Natural Therapies for Inflammation

Inflammation is your body’s response to what it perceives to be an outside invader or irritant. When caused by an infection, the inflammation can sometimes be rather obvious, as occurs with pneumonia. At other times, it can be very subtle. Keep in mind the following key points regarding inflammation and pain, and address the underlying infections or irritants when able.

1. Inflammation often causes more harm than good. It is often worthwhile to simply decrease the inflammation using natural remedies, diet, and nutrients.
2. Inflammation is sometimes obvious, because it causes redness, heat and swelling. At other times, it can be quite subtle and needs to be identified.

There are many different autoimmune and inflammatory illnesses. Lupus (Systemic Lupus Erythematosus or SLE) is a common autoimmune disease that often results in significant fatigue and pain. What most rheumatologists don't realize is that the secondary fibromyalgia caused by lupus and many other rheumatologic diseases (including rheumatoid arthritis) may be a source of many, if not most, of the symptoms and much of the disability in these patients. Flaring fibromyalgia may also be misinterpreted as a flaring of lupus or other inflammatory disease activity. Fortunately, fibromyalgia can now be effectively addressed.

When one addresses the associated fibromyalgia, patients often find that their lupus is actually a minimal problem. It's important to keep this in mind, as many, if not most, inflammatory and autoimmune illnesses can cause a secondary fibromyalgia. So if you have widespread pain, fatigue and insomnia, look for and address the possible presence of fibromyalgia!

Inflammation (In General)

Inflammation is a common cause of pain and many other medical problems that we experience in Western society. For example, anything that ends in the letters "itis" means that the problem is inflammatory. This includes arthritis, tendonitis, bursitis, spondylitis, appendicitis — the list goes on. Inflammation is obviously a major cause of pain.

Our body's armies of inflammation are often on high alert when they don't have to be. Much of this occurs because of the high amounts of animal fats relative to fish and vegetable oils in our diets. Land animal fats tend to contain arachadonic acid (in the omega-6 fatty acids family), which stimulate inflammation. Fish oils and some vegetable oils, such as flaxseed, contain what are called "omega-3 fatty acids." These decrease inflammation. Over the last few hundred years, we have markedly decreased anti-inflammatory omega-3 fatty acids and increased pro-inflammatory omega-6 fats in our diet. This often results in our body's unnecessarily being on “inflammatory overdrive.” This excess inflammation has been associated not just with an increased tendency to pain, but at times also with increases in heart attacks and other diseases. You can sometimes see this tendency to over-inflammation in your own body when you get a paper cut. Sometimes the paper cut heals so quickly that you barely notice it's there. At other times, the same type of cut will become red and inflamed and continue to hurt well beyond the few seconds after it happened.

How Do I Decrease My Tendency to Excess Inflammation?

Medically, we do this by using steroids, such as prednisone or Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs or "NSAIDs" (e.g., medications in the Motrin® family). Unfortunately, both can be fairly toxic. In the long run, using diet, nutrition and herbals is a much safer and more effective way to get your inflammatory system into balance.

A recent study, for example, showed that taking a multivitamin can reduce inflammation with vitamin C and B6 seeming to play the largest role. A good multivitamin powder such as the Energy Revitalization Drink Mix can replace 35 tablets of supplements with one good tasting drink, making nutritional support easy. Many other natural therapies (see below) are also helpful in decreasing inflammation.

I recommend applying a special comfrey topical cream (do NOT take comfrey by mouth) 3x a day over the injury.

For acute injury, remember the old standbys. These have the initials R.I.C.E., which stand for Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation. These are the standard therapies recommended by coaches, trainers, and other professionals to address muscle and joint injuries such as sprains and strains. When combined with Traumeel (one of several wonderful products for traumatic injuries that contain arnica), acute injuries heal much more quickly. Adding another supplement called MSM can help when tissue healing is necessary (e.g., sprains or broken bones). A good multivitamin powder can also give overall support for healing.

Inflammation is part of our natural healing process. Whenever there is an injury, our body puts out "cytokines" into those areas to bring in white blood cells to knock out any infections and bring in other cells to begin the healing process. Because of this, healthy inflammation is a very beneficial tool that our body uses to heal. The cells come in, eliminate any infections, fix the problem, and then dissipate. When healthy, this is almost always localized and short-term.

Inflammation can become unhealthy, however, when it is excessive. In these situations, it is often generalized throughout the body. In addition to causing pain and disability, it can cause premature aging. As noted above, anytime you see the letters "itis" at the end of a word, it tells you that unhealthy inflammation is present. Excess inflammation is very common. For example, over 40 million Americans have arthritis. The inflammation can then damage the joints, causing deformity. Allergic rhinitis, which causes swelling of the nasal passages, is also common, affecting approximately 40 million Americans. Gastritis and colitis, which cause abdominal pain, are two other examples. Dermatitis, including psoriasis and eczema, are inflammatory illnesses of the skin. Even Alzheimer's disease and heart disease have been associated with increased inflammation. Asthma, with its associated bronchitis, is also an inflammatory condition—and one that has doubled in frequency during our lifetime. In addressing these allergies and asthma, we sometimes mistakenly focus on the trigger. But the trigger is not the main problem because most people don’t have problems when they come in contact with that trigger. It is more important to look at the cause of the overall reactivity in each individual.

We are now beginning to understand why we are so much more prone to inflammation these days than we were in the past. As noted above, clues for understanding this can be found by looking at how the modern diet has changed over the last several thousand years.

Research shows that prehistoric hunter-gatherers were much less likely to have degenerative diseases. Their main problems were infection and trauma. They had a high-protein, high-complex carbohydrate, and high-fiber diet. Most importantly, their diet was high in omega-3 fatty acids and low in inflammation stimulating omega-6 fatty acids (e.g., fats from meat, saturated and trans fats, shortening, margarines and grains). Their diet was also high in antioxidants, nutrients that put out the "inflammatory fires." Foods were also unprocessed and low in refined sugar.

As society became more farming-based, our diet began to include more grains, and cattle were more likely to be grain (instead of grass) fed. All this resulted in higher levels of the omega-6 pro-inflammatory fats. These omega-6 fats stimulated cytokines and inflammation. At this time, inflammation began to increase. This problem had been seen once before in recorded history in ancient Egypt. This civilization also had the osteoporosis and inflammatory diseases seen today.

Our current diet has continued to degenerate to where we are getting as much as 12 to 20 times as many inflammatory fats in the diet as we used to! In addition, we have a massive amount of sugar, potatoes, and white flour in our diet. This stimulates insulin resistance and release, further increasing the production of pro-inflammatory hormones (arachadonic acid) from these omega-6 fats. At the same time, our intake of antioxidants to put out these fires has markedly decreased.

What Does Modern Medicine Do About This?

Doctors give anti-inflammatories like Motrin and Celebrex, which block conversion of the omega-6 fats to the pro-inflammatory cytokines by blocking the enzyme cyclooxygenase. Unfortunately, these also block your body’s ability to make anti-inflammatory messengers. This is one reason why about 50,000 Americans a year die unnecessarily from NSAIDs. We also use high dose steroids as anti-inflammatories, which used long term can be highly toxic. Other therapies include new tumor necrosis factor blocking medicines for rheumatoid arthritis that cost $20,000 a year. We focus on prescription medications because that's where the money is—so the pharmaceutical industry makes sure that we learn about them!

What Natural Alternatives Do We Have that Are Safer and Effective?

Substituting olive oil for other oils can be very helpful. In addition, increasing fish, nuts and seeds, berries, free range chicken and grass fed meats, spices and herbs, and green leafy vegetables (not potatoes and grains) can be a very helpful start. Cutting down sugar intake can also help.

Does that mean you should only eat things that you hate? Of course not. You may find that substituting a wide variety of nuts such as peanuts, cashews, walnuts, etc. for chips and sugary snacks actually tastes better. Eating more salmon and tuna is not a big deal if you like these. If you don’t like them, don't eat them. You can always add a unique vectorized fish oil supplement (that is mercury free) to balance inflammation instead. Taking 1-2 of these a day can replace 7-14 big fish oil capsules.

The effects of therapy with diet are not subtle. A study conducted at the University of Washington showed that women who ate 1 or 2 servings of fish a week were 22 percent less likely to have rheumatoid arthritis. Those who had more than 2 servings a week were 43 percent less likely. Those who had deep fried fish (usually fried in omega-6 fats), however, were more likely to have rheumatoid arthritis. In a study conducted in Scotland, 64 men and women with rheumatoid arthritis began to feel better after taking fish oil for three months. By one year, they had decreased NSAID medicine use by 40 percent. There is also evidence suggesting that fish oil helps heal the joints and may decrease osteoporosis.

Unlike prescription medications, which can result in quick results (but some such as steroids and NSAIDs cause long-term toxicity), natural and dietary therapies take longer to see the full effect. They are more likely, however, to build up and heal your system. I find that benefits usually start to be seen by 6 to 12 weeks and continue to build over years as the person gets healthier and healthier. Because of this, I tend to use medications as an initial “Band-Aid” while the natural therapies heal the underlying problem over time.

What Natural Anti-Inflammatories Can I Use?

In addition to taking fish oil, it can be very helpful to take Curamin®, an herbal mix that has been a pain relief miracle. It contains a mix of a unique highly absorbed curcumin, Boswellia, DLPA (which makes our own endorphins) and the inflammation melter nattokinase. These natural elements can wonderfully decrease both pain and inflammation.

When pain or inflammation is chronic and problematic, I add to the below to dramatically balance immunity:

1. PEA (Palmitoylethanolamide). I use a unique high absorption PEA at a dose of 600 mg twice a day for one month and then 1,200 mg twice a day. This turns off the brain inflammation (called microglial activation) that is a major amplifier for most kinds of chronic pain and autoimmune illness. It takes three months to see the full effect and can be combined with any pain medications. The dose can then usually be lowered
2. Low-dose naltrexone (LDN). Available by prescription, this safe and low-cost medication also dramatically decreases most kinds of chronic pain and autoimmune illness. Higher doses do not work, only very very low doses. The optimal dose is 3 mg a day, and doses over 4.5 mg a day stop working. Unlike the PEA above, this medication can NOT be taken along with narcotics.

Feel free to email me at fatiguedoc@gmail.com and ask for the free LDN and PEA information sheets. If you let me know the type of pain or autoimmune illness you have, I may be able to tailor the information somewhat for you.

How Would You Summarize What I Need to Do?

If you have excess inflammation, your body can often repair the damage over time. This means decreasing sugar and simple carbohydrates (keep chocolate, but make it sugar free), increasing protein and healthy oils (e.g., fish, olive, nuts), and getting optimal nutritional support (e.g., a good multivitamin powder). Use herbal pain-relief supplements to decrease inflammation as well.