Left hand arthritis

[MysTiK PiKn]

A friend of mine says six stalks of celery a day is another non drug solution.
I am not terribly fond of celery and would find six stalks almost impossible to eat in a day.
I feel truly blessed to not have much problem with "Uncle Arthir"....yet!

Celery is high calcium and high ruffage - likely some other good things. Eating celery is the nutritional answer to 'tums for the tummy'. (acid indigest is caused by poor combinations). It's a feel-good food. Not sure about 6 stalks a day - one or two?. It's also like carrot in that it's an alt-snack, emphasizing NO-suger - lots of parents are encouraging this in their children - break the sugar addiction thru education. Or the sugar epidemic; cos it's kinda like an addiction related disease. It's hard to say no to a sugarload; and choose instead something that will promote health rather than / a lowering of the immune system, promotion of yeast in the digestive system, promotion of obesity, and all the 'insanity' that comes with. Sound like addiction? yah.

Other recommends = onion, garlic, ginger, cayenne - those will fit in almost everything you cook. Salad w a dressing of fresh squeeze lemon + olive oil, in a 2:7 ratio. Try that, you'll crave it = a healthy addiction, a cleanser, potential fix for gallstone, etc. Olive oil is a digestible, NON-saturated oil. Only one I use. Lemon is loaded w vits+mins. The book "Master Cleanser" proclaims it as the "tree of life".

[Timbofood]

My friend has been doing the celery thing for several years and absolutely swears by it! I would have a terrible time forcing that number of stalks of celery, just sayin'.

[lflngpicker]

Hello Ken, I am sorry to hear you are having so much pain it is affecting your ability to play your mandolin! That is a tough situation. I hope a couple of these great suggestions might aid you in finding a remedy. I hope the best for my fellow mandolin player! Take care.

[darylcrisp]

Ken

i was busy at work last night and could not come back and add this thought(yes, i work in "modern" medicine, but seek out naturalpathic treatments first).

you might consider removing one string on each course, have the two inner strings repositioned at the nut and saddle(4 slots to groove), and try that. its much easier to fret the single string, you'll still have your little familiar friend, and the sound will not be "so" different that its wrong to your ears.

i actually like how a mandolin sounds with one string at each set.

just a wild crazy thought.
d

oh yea, the acupuncture worked wonders for me almost immediately. if you go, find someone with an excellent reputation. cost is usually not too much-some insurance companies may cover-you might need your primary doc to write an order for it for coverage.
i rarely take meds for anything, including inflammation or whatever. at times though, i may take a day or two of aleve(Naproxen) but never take it for long periods. there are side effects to everything, so read careful and try naturals remedies first.

best of luck to you with this, i do think you can work around it and get nearly pain free and still enjoy things-just do some adapting.
d

[Jess L.]

TIFKAD

You sent me scurrying for a dictionary, TIFKAD is evidently "The Instrument Formerly Known As Dobro".

[mandowilli]

As an athlete in my younger days I discovered the importance of warming up and stretching before playing to be the key to preventing injury. Once injured you are dealing with trying to recover while still performing or practicing at some level and therein lies the problem.

After experiencing hand and finger pain from playing the mandolin I was given the advice to check my ergonomics playing in front of a mirror, and doing warm up exercises every time I pick up the instrument.

This has helped tremendously and now I even do my finger and hand yoga at various times during the day when not playing, such as when driving down the road.

Here is one example of what you can do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_0aVxFxBa0

[JonDoug]

Helpful thread for me. About 4 weeks ago my family medicine doctor explained to me that it was a combination of "trigger thumb" and arthritis that was making my left hand thumb painful--including playing the mando, especially when chording, even though I've pretty much switched to the minimum stretch, three course variety chords for the last year.

My regular doctor doesn't do the cortisone shot, and full diagnosis/treatment is still a possibility with a specialist. Right now, I opted for minimalist approach: a topical NSAID cream to bring down the inflammation and time. It seems to be working--the mando neck is easier, as are buttons on shirts, shoe tying, and pencil holding (I play righty but I'm a lefty). Not ready for chords & 2 hour jam circles though!

Some things that seem to be helping me: cutting back mando (down to 5 days a week, 30 minutes each of those days ) and cutting out chords, using a thumb splint "glove" ($15 at Walgreens) when I sleep at night, massage and gentle stretches outward to counteract the normal thumb use. I'll say the nightly immobilization of thumb seems very helpful for me--instead of the worst pain/stiffness when I wake up, it feels relaxed and good in the morning.

I hope the OP gets back to his chords--the chops to play jazz chords is impressive, and that would be hard to lose, even with all the great alternatives suggested in this thread.

[Loretta Callahan]

I have chronic arthritis and the one thing that has completely 86'd the pain is taking turmeric almost daily. It's really a food, so you can't take too much from what I can tell. It takes a while to build up in your system, but I'm arthritis pain free. Turmeric is a powerful anti-inflammatory ... among other great things.

Now carpal is another matter. I struggle with right hand picking issues because it's also my mouse hand. That seems to respond best to other remedies ... mostly mechanical and ergonomic.

I also take NSAIDs = "Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs" (Advil/Ibuprofen) occasionally for headaches, but I'd be careful about making it a regular thing. NSAID's used over long periods of time can cause heart and other problems.

Good luck .... and, as always, great to see so much good advice.

[Timbofood]

Watch NSAIDS and kidney issues as well.

[johnbaxter]

Sorry to hear that Ken. It's the reason I had to give up mandolin. I switched to ukulele, but I probably won't be able to play uke in a few more years. I'm thinking about exploring dobro. Wishing you the best.

[MysTiK PiKn]

I have chronic arthritis and the one thing that has completely 86'd the pain is taking turmeric almost daily. It's really a food, so you can't take too much from what I can tell. It takes a while to build up in your system, but I'm arthritis pain free. Turmeric is a powerful anti-inflammatory ... among other great things.

Now carpal is another matter. I struggle with right hand picking issues because it's also my mouse hand. That seems to respond best to other remedies ... mostly mechanical and ergonomic.

I also take NSAIDs = "Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs" (Advil/Ibuprofen) occasionally for headaches, but I'd be careful about making it a regular thing. NSAID's used over long periods of time can cause heart and other problems.

Good luck .... and, as always, great to see so much good advice.

Thanks very much, Loretta, for mentioning Turmeric. I did a search on it, and found some AMAZING information. The World's Healthiest Foods website is here:

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?t...dspice&dbid=78

IMHO, this should be REQUIRED READING. It's a long read; but worth it. The last quarter of the page is 'references'.

I thought I had a lot of the best stuff going with garlic, cayenne, ginger, onion. But there's a bunch of things turmeric can be combined with, that yield amazing results for many serious problems.

All I can say is "Read this". The website is a non-profit. "World's Healthiest Foods".

READ THIS
.
Myst.