Dr Wolff was on the right track. More whiskey, less opioids...

Whiskey for Pain
Monday, May 19, 1941 - Time Magazine


"Whiskey is one of the cheapest and best painkillers known to man." So reported Dr. Harold George Wolff of Cornell last week to the Association of American Physicians meeting at Atlantic City. Earlier doctors, he said, prescribed whiskey freely but were finally forced to discard it for "moral and ethical considerations.''

In their experiments, Drs. Wolff, James D. Hardy and Helen Goodell tried a mixture of two ounces of 95% grain alcohol in a glass of ginger ale on themselves, found that it raises the "threshold" of pain 45% for two hours. Two ounces of 90-proof whiskey will turn the same trick. If a five-grain tablet of aspirin is added, any pain can be dulled for four hours. Dr. Wolff urged his colleagues to return to the use of whiskey for "persons suffering continuously," especially cancer victims. Said he: "It is cheaper than morphine. ... Of course alcohol is habit-forming but an alcohol habit is less difficult to deal with than a morphine habit."

http://content.time.com/time/m...,9171,765583,00.html

Is it just whiskey? Or any alcohol?

Hear hear!!

When I ripped my rotator cuff from the bone. I waited a few weeks not knowing how bad it was. Thinking it would get better.

I treated the pain with a few glasses of bourbon. One reason. I went to the Dr. was I was drinking every night.

Their first test was two ounces of grain alcohol in ginger ale - that is like 4 shots of vodka. Second test was 90 proof whiskey.

I think any alcohol will do.

My dad agreed, and prescribed cask strength Laphroaig for what ailed him.

Thanks for posting. My post-op recovery has been a copious amount of bourbon prior to bedtime. Docs don’t want to prescribe adequate amounts of opiates to relieve pain and if you can’t sleep then you can’t heal. Alcohol can stretch out your prescription. Goes back to my politicians-practicing-medicine rant.

We sailors have been usng rum for pain management for centuries.

Makes me think of the song "Whiskey Lullaby." Never drank for pain, but if I end up in long term pain, I'll give it a go.

Didn't everybody's Irish grandmother rub whisky on their gums when they were teething?

quote:

Originally posted by SpinZone:
We sailors have been using rum for pain management for centuries.

Well, when you have to deal with sodomy and the lash then one of three ain't bad...

Have you tried Pusser's? I am a whisky drinker but the backstory to Pusser's is interesting.

Whisky was used as an anesthitic and sanitizer of wounds.

I always use Vagisil.

quote:

Originally posted by MRMATT:
Didn't everybody's Irish grandmother rub whisky on their gums when they were teething?

Add Italian mothers to that list

Hmm... let's see.

I have a headache... will one of the SF pharmacists hurry up and prescribe me some vodka?

Not feeling any pain tonight. Cheers!

Might not mitigate the pain.....but definitely makes you not care as much about it.

I had a pan of hot oil down my leg a few years back. The big blisters? I think that’s called third-degree burns?

Tramadol was not cutting it. I finally went out and bought a bottle of Jack Daniels. A few slugs of that told me I had the right medicine.

I walked down the block to old Mary’s house. Sat on Mary‘s porch while she drank her mixed drinks. And I drank the Jack Daniels out of the bottle.

A few days with that, and it seemed to speed up the healing.

quote:

Originally posted by MRMATT:
Didn't everybody's Irish grandmother rub whisky on their gums when they were teething?

No... we got paregoric.

quote:

Originally posted by jigray3:
Not feeling any pain tonight. Cheers!

Yup, had three shots of tulamore dew tonight...going to bed after a glass of water

I did the exact type thing over the course of three spinal surgeries,I self medicated with alcohol, actually, I did it all my life!! That’s why it had to go.

Hemorrhoid surgery, ran out of pain meds, jack and Coca-Cola never got the rx renewed