Anti-inflammatories and Pain Pills
Popping Pain Pills - If you're like most individuals,
popping pain pills has always been the quick fix. The problem is
Non Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs), the kind in MotrinŽ,
AdvilŽ and AleveŽ, have some very nasty side effects. In 1985, the
high brow British medical journal The Lancet reported NSAIDs actually
ate away at joint bone reducing the success in hip replacement surgery.
Twenty years later on April 7, 2005 the U.S. FDA issued a public
health advisory warning on NSAIDs and is requesting a "black box"
warning be added to the professional product labeling and/or inserts
of all NSAIDs. The black box warning is the strongest warning the
FDA can request. Reasons being, NSAIDs increase the risk of cardiovascular
(CV) adverse events like heart attack and stroke. Life threatening
gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding is another side effect of these medicines.
Meanwhile, the FDA has asked OTC products containing NSAIDs like
ibuprofen and naproxen sodium - the ingredients in MotrinŽ, AdvilŽ,
and AleveŽ - to revise labels to provide specific information on
CV and GI risks as well as skin reactions. See worstpills.org
for more data. Unfortunately, this little known but very destructive
fact doesn't even get acknowledged on WebMD.com. But medical science
doesn't lie.
More concerning is growing evidence that suggest that NSAIDs may inhibit your body's natural healing response. "If you treat a joint muscle problem with NSAIDs it certainly reduces pain over the first week. However, it prolongs healing time by 14-28 days," says James Montgomery M.D., former team physician for the U.S. Olympic Team. Golfers should know that if they must use NSAIDs they should do so knowing it will delay recovery.
In the last year alone it's become clear that stomach ulcers are a direct side effect of using NSAIDs. A rarer side effect is an impact on the kidneys. Sadly, even if you avoid the worst side effects, the fact that NSAIDs work as pain killers can promote a false sense of security. The truth is pain is your body's way of preventing more injury. So by numbing yourself with pills you are deafening yourself to this warning. Reducing joint inflammation is the key to getting back on the move again, allowing you to resume activity and promote recovery. Only then can you regenerate the power, coordination and feel you need to get back in the game.
What About Glucosamine? Naturally occurring and widely used, glucosamine
is a fine joint care product that is very well tolerated by hundreds
of thousands of people. Years of research shows that glucosamine
helps joint problems by providing the building blocks to promote
reconstruction of damaged cartilage. Glucosamine works both as a
raw material or building block of cartilage regeneration and also
as a stimulant to help joint tissue re-heal and build. Glucosamine
also has mild anti-inflammatory properties. There is however one
big problem with glucosamine. Glucosamine is a non-rapid acting
intervention that takes at least 6-8 weeks to get noticeable affects.
If you're taking or plan on taking glucosamine, then please check
the bottle. If you see Glucosamine Sulfate - KCl or Glucosamine
Sulfate - NaCl or Glucosamine Sulfate as Salt, then you ought to
know that up to 30% or more of the glucosamine that you're ingesting
is bound up in salts. Under FDA law manufacturers can of course
legally say that they are giving you whatever dose is listed on
the bottle. But the active bioavailable amounts of actual glucosamine
are going to be much smaller than the reported dosage because it
has to be carried in the salts. So as with most things in life,
you
get what you pay for.
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