Flux Health Forum

Deep Field Coils and hip arthritis

no specific supplements for my spine

about 10 years between spine images that were considered “inoperable” to the condition of “normal for my age”

For me it has been a very long process. But I didn’t wait a decade to get a more favorable image. Frankly, that was not even on the table. What I got that mattered was a substantial reduction of pain + great improvements in mobility and function, which kicked in for me almost from day 1.

2 Likes

Hi @Bob, I am curious. How much NAC and collagen peptides are you taking each per day?

Collagen Peptides - 6 g/day with lunch, probably 4 or 5 days per week

NAC - 2 g/day: 1 in morning, one at bed time
L-Glycine 6 g/day: 3 in morning and 3 at night with NAC

Some people would assert this is too much glycine since collagen is already ~ 33% glycine. But study in detail liver metabolism, skin collagen turn-over, and changes in absorption for people as they age. Supplementing a relatively good diet with an additional 9 to 15 g L-Glycine per day is very reasonable due to its many roles and high degree of insufficiency in the elderly. I think I may need an additional 2 or 3 grams daily.

what are you using the nac to help you with?

as for the note about how using ices can give a sense of youth again… haha… it has crossed my mind to be more “bold” physically, BUT i think i’ll do that thru the old fashioned way of building up capacity thru strength training and stretching for flexibility first before running off to do things that my body likely cannot physically support. :slight_smile:

I use NAC for several reasons. I use NAC + glycine to support glutathione production within cells, rather than supplement directly with glutathione, because as we age, liver production of glutathione drops, and it needs to be regulated at the point-of-use (by individual cells), rather than being rammed into cells (for example, by lipolozing). Providing these key substrates of glutathione allows the production of sufficient quantities of this crucial master-antioxidant, while allowing feed-back physiologic control of the amount of glutathione within cells. Too much is too much, and for a super-antioxidant like glutathione, too much is way too much if you bypass the physiologic control of this very powerful antioxidant.

I also take NAC because of its neuroprotective effects and its beneficial effects for post-stroke recovery:

as well as boosting nitric oxide and nitric oxide stability, and enhancing microvascular perfusion.

And the thing is, I can definitely feel the effects of NAC on my brain function. Rather, I can feel the effect of missing a dose of NAC, because after 12 to 14 hours without NAC, I definitely feel more mentally foggy, not as sharp, and usually some loss of balance. When I start to feel this way, I immediately think “Did I take NAC last time when I should have?” Very often, I missed taking it, so then I take 1000 mg, and then usually in 30 minutes or so I feel markedly better in terms of my overall cognition.

Finally, NAC is hepatoprotective (protects the liver). It is very useful to prevent liver damage from Tylenol (acetaminophen) poisoning, for example.

NAC protects the liver from other toxins as well, and also has demonstrated benefits for the protection of brain, kidney and lung tissues, improved immune function via regulated glutathione sufficiency, as well as other benefits.


Your comments on youth: I really like to feel younger… but I definitely try not to act younger. I am definitely smart enough (this time) to not risk injury nearly so much as I did when I was younger. As I increase my activity level with age, I put safety, moderation, and injury prevention at the forefront.

3 Likes

One caveat I have learned is that chronic disease caused by mycotoxin poisoning can seriously mess up the methylation cycle and production of glutathione. In the case of one family member, S Acetyl Glutathione is the only form of support they can tolerate and cannot tolerate NAC or even Liposomal Glutathione at this time. Hoping to get to a point where NAC can be tolerated for the reasons @Bob shared.

I am just lucky: I tolerate all of that stuff well. I have a close friend who definitely needs glycine, but he absolutely can’t tolerate more than about 1 gram per day. And there are many people who definitely need magnesium, but they simply can not tolerate it orally.

I’d like to add that, regarding nutrition and supplements, I am not a subject area expert and I do not have detailed domain knowledge or expertise. I have no clinical experience and therefore I do not have domain competency. I generally only talk about these topics when people ask me directly and when I think I have gathered enough information and personal experience to give a potentially helpful opinion, based on my personal experience and general knowledge. But you should definitely take any statements from me on these topics as just a personal opinion, offered only in response to a direct question.

2 Likes

I just found this thread and am wondering if you ever had the imaging done and what it showed? I am finding so many uses for the P9, and am curious about it’s efficacy for this issue. Of course, simply have less or no pain is a win already!

Which imaging are you referring to?

@TajD I like this idea… I envision something like a skull cap with velcro pockets for the coils that can be placed anywhere on the cap. I have been thinking about various methods to make wearing the coils easier and more convenient. Another “garment” I have thought about is a back support with pockets along either side of the spine in which to place the coils.

I think making garments is great. It’s hard to make generic ones that fit anyone for anything, but it is relatively easy to make them to fit one person just the way they want. For example, I wear suspenders most of the time (necessary when you carry tools around in your pockets all day). I sewed a Velcro flap below the cross over point where the suspenders form an “X” just above my lower back. Then I stack two coils, tape them together, then put Velcro on the stacked coils. That way I can place the coils perfectly wherever I want them on my lower back.

Pro Tip: when making Velcro attachment points for ICES-PEMF coils:
1 - Use “sew on non-adhesive hook and loop tape”
2- The “hook” material is scratchy and irritating, so use that for the part that faces away from your body. It is nasty enough that it can scratch you through a T-shirt.
3 - The “loop” part is much softer, so it should be used where the loop material will face toward your body.

This way, if the Velcro is not perfectly aligned, the exposed “hook” surface will not irritate you.

Of course, I had to learn this the hard way… :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

1 Like

I tried to respond to the comment, but I think it just lists a reply, not to a specific comment? You mentioned going to get images in the near future to see if they reflected the improvement you felt. I was just wondering about the results. No biggie, just fascinated by how much this can impact the body! :slight_smile:

I have had various images over the past 24 months or so, some of which could be compared to earlier images, some not. So I will try to make sweeping general statements that cover as much as I think I can glean from all of these:

For hip/spinal images:
Rate of hip degeneration was notably reduced or even stopped for about a decade. One surgeon even noted this, saying that he had expected a lot more degeneration in my right hip over the past decade, compared to earlier images. So, basically I am inclined to think that ICES-PEMF gave me an additional ~ 10 years of useful life in my hip joints, and for the most part spared me from a lot of pain and loss of function during my 50’s, but I would not say that it resulted in regeneration of hip cartilage. Maybe the results would have been better if I had used ICES-PEMF every day for many years. Maybe not. This remains unknown.

Ultimately I ended up having both hips replaced with titanium/UHMW-PE, probably a decade or so later than I would have done if I had not have used PEMF.

Lower spine:
A set of high-resolution digital x-rays taken about 15 years apart were very interesting.

When I was about 42 years old, my physician told me that I had spinal degeneration that would be expected of a “55 year old man”.

When I was 57 years old (about 15 years later), the same physician assessed the new set of images and commented that I had spinal degeneration that would be expected of a “50 year old man”.

I asked the logical and obvious questions to determine if he meant an improvement or just about the same (stable). He said (and I generally agree) that such fine distinctions are almost impossible to make based on x-ray images. But when we tried to quantify it, which is done by measuring disc thickness, we did seem to see slightly more thickness on the more recent images, but only by about 1/2 millimeter or so. A real increase of 1/2 mm would be quite substantial, but this is hard to say with certainty, because discs in the spine are not smooth and flat. They are more like a natural sponge, thicker some places than others, so exactly how thick are they?.. it’s hard to say.

So, did my spine recover or regenerate over the 15-year period? It certainly feels much better to me now than it did 15 years ago. I have stopped needing/using nasty meds like oxy. The images could suggest an improvement in disc thickness, maybe an improvement/reduction of stenosis.

One big difference: I have used ICES-PEMF on my lower back/spine almost every day over the 15-year period. I did not do this on my hip joints.

What would I conclude:
For my hips - PEMF was very helpful in slowing the process of degeneration and reducing suffering even with brief and infrequent use over a period of about a decade.

For my spine - Daily use of ICES-PEMF for about 15 years may have resulted in some spinal recovery/regeneration, but that is not clear. What seems very clear is that it stabilized the degenerative process and reduced it to apparently zero for about 15 years.

Post surgical recovery (hip replacements):
This is easier to answer. By every measure, my recovery from both hip replacements was faster and showed better overall recovery with much less pain than the surgeons or my physician anticipated.

1 Like

Thank you! This is SO helpful. :slight_smile:

Sounds promising! I wonder if, in addition, you’ve looked into PRP or Stem cell. Might be a winning combo - though it’s self pay & there are some less than reputable pop up shops. I recently had Regenexx do PRP. So far fine but takes time for the body to do the healing… time will tell