GRAND RAPIDS -- The pain in Rosemary Sousley's feet had gotten so bad she could barely walk into the next room.
Knowing
it was caused by her diabetes and perhaps the chemotherapy she
underwent for breast cancer a few years ago didn't help. Neither did the
eight Tylenol she was taking every day.
So when her podiatrist,
Dr. Michael David, invited her to join a study to determine if a formula
of vitamins and minerals could reduce diabetes-related pain, the
68-year-old Middleville woman agreed.
Within two weeks, the pain
in her feet had subsided enough she began cutting back on the Tylenol.
Within a month, she was down to one Tylenol a day, and "now I'm at the
point of taking two or three a week."
The pain is virtually gone, Sousley said. "It's a warm awareness," she said, "but it's not painful."
The
group of Grand Rapids doctors who conceived and oversaw the study said
the other participants had similar improvement in a nerve disorder
common among diabetics called peripheral neuropathy, the death of nerves
in the feet and hands, characterized by a burning pain and numbness.
At
the beginning of the study last February, the 30 patients were asked to
rate their pain on a scale of one to 10. After four weeks, on average,
they reported a 30 percent reduction in pain.
After eight weeks, they said their pain was cut in half. After 12 weeks, their pain showed a 63 percent improvement.
"It was amazing," said Dr. Mark Gostine, a Grand Rapids pain specialist. "Some people got rid of their pain completely."
The
idea for the study grew out of a dinner conversation between Gostine
and Dr. Larry Pawl, a Grand Rapids cancer specialist. Many of his
patients on chemotherapy suffer neuropathy as a side effect of their
treatments, Pawl said. He knew Gostine was a big believer in natural
supplements, so he asked him if vitamins or other natural substances
might help.
"It was more of an off-hand remark by Larry, which
turned into a challenge for me," Gostine recalled. "I'm a big believer
in nutrition. I always tell people, 'It's not what you eat; it's what
you don't eat that's hurting you.' "
Gostine began on a year-long search through thousands of medical articles, looking for which micronutrients might work.
He
and Pawl narrowed them to five (N-acetyl-cysteine, alpha-lipoic-acid,
L-carnitine, vitamin C and selenium) and contracted with a
pharmaceutical company to manufacture pills with that formula.
Pawl offered the supplements to his cancer patients and noticed it seemed especially helpful for those who also were diabetic.
Thus,
they undertook the six-month study, hired a researcher and recruited
patients through Foot & Ankle Specialists of West Michigan. They
published their findings in the this month's issue of the Journal of
Practical Pain Management.
Not only did the supplements help reduce pain, but also the numbness, which can lead to injuries and infections for diabetics.
Gostine
conceded the study did not use a control group of patients receiving a
placebo for comparison, but said he is convinced supplements work for
most patients.
The apparent success of the Grand Rapids study
attracted the attention of Celgene Corp., a multi-national
pharmaceutical company, and Cleveland Clinic is considering a
more-scientific study to see if the supplements can help reduce
neuropathy for cancer patients.
Reference Source: Sunday, August 05, 2007
By Pat Shellenbarger
The Grand Rapids Press
Related reading on Diabetes go to http://www.takeforum.com/pod1/viewtopic.php?t=450&mforum=pod1
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