Natural Anti Inflammatory Supplements For Back Pain & More
The use of anti-inflammatories to reduce inflammation and control pain comes in many forms. This includes prescription medications, OTC medications, natural supplements and even anti-inflammatory diets and lifestyles. Our discussion here will be limited to natural anti inflammatory supplements and will be focused on their use for musculoskeletal conditions such as back pain, neck pain, arthritis pain and so on.
In addition to spine related complaints, anti-inflammatory supplements are often helpful in relieving extremity symptoms such as shoulder pain, hip pain, elbow pain, wrist pain, knee pain, ankle pain as well as hand and foot pain. From a musculoskeletal perspective, any area that has pain associated with inflammation is a potential candidate for relief with an anti-inflammatory supplement. Anti-inflammatory supplements may also be helpful for a variety of non-musculoskeletal conditions. However, for our purposes, this will be considered outside the scope of this discussion and will not be addressed here.
As helpful as anti inflammatory supplements may be for a variety of conditions, as with any product, it is important to note that they are not always appropriate for every individual and your personal use of them should be discussed with your qualifed health care provider.
The Advantage Of All Natural Anti-Inflammatory Supplements
To answer the question "what is the best all natural anti-inflammatory supplement?" it is helpful to consider the actual purpose of the body's inflammatory process and why you may wish to consider natural anti inflammatory supplements in the first place.
At the risk of oversimplifying a complex biological process, inflammation is a basically a protective response initiated by the body to address the cause of cell injury, remove damaged tissue and initiate tissue repair. It is characterized by heat, pain, redness, swelling and loss of function. Although most people would prefer to have as little pain as possible and thus try to stop the inflammatory response altogether, this is usually not appropriate for most musculoskeletal injuries and conditions (at least in the acute phase) as the inflammatory response is actually part of the healing process.
Keeping this discussion limited to musculoskeletal conditions, reducing the degree of inflammation is usually the preferred approach with regard to pain management. This allows the body to properly heal while controlling pain as well as reducing the degree of unwanted scar tissue accumulation. As this is often a safer approach with less side effects that may even result in more complete healing of tissue injury, many people choose to use natural anti-inflammatory supplements as a way to reduce or eliminate their need for stronger prescription anti-inflammatories.
At this point it is important to note that even if a supplement is "all natural" it does not guarantee that it will be always be safe or appropriate in every single case. It is strongly recommended that the use of any supplement be discussed with your qualified health care provider to help decide if it would be appropriate for you. It is also important to review possible interactions between the supplement and any prescription medications you are taking. With this considered, the following is my perspective on some popular natural anti inflammatory supplements that I believe are among the best in their category.
My Top 5 Natural Anti-Inflammatory Supplements
Turmeric is a spice commonly found in Asian food that comes from the turmeric plant and is a main spice in curry. Turmeric contains curcumin and other compounds that may help decrease inflammation and swelling. This has made it one of the most popular "natural" anti-inflammatory supplements on the market today. Although turmeric is the main ingredient, this combination supplement also contains piperine, a compound found in black pepper, which can help the absorption of the curcumin in turmeric and increase its effectiveness. The product also contains ginger which may help further modulate the body's inflammatory response. For those that can tolerate a turmeric, black pepper and ginger combination, these compounds may be helpful in controlling inflammation associated with certain spinal and musculoskeletal conditions as well as providing additional health benefits. However, to ensure that there are no contraindications, medication interactions, or other reason you should not be using turmeric or any other ingredient in this product, PLEASE CONSULT YOUR QUALIFIED HEALTH CARE PROVIDER PRIOR TO PRODUCT USE.
This product is a great choice for those that have difficulty swallowing tablets or capsules. It provides turmeric along with black pepper in a liquid form for improved curcumin absorption. This product doesn't have some of the additional anti-inflammatory compounds contained in the above turmeric supplement. However, for someone for whom one or more of the additional ingredients in the above product are contraindicated, or is otherwise specifically interested in a turmeric formulation that is easy to swallow, this product is worth considering.
Tart cherry, also known as sour cherry, contains substances that may help reduce joint pain, inflammation and osteoarthritis symptoms. Additionally, there is some evidence to suggest that tart cherry may offer a variety of additional health beneftis such as: improving gout symptoms by reducing uric acid levels, improved exercise performance and decreased muscle soreness, improved sleep, improved brain health and more. As there are varying degrees of evidence for some of these claims, and contraindications to tart cherry supplementation do exist, you are encouraged to review the use of a tart cherry supplement with your qualified health care provider for the specific purpose you are planning to use it for. For the specific purpose of reducing inflammation to assist with back pain relief, this product contains tart cherry as its main ingredient along with celery powder and bilberry powder. These two additional substances are also thought to have anti-inflammatory effects, as well as numerous other potential benefits, and may improve the effectiveness of this product. However, there are some medication interactions with these substances and, again, use of this product should be discussed with your qualified health care provider. For those interested in a tart cherry supplement to assist with reducing inflammation, relieving back pain and promoting joint health, this is one to look at.
Ginger root is has been used as a remedy for a variety of health issues by many cultures for thousands of years. More recently it has received attention from the scientific community with some studies yeilding promising results for ginger as a therapeutic intervention for nausea, vertigo, headache, osteoarthritis pain and much more. For our purposes we will concentrate on its potential anti-inflammatory benefit to address back pain. Although it seems that the recent popularity of some other supplements - esp. turmeric - have overshadowed ginger in this area, this is still a supplement that deserves consideration by those seeking a "natural" anti-inflammatory. As with all supplements, medication interactions can exist and they should be discussed with your qualified health care provider prior to product use. This is particularly important for those on blood thinners, diabetes medications and hypertension (high blood pressure) medications. However, this is not a comprehensive list and interactions between ginger supplements and other medications you are taking may also exist, as can other contraindications to ginger root supplementation. Assuming you have been cleared by your qualified health care provider to safely use ginger, this particular product is one you may find helpful. This may be especially useful for those who cannot tolerate turmeric or for whom other substances are contraindicated.
When people think of fish oil and Omega-3 fatty acids, they often think of heart health. While it is true that Omega 3 fatty acids seem to have been promoted more heavily for their potential cardiovascular benefit than their musculoskeletal benefits, they actually do have enough scientific support in this area that makes them worth considering for this purpose. Various studies have suggested that the The Omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oil have powerful anti inflammatory effects that may be helpful for back and joint pain due to conditions such as arthritis, with one
study even finding that fish oil may be an alternative to nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for people with pain caused by some spinal disc problems.
This product contains a total of 2000mg of Omega-3 fatty acids with 1400mg of EPA and 480mg of DHA per 2 softgels. This is a great concentration of Omega 3 fatty acids in a more absorbable form than what is found in some other products. For those that don't have a seafood allergy or other contraindications to fish oil, this is a product that is worth considering for its potential anti-inflammatory effect for musculoskeletal conditions as well as its overall health benefits. As the essential fatty acids in fish oil do have a blood thinning effect and may not be appropriate for those on certain medications and/or with certain conditions, please be sure to discuss use of this product with your qualified health care provider before use.
