As you know from My Story, I ‘grew’ out of back pain by taking nutrients that allowed the vertebral disc to heal. Now modern medicine says that this is not possible, but let us explore these two brief stories from people that I know that helped me get to the understanding of the nutrients that I took.
First it was a friend that was somewhat of an athlete. After a surgery on his knee to removed damaged cartilage, he spent enormous amounts of time in the sun with his shirt off. Against his doctors advice he continued to run. It is important to keep up exercise for cartilage health as this is the only way that fluids move in and out of the cartilage to provide nutrients. Cartilage is not feed directly by the blood system. After a year he went back to the doctor and had his knee imaged as a follow up to the surgery. The cartilage had grown back.
Second, I knew a lady that had back pain. She said that after the summer in her garden that her back pain had gone and that she had grown an inch in height. Again, significant height variation that is more than the normal from hydration is an indication of the health of vertebral disc.
The only thing that was in common with these two healings was sunshine and exercise. The sunshine provided the vitamin D and the exercise allowed nutrient flow to the cartilage.
Nutrients that I took:
Vitamin C 1000 mg/d
Multivitamin
Magnesium as glycinate 800 mg/d
Vitamin D3 – enough to keep my serum 25(OH)D3 above 50 ng/ml for me at 203 lbs this was about 10,000 IU/d in the winter and in the summer I only took 5000 IU/d
Vitamin A – from fish liver oil 5000 IU/d
Zinc – 25 mg/d
Boron – 3 mg/d
Calcium – 500 mg
Sulfur – MSM 1000mg/d and glucosamine sulfate 1500 mg/d
I could not really walk so I had purchased an inverter about three years prior. I am not promoting the Hang-Up brand but this is the one that I used and it worked very well. I would not really hang upside down but would rock 45 degrees back and then forward and this would work my spine like an accordion to pump fluids in and out. I did this twice each day for 10 to 15 minutes.
Now from looking at these vitamins it is hard to imagine that is all that I did. Let me tell you when you are in pain and the back is screaming at you the vitamin D does wonders. Of course I was under the care of doctor during this time and he told me not to take the vitamin D3 in such large amounts that it would make my organs turn to ‘stone’. He checked my serum calcium and my 25(OH)D and was satisfied that I was not doing anything harmful to myself.
There was not anything on the net about improving back pain with vitamin D at that time. However, now Dr. Gerry Schwalfenberg, University of Alberta, has published case studies on using Vitamin D. Improvement of Chronic Back Pain or Failed Back Surgery with Vitamin D Repletion: A Case Series Gerry Schwalfenberg, MD From the Department of Family Medicine, University of Alberta, Canada
In his case studies, he does not use as much vitamin D as I did. I do think that you should try to maintain your serum 25(OH)D level above 50 ng/ml as I stated above.
The pain got much better for about a 4 month period. It then started to hurt up and down my back, but the places where the bulges existed got much better. What was going on with my back as the disc healed was that the nerve roots were trying to find new homes as the disc increased in height. I could exercise the part of my spine that was hurting and it would get better the next day. After the first three months I was able to go to the gym. I had a very kind trainer that would help me exercise without putting any compression on my spine. Within 10 months I was able to do 125 lb dead lifts and the pain in my back was gone. I had grown back to my original height of 6 ft after six months and at the end of 10 months I was two inches taller than I had ever been. I am sure because I was kept out of the sun as a child because of my heat stroke that my DNA had never fully expressed itself.
I think that it is very important for cellular differentiation that you get both Vitamin A and Vitamin D. I got the largest growth spurt when I was taking both. Also please note that I was not using beta-carotene but vitamin A from fish liver oil. There has been much comment about not taking this preformed vitamin A. We always ate liver every other week when I was growing up and I never had any problems. Liver about the size of your hand has 100,000 IU of vitamin A. I say eat as the endogenous people did – like the wolf where the internal organs are consumed first. If you like liver then you have it made.
Again, do this only in the care of a doctor in particular if you have injuries in your cervical disc. I had stenosis so bad at C3-C4 and since this is where the nerve for the lung originates the surgeon was really concerned I would just stop breathing. I had severe sleep apnea (central) from this but after the pain was gone the doctor would not operate. The sleep apnea took almost two years to resolve but it finally got there. I have no more poping or snapping in my neck at all and can move it in any direction at will.
Sounds simple, it is simple. I still do not understand why no doctor ever asked to take my vitamin D level when DDD is so similar to rickets. I am truly sadden by the number of people that are still out there hurting when the solution is so simple. There is hope for your pain so be of good cheer. I know that it hurts and my prayers are for you.
Vitamin D Deficiency Survivor 