Following the halting of administration the returning soreness in the hamstrings has resolved itself. Since the last update I have realized that this soreness can be described as having the sensation stretching a cramping muscle. Now that my muscle feels normal I am restarting with exercising and administration of Solomon's Seal at much reduced dosing. I will report back when I can confirm or deny the effective of this treatment in rehabilitating my long lasting tendon issues.
Update 5/27/14: I am reporting a further update that upon halting administration of Solomon's Seal the muscular soreness returns.
I stopped taking the tincture yesterday to see what would happen. Up until that point, my hamstrings were functional but had a lingering stiffness sensation. Today my hamstrings are sore again although the sensation feels blunt compared to normal. This leads me to suspect that in this case the tinctures action was anti-inflammatory and may not have been beneficial for muscular healing. On the other hand, my strength on the gripper and pullup exercises were significantly improved compared to normal over the past week. More experimentation with lower doses will be needed to confirm its effects.
Update 5/24/14: I am reporting that my delayed onset muscular soreness (DOMS) seems to have been cut short:
- Tuesday (5/20/14) afternoon, I went to the gym after my normal routine I decided to try a ladder set on the glute-ham machine without having touched the thing for at least six months (very foolish, I know).
- Wednesday, my hamstrings were slightly sore.
- Thursday, I was experiencing full-blown hamstring DOMS; If I were to do a straight-leg hamstring stretch, my hip angle would have maxed out at ~160° on account of the pain. I had just received the tincture in the mail so I started taking it that night.
- Friday, my hamstrings were still very sore so I did some light walking (1mph for ~1hr) on the treadmill and continued taking the tincture throughout the day and by midnight I had recovered most of my range of motion (~130°).
- Saturday (today), the soreness is almost gone and I am can stretch my hamstrings to ~90° which is close to my normal range of motion.
When I normally experience severe DOMS, it normally peaks on day two (after the workout), lasting for 2-3 days and tapers off over the remainder of the week. On this occasion, it peaked on day two, but lasted for only 1.5 days and and tapered off by day four.
To be clear, I usually do not use light exercise to accelerate the recovery process and when I have it usually helps with the soreness. Additionally, I did eat lentil soup on Friday which contained various potentially beneficial spices including turmeric, ginger, and garlic. Still, the reduction in DOMS was very dramatic therefore I tentatively attribute this to the Solomon's Seal + Horsetail tincture.
The question that remains is whether this reduction in soreness is due to accelerated healing, anti-inflammatory action, or both (as observed in reference 1). Two indicators for the healing hypothesis are increased strength gains and resistance to injury; I will keep an eye out for these as my training continues.
Update 5/27/14: I am reporting a further update that upon halting administration of Solomon's Seal the muscular soreness returns.
I stopped taking the tincture yesterday to see what would happen. Up until that point, my hamstrings were functional but had a lingering stiffness sensation. Today my hamstrings are sore again although the sensation feels blunt compared to normal. This leads me to suspect that in this case the tinctures action was anti-inflammatory and may not have been beneficial for muscular healing. On the other hand, my strength on the gripper and pullup exercises were significantly improved compared to normal over the past week. More experimentation with lower doses will be needed to confirm its effects.
1. Thaloor, D., Miller, K. J., Gephart, J., Mitchell, P. O., & Pavlath, G. K. (1999). Systemic administration of the NF-κB inhibitor curcumin stimulates muscle regeneration after traumatic injury. American Journal of Physiology-Cell Physiology, 277(2), C320-C329.
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