Medication for arthritis

[fittobethaied]

I've had osteoarthritis for years and it has now developed into full blown Fibromyalgia. I used NSAIDS for years and finally had to give them up, Diclofenac Sodium in particular, because they give me Tinnitis (ringing in the ears). I've never tried to Naproxen, so after reading about it here on the forum I ran out and bought some today. It seemed to do well on the first pill so far as relieving the pain and discomfort, but it immediately kicked my ear ringing into high gear. Has anyone else experienced this, or does anyone have a solution for the medication related Tinnitis?

[hellodolly]

I suffer from osteo-arthritus, in the fingers, and have tried many things to relieve the symptoms. I am physically very active and finding this is affecting my quality of life.

I have been taking MSM for the past few months and noticed an almost immediate improvement, whereas it obviously will not cure the condition and I can not say it will even retard its advancement all I can say is that whilst it has not improved the stiffness or lack of movement in the joints, it has reduced the swelling and pain enormously.

Previously the slightest tap on some of my fingers would make my eyes water, now I can play 'rough house' with my little boy and rarely have a problem. It has been something of a Godsend for me.

I started on a brand from a pharmacy specialising in supplements as it was located near a gym, this contained Glucosamine and Chondrotin along with the MSM and it worked well.

By the way I have previously tried G and C alone for a long time with no discernible benefit.

I have now sourced 99% pure MSM (Jacobs Creek brand) and take that every morning.

Well if you're like me you will probably try anything to find some relief from your symptoms, MSM is worth a try, it is definitely helping me.

My brother has had bad knees all his life. They kept him out of the army.

He started taking Glucosamine Sulfate and Chondrotin sulfate and they really helped. He said when he discovered MSM it made a world of difference. It is not available in Thailand and has to be bought off the internet. From the little I have found on it apparently it helps but it also strengthens the effects of Glucosamine and Chondrotin.

[hellodolly]

Oh, in getting back to the OP's original subject, I, too have arthritis. I went to CM Ram, considered one of the best hospitals in CM after I found my right knee and right shoulder hurt if I swam laps every day for more than 1/2 hr each time. The doc ordered X-rays, looked at the joints and said, yes I have arthritis. What to do? "you're getting old. Don't swim so much!" I asked about meds or nutritional supplements and he thought I was asking for narcotics, which of course I wasn't. No mention of most of the products mentioned in this thread.

So, I consulted Dr. Google at home and found much discussion of the various products mentioned in this thread. After trying a few, I found that glucosamine/chondroitin/MSM was the best. My trusty pharmacist was more help than the doc. She pointed out I should try each supplement for at least a month to decide if it worked or not. She suggested European-sourced glucosamine first, saying she had doubts about the quality of the Thai product. (She doesn't always say this about Thai-produced product). Her suggestion -- use the European product for a month, if it works, switch to the Thai product and see if I get the same good results.

I don't know if the OP evaluated other treatment options. I do take Aleve from time-to-time (like before I did a 2.5 km swim for a charity event), but I know I'd also need a GERD medication if I had to take Aleve daily. I'm glad that what works for me doesn't seem to have other side effects.

Where did you find a pharmacist that has MSM? Also is Aleve here in Thailand. I have not really looked for it. But a doctor in Canada recommended it instead of ibuprofen. She refused to give me a prescription for the ibuprofen because I take wharfin. I do take it occasionally now it is marketed under the name Nurofen. I find that 800 mg does a real good job on taking the pain away.

She said Aleve would do the same thing with out the danger to the stomach.

As for your post on Thai women cleaning out the old men. I noticed it was always and old man how old was the women. I know one old guy who lost two houses to young women.

[DogNo1]

fittobethaied: Diclofenac Sodium (also known as Voltaren) besides being bad for the ears is bad for the kidneys. If you google "sudden deafness" you will find a long list of medicines that are ototoxic (damaging to the ears.) Various medicines can be synergistic so that when they are taken together they can be many more times damaging to the ear than when taken alone. I recently experienced sudden deafness after taking just one tablet of Remeron for sleep. Fortunately, after I took B12 and Isorbide for a week my hearing returned to normal. My last hearing test showed that my ears are about the same now and that's marvelous because before this episode, my left ear was considerably weaker than my right. Anyway, I suggest that you read up on the drugs that are harmful to your ears since you are obviously one of the 5% of people who suffer hearing side effects from taking medicine. There are a lot of different combinations of supplements for treating arthritis on iherb.com. There are customer reviews for all of the products there and you can read a lot about what different people find effective. Many people benefit from Glucosamine, Chondroitin and MSM tablets but you will be surprised to find that there are many forms of chondroitin. Whether or not you buy from iherb, the site is a good place to research what supplements are available and what people think of them.

Edited July 31, 2013 by DogNo1

[NancyL]

Hellodolly, I get the medications mentioned at drugstore.com, a U.S. website and have them send to our U.S. address, which is a commercial mailforwarding service. They repackage to reduce the volume of the shipment (they won't open bottles and combine three bottles into two, however.) Then they ship to us here via USPS Global Priority mail. They used to use DHL/FedEx/UPS but we started having problems with customs and about six months ago the shipment was outright refused by Thai customs. Something about how we needed an import license for drugs (these were all OTC products) and individuals can't get an import license. So we tried USPS Global Priority mail. No problems. I guess the mail doesn't go thru the same customs facilities as the DHL/FedEx/UPS small packages.

As for you other question -- I'm afraid I don't understand your question exactly, but I think it was about the ages of the people involved. Yes, it's always an older foreign man -- usually age 75 and up. The Thai people are all ages and not all are women -- there are many foreign men living with much younger Thai (and Burmese) guys, boys almost. These things happen in the west, too, where old people are financially exploited and neglected by caregivers. It's just that here so many guys think they're entering into a "love" relationship without understanding it's really a financial arrangement for the other party.

[hellodolly]

Hellodolly, I get the medications mentioned at drugstore.com, a U.S. website and have them send to our U.S. address, which is a commercial mailforwarding service. They repackage to reduce the volume of the shipment (they won't open bottles and combine three bottles into two, however.) Then they ship to us here via USPS Global Priority mail. They used to use DHL/FedEx/UPS but we started having problems with customs and about six months ago the shipment was outright refused by Thai customs. Something about how we needed an import license for drugs (these were all OTC products) and individuals can't get an import license. So we tried USPS Global Priority mail. No problems. I guess the mail doesn't go thru the same customs facilities as the DHL/FedEx/UPS small packages.

As for you other question -- I'm afraid I don't understand your question exactly, but I think it was about the ages of the people involved. Yes, it's always an older foreign man -- usually age 75 and up. The Thai people are all ages and not all are women -- there are many foreign men living with much younger Thai (and Burmese) guys, boys almost. These things happen in the west, too, where old people are financially exploited and neglected by caregivers. It's just that here so many guys think they're entering into a "love" relationship without understanding it's really a financial arrangement for the other party.

Yes that basically answered my question.

Have you seen Aleve here. I am going to start looking for it maybe my doctor can get it for me. She gets me my niacin which is virtually imposable here in Chiang Mai. I had found it but it was in to small amounts to do any thing.

[Saan]

ZMA is easily obtained online from iherb.com or vitacost.com. I don't know offhand of any Bangkok pharmacies that carry it since I haven't looked. Iherbs' shipping costs are pretty low and their supplements are pretty cheap. The problem sometimes is with Thai customs. There's a thread on here somewhere about getting things through Thai Customs.

It seems iherb has been sunk, for the time being anyway, by good 'ole Thai customs.

This is the response I got when I tried to purchase and have shipped some of their supplements.

'Please Note: Due to Thailand customs currently preventing importing of our products we have currently suspended shipping orders to Thailand with DHL Express or UPS International. We are currently working with customs to determine what we can do to get our packages to be allowed entry into your country. We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused you."

[DogNo1]

Saan: That's a shame. I spend nine months of the year in Tokyo and the shipments from iherb arrive here within five days and duty free so long as the total value is not over $165. I'll have to make sure to stock up before I head to Bangkok in January. Thanks for letting me know about the Thai Customs problem. In the meantime, NancyL's method might work. iherb will ship orders over $40 (or maybe $50, I forget) free to a US address. If you have them ship to a commercial mail forwarding service, you can probably get supplements trans-shipped by them via USPS into the country. Maybe NancyL would like to share the name of her mail forwarding company (?)

[hellodolly]

ZMA is easily obtained online from iherb.com or vitacost.com. I don't know offhand of any Bangkok pharmacies that carry it since I haven't looked. Iherbs' shipping costs are pretty low and their supplements are pretty cheap. The problem sometimes is with Thai customs. There's a thread on here somewhere about getting things through Thai Customs.

It seems iherb has been sunk, for the time being anyway, by good 'ole Thai customs.

This is the response I got when I tried to purchase and have shipped some of their supplements.

'Please Note: Due to Thailand customs currently preventing importing of our products we have currently suspended shipping orders to Thailand with DHL Express or UPS International. We are currently working with customs to determine what we can do to get our packages to be allowed entry into your country. We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused you."

I just one hour ago opened an account with them and they said that they will ship it by what used to be called airmail.

Edit

Forgot to mention the shipping would be an extra $4

Edited August 1, 2013 by hellodolly

[NancyL]

You can google mail forwarding services to find there are many, especially with Florida and South Dakota addresses. Seems the Florida ones started to serve people who live on boats and cruise the Caribbean and the South Dakota ones serve folks who travel and live out of their RVs. We use USABox.com

We set up the service before we left the U.S. and I remember having to go to a local P.O. to get them to sign off on a form, verifying our identity that was needed by USABox.com to set up the account. Something about a U.S. gov't requirement to prevent terrorists from contracting with a mailforwarding service in order to have a U.S. address (gee, I wonder why terrorists want be able to order stuff from LandsEnd or HerRoom easily........)

[hellodolly]

You can google mail forwarding services to find there are many, especially with Florida and South Dakota addresses. Seems the Florida ones started to serve people who live on boats and cruise the Caribbean and the South Dakota ones serve folks who travel and live out of their RVs. We use USABox.com

We set up the service before we left the U.S. and I remember having to go to a local P.O. to get them to sign off on a form, verifying our identity that was needed by USABox.com to set up the account. Something about a U.S. gov't requirement to prevent terrorists from contracting with a mailforwarding service in order to have a U.S. address (gee, I wonder why terrorists want be able to order stuff from LandsEnd or HerRoom easily........)

How much do those services charge.

Have you had any problems with them in your moving around to different condos?

[NancyL]

Hellodolly, Google is your friend. Simply input "mail forwarding services" and you'll see many options.

I believe ours has different "packages" available, all fully described on their website. usabox.com The service starts at about $25 per month, I believe.

We find the service to be extremely reliable -- they scan and email a photo of the front of each item and we can ask them to toss the stuff we don't want. They respond to emails within 12 hours. Super reliable and much less hassle than asking a friend or family member to forward stuff to you.

[hellodolly]

ZMA is easily obtained online from iherb.com or vitacost.com. I don't know offhand of any Bangkok pharmacies that carry it since I haven't looked. Iherbs' shipping costs are pretty low and their supplements are pretty cheap. The problem sometimes is with Thai customs. There's a thread on here somewhere about getting things through Thai Customs.

It seems iherb has been sunk, for the time being anyway, by good 'ole Thai customs.

This is the response I got when I tried to purchase and have shipped some of their supplements.

'Please Note: Due to Thailand customs currently preventing importing of our products we have currently suspended shipping orders to Thailand with DHL Express or UPS International. We are currently working with customs to determine what we can do to get our packages to be allowed entry into your country. We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused you."

I just one hour ago opened an account with them and they said that they will ship it by what used to be called airmail.

Edit

Forgot to mention the shipping would be an extra $4

Just received this from them this morning

"Your order has been shipped via Global Priority Mail by DHL.

[transam]

fittobethaied: Diclofenac Sodium (also known as Voltaren) besides being bad for the ears is bad for the kidneys. If you google "sudden deafness" you will find a long list of medicines that are ototoxic (damaging to the ears.) Various medicines can be synergistic so that when they are taken together they can be many more times damaging to the ear than when taken alone. I recently experienced sudden deafness after taking just one tablet of Remeron for sleep. Fortunately, after I took B12 and Isorbide for a week my hearing returned to normal. My last hearing test showed that my ears are about the same now and that's marvelous because before this episode, my left ear was considerably weaker than my right. Anyway, I suggest that you read up on the drugs that are harmful to your ears since you are obviously one of the 5% of people who suffer hearing side effects from taking medicine. There are a lot of different combinations of supplements for treating arthritis on iherb.com. There are customer reviews for all of the products there and you can read a lot about what different people find effective. Many people benefit from Glucosamine, Chondroitin and MSM tablets but you will be surprised to find that there are many forms of chondroitin. Whether or not you buy from iherb, the site is a good place to research what supplements are available and what people think of them.

I was on Diclafenac for about ten years in UK, couldn't deal with daily life without it. When I came to LOS, after 2 years I now need nothing, climate did the trick for my problem.

PS. I am not deaf...... sorry, say that again.

[DogNo1]

hellodolly: Please let us know if the shipment from iherb comes through OK. I hope that their shipments are getting through Thai customs again.

[jackr]

Be careful with iherb, chaps. Ordered couple items to the UK, which they calculated would not attract duty. Waited several weeks, no delivery, and after emailing/calling multiple times to zero response, received a slip for duty payable + Royal Mail charges amounting to more than the product. Eventually got a terse, badly written email from iherb saying to order customs to return to sender and they'd reimburse the credit card... 18 months later, yeah, right! Easy money for them. They have some decent products, but if there's a problem, they don't want to know.

[johnnychopsticks]

Hi Guys,

I do realise this is a Chiang Mai forum but as a sufferer of Psoriatic Arthritis I just wondered if any of you knew of a good clinic/ doctor down in the South here? Samui, Chumpon, Surathanni area... thank you.

Johnny

[hellodolly]

Well since the topic is opened again I had PM to the person requesting delivery time from iHerb it was 20 days.

[BB1955]

I have been buying what pills I take at the Pharmacy on Walking Street just down from Thaphe Gate . The two ladys that work there are honest and very helpful and they have most everything .

[jingjoke]

RE # 32 n 42 'NAPROXEN 500mg tablets in CMai 50 baht for 10 tablets, 150 baht for a month supply. This is cheaper than a subsidised "age pension script" in Oz. I am happy.'

Re your query ^ #65, #68 "Also is Aleve here in Thailand."

Aleve, the Bayer trade name for Naproxen Sodium, is not in Thailand to my knowledge.

But SYNFLEX, also Naproxen Sodium, is aval.

I recently purchased some at the CMU Pharmacy on Suthep Rd near the intersection of Nimaheyman. Baht 75 for a strip of six.

Note too pls, HelloDolly:

# 32, # 42 brianb1944 said he had bought "NAPROXEN 500mg tablets in CMai 50 baht for 10 tablets, 150 baht for a month supply. This is cheaper than a subsidised "age pension script" in Oz. I am happy."

But he has yet to respond to exactly where in CMai he'd bought them. It is obviously way cheaper than the CMU pharmacy. So I am eagerly anticipating his response. Possibly you could gently nudge brianb1944.

Cheers

Edited February 10, 2014 by jingjoke

[rebo]

Is it possible to have arthritis in just one thumb joint? My thumb has been hurting for a few weeks now. Did not bump it or anything like that. Im only 35 so thinking I'm too young for it, but it does run in the family..

This sounds more like gout, Vibe. Can arise at any age, and is often passed on from one generation to the next.

A friend of mine has a very effective medication which stops the pain within hours when taken at the first appearance. But it doesn't cure the root cause, so after some while a next attack has to be expected. I'll ask him for the name of these pills when he returns on Saturday, and let you know.

In addition we have several potent herbs against gout in the garden; come by and pick up some off-shoots.

[northernjohn]

RE # 32 n 42 'NAPROXEN 500mg tablets in CMai 50 baht for 10 tablets, 150 baht for a month supply. This is cheaper than a subsidised "age pension script" in Oz. I am happy.'

Re your query ^ #65, #68 "Also is Aleve here in Thailand."

Aleve, the Bayer trade name for Naproxen Sodium, is not in Thailand to my knowledge.

But SYNFLEX, also Naproxen Sodium, is aval.

I recently purchased some at the CMU Pharmacy on Suthep Rd near the intersection of Nimaheyman. Baht 75 for a strip of six.

Note too pls, HelloDolly:

# 32, # 42 brianb1944 said he had bought "NAPROXEN 500mg tablets in CMai 50 baht for 10 tablets, 150 baht for a month supply. This is cheaper than a subsidised "age pension script" in Oz. I am happy."

But he has yet to respond to exactly where in CMai he'd bought them. It is obviously way cheaper than the CMU pharmacy. So I am eagerly anticipating his response. Possibly you could gently nudge brianb1944.

Cheers

See the pharmacy recommended in post 81. I have heard nothing but good about them.

I once fell in front of Starbucks and sliced my hand pretty good on a licence plate as I tried to grab the car for support. I went over there with a handful of paper towels from Starbucks. I wanted to purchase some bandaging material. They not only sold it to me but bandaged it up with an anti biotic on it. They are very friendly.

As for Alieve My doctor in Canada recommended it to me instead of Ibuprofen. He said Alieve was not hard on the stomach.

[circusman]

yes, get a Thai person to buy for you as it will be much cheaper

the Thais just love to over charge the farang!

Exaggeration for sure. My Thai partner doesn't save me any money whether I buy or not.

[circusman]

Is it possible to have arthritis in just one thumb joint? My thumb has been hurting for a few weeks now. Did not bump it or anything like that. Im only 35 so thinking I'm too young for it, but it does run in the family..

This sounds more like gout, Vibe. Can arise at any age, and is often passed on from one generation to the next.

A friend of mine has a very effective medication which stops the pain within hours when taken at the first appearance. But it doesn't cure the root cause, so after some while a next attack has to be expected. I'll ask him for the name of these pills when he returns on Saturday, and let you know.

In addition we have several potent herbs against gout in the garden; come by and pick up some off-shoots.

Hi Rebo,

Many thanks for the offer, but don't think its gout as its not inflamed, just painful. Will go have a doctor check it out I think….

Cheers….

Best bet is to follow the advice of TV posters. I'm sure of it.

[expatsupreme]

Can somebody explain what is MSM, ZMA? Zinc Magnesium tablets? Are they available in Thailand, because I am taking zinc tabs now currently and they make my eyes water for some reason, left eye redominately. Taking 50 mg zinc gluconate daily

Edited February 12, 2014 by expatsupreme

[Oscar2]

yes, get a Thai person to buy for you as it will be much cheaper

the Thais just love to over charge the farang!

what a load of BS.

[uptheos]

omprazole are 1 baht each but are you aware of thr risks associated with this drug ? and also withdrawl problems. My dr tells me it should never be used on a regular basis. I used it only when having a severe attack ( rhumatoid ) however I started on Ibuprofin 400mg and have not had a serious attack since I take one ibu per day.

You say that you used omeprazole for a severe attack of rhumatoid (arthritis I presume)?

My understanding of omeprazole is;

1. It's more expensive than 1 baht a capsule

2. It's used for treating gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and other conditions caused by excess stomach acid.

It's a proton-pump inhibitor, so I'm not clear how you thought it would help your rhumatoid arthritis?

[uptheos]

yes, get a Thai person to buy for you as it will be much cheaper

the Thais just love to over charge the farang!

what a load of BS.

Certainly is, if a person can't cope on their own purchasing minor items, it's not much of a life.