Herbs vs big pharma. A personal comparison

I think we'd all agree that one of the worst pains we can suffer is tooth pain. Sorry to all the Mums out there, I know you went through worse. But for the rest of us, tooth pain is it. Nothing seems to work,whether it's shooting nerve pain or a dull ache. Recently a chunk fell out of one of my few remaining front teeth. The pain was excruciating and way beyond my personal (admittedly very low) pain threshold. So i needed to reach for something to give me relief.

I’d previously had troubles with that tooth and those alongside it and the dentist I usually see told me that I’d need to have the whole block of them removed. Of course, that would ruin the gap toothed beauty that I’d cultivated for so long.

I’ve a few workshops to teach in the next couple of months and the image of me presenting them sans choppers wasn’t a pretty one, so I decided to hit the pain relievers. Then I thought, let’s do a comparison between herbal remedies and Panadol.

I thought that because it was nerve related, St. John’s Wort (Hypericum perforatum) had to be in the mix but it was a hot kind of feeling, so cooling Lavender was indicated in equal amount for that, plus the tension I was feeling. That made for a balanced mix – a warming herb plus a cooling herb. The pain was giving me a stomach ache too, so a tiny splash of Ginger was called for, being a carminative and pain killer so it would help with possible tummy upsets from the pain. I had all of those herbs as both tinctures and glycerites (page coming soon). Ginger has a diaphortic effect, which was good, it being a warmish day – sweating would cool me down!

As a method of comparison, I started with 1 Panadol and waited to see how much pain it relieved. It took the edge off a little, an effect that was noticeable after 20 minutes or so. After a while the pain returned

I decided to go gently with the herbs to get the best comparison, so glycerites were in order.To compare, I used 2 dropperfuls of glycerite combination taken directly and swished around my mouth. The pain lessened within minutes but returned shortly.

A second dose of the glycerite was taken after half an hour (to make sure that the immediate effects of the first had worn off. Once again, the pain lessened and stayed at a lower, much more tolerable level.

A third dose half an hour later yielded a better result with the pain not returning. St. John’s Wort lessens the tendency of nerves to irritability and it looks like it did its job.

A different kind of pain…

There was pain of a difeent kind the next day that gave me another excuse to try a comparison. I spent too much time redoing the irrigation. I have an arthritic condition in my elbows and I know full well that pulling and pushing that black pipe on and off of the fittings, even after hot water has been applied to them, will cause me grief but being a stubborn old bugger, persevered ith the job even after the pain started. One or two fittings I can handle but too many and I’m in pain for days.

This gave me the opportunity for a second test. Two Panadol this time with no result. I held off for an hour and a half before trying the tooth pain remedy mentioned above. No luck. I tried a double dose – no luck. The pain wasn’t nerve related (yes, I know that pain is sensed and relayed by nerves), so St. John’s Wort wasn’t indicated. As it was a dull ache (cold condition), Lavender wasn’t specifically indicated but could have been used as an analesic.

I had restless nap for a couple of hours and decided on waking to move onto the big gun in my pain killing arsenal…Prickly Lettuce decoction. I’d dried and concentrated a jarful of this and took half a teaspoonful of the tar-like substance.

Once the bitterness hit my tongue, I felt the pain in my elbows recede. Maybe I was distracted by the strong taste but subsequent changes in the symptoms support the pain killing effect. Half a teaspoonful of this is quite a large dose but it took away all but the deepest, core pain, right down in the joints.. It was two hours before the pain returned in full and a 1/4 tsp took care of it until I took a precautionary dab on my tongue before bedtime.

It only took 2 smaller doses the next day to control the discomfort and the same the day after before the pain faded completely.

All of that Prickly Lettuce, Wild Lettuce (Lactuca serriola) exerted it’s soporific (sleep inducing) influence and I slept through until around 10 the next morning. Though that’s not too unusual…

These are only rough comparisons between Panadol and herb – I was planning to alternate the Pandadol and the herbs throughout the course of the pains but in each case, once the herbs kicked in, there was no need.

Panadol and Ibuprofen interfere with the lives of our gut microbes and long term use causes all kinds of problems from digestive issues to psychological ones. Herbs too can be inappropriately used but there seems to be a greater tendency in people to misuse pharmaceuticals.

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