Recent News and Articles on the Keywords: neuralgia + coping + with  Related to the article below (Last Update: 12/1/2008)

News results: Standard Version | Text Version | Image Version

Browse Top Stories Recent Last hour Last day Past week Past month Archives All dates 2005-06 1999-2003 1910s 1890s 1880s Other dates Other dates Other dates: [hide] - Blogs News Alerts RSS | Atom About Feeds Your search - neuralgia + coping + with - did not match any documents. Suggestions: Make sure all words are spelled correctly. Try different keywords. Try more general keywords. Try fewer keywords. Try Google Blog Search. Also, you can browse today's headlines on the Google News homepage.

Recent News and Articles on the Keywords: neuralgia + coping + web  Related to the article below (Last Update: 8/5/2008)

Coping with neuralgia

  Finishing a book is always a painful process, and in my case not only because it feels as though I'm in the middle of a mental marathon, trying to keep track of everything that I've already written while spending at least twelve hours a day tapping out yet more words on the keyboard.

No, the main cause of my pain is that although my chair and desk are ergonomically designed, sitting in one position for so many hours causes my back to start playing up.

Ever since a prank went wrong when I was twenty, my sciatic nerve has been vulnerable to becoming trapped, sending a throbbing pain down my leg and, being a nerve-related pain, my sciatica comes under the umbrella name of neuralgia, as does dental pain.

I find living with the chronic pain of neuralgia very wearing, but am nevertheless fortunate in that spending a few days exercising specific muscles and stretching usually encourages the pain to subside.

For other people, however, neuralgia is constantly with them, be it the result of a trapped or compressed disc in the spine, an illness, such as multiple sclerosis, which causes nerve damage, or the damage inflicted on nerves by a virus like shingles.

Suffering from neuralgia during the winter months can make your suffering even worse because the cold makes us hold our bodies more stiffly and stiffens our joints, so that we're less inclined to walk places and hence keep our bodies moving and muscles and nerves working freely. And when paths are icy, there's an increased risk of slipping and falling, causing really acute nerve pain.

If you suffer from neuralgia, you may be interested to learn that what you eat can have a positive impact on your nerve pain because your nervous system relies heavily on the nutrients that you consume to maintain its health, and particularly on the B group of vitamins, vitamin E and omega oils.

Foods that are rich in B vitamins include chicken and vegetables (which is why I've chosen to cook my chicken with winter vegetables dish this week), yeast extract (like Marmite), nuts, fortified and wholemeal breakfast cereals and dairy produce.

When it comes to dairy produce, go for such lower-fat options as only a little butter, semi-skimmed milk, yoghurt, Parmesan, Gouda and Edam rather than lots of their full-fat, creamy counterparts because saturated animal fats can reduce the potential benefits of taking omega oils (of which more below).

You can derive vitamin E from vegetables and vegetable oils (especially wheat-germ and sunflower oil), seeds, nuts (particularly hazelnuts, almonds and peanuts), avocados and whole grains.

A large spinach salad made with goat¿s cheese, avocados and roasted hazelnuts, dressed with a vinaigrette made with equal parts sunflower and olive oil, is therefore a quick and delicious way of gleaning high levels of vitamin E.

Conveniently, such vitamin E-rich vegetable oils are also packed with omega 6 fatty acid - as are seeds, notably linseeds, and nuts - which, along with omega 3 oils (which are most highly concentrated in oily fish like fresh tuna, salmon, trout, herring and mackerel), provide the body with the necessary ingredients with which to manufacture gamma linoleic acid (GLA), an anti-inflammatory substance.

GLA is also present in evening primrose and starflower oil, as well as the less well-known blackcurrant-seed oil, all of which can be taken as a supplement, as can omega 3 oils if you suspect that you aren't eating enough oily fish, seeds and nuts. And the reason why it's best to keep your intake of saturated animal fats low is because they retard the body¿s ability to produce sufficient GLA to alleviate your pain.

Because the powerful antioxidant properties of thyme oil are thought to ward off further nerve damage, try infusing your cooking oils with thyme, as well as using cloves, pepper and nutmeg in your cooking, traditional winter spices that also possess antioxidant power. You, like me, may also find that adding a few drops of chamomile essential oil to your bath and sipping a cup of meadow sweet or chamomile tea as you bask in the warm water helps to soothe the pain of your neuralgia.


CHICKEN WITH WINTER VEGETABLES


Serves 4

1 x Medium sized organic chicken, giblets removed and washed well
4 bunches of thyme
3 Bay leaves
Huge bunch of fresh, flat leaved parsley
Small head of fennel, very finely chopped
3 leeks, cleaned and roughly chopped
4 carrots, peeled and chopped into large pieces
Small head of celeriac roughly chopped
Bottle of dry white wine
Freshly ground black pepper and sea salt
1lb small, waxy potatoes, peeled



Pre heat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6. Place the chicken in a large oven proof casserole dish, with a lid. Throw in the vegetables (apart from the potatoes), thyme, bay, stalks of the parsley (having placed the heads to one side for using later).

Pour in the white wine, season with plenty of freshly ground black pepper and cover with the lid. Place in the middle of the oven and cook for 2.5 hours. Once cooked, remove the parsley stalks(discard) and the chicken-place the chicken on a serving plate and cover with Clingfilm. Boil the potatoes until cooked. Finely chop the fresh parsley and add to the vegetables; check for seasoning and stir well.

I'd recommend that you first eat the thick soup of parsley and vegetables and then eat the room temperature chicken with the boiled potatoes and little light Dijon style mustard on the side.