No More Advil? What Finally Helped My Knees
Grandmother Told "No More Advil" Finds What Finally Helps Her Knees (And She Doesn't Swallow a Thing)
"My cardiologist took away the only thing that worked and handed me Tylenol. Tylenol did nothing. This is what I use now."
If your doctor has told you no more Advil, no more Aleve, no more ibuprofen of any kind, and your knees, hands or feet still hurt every single day, I wrote this for you.
Because a year ago I was exactly where you are. I had the pain, I had a list of things I wasn't allowed to take anymore, and I had a bottle of Tylenol that did about as much as a glass of water.
What I want to share with you isn't a miracle and it isn't a prescription. It's a simple thing I put on my knees twice a day that I wish somebody had told me about the week my cardiologist took my Aleve away.
The appointment that took away my pain pills
My name is Carol. I'm 66, I live outside Knoxville with my husband Jim, and I have two grandchildren I'd walk through fire for.
For about ten years I managed my knees the way most women my age do. Two Aleve with dinner, and I could get through the next day. It wasn't perfect, but it worked.
Then two summers ago my heart started fluttering while I was weeding the tomatoes. It turned out to be AFib, and I walked out of the cardiologist's office with a prescription for a blood thinner and a new rule.
I understood. I didn't want a bleed any more than he did. But nobody told me what I was supposed to do about my knees.
Tylenol did nothing for them. Nothing at all.
The birthday party I watched from the couch
Within a few months my world got smaller. I stopped kneeling in the garden. I stopped taking the stairs to the basement. I planned every trip to the grocery store around where I could sit down.
And then came Lily's fifth birthday. She got a big bucket of building blocks, and she ran straight to me with her arms up.
"Grandma, come build a castle with me!"
I looked at the floor and I knew that if I got down there, I wasn't getting back up without help in front of the whole family. So I said what I'd been saying all year.
"Grandma's knees hurt today, sweetie. Build it here by the couch so I can watch."
Later that night I heard my daughter in the kitchen telling Jim, "Mom just sits there now. Lily keeps asking why Grandma doesn't play anymore."
I cried in the bathroom with the water running so nobody would hear me. Then I started looking for answers.
Everything I tried (and why none of it worked)
What nobody tells you about "no more Advil"
One night I went down a rabbit hole reading about why doctors take pain pills away from people our age, and it finally made sense.
The American Geriatrics Society publishes a list of medicines older adults should be careful with, called the Beers Criteria, and it advises against long-term use of NSAIDs like ibuprofen and naproxen for people over 65, especially for anyone on a blood thinner or with kidney trouble. Back in 2015 the FDA also strengthened its warning that these drugs can raise the risk of heart attack and stroke.
Here's the part that hit me. Nearly everything that works for joint pain is something you swallow. And everything you swallow takes the long way around:
That's not a medical secret. It's just common sense that nobody said out loud to me.
My sister-in-law's nightstand
The answer came from my sister-in-law Ruth, who was a nurse for 30 years before she retired. When I told her about the Aleve, she didn't even look surprised.
She opened the drawer and handed me a jar of magnesium cream.
She reminded me of something I'd forgotten. When we were kids, our grandmothers soaked their feet in Epsom salt every time their joints ached after a long day. Epsom salt is magnesium. Ruth said the cream was the same old habit, just in a form you can rub straight into a knee instead of sitting with your feet in a basin.
The one she uses also has arnica, a flower that's been rubbed on sore muscles in Europe for centuries. A study published in Rheumatology International in 2007 compared an arnica gel to an ibuprofen gel for people with arthritis in their hands and found they eased pain about equally.
No pill. No NSAIDs. Nothing to swallow. I still took the jar to my cardiologist's nurse and showed her the label before I used it, and I'd tell you to do the same with yours.
Haldrow Nerve Relief Cream
The magnesium cream Ruth keeps on her nightstand
What's inside the jar
What happened when I started using it
Three weeks after I started, Lily came over for the weekend and dumped that bucket of blocks on the living room rug.
This time I got down on the floor with her. We built a castle with four towers and a moat made of blue blocks, and when we were done I stood up without grabbing the couch.
My daughter was standing in the doorway with her phone out. "Mom. What happened to your knees?"
I just told her I'd found something that didn't come in a pill bottle.
How it compares to what you've probably tried
| Swallowed? | NSAID? | Strong smell? | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Advil / Aleve | Yes | Yes | No |
| Tylenol | Yes | No | No |
| Voltaren gel | No | Yes | No |
| Icy Hot / Biofreeze | No | No | Yes |
| Haldrow Nerve Relief Cream | No | No | No |
I'm not the only one
Since I started telling people about this at church and in my Facebook groups, I've heard from a lot of folks in the same boat. A few of their stories:
"When my doctor said no more Advil, the burning in my feet and the pins and needles in my hands came right back. I use this morning and night, and a couple of weeks in I finished a baby blanket in four evenings without stopping to shake out my fingers."
"Thirty-four years climbing poles and eight ibuprofen a day. After the ulcer, Tylenol was all I had and it wasn't enough. I rub this into my knees and the backs of my hands with my coffee. By the third week my hands weren't stiff past breakfast, and I'm tying my grandson's fishing hooks again."
"Frank stopped going out to his woodshop because his knees ached by noon and he can't take Advil anymore. I started rubbing this into his knees every night during Jeopardy. He grumbled for three nights. On the fourth morning I heard the table saw."
Haldrow Nerve Relief Cream
New-customer pricing. Choose your package:
Try it for a full 90 days. If it doesn't make a difference you can feel, contact Haldrow's support team within 90 days of your order for a full refund of the product price.
Questions readers keep asking me
Can I use it if I'm on a blood thinner or have kidney problems?
It has no NSAIDs and nothing to swallow, which is why it works for my situation. But arnica and other botanicals can matter with some medications and conditions, so please do what I did: show the ingredient label to your doctor or pharmacist before you start.
How do I use it?
Massage a quarter-size amount into the area until it disappears, usually knees, hands, feet or lower back. Most people use it in the morning and before bed. Wash your hands afterward and keep it away from your eyes.
How fast will I notice anything?
Everyone is different. I felt a difference in my knee the first night, and it kept getting better over the first three weeks of using it twice a day. Give it a fair try of a few weeks.
Is it greasy? Does it smell?
No. It's a light white cream that soaks in within a minute or two. There's a mild, clean scent, nothing like the menthol rubs.
How long does one jar last?
A 120 ml jar lasts about a month used twice a day on one or two spots. If you're using it on knees and hands every day, you'll go through it faster, which is why the 3-jar package makes sense.
A final note from me
A year ago I thought the grandmother I wanted to be was gone. I thought "no more Advil" meant "no more getting down on the floor," and that I'd just have to accept it.
I was wrong, and I'm grateful I was.
If your doctor has taken away your pain pills and you've been living with it ever since, you don't have to keep watching from the couch. Talk to your doctor, try something that doesn't need to be swallowed, and give it a fair chance.
With love from Tennessee,
Carol
Advertisement. This article is a paid advertisement for Haldrow. The story and reader experiences are illustrative and reflect individual experiences; individual results vary.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Haldrow Nerve Relief Cream is a topical cosmetic massage cream and is not a substitute for medical advice. Consult your doctor or pharmacist before use, especially if you are pregnant, nursing, taking medication (including blood thinners), or have a medical condition. For external use only. Discontinue use if irritation occurs.
Studies referenced evaluated individual ingredients, not this product. Advil, Aleve, Tylenol, Voltaren, Icy Hot and Biofreeze are trademarks of their respective owners and are not affiliated with Haldrow.
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