Note and disclaimer: I am not a doctor. I am not associated with Padma Basic or Euconugenics. I am just a guy with ankylosing spondylitis, trying to find any and all treatments that can help control the disease. My statements below are not authoritative, but rather reflect my own experiences with Padma Basic, and nothing more. Please consult a rheumatologist when implementing any change of treatment to your own disease.

Well, it’s been a month since my Part 1 Review on Padma Basic. I have finished my supply of the product, meaning I’ve been taking 6 tablets/day for 30 days in an attempt to suppress my ankylosing spondylitis. Time to discuss results.

Frankly, for the first three weeks I experienced no change whatsoever. I wasn’t exactly disappointed with this, as my expectations were not that high to begin with (given my lack of faith in alternative therapies). However, during the final seven days of using Padma, my neck and shoulders became noticeably less painful and stiff, especially in the morning. Pain levels went from about a “3″ to a “1″ or even “0.5″.

At the same time, pain and inflammation in my feet and toes subsided somewhat, probably from a “3″ to a “2″. I experienced no change in my lower back or my bothersome left hip. I also noticed no change in my chronically cold hands while running outside.

So it’s safe to say that results were mixed. Yes, my neck feels better right now, so it could be because of the Padma, or it could just be the natural ebb and flow of my ankylosing spondylitis. Simply put, with A.S. some days are better than others, and some weeks are better than others. My final week of taking Padma was certainly a “good” week.

My own conclusion: I will not continue taking Padma, simply because I can’t afford the $85-$100/month pricetag, and the results weren’t sufficient to justify the price. That’s still a lot of money in my world for something that is not proven to work (especially in today’s economy). Fortunately or unfortunately (depending on your view), prescription medication combined with insurance costs much less, and is proven to be effective. Even the biologic medications, such as Remicade and Enbrel, can often be obtained with less than $100/month, with insurance and financial aid from the respective drug company.

But to bring up the biologic drugs brings up a reason to try Padma Basic or Padma 28: through my own experience or through my literature review, I have not found any discernable side effects. Many side effects of the immuno-suppressant drugs or NSAIDs are downright scary. With Padma, I experienced no gastro-intestinal discomfort, no orange skin, no sensitivity to sunlight, no compromised immune system. This all observational; I did not have any testing done (liver, kidneys, etc.), so please take my lack of perceived side effects for what it’s worth. I also encourage readers to go through the literature review and links from my first posting; I have yet to see mention of side effects from the studies I’ve looked at, but that does not mean that don’t exist. So in a nutshell, my own experiences were positive, but please be responsible and be cautious when trying any new medication or any especially any non-FDA regulated supplement.

But pushing aside side effects (or lack thereof), Padma’s benefits to me were subtle at best. Perhaps Padma could be a viable option for people with very mild auto-immune diseases. Also, I think to truly test Padma better than I just did, a person would have to use it for 6-12 months. One month was probably not long enough to get the full effects. But then again, most of us with ankylosing spondylitis simply do not have 6-12 months to fool around, as permanent joint damage can occur in that kind of time frame. That is reason enough to go with a form of proven medication prescribed by a rheumatologist as front-line treatment; there is simply too much at stake to bank on an alternative therapy as the main treatment.

So to summarize, I took Padma Basic for 30 days to help suppress ankylosing spondylitis. I found:

• No side effects
• A small but noticeable reduction in neck/shoulder pain and stiffness
• A very small reduction in foot/toe pain
• No change in lower back/hip pain and stiffness
• Not convinced that improvements were necessarily directly from Padma
• Found the cost prohibitive
• Feel that a longer term of use would be more conclusive

I would love to see some real studies done with Padma Basic/28 on various auto-immune arthritis’s. How does it really compare to the anti-TNF drugs? Let’s see some real numbers, double-blind trials, and other methods that will hold up under scrutiny.

I would also love to hear back anecdotally from other people who use Padma to inhibit TNF and control rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, psoriatic arthritis, Chron’s disease, and others. Does it work for you? Please leave your comments, questions, and experiences. I hope this blog can be used as a resource for auto-immune sufferers who are investigating Padma and looking for real-life experiences about it.

Note and disclaimer: I am not a doctor. I am not associated with Padma Basic or Euconugenics. I am just a guy with ankylosing spondylitis, trying to find any and all treatments that can help control the disease. My statements below are not authoritative, but rather reflect my own experiences with Padma Basic, and nothing more. Please consult a rheumatologist when implementing any change of treatment to your own disease. 

As those who read my blog know, I’m been dealing with an auto-immune disease called Anklyosing Spondylitis (A.S.). In a nutshell, A.S. incites my body’s immune system to attack my own cells and cause inflammation, most notably in the lower back, hips/SI, and neck. These are all distinguishing markers for A.S. In addition, it has also caused swelling and painful inflammation in my toe joints, as well as a variety of tendon-related injuries.

And reportedly it only gets worse over time. This is certainly bad news for a 29-year-old guy like myself, supposedly entering my physical prime. It almost makes it worse being a competitive runner. I felt like I was finally coming into my own and making real progress as a marathoner over the past couple years. The 2:18:09 at St. George and 2:22:34 at the Olympic Trials four weeks later were real high points, and I felt like I had the ability to break 2:18:00 or even 2:16:00 on an unaided course. All I needed was time and continuity of training.

When the A.S. diagnoses was revealed, a lot of my hopes went down the drain. But I did keep a mere fragment of hope: If I could find a way to control the A.S. (and the tendon injuries that go along with it), then I would be able to resume training at an elite level, find my body’s true limits, and achieve my goals. Thus began my search for the treatment(s) that would work for me. I am open-minded: drugs, diets, herbal remedies…my main interest is in finding something that works.

Do date, the most effective treatment I’ve tried (and still use) is simply NSAIDs. Meloxicam has been effective in reducing pain and stiffness, and has not caused any gastrointestinal damage (yet). I take the tummy-protector Omeprazole to reduce acid and help out my gut with the NSAIDs. Also, I am doing the No Starch Diet (NSD), which supposedly reduces disease activity through eliminating all starches (wheat, rice, potatoes, legumes, processed foods, etc.). NSD indeed has helped dial back my pain levels by a couple points, but so far has not been a panacea. Right now, I view it to as a complement to traditional drug treatment, and not the primary treatment in itself.

I have also tried fish oil, ultrasound, and various supplements. They all basically did nothing other than make me wary of alternative treatments and throwing my money away. With NSAIDs plus NSD, my pain levels most days are around a “2″. I have daily stiffness in my neck, and intermittent stiffness in my lower back. My left foot has been constantly inflamed and sore for the past year, and I have experienced numerous tendon-related injuries. I am doing “okay”, but would like to do “better”…and I would also like to reduce the amount of NSAIDs I need to take, in order to preserve the long-term health of my gut.

So that is a rather long intro, but it lays the foundation that:

1. I suffer from A.S.
2. I have several ways to treat A.S., none of which are perfect
3. I am constantly looking for new treatments to try. Anything that can take off a point or more of pain and inflammation levels is worth trying, especially if there are no side effects.

A couple months ago I read a press release on the Spondylitis Association of America (SAA) website. It was about an herbal supplement called Padma Basic. The press release stated:

First, we look at an “exotic supplement” called “Padma Basic”. The “Dear Pharmacist” column in Tulsa World reports, “It works for rheumatoid arthritis by calming an overactive immune system that is bent on destroying cartilage and bone. The destruction occurs thanks to TNF (tumor necrosis factor), which signals the attack. Padma contains an herb “Pterocarpus santalinus,” which inhibits TNF and T-cell proliferation in a similar way to prescription drugs like Humira, Remicade and Enbrel. It could improve inflammatory conditions among them, Crohn’s disease, MS, rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis and psoriatic arthritis.” 

Whoa! That’s an eye-catcher to me! The release states that the herb has potential to inhibit TNF (and therefore slow or halt A.S.) similar to the very powerful biologic drugs available. These biologic drugs work very well, but they have many side effects and are very, very expensive. The press statement gave me a great interest in Padma Basic, so I started googling for anything I could find on it.

Padma is an ancient Tibetan herbal formula manufactured by Padma, Inc. in Switzerland under international pharmaceutical standards. It is sold in Europe as an OTC drug known as “Padma 28″, but in the U.S. it is distributed by EcoNugenics as a herbal supplement not regulated by the FDA. The only difference between Padma Basic and Padma 28 (beside their name) is the presence of 1 mg/tablet of aconite in Padma 28. This does not really affect the formula, and the function between the two is exactly the same.

With my wariness of herbal supplements in mind, I needed to be convinced to even try Padma Basic. But as it turns out, quite a body of objective research exists that validates using Padma for a variety of applications and ailments, including:

• peripheral artery disease (Atherosclerosis. 2006: Nov; 189(1):39-46)
• angina (Herba Polonica. 1986: 32; 107-114)
• stroke (Europ J Neurology. 1998: 5(suppl1); p. S9)
• hepatitis (Phytotherapy Research. 1993: 7; 224-247)
• arthritis (Int. Journal of Immunotherapy. 1991: 2(3); 143-147)
• ulcers (Nowiny Lekarski. 1992: 2; 40-44)
• AIDS Related Complex (Internation Congress for Infectious Diseases. 1988. Rio de Janeiro)
• multiple sclerosis (Phytotherapy Research. 1992: 6; 133-136)
• dental root canals (Forsch Komplementarmed. 2006 Feb; 13 Suppl 1: 28-30)
• recurrent infections (SchweizZschr fur Ganzheits Med. 1992: 7/8(Suppl 1); 22-23)
• inflammation (Inflammopharmacology. 1999: 7(1); 47-62)
• antioxidant (Redox Rep. 2000: 5(1); 17-22)
• antimicrobial (Research in Complementary and Classical Natural Medicine. 2002:9; 346-351)
• immune modulating (Inflammopharmacology. 2004: 12(4); 373-89)
• TNF / IL-inhibiting (Eur Cytokine Netw (0) 15: 203-9)
• 

I perused many of these journal articles (see links for yourself), and became even more interested. Although there was nothing directly studying the effects of Padma Basic/28 on ankylosing spondylitis, there were indeed many studies that indirectly stated that it could help in a variety of ways, including reducing inflammation, improving circulation, and inhibiting TNF.

The results of the Bernacka et al. (1991) study on juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, published in the Journal of Imunotherapy, were particularly encouraging to me. The group of children who were given Padma improved in both symptoms and laboratory tests without side effects during the six-month clinical trial. It was a very small study, but enough to stir more interest and hope in me that Padma can help dampen my overactive immune system.

So I believe it is worth a try. I plan to take Padma Basic for 30 days, and report my findings in a full review on this blog. Of course I have no delusion that this is some sort study; rather, it is merely my own personal experiences with Padma. Everyone’s form of A.S. is different, and different treatments will help different people. But my goal is that through this review and the followup review that other A.S. sufferers can find pertinent information, and be exposed to the option of Padma.

The kind people at EcoNugenics were gracious enough to supply me with a 180-tablet supply of Padma Basic. It arrived yesterday (January 2nd), and I have begun to take it. My dosage is two tablets 30 minutes before each meal (6 tablets/day). I am still taking meloxicam and omeprazole, and will continue to do so unless my pain drops down to a 0 or 1.

I plan to be as objective as possible when reporting the effects of Padma. My hopes are that it will:

1. Reduce or eliminate stiffness in my neck
2. Reduce the pain and swelling my left foot
3. Allow me to take fewer NSAIDs
4. Help the circulation of my hands and feet, which are constantly cold

So come back in 30 days for a full report of results!

Product: Nike+ iPod Sport Kit
Prices: $30.00 (foot pod & iPod receiver). iPod nano and Nike+ shoes sold separately.
Rating: Very Good 8.3/10.0

Read the full review at The Final Sprint!

Many trails near of my home in northern Utah are steep, rocky, and foreboding, requiring heavy tank-like trail running shoes that can withstand the punishment of the terrain — and protect my feet as well. Many of these dedicated trail running shoes weigh up to a pound apiece in order to offer high levels of support and protection.

However, there are times in my trail running when I don’t quite need that level of stability and “armor”, but rather, I want speed and agility.

Read the full review at The Final Sprint!

When I think “Garmin“, I automatically think “GPS“. For this reason, I was a little surprised to find about Garmin’s latest fitness monitor, the Forerunner 50. It measures speed and distance NOT by GPS, but rather by a foot pod, similar to the Nike + iPod Sport Kit, Suunto Running Pack, and Polar RS800sd. This is a deviation in how most people perceive Garmin, but they are well-respected in general for all of their products. Would the Forerunner 50 follow suit?…

Read the full article at the The Final Sprint!

I was pretty excited when I got the 3rd-generation iPod nano; the possibilities for running were great. However, I lacked one critical accessory: a good protective case and armband.I soon found that the DLO Action Jacket solved my problems. The neoprene case is designed specifically for the 3rd generation (4GB/8GB) iPod nano, and comes with a 180-degree rotating belt clip and an adjustable armband. The Action Jacket retails for $30, but I was able to find it for as low as $18 (plus free shipping!) on Amazon.com. Colors are available in black, white, or pink. I personally like the black…

Read the full review at The Final Sprint! 

When I made the jump to running with an mp3 player, I quickly noticed two things:

1. Running with music is fun and motivational.
2. Stock headphones that come “free” with most mp3 players just don’t get the job done.

As a result, one of the first accessories I purchased were nicer, more comfortable, more stable ear clip headphones. Even these never quite fit my ears right and tended to jiggle around. Perhaps I should have first looked at a pair of Nike sport headphones.

I recently had the pleasure of testing the Nike Flight and the Nike Vapor sport headphones. I enjoyed both models, and each offered a unique set of pro’s and con’s.

Read the full review at The Final Sprint! 

In the expanding world of hydration products, nuun has separated itself from the pack with their quality portable electrolyte tablets. It is dissolves quickly, is sugar-free, is convenient to use, and tends to have a mild, pleasing taste…

Read the full review at The Final Sprint!

It seems that in the world of hydration systems, there is always give-and-take and compromise. The small, light packs may not carry enough water. The bottle-based belt systems require use of hands and often make you stop in your activity during use. The hands-free, bladder-based systems tend to bounce around too much and cause discomfort.

Personally, I tend to gravitate toward the bladder-based hydration systems, such as those made by Camelbak or Ultimate Direction, because I can use them in full stride during my runs. I hate having to stop, pull out a bottle, and then put it back before resuming my run. However, all of the bladder-based hydration systems I had used in the past tended to have a heavy weight, poor center of gravity, and a tendency bounce around. Over the duration of a long road or trail run, this not only proves to be annoying, but can also cause chaffing, discomfort, and alteration of my stride.

This past month I have had the pleasure of testing the Camelbak Octane 8+ hydration pack…

Read the full review at The Final Sprint!

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to run for an NCAA cross country powerhouse? Have you ever wanted an inside look into the minds and workouts of a D-I national contender? “Running with the Buffaloes: A Season Inside with Mark Wetmore, Adam Goucher, and the University of Colorado Men’s Cross-Country Team“, by Chris Lear, brings all of those perspectives, and much much more…

Read the full article at The Final Sprint! 

Documentaries have become an increasingly popular and powerful movie genre, with a variety of titles such as “Super Size Me”, “Fahrenheit 9/11? “Roger and Me”, and “Spellbound” gaining both cult status and mass appeal.

However, the special interests of runners have been largely neglected, and I’ve been left wondering, “Where’s my running documentary?”. My wait ended earlier this year with the release of “Dancing the Bear: A 100-Mile Journey of Personal Exploration“…

Read the full article at The Final Sprint!

Most of us are accustomed to sugared sports drinks - Gatorade, Powerade, Cytomax, and others. Although the sugars provide glycogen (energy) that can aid us during long runs, for many athletes it is “too much” and leads to stomach cramping and/or crashes in energy.Ultima Replenisher electrolyte drink offers an alternative to traditional sugar-bearing sports drinks, and if you’ve had bad experiences with Gatorade, Powerade, or Cytomax, you may want to check it out.

Here are a few of Ultima’s most appealing characteristics…

Read the full review at The Final Sprint! 

I remember my first experience with energy bars, well over 10 years ago. I recall being somewhat curious and even a little excited about this new concept. I thought to myself, Will it boost my performance? Will it give me boundless energy?

My eager optimism crashed as soon as I began it to eat it. I managed to scarf down the dense, chewy mass, and proceeded to get a gut bomb that lasted the duration of my run. In the early days, some of those bars were terrible!

Then I discovered CLIF Bar. Conceived as an idea in 1986, debuted in 1992, and incorporated in 1997, CLIF Bar has chewed its way to the top as a leading maker of energy bars…

Read the full review at The Final Sprint! 

It is essential to track and monitor your body’s performance and response, as well as the surrounding elements to which you are exposed, whenever you are participating in outdoor activities such as trail running, hiking, backpacking and fastpacking. GPS technology provides information such as speed, altitude, and bearing, but often requires athletes to carry yet another device and is generally incapable of providing weather-related information.

Casio has introduced the Pathfinder Series as a way to disseminate vital information to trekkers using the low-profile and convenient platform of a wristwatch. I recently had the pleasure of exploring the 3V model of Casio’s Pathfinder PAW1300 Series and tested it on several types of training runs and within various environments…

Read the full review at TrailFit!

On Wednesday, January 24 of this year I heard a chilling story of a local runner who was struck and critically injured by a vehicle while running in a bike lane along a low-traffic road. At the scene and for hours afterward, emergency personnel were not able to identify her.Just this weekend on en route to our marathon, we were forced to take a long detour. The main mountain pass to our destination was completely closed down, a rarity since it is a U.S. Highway. While sitting in traffic and listening to AM radio, we learned that a cyclist was struck by a vehicle, resulting in a large accident that killed both the cyclist and several occupants of the vehicle.

These are stories that have come from my own backyard in the past 6 months. And they are not just stories, but are real accounts of factual events and they hit close to home. Tragic events such as these hurt my heart and make me wonder, “What if this happened to me? How long would it take for my wife to find out? Hours? Days?”

Recently I began wearing a Road ID simply because I couldn’t stand the thought of being unidentified in an accident and what that would do to my wife…

Read the full article at The Final Sprint! 

Garmin, Suunto, Timex, Adeo, Polar… and the list goes on and one. In today’s saturated market of fitness toys there is a plethora of gadgets available that can measure running stats such as pace, distance, heart rate, and more. The gadget companies respond by releasing increasingly innovative products that offer features of increasing quality and quantity.

The Polar RS800sd (speed+distance) may have just trumped them all. Using a foot pod to measure speed and distance, and an ECG-accurate transmitter to measure heart rate, the RS800sd running computer offers enough features, analyses, and bells-and-whistles to make your head spin. I recently had the pleasure of taking this unit for a “spin”…

Read the full review at The Final Sprint! 

Sometimes plain water just isn’t enough for the hydration needs of running. As you sweat, you lose water and electolytes, which both need to be replenished during the hydration process. Traditional sports drinks, such as Gatorade and Powerade, have offered viable electrolyte replacement drinks for years, but their high sugar content translates into an unsavory aftertaste in the opinion of a variety of testers. Moreover, hydration packs are particularly difficult to clean after holding sugary sports drinks.In an effort to address these issues, CamelBak recently introduced their Elixir Electrolyte Enhanced Hydration as a convenient, no-sugar, no-mess hydration alternative…

Read the full article at The Final Sprint! 

Trigger Point Technologies hit a home run with their TP Massage toolkit, which is designed to release trigger points, restore muscle elasticity, and improve biomechanics for runners, cyclists, and other athletes. For me, TP massage as been key component of returning my body to health and my recent rise in running performance. (see my full review on TP Massage Ball).

Another oft-overlooked aspect of injury prevention, performance, and biomechanics is core strength. Many runners will be willing to train for hours and hours each week, but fail to put any time into improving their core — the result of this neglect is sometimes poor biomechanics that propogate into injury.

While actively recovering from my barrage of injuries in 2006, I dedicated myself to improving core strength, both during phyical therapy and at home. From wobble boards and stability balls, to simple crunches and bridge exercises, I consistently invested about 15 minutes per day into my core muscles. And it has been time well spent, as I have logged over 1400 miles in 5 months and set several big PR’s…all while staying injury-free.

The TP Stability PODS are designed to increase core strength through challenging balance and symmetry. They come as a set of three different-sized, concave, foam…er…pods (for the lack of a better description). The differential heights of the three pods represent three difficulty levels (I, II, and III). In other words, it is much harder to find balance with the tallest pod than with the shortest pod, which engages greater work in the core muscles.

Those who use wobble boards and stability balls will immediate see the challenge and utility of the TP Stability PODS. Due to their concave shape and foam material, it’s pretty difficult to find your equilibrium while using these things! I enjoyed using the PODS to spice up my normal core exercises, such as my “bridges” and “bird-dog” poses. I found that I was unable to hold my stability poses as long when using the PODS, and activitated a more intense workout compared to without them. This new challenge was quite welcome, as I was getting rather bored with my exercises lately.

The PODS also play well with other apparatus. For instance, doing pushups with my feet on a stability ball and hands on the PODS was a great full-body workout. There are other inventive POD exercises that can be done in synergy with a stability ball or even the TP Baller Block. Just as you can intensify just about any core exercise by using a stability ball, you can further intensify any core exercise by applying one or more Stability PODs to any of your points of contact with the ground.

TP Technologies has also developed a series of POD exercises specifically for runners. They are essentially various forms of one-legged knee raises and hip abductions that stimulate balance and symmetry. While these exercises won’t engage an intense “burn” or anything, they do activitate the deeper muscles of the core, which are often under-developed. I’ve been performing these balancing exercises 3-4 days/week for a couple months now, and have noticed a sizeable improvement in my balance, and have been able to steadily increase my balancing time on the POD. These exercises remind me much of the wobble-board poses I had performed during formal physical therapy sessions while rehabbing a groin strain, only I’m not being billed $150/hour by some therapist.

Trigger Point Technology’s Stability PODS should be considered by any athlete looking to prevent injuries, rehab injuries, or simply increase performance. There is sooo much good training and rehab that can be completed right at home. A set of PODS sells for $26, which is much less than the amount my physical therapist would bill my insurance for 15-minutes with a hot pack. Products like the PODS empower athletes to take their health into their own hands and implement home programs.

As a runner, I can’t say enough about core strength in general. I sincerely believe that increasing core strength and improving biomechanics was a key aspect to my recent half marathon improvement from 1:12:50 to 1:09:27. TP Massage and Stability PODS were just a couple ingredients in my stew of training, but they most certainly helped.

If you’re interested in core strength, investing in a stability ball should be your first step, and I also recommend giving the Stability PODS a try.

[Pictures are from Trigger Point Technologies’ website]

Coaches, runners, and fans of training methodology take note: the knowledge of the man declared by Runners World as “Worlds Best Coach” and by NCAA as “Cross Country Coach of the Century” is now accessible through DVD. You can now gain insight into the mind of running guru Jack Daniels via the Jack Daniels - The Art and Science of Running DVD…

Read the full article at The Final Sprint! 

In the growing world of athletic speed/distance monitoring, runners are presented with two primary choices: GPS units (ie - Garmin 305, Timex Bodylink, MotionLingo Adeo) or accelerometers (ie - Suunto Foot POD, Polar Foot Pod, Nike+iPod). I have trained with several different fitness GPS units and had variable success, and “foot pods” provide an intriguing alternative because they can be used indoors, under any sky condition, and boast of potentially high accuracy. I had the opportunity to try out the Suunto Running Pack (T3, HRM, and Foot POD), and put it to the test over three rigorous weeks of training….

Read the full article at The Final Sprint!