A Summary Story of my Personal Experience with Praprika as a means to control "needles and pins" attacks.
Jock McTavish, mctavjoc@shaw.ca
I have had to endure prickly sensations in my hands and feet, legs and arms for a few days at a time every few weeks steadily since the start. It's cyclic coming and going made it difficult to complain about, but last year it got desperately worse.

A research of alternative remedies found cayenne suggested very often, so I tried it with dramatic results. Within 10 minutes of taking a 150 mg capsule of the spice, the intense needle-like pain would cease! But oh my, how that burns the belly. So I had to take 3 tums tablets each time too. When I shared this with the ms-diet list group, no others found a similar relief, and those that tried found the heartburn unbearable.

So after a few months, I did some internet research trying to figure out why cayenne worked, and more, why it worked so quickly. The basic explanation was that it improved blood flow. The active ingredient was capsaicin. And this was the "heat" in the various pepper families. Paprika was mentioned as another source of capsaicin.

So I tried. It works. Takes 20 minutes, not 5, but there is no heartburn.

So I take a capsule a day, and keep a few in my pocket for when the needles show up - usually when I've been sitting for too long. The photos below show how I make up the capsules.
It's just a matter of getting some paprika spice from the local grocery supply, and some geletin capsules from your local pharmacist. Then settle them out a a layout similar to the picture left. Click on any picture to see a larger clearer picture.
I find it handy to use some old vitamin containers for the paprika powder and the filled capsules.
Filling them is a bit unusual, but easy. Just separate out a capsule and then keep poking the half into the powder until it compacts inside the capsule.
Then cap it up and put it in the bowl. Collecting them in the bowl lets you tap away the loose paprika dust as you pour them into the container.

21 May 07