Well, this is utterly insane on a few levels.
I went to the Sake house where I get my favorite food and drink - as the owner pointed out, I've been a customer for a couple decades, about as long as they've been in business. We're family now.
Gave them the bad news, they really treated me xtra right (even better than usual, which is almost miraculously good already).
After eating great food,I got hammered on Sake...it happens sometimes. And as also happens sometimes I want a smoke after that - like with sex.
Having quit a long time ago, my little stock in the console was gone, so I stopped at a gas station and bought my old fave, Newports, and smoked ... a few of them.
And then a miracle occurred. My BP went way down despite skipping the drugs, and to me, more importantly, my pain - all of it - just went away. Some had been bothering me for years,
but if I'm functioning, I'm generally not whining, I figured everyone has the odd ache and pain and it's not news.
But this was - it all just went away. Opiods, GABA stuff, other analgesics never touched this level, ever.
So, being me, I fished around and of course, as I say at the bottom, if you want to find something you agree with, it's there somewhere on the 'net.
In this case, it's our government NIH, though, not some whack-job alt medicine scam.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23061635/“menthol exhibits cytotoxic effects in cancer cells, induces reduction in malignant cell growth, and engages in synergistic excitation of GABA receptors and sodium ion channels resulting in analgesia.”
“The internet, where you can find bullshit justification for anything you want.”
Nope, not re-addicted, thank $Deity. But I'll say this - I ordered some menthol parts - you can now get them cheap for vape juice - and we're going to try that for awhile. I can do without the nicotine, don't need
that buzz, and especially don't need the other damage and additcion. Now, I only have one pretty noisy data point, but that was so dramatic...just totally a wow experience, and best of all - it's still working today, and my BP is low despite a very reduced dose of the usual meds. Too low in fact. And no, I haven't smoked any more.
Normally, on the med schedule, it's 173/96 until the morning meds kick in (couple hours) and bring it down near ideal.
This morning it was 127/74...took my BP meds anyway ( do half a dose in the AM and the other half at bedtime as my metabolism prefers that) and almost got in trouble as it went down to 85/60 for awhile - I had to get up and run around some to even get the blood oxy finger thing to read at all.
Which I could do - and that's huge too.
Let's hope it's not a fluke and I found something that works, at least for me.
Sorry to burden the board with this crap, but that's why this is in water cooler and not somewhere it pollutes the science.
Posting as just me, not as the forum owner. Everything I say is "in my opinion" and YMMV -- which should go for everyone without saying.