Cayenne Pepper for the Feet

Poor circulation in my feet has been a challenge for at least a decade. It's why my Kaiser podiatrist granted approval for acupuncture. Of course, Dr. Mai treats a lot more than tingly, numb, sore feet, but for all the years I've been seeing him, he's always put needles in my feet to stimulate blood circulation. This helps, and I'm sure acupuncture has kept me from losing a toe or two.

Circulation in my feet and in my legs in general has been further compromised due to the triple-bypass surgery, during which veins were extracted from my right leg, and hip surgery, which entailed three incisions in my left thigh and buttocks. Following heart surgery, my legs were drum-tight for more than a month, due to severe fluid retention. This was extremely uncomfortable. Now, following hip surgery, I have experienced intense, shooting pain and a burning sensation in my feet, especially at night. The pain is so severe that it awakens me. Twice I have taken vicodin for the pain in my feet, not for the incision pain or muscle pain in my leg.

I pleaded with my nephrologist, my GP, my cardiologist, the diabetic nurse, and the orthopedic physician's assistant to authorize a sequential compression device for me. This is the device that surgical patients are usually hooked up to post-op to prevent blood clots from forming. It's basically two cuffs that are placed around the patient's calves and which continuously contract and expand. They massage the calves and keep blood circulating. They are fantastic, and throughout my hospital stay, I had none of the intense pain that I have experienced since coming home.

Though a few of these healthcare providers attempted to get DME (durable medical equipment) to send out the sequentlal compression device, they were told it was not a covered item. This is the ridiculous nature of having people who are bean counters make medical decisions. I emailed my doctors, saying that, surely, the cost of this device is far less than the cost of amputations. Unfortunately, though they agreed with me, they could do nothing.

So, I have gone the alternative route. I read that cayenne pepper aids blood circulation. A few months ago, I had mixed spice-grade cayenne and red pepper flakes with hand lotion and massaged my feet with this mixture, then put cayenne in my socks, and went to sleep, my tootsies invigorated by these warm spices.

This worked well for a while, but this last post-op episode was especially intense. So I bought cayenne capsules at a health food store. These babies have 40,000 heat units per capsule. That's much, much more than I would be able to ingest through spice-grade cayenne.

At first, I took the cayenne on an empty stomach. That was a mistake. I became dizzy and nauseated. From then on, I've taken it with a meal and seen immediate results. No more stabbing pain. No more getting woken up by pain. No more burning in my feet. True, the tingling is still there, but it's been there for a long time. This is defintely a step in the right direction.