I bought some when it first came out. If I remember correctly, the instructions said something like:
“May take as long as two weeks to work”
and then
“Do not use for longer than two weeks”
And in addition, my pain was tennis elbow, which was a tendon injury, not arthritis. Only after I bought it did I notice that the instructions said it was only for arthritis.
Never had any luck with topical pain relievers, including Voltaren, Salonpas (with or without lidocaine), Icy Hot and others. The wife swears by Salonpas, however, but for me it’s a waste of money.
My late wife used it successfully for muscular pain, like carpal tunnel or other chronic overuse injury. I have done the same.
I’m not to the point of “enjoying” arthritis (yet), so can’t comment directly on the OP’s question.
That is fucking hysterical.
Possibly related… I have some voltarin gel. I’m supposed to use it for arthritis in one foot. I’ve never found it terribly effective, but I’ve also never used it:
And i have friends who swear by it. So maybe i should give that a try.
I’ve used the “Extra Strength 2.32%” variety which doesn’t seem to be available in the US. I had to purchase this at a Canadian pharmacy.
The 1% strength did almost nothing for me.
It’s been quite some time since I used it, but I remember that it worked pretty well.
I’ve long dismissed as ridiculous the idea that a drug applied to the skin over a joint would travel all the way into the joint in spite of the circulatory system. I figured that other things might be going on, such as creating a surface sensation that confuses the nervous system as it tries to transmit two different kinds of sensation happening in nearly the same location, or such as a placebo effect.
But I took my cat to the vet with an abscessed paw, and they gave him a long lasting antibiotic injection plus a long lasting painkiller applied topically. The painkiller was applied between his shoulder blades, so he couldn’t lick it away.
Well, of course some things can be applied topically and work systemically! Look at the tragic case of poor Karen Wetterhahn, the chemist who got a couple drops of dimethyl mercury on her glove. It diffused through the glove almost instantly, and through her skin and into her system. In ten months she was dead.
And I actually have firsthand experience here. I got tried on nitroglycerine for chest pain a few years ago. You take it as a tiny tablet you leave under the tongue, and it gets absorbed through the skin of the mouth. A common side effect is mild headache, and this was amazing. I’d get the headache within ten seconds of putting the tablet under my tongue. Ten seconds!
So now I’m considering the possibility that topical treatments for non-topical pain might work in this fashion, with the amusing consequence that there’s no need to rub the unguent on the body part that hurts. If your left knee hurts, it would work equally well to rub it on your right knee.
Okay…I need you to explain these apparently contradictory statements.
“Sublingual Medications: What Are They and How Do You Take Them?”
- Sublingually administered medications are placed under your tongue to dissolve. They’re absorbed by the tissue in this area before directly passing into the bloodstream.
- When you compare traditional oral versus sublingual medications, there are many differences. Sublingual medications start to work faster than traditional oral medications. And they don’t have to pass through your gastrointestinal tract or liver.
- Examples of sublingually administered medications include nitroglycerin (Nitrostat) tablets and buprenorphine tablets and film. Some supplements, like vitamin B12 and vitamin D, are also available sublingually.
Topical medications are usually applied to the skin, and are expected to be mostly effective locally, with only a little absorbed systemically. Sublingual medications are not the same as topical medications. They are intended to be absorbed systemically through the skin under the tongue and into the bloodstream, with the aid of the large number of blood vessels serving the mouth.
Doesn’t the second part explain the first part?
Thanks Joey. I’ll ask the mods to merge this to there.
I know. I was making that point that @Napier did not seem to get.
Um, no.
If you’ve never used it, how are you in a position to say you’ve “never found it terribly effective”? That’s like saying, “I’ve never liked eggs, but then I’ve never tasted them.”
I should walk this back a bit. To get actual anti-inflammatory effect from topical nsaids, one needs to use it quite regularly for at least a few weeks. But thanks to diclofenac’s (and other nsaids’) prostaglandin inhibition effect, pain relief may be achieved via that method with a single or an occasional dose.
I’ve used it, but I’ve never tried applying it 4 times a day for a full week. I’ve tried smearing some on before bed for a couple nights in a row.
What i was trying to convey is that I’ve never used it according to the instructions i quoted immediately after that statement.
Done.
I tried keeping posts in chronological other this time. Dunno if it’s more or less confusing than dumping all the merged posts at the end. Send me a DM if you have string feelings about this.
Thanks, @puzzlegal, and I appreciate the chronological effort.
Back to the thread, maybe I need to apply the Voltaren 4x daily. I’ll check the label before I try that.
My emphasis.
Ahhhh…all is clear to me now. 
Who would have thought the colon would be so important when discussing topical meds?
This colon: “:”
DMSO alone has worked wonders for me when knee pain and various muscle pain have flared up over the years. I along with someone else I’m close to have had ongoing success for those purposes and we keep a DMSO gel product in our respective medicine cabinets.
Eh? Isn’t absorbing a med through the skin of the mouth just a particular case of absorbing a med through the skin?
Ask @puzzlegal. Or @Qadgop_the_Mercotan.