Natural Remedies for TMJ Relief: Pain and Inflammation Support - Ted's Q&A

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Ted's Remedies

Posted by Diane Corcoran (Magnolia Springs, Alabama) on 11/29/2008

In the 80's I developed and lived with TMJ(severe joint pain in the jaw) until my mouth locked shut. In other words the joint was so inflamed that it would not move in the joint and I was fortunate it locked in shut position and not open position. Under a Doctor's care and dentist it eventually opened and I wore a bite sprint that was specially fitted for under the roof of my upper jaw and lost down to 95 lbs.The reason (by the doctor) was extreme tension and stress and I would clinch my jaw at night but no grinding. Now with the economy and with our company and being in the building trade stress and tension has developed again and there is a great deal of pain. I have been drinking chamomile which has relieved the stress especially at night but the pain is still there and headaches on that side of my jaw developes as the day goes on. I started back on Organic Vinegar today, is there anything else that can relieve the pain without going through the doctor process again? I know it can't be healed but just to relieve the pain. Maybe Ted has an answer?

Replied by Jasonmchicago
Chicago, Il
08/21/2010

I recently was diagnosed with TMJ which is different from bruxism. I believe the main cause of TMJ is clenching. Bruxism leads to pain in the joint and some of the muscles... But doesn't cause an inbalance to the mouth structure that limits eat, drinking, sleeping, etc. We should seperate Bruxism from Clenching from TMJ. Bruxism is its own category. Clenching leads to TMJ. Here are some of the common symptoms of TMJD

Eye Pain and Eye Problems:
Bloodshot eyes
Blurring of vision
Eye pain above, below and behind eye
Pressure behind eyes
Light sensitivity
Watering of the eyes

Head Pain, Headache Problems, Facial Pain:
Migraines
Forehead pain
Cluster headaches
"Sinus Type" headache
Hair and/or scalp painful or sensitive to touch
Headaches at the back of the head, with or without shooting pain

Teeth and Gum Problems:
Clenching during the day or at night
Tooth pain
Sensitive teeth
Mouth, Face, Cheek, and Chin Problems:

Discomfort or pain to any of these areas
Pain in cheek muscles
Uncontrollable tongue movements
Jaw and Jaw Joint Problems
Limited opening
Inability to open the jaw smoothly or evenly
Jaw deviates to one side when opening
Inability to find the correct bite with teeth
Clicking or popping jaw joints
Uncontrollable jaw movements

Ear Pain, Ear Problems:
Hissing, buzzing, ringing, or roaring sounds
Diminished hearing
Clogged, "stuffy", itchy ears
Feeling of fullness
Ear pain without infection
Balance problems, vertigo, dizziness

Throat Problems:
Swallowing difficulties
Tightness of throat
Sore throat with no infection
Voice fluctuations
Laryngitis
Tongue Pain

Neck and Shoulder Problems:
Neck pain
Tired, sore neck problems
Shoulder aches
Back pain (upper and lower)
Arm and finger tingling, numbness, and/or pain
Stiffness

These symptoms are a lot different from muscle pain from bruxing during the night. The thing that has worked best for me has been a "Tanner bite splint. " This is dentist made splint that is balanced... Meaning that it tries to correct the abnormalities in one's teeth. By doing this it limits the sleep clenching. One can look up "the clenching syndrome" online to get a better explaination. It has been the one thing that has worked wonders for me. Thanks, JasonMChicago

Replied by Ted
Bangkok, Thailand
12/02/2008
392 posts

This TMJ is a condition from long term bruxism (grinding of teeth during sleep), which was cured, a couple of years ago, involving a child with learning disorders with bruxism and a restless leg syndrome.

I also know of another friend of mind that had bruxism, having a similar cause and has since died of SLE. Heavy metal poisoning is one of the requirements to get SLE (lupus). Under both conditions, it is due to heavy metal poisoning, or high heavy metals, that initiate a very low level epileptic seizure, that some people would call bruxism. My approach is that both conditions are the same, but it exists along a continuum of the same cause, but because of our vocabulary and usages we get confused that both is similarly caused. It happens so when their is electrical shortages (such as high metals in the brain) that occured during sleep, leading to a mild semi epileptic conditions. An epileptic seizures full blown you just bite the teeth until the tongue is bitten off and you bleed from the mouth from large part of the tongues bitten off. This I have observed first hand and so it is quite bloody. A milder form you can hear a loud squeaking of teeth, which we referred to as bruxism.

The cause is heavy metal poisoning, along with excessive calcium that leads to excessive muscle contraction, leading to bruxism that occurs during the night. In more severe cases bruxism led to epileptic seizures. Another form of similar cause is the restless leg syndrome that effects different part of the body. Both conditions where muscles contract involuntarily is often magnesium deficiency and excessive calcium. Magnesium helps muscle relaxes, while calcium causes muscles to contract. Interestingly a contracting muscles from excess calcium and lack of magnesium can cause all kinds of problem such as inability to move voluntary muscles. One bus driver had that condition, so you can imagine what happens if he can't turn his steering wheel or brake the bus! It could cause the muscle to contract along the spinal column so badly that it twisted the back. In this condition the jaws leads to a condition of TMJ (a mouthful of words - Temporomandibular joint disorder!)

Therefore, since the child was cured, the remedy used was cilantro, which chelates heavy metal. What is so strange is that these kinds of people have very limited ability to tolerate cilantro chelation, and hence, a very high heavy metal toxicity. Lab tests won't generally pick up this form since it is a free heavy metal, rather then a protein bound form, which is less toxic. Therefore the dose of cilantro is much lower, and is used once every three or four days, such as 3-10 leaves of cilantro, at least in the beginning as metals get slowly removed from the system.

However the priority of this condition is to first take the mangesium supplements first, without any calcium added or the calcium would defeat the cure that is needed. The preferred supplements I used is either a magnesium chloride, 250 - 500 mg, once a day, or a magnesium citrate supplements, preferably powdered, but if it is in tablets, its' chewed, grinded, to increae bioavailability, followed by drinking with plenty of water. This is taken for at least about one or two weeks before commencing the chelation of heavy metals issue.

During that stage, the body also need to be alkalized, or a least to cause the brain to be more alkaline, especially. But getting the btain alkaline isn't easy. It is a high metabolism organ so taking straight baking soda isn't going to work. Most are generally used up before reaching the brain and breaks down into CO2 and H2O in the final stages that adds more CO2 pressure in less accessible area. Therefore, the remedy I do used is what the scientist called the carbicarb. However, I have modified this carbicarb to reduce some side effects from the lack of potassium that is not used in the remedy.

Therefore the carbicarb is as follows: 1/4 teaspoon of sodium carbonate (common name is washing soda) 1/4 teaspoon, plus sodium bicarbonate 1/4 teaspoon, plus potassium citrate (or potassium bicarbonate) 1/4 teaspoon, in a glass of water taken twice a day. Once the bruxism lessens, then the remedy can be knocked down to a simpler form, such as 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda plus 1/4 teaspoon of potassium bicarbonate in a half glass or preferably a full glass of water. This is often taken 5 days out of a week or at least 4 days out f a week. Since food is most likely to be acid forming, currently 90% of all the food we eat are acid forming anyway, the baking soda is quite often needed.

It should be noted that magnesium reduces the heavy metal toxicity to help the brain detox better. The alkalization of the brain causes the brain to be more relax so that bruxism will be reduce somewhat.

The real remedy comes after magnesium and alkalization for at least 2-3 weeks do I concentrate on chelation, which can be cilantro, chlorella, or even perhaps a very low dose disodium EDTA. In any event it's taken at once every three days. I don't like agressive chelation since when this happens, there is way too much chelate metals circulating metals n the blood and we become overwhelmed and it becomes toxic itself, since our kidneys and intestines have a limited capacity for ridding of it too, so we give it plenty of rest period, or void period.

Lecithin I believe is essential and can begin immediately as is alkalization and magnesium. It allows the brain to develop myelin insulation, to protect against shortages in the brain that leads to bruxism or milder forms of seizures. The dose I prefer to use in at least one tablespoons per day before meals. In more severe cases I may require one tablespoons of granulated lecithin half an hour or one hour before every meals. It should be noted that metals inside our body is hydrophobic in nature, which means they are oil soluble. Since granulated lecithin works as a fat emulsifier, heavy metals will be more soluble and are removed faster through the stool instead of accumulating in the liver and the blood.

Getting a hair mineral analysis helps reveal other things. For example, if it reveals the hair has high mercury,then we supplement with more selenium supplements, usually 200 mcg, a day to displace the mercury. The common dose of selenium is between 200 mcg to 1000 mcg a day. I always start on the low dose side is best so it won't exceed the limited capacity of removeing heavy metals. The common deficiencies I do encounter are iodine, molybdenum, magnesium, and selenium and most of it can be obtained through supplements, where iodine main source is often kelp supplements.

Another way the helps using the alkaline remedy in case, is the lemon and baking soda that I used. It's 2 tablespoons of lemon plus 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda in 1/2 glass of water taken twice a day.

Once the body starts to recover, I often reduce the supplements and then take them on an as needed basis. It is only the alkalization remedy that is required in constant use since our food supply are acid forming. There was one case of a child with epileptic seizures every month, upon alkalization, the child no long had any epileptic seizures and no medication was needed. In another bruxism that leads to TMJ was eliminated too. Certain other supplements that support brain function that is needed at least once or twice a week is the fish oil with omega 3, that has both EPA and DHA, on their labels. The other essential oils might be evening primrose oil, and for that it's once a week. Cod liver oil might help some of this reduction too.

Ted

Replied by Monica
Regina, SK
02/02/2009

Are there any concerns with applying your TMJ remedies during pregnancy?

Replied by Tom
Regina, Sk
08/21/2010

It's possible depending on the person, that TMJ and bruxism (grinding teeth while clenching them, in or out of sleep) can be caused by the same thing, a parasite. Of the two, bruxism is the more recognized symptom of a parasite.
Index says Page 157 this book for TMJ:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/21597641/The-Cure-for-All-Diseases-Hulda-Clarke

BTW, I've found that most books have a very poor incomplete Index. Many times entire words are present multiple times in the text but missing from the index! Best way around this is to Search the document (but on Scribd. Com, this can't be done if only in Read Mode. You'd have to download the text and then Search. )

Any PDF document has a searchbox, and any browser has Edit--Find or some such which brings up a Search box. But the Search can look only for text in the main window, and not in a secondary sliding window or frame like a scribd document.

Replied by Nicole
St. Louis, Mo
12/01/2011

Can the cilantro be taken while breastfeeding? My son is 14 months and eating other foods, but still breastfeeding 4 times per day. The magnesium and alkalizing seem pretty safe, but I heard doing any detoxing while breastfeeding isn't safe for the baby. What do you think?


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