Chronic pain and tobacco. Observations?

Stress reduction is one of the viable treatment options for chronic pain (it reduces cortisol levels). I find snuff and pipe smoking to be effective stress-reducers.

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I’m in pain just imagining my life without tobacco, snuff and cigars! Which reminds me, I and many folks I’ve shared it with, have successfully used bee sting therapy for a variety of chronic pain situations, especially lower back pain.

Using hot sauce in your diet helps.

I heard from a Native American that smoking tobacco brings some relief to the arthritis of some elders.

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@basement_shaman, I filled my garden with plenty of chillis and even use the seeds and inner parts to make a hot powder to add to all my dishes. It is delicious and helps indeed. Sometimes I rub the fresh fruits over painful parts of my body. I just need to pay attention to not touch my eyes afterwards.

@hooked, bee sting therapy? Sounds interesting. How is it done?

I don’t know if this means anything when I used to backpack more often. Which can involve pain, I found that smoking a pipe during the level bits and during rests really seemed to help alot. I don’t know if it was the nicotine relaxing me and also fighting the pain or if just focusing on something else helped, or if it was both working together. Ironically our greatest pain killers don’t really kill pain as much as have the brain shrug it off and say oh that other feeling is quite nice (I hope that makes sense). So I’am saying unless your chronic pain involves the area you ingest the nicotine it should be helpfull and not hurtfull. Chilis work because on one level they cause pain which releases endorphins as well as being masochistic i.e. a pain for pleasure which mildily short curcuits the brains reaction to pain (it’s too much multitasking is a poor explination of the effect). And then it also seems like there are nutrtional and chemical effects too. Bee stings therapy I don’t know much about. I do know if you stick your hand in to the place where the yellow jackets are living and they chase you down a mountain you’ll trip pretty hard (if you’re not allergic) and won’t feel much pain after the initial pain (yeah I did that by accident once, it involved running a lot of swearing.) One last thing is that chronic pain isn’t a single problem. There are diffrent reasons someone has chronic pain. The reason for your chronic pain may make all of this less or more true for you. Well best of luck and may you find relief

I am prescribed long release morphine for my back pain, without tobacco I would find it infinitely more difficult to deal with - tobacco as opposed to nicotine, because without the alkaloids that tobacco gives the nicotine on it’s own is fairly useless, as anyone who has tried to stop smoking with nicotine gum could tell you.

Bee Venom Therapy (BVT) is a more accurate name for it. It just involves stinging yourself at the site of your pain with a live honey bee. Yes, it hurts, but only for a short bit. Within minutes you’ll get relief, especially for lower back pain. I supposedly had degenerative disk disease in my L4,5 vertebrae and was told I would have to have an operation. Well, 50/50 was not good enough odds for me. The BVT treatment was 2-3 stings right in my spinal cord, and that would ease the pain for a couple of weeks, then do it again. That’s been 4-5 years ago, and honestly, I don’t have to do it anymore, and my back is fine. Same thing with my shoulder, would wince me with pain when I would raise it too quickly. It took longer for the BVT to help that situation, but it did. I could go on… Customers of mine stop in for treatments, no I’m not a physician or in the healing trade. But I encourage all to look into it that might need some help for these types of things. This is why I got into beekeeping.

Bees and their products are awesome. I use a lot of honey and pollen every day, and propolis tincture when needed (internally and externally as well). My immune system is much stronger since I discovered and started to use these stuffs.

I am NOT contradicting anyone above, in fact I am in your court… BUT … there is a very strong contingent out there that believe that there is a strong negative correlation with smoking and chronic pain. One neurosurgeon here in town refuses to work with a patient who smokes stating that ‘you just won’t heal right and the ingredients in the tobacco just perpetuate the pain’. Personally I think he/they are full of bunk. To me, there is absolutely nothing like a good dose of tobacco (snuff, pipe or cigar) when I am stressed and painful. Nothing else helps to relax the same. I know part is the ritual, but part is the act/herb/plant as well. IMHO.

Stewart’s conclusion from her review to 1860 was that ‘The best that can be said of it was that in many cases tobacco alleviated pain.’source= Stewart GG. A history of the medicinal use of tobacco 1492-1860. Med Hist 1967;11: 228-68.

Caffeine is a standard ingredient in many extra strength non-steroidal analgesics. I would imagine that nicotine would have a similar affect. Smoking decreases oxygen levels and are contraindicated for many health related problems. I do not know but believe that snuff, not going through the lungs, would not have this affect. The Poschl study does not seem to indicate any problems. I have a very problematic disc at c-5 (they will not do surgery as it is too close to my spinal cord) and since increasing my snuff consumption it seems far better. I have a refrigerator full of Habanero pepper, Habanero Savina and Bhut Jolokia pepper. Perhaps the healthiest things in my diet. These peppers can be applied topically (and save a lot of money over caspasian containing ointments) as well, for the brave or foolhardy, with DMSO.

yes inhaling lots of smoke tends not to be healthfull. especialy if it’s paper treated with chemicals and just enough tobacco to call it a cigarette.

I have stung myself with a bee to relieve bursitis. It worked well. I was careful to mark the intended sting site for the important accuracy of the sting. As for nicotine etc., it does promote dopamine production hence pain relief.

@Nosy if your pain is of the inflammation-type, nicotine is indeed a mild anti-inflammatory agent, though smoking tobacco cancels out this effect at least somewhat. Snuff, on the other hand, is anti-inflammatory. at least for me. I suffer from chronic immune-system issues, and agree that chile peppers help a lot. If you don’t like the hotter chiles, the milder ones also have a good effect, with raw banana peppers being the best. Other good anti-inflammatory foods include: garlic, onions, turmeric, ginger, apples, and pineapple. You also may want to look into a supplement called bromelain, which is the anti-inflammatory agent in pineapple. If these work for you, I would suggest you look into the anti-inflammatory diet; just google it if you’re interested. I’ve been on it now for over a year, and it has done wonders for me, though it is not a panacea.

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I switched to vaping completely 4 years ago and been using snuff from time to time. I had since an appendectomy, chicken pox, back pain, some little skin issues and now tendinopathy. A week ago i started snuffing again a little and the day after i did not feel back pain neither tendinopathy pain. How weird i m starting to think i had all those little health issues when i smoked analog cigarettes but did not feel the pain as much as now so that it did not need medical care. Someone told me body is changing completely after stopping smoking tobacco. So i will now take a little pinch or more a day to see weither it is reducing pain a lot or it is just a total random thing.

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@Alsharp87 please try again but without using apostrophes or other punctuation on that iPhone. I’d love to read your input. Chronic pain yes, not sure I noticed any change going from 8 years of ecigs to now 1 yr of snuff. Autoimmune FWIW

It might be a repost but here is a nice article on nicotine and pain:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC526783/


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