Are there any post menopausal women that lost weight after quitting opioids?

[TheresaWG]

I’m a 51-yr-old post menopausal woman who’s been on 10/325 Norcos for a bit over 2.5 yrs. I have chronic debilitating pain from an auto-immune disease I’ve had since 11 years old. I have gained 30 lbs since taking 5-6 pills daily and wonder if quitting would make a difference since losing weight after menopause is 50x harder than when I had estrogen throughout my body.

[Bamame]

Hi,
Yes, that can happen when you're taking opiates because you're not in as much pain and people seem to enjoy eating more. That was my case. I don't take opiates any longer so my weight is great. I'm 61 and way about 134. When I was taking opiates I was almost 200 lb. I'm feeling great and life is good. Sending you positive vibes and prayers.

[del677]

For people suffering from chronic pain I like to mention that science is gaining a much better understanding of how pain works, and how chronic pain works, how it develops, and how it can be reversed, and even cured now.

Chapter 1 of the book, "The Brain's Way of Healing: Remarkable Discoveries and Recoveries from the Frontiers of Neuroplasticity" by Norman Doidge, M.D. (2015) explains, along with 2 case studies.

Professor Paul Hansma, UCSB, using this knowledge, cured himself of chronic shoulder pain, and later gave a talk about it, which can be found on youtube. (I think it's in 7 parts). He also has a website: https://hansmalab.physics.ucsb.edu/

Basically the brain has a map of the body in it, and it is this brain map of our body which we perceive as reality.

People who lose a limb, such as an arm or leg, often claim their limb is still there, known as "Phantom Limb Syndrome", because while they may have lost their physical limb, the body map in their brain still has that limb, so for them it's still there, because that's their source reality.

It also works the other way: people who have a stroke which damages part of their brain's body map, say it destroys the part mapping their left arm, may claim they no longer have a left arm, and they don't know who's arm this is, but it's not theirs, and would some nurse please take it away. Because that's their source of reality.

When we experience pain in our body, it's actually pain in the body map in our brain. The brain's body map has become overly sensitive to pain in certain parts. The brain has rewired itself to feel more pain. This rewiring can be undone. It takes mental effort, but it can be done. Chapter 1 of the book cited above explains more, and the lectures by Prof. Paul Hansma also explain.

My sister-in-law cut her methadone dose in half, and her pain went way down. She was very skeptical at first, but I convinced her to try it, saying all the literature said if she would cut back on her methadone it would greatly decrease her pain. She tried it and it did. (She's not totally free yet, but doing much better. She doesn't have the conviction to try the relentless mental exercises required to unwire the pain totally.)

Basically it uses a real estate metaphor. The brain has  limited real estate. Real estate has been taken over for processing of pain. This real estate can be reassigned if we can convince the brain that something else is more important than feeling pain. "Visualizing" something in the mind, uses parts of the brain which are right next to the pain centers. One can convince one's brain that visualizing is more important than pain processing. The visualizing center expands, taking over real estate from the pain processing center, and the pain is unwired.

No guarantees, but I felt this knowledge was worth sharing. Blessings!

[Bamame]

Oh boy!!