twigman, I've been taking vitamin B6/B12 for about 3 weeks now and it seems to give me a little more energy, but I haven't experimented with it enough to give an accurate assessment. The more I read about processed sugar, the more it seems likely to be the cause of disease. Even more so than cholesterol. I've cut my intake of this but not totally yet. Working on that though. I've done a couple labs and my doc didn't mention anything about diabetes. Type II runs in the family, but that's just poor diet and laziness. That is exactly what I do not want to be when I grow up
I think my symptoms are the result of mutliple problems. I don't think all of this will get fixed overnight, but probably better to start fixing it now, then waiting.
BBC3, I was suprised as well. Keep in mind Nitrix yield the best result, over creatine alone. Nitrix does have creatine in it. I'm guessing the transport in Nitrix had something to do with it. I'm not a scientist so I can only guess at this point. 20mg a day! I'm surprised you still have kidneys, they must hate you. From what I've read, no more than 10mg a day, and your body in most cases doesn't even use all of that. So in essence taking any more of a supp than your body uses is just working your live/kidneys harder. I would use micronized creatine and take it twice a day, once when I wake up, then once right before the gym. I did this for about 2 months then would take a break. Cycling seemed to have better results as creatine seemed to stop working after a while. I would use different transports as well during each cycle. I've had problems with my elbow and knuckles as well. I used Triflex, straight glucosamine and chondritin, and jello/shark cartilage to combat joint problems. It seemed to work for me. You may want to tell your buddy this next part. At first, standing/walking was painful. Nitrix helped with the pain to the point where I was able to get on a ladder and paint, lift objects, etc. All the things that I should not have done. So it masked the problem. Needless to say, I was in more pain after it wore off. At the end of it all, I could not walk nor stand up straight and the Nitrix didn't help much at this point. It was Norco, Soma, diclofenac 5-6 times a day and on a couch 24x7. If it hurts, this will help, but NOT fix the herniated disc. In my experience PT, utilizing electro therapy and ultrasound three times a week, plus anti inflamatory's should recover your buddy in 4-6wks. I didn't do PT last time, didn't rest, and it took me 6-9 months to recover.
Thanks to both of you for your time.