Ebiking and chronic pain

[Jason Knight]

Hey, Jason-- noticed your hand grips! I have something similar, same design anyway, on my Trek kit bike and I love them! I feel like I'm still learning to use them, but if I hold the grips just right, they seem to dampen the bumps quite as bit.

The trick with them is to adjust their angle -- and the brake grip angle -- so that your hand is flat with the wrist flat, so you're "holding" on via friction without curling your fingers (until you brake) more than about the amount they'd be if you were holding a 2 liter bottle. They help prevent the "death grip" on the bars so many riders use that causes stress in the tendons... and that really has no place unless you're mountain riding.

Maybe ask your doc about Magnesium and B2? Who knows, maybe a month from now, I'll be back here saying I was crazy, it doesn't work. But so far, so good, two weeks in, headaches are much better.

That was actually the first thing we tried before the sumatriptan, and it just made things worse. Story of my life. Everything people upsell or try as the "first" solution does the opposite. See oral diabetes medications that spike my sugars 200+.

Because my problem is an overactive vmPFC, medications that free up function or would restore normal function just aggravates matters. Triptans actually slow connective functions, as do some meds like seroquel. (which knocks me on my ass non-functional for 40+ hours even at low doses. Not practical.) Overactivity of any part of the brain is very rare and it seems like the doctors have no real idea how to treat it short of surgery.

The ideal treatment is actually downers, but that's the last thing I need.

They have suggested going in to remove part of it, but there's the concern that since that's the data processing and decision making part of the brain, I'd come out the other side an entirely different person.

 

[Catalyzt]

The trick with them is to adjust their angle -- and the brake grip angle -- so that your hand is flat with the wrist flat, so you're "holding" on via friction without curling your fingers (until you brake) more than about the amount they'd be if you were holding a 2 liter bottle. They help prevent the "death grip" on the bars so many riders use that causes stress in the tendons... and that really has no place unless you're mountain riding.

That was actually the first thing we tried before the sumatriptan, and it just made things worse. Story of my life. Everything people upsell or try as the "first" solution does the opposite. See oral diabetes medications that spike my sugars 200+.

Because my problem is an overactive vmPFC, medications that free up function or would restore normal function just aggravates matters. Triptans actually slow connective functions, as do some meds like seroquel. (which knocks me on my ass non-functional for 40+ hours even at low doses. Not practical.) Overactivity of any part of the brain is very rare and it seems like the doctors have no real idea how to treat it short of surgery.

The ideal treatment is actually downers, but that's the last thing I need.

They have suggested going in to remove part of it, but there's the concern that since that's the data processing and decision making part of the brain, I'd come out the other side an entirely different person.

You described the thing with the handgrips PERFECTLY. You let those flaps of rubber absorb the bumps, avoid the death grip.

So bummed about your headaches and the magnesium, sorry to be clueless! And yeah, the more you describe it, the structural explanation sounds more plausible.

Weirdly, the ONE THING my neurologist said that make sense-- that didn't sound like some necromancer out of a Tolkien novel: Some people just don't manufacture enough GABA. My back of the envelope is GABA is a pretty simple system, I bet downers do work.

Hang in there. Sending positive energy your way.