, twinkies, sugar filled junk(No vegetables, fruit or meat). These are not food, and so the person consuming this krap are actually starving themselves, thus, the liver sends out a chemical signal to the fat cells to store for FAMINE!

My son, and I encourage him, is presently on a kick about "eincorn" wheat. It is an old wheat apparently grown in a few places but was grown a lot in the old daze before "corporate wheat" came into play. It is more nutritious than corporate wheat. Also, as K says above, rye and oats are far less available (why? probably because of corporate inability to store it without it molding). Bread made with rye and oats is far tastier and nutritious. If you buy canned fooods of any type, look carefully at the ingredients list to see if it has "wheat" in it. Often, the corporations change the wording and instead of using wheat, they may use starch or flour or a chemical name. They are trixsy and play dirty.

 

[GreenTwin]

They have genetically engineered many grains to be "insect resistant", which would seem to me to mean that if an insect eats the grain, it dies.
So how do you think that affects humans?
That is my slant on it, anyway.

.

 

[Richard Hed]

They have genetically engineered many grains to be "insect resistant", which would seem to me to mean that if an insect eats the grain, it dies.
So how do you think that affects humans?
That is my slant on it, anyway.

.

Yup, tha's rat.

 

[user 52078]

Interesting thread, given many of us will be the "silver generation" (if we have any hair left!).
I was particularly interested in the protein link to gout. I did have gout and sinus headaches for a while, but came off milk protein and all dairy, and it disappeared. The problem with milk protein (whey powder) is they shove it in everything, so avoiding it is not the easiest trick.
As others have said, we are all different, but if anything on here helps someone else then that's a win.
Martin

 

[rickhann]

If you get stiff in the joints, stay out of them joints! (Groan)

 

[kf2qd]

You all might want to look into something that was causing a problem for a close friend. Eat certain foods and his gut would just ache. Traced it down on his own to sulfur. Sulfur dioxide is the bleaching agent in flour and white sugar. Is also present in garlic and other foods. He has to be careful where he eats and what he eats, but if he can avoid sulfur then most all his health problems go away. Didn't get this from a doctor, but by a bit of experimenting and research on his own.

 

[GreenTwin]

A few years after I got celiacs (it can come on late in life), I also became allergic to all dairy, and so eating anything dairy such as a cheese pizza will put me in the bed for days.
Totally zaps my internals.

I thought the celiacs was somehow coming back, but it was dairy allergy.

Folks with Celiacs often also have allergies to dairy, not sure why.

.