/diy/ - Do It Yourself

Bit of a different topic for this board but I would like to share my efforts to reduce my muscle and nerve pain and I would also like anyone to chime in with more ideas on how to solve these problems

So I have what I believe to be "referred" nerve pain that probably originates in my spine or shoulder and manifests itself as burning/heavy pain in my bicep. It's already been happening for 8 years now off and on depending on if I'm exercising or doing hard work, and I have tried every type of medicine, doctor, and tool under the sun to make it go away to no avail. Here's what actually works for me

1) Simply do not use the muscle. This is hard for people with spine or shoulder problems, or also people with sciatica, but I have found that all advice about "if you exercise it will promote x y z healing benefits!!" to be completely wrong. Exercising anything more than walking just brings the nerve pain back worse than a dull ache.

2) Skip breakfast and maybe lunch too: For me, fasting has been a good way to reduce inflammation in my body while still being able to eat tasty food. Just don't eat all day and you should be good

3) Avoid fad machines like TENS and chiropractors and massages. If your issue is a nerve issue, the above things are just making you feel good temporarily. The pain will come back because the issue is the nerve, not the muscle. You just feel the nerve pain in the muscle.

Lastly, I'd like to ask if there's any home remedy or technique for aiding with nerve pain. I've tried things like flexeril and gabapentin but they have side effects and are prescription only. If there's a way to block nerve pain signals, I'd be curious to hear about it, thanks!