At the end of 2010 I was limping, and at my annual physical my internist recommended that I see an orthopedist. The orthopedist's diagnosis: "You need a hip replacement." Being the strong headed Swede/German that I am, and the fact that I love to work and travel, I suggested that his solution was unacceptable.

I decided that  Trigosamine, Glutacosamine, regular massages, and regular walking on the treadmill would at least strengthen my leg muscles if indeed I had to relent and have a hip replacement. Well, as the months passed, I noticed that dress shoes with leather soles and heels made the limp worse. I also noticed that walking on the treadmill in house shoes allowed me to do about 7 minutes at a speed of 1 mile per hour. This was a measly 1/8 mile (not very good but better than nothing!)  What really worked and helped the pain was Advil (no commercial plug here, just the facts.)

Then about 4 months ago, I had a deposition in Los Angeles. Frankly, I hadn't been to anything but LAX airport and a nearby S.E.M. lab for 25 or more years. Let me tell you folks, L.A. is hill country! My wife and I flew home that night and she said I moaned from pain all night. I took some Advil and again had trouble doing my 7 minutes on the treadmill.

The next evening, my wife Jann said, "Why don't you sleep with Ivory?" Now don't get the wrong idea. We don't know anyone named Ivory, and if we did - forget it! Jann said she had read in the paper about leg pain being helped/reduced/eliminated by placing a few fresh bars of Ivory soap between the sheets at night. I said, "you have got to be kidding." Her reply was, "I can only say that an article in the Dallas Morning News said it works."

Being an engineer and a researcher at heart, I very, very reluctantly agreed to give it a try and to not use Advil either. So I went off to the store, bought four bars of Ivory and went to bed with Ivory and my wife.

The next morning when I awakened, my legs were not hurting, which meant no need for Advil, and I thought I might as well hit the treadmill. I started at the usual 1mph, upped it to 1.5mph, then 2.5mph, walked 30 minutes and made it without any leg pain or limping a distance of 1 mile. The next day, I started at 2.5mph and made a distance of 1.25 miles in 30 minutes!

Now do I believe that Ivory soap in your bed eliminates the need for a hip replacement - absolutely not. I recently went to another ortho guy, and he looked at the x-ray and said, "You have bone on bone in one area of your hip and when the pain gets to be a PAIN, that will be the time."

I mentioned the Ivory to a group of more mature (notice I didn't say "old") friends from church, and several have told me how Ivory helped their leg pain.

I can only relate to you my actual experience, weird or not, certainly not "scientific", but I can attest to the truth of the above. No guarantees, remember free consulting is worth what you pay for it, but if you have leg pain, try a few bars of Ivory between your sheets!