At Last...
Freedom from Back Pain

Published in First for Women, 9/ 5, 2005

When prescriptions fail, an all-natural alternative can
quickly (and safely) ease the agony

Carmen Rodriguez shrieked, "Not now'." Then she immediately felt ashamed. Her teenage daughter had simply asked a harmless question about dinner, but the chronic neck and lower-back pain that had been plaguing Carmen since an auto accident three years earlier had increasingly taken both a physical and emotional toll. I'm spinning out of control, thought Carmen as she apologized to her daughter. Isn't there any way to make this stop?

She had already tried numerous over over-the-counter painkillers and prescription muscle relaxants, but they offered only fleeting relief. "At work I'd hide in a bathroom stall and just cry," admits Carmen, who spent her nights lying awake in pain and her days in a fog. "And since I could barely walk, let alone exercise, I started packing on the pounds. It was beyond depressing. I began to think I was doomed to suffer for the rest of my life."
Then one day on her car ride home, Carmen heard a radio program about a natural amino acid supplement that boosts the body's painkilling response. "It sounded good, but I was skeptical because nothing else had worked;" recalls Carmen. "Still, I was willing to try almost anything, so I looked up the doctor who had led the radio chat.”

A nutrient activates the body's own painkillers
In a University of Chicago study, more than 75 percent of patients suffering from chronic pain who had not been helped by conventional drugs or physical therapy experienced "good" to "complete" relief within one week to one month of taking DL-phenylalanine (DPLA) supplements. "DPLA contains two forms of the amino acid phenylalanine that work in tandem to boost the body's natural painkilling response." explains Ritchi Morris, Ph.D., N.D., an intergrative mediine specialist in Hartsdale, New york. The D form of phenylalanine blocks enkephalinase, a pain-amplifying enzyme in the nervous system, while the L form increases the production of mood-elevating brain chemicals like norepinephrine and dopamine. Experts recommend taking up to 1,500 mg of DPLA daily in tow or three divided doses between meals. (One to try: Twinlab DLPA 500 mg, $10 for 60 capsules, at iherb.com, or call 888-792-0028.)

"1 finally feel like myself again!" Within just weeks of starting her DLPA regimen, Carmen's pain had eased substantially and she was sleeping right through the night. "I finally feel like myself again!" says Carmen, who now has no trouble focusing at work. In fact, she recently earned a well-deserved promotion. She's also back to sharing pleasant meals with her daughter. "Now if I could just get her to pick her clothes up off the floor!"