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Supplements that Reduce Inflammation - Natural anti-inflammatory supplements

Add a high-quality daily multivitamin/mineral complex.  There is a clear connection between higher blood levels of certain nutrients and lower risk of health conditions caused by inflammation like arthritis, cardiovascular disease, and insulin resistance. Along with the benefits of folic acid, other B vitamins, and Essential Fatty Acids, vitamin D also has known anti-inflammatory effects, and vitamins C, A, and E are widely celebrated as powerful antioxidants, countering the effects of free radical damage. Taking a good multivitamin is one of the easiest ways to ensure that your body has adequate levels of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory nutrients when it needs them most.

Choose  anti-inflammatory botanicals. There are natural compounds that quiet inflammation in our bodies. Many of these are traditional medicinal foods, herbs, and spices used for centuries. 

Bioflavonoids. Also called flavones or flavonoids, this is a class of over 5000 plant chemicals that our bodies metabolize in a way that offers strong anti-oxidant, anti-cancer, anti-allergenic, and anti-inflammatory effects. Bioflavonoids include compounds such as quercetin, epicatechin, and oligomeric proanthocyanidins (OPC’s).  Many occur abundantly in our daily food and drink, such as in citrus fruits, vegetables, tea, cocoa and wine, to name just a few! Others are less well known,. Most bioflavonoids can also be taken in supplemental form as part of a natural anti-inflammation regimen. Among the best for soothing the inflammatory cascade are quercetin, rutin, and procyanidins (OPC’s) such as those found in pine bark extract (Pycnogenol) and grape seed extract.

Anti-inflammatory herbs. Aside from the large group of bioflavonoids, many herbs have powerful anti-inflammatory actions. Here are the best known:

• Boswellia (Boswellia serrata). Also known as Indian frankincense, Boswellia serrata has long been recognized in Ayurvedic medicine for its anti-inflammatory benefits. 

• Ginger (Zingiber officinalis). Valued for centuries the world over for its medicinal qualities, ginger today is being studied by biochemists and pharmacologists. In the past 30 years or so their work has confirmed how ginger shares properties with conventional over-the-counter and prescription NSAID’s - but with few if any side effects. Recently, data is emerging that shows how ginger extract can actually inhibit or deactivate genes in our body that encode the molecules involved in chronic inflammation.

• Turmeric (Curcuma longa), an ancient culinary spice native to South East Asia, has been used as an anti-inflammatory agent for centuries in Indian Ayurvedic medicine. Also known as cucurmin, it is a mild COX-2 inhibitor, but works differently from the prescription-strength drugs that can increase your risk of myocardial infarction or stroke. Like Boswellia and ginger, it seems to inhibit joint inflammation by preventing the production of prostaglandins and activation of inflammation-regulating genes.

• Glucosamine–chondroitin. Glucosamine sulfate (1500–2000 mg/day, divided doses) and chondroitin sulfate (~1000 mg/day) are important building blocks in healthy cartilage. As we age, our bodies can’t create these compounds as readily as they do in youth. Glucosamine–chondroitin supplements may help repair damaged tissues, but they are thought to act more principally by delaying progression of joint inflammation and alleviating its symptoms. In other words, they may not have as strong an impact on the underlying causes of chronic inflammation  (If you have shellfish allergies, be sure to check with your healthcare provider before taking these supplements.)

For more information about Inflammation

For more information about Joint Pain & Stiffness

 

The Difference Between Drugs and Nutritional Supplements 

For what every ails you, , a person has only a few choices about what to do about it..

The Drug Approach

What a drug does is it forces the body to do something that it normally wouldn't do.. When it comes to a medication, the body reacts in certain ways to this medication and it is done in order to achieve a desirable effect.  For instance,  in order to balance itself and handle the effects of a drug, the body has to lower its blood pressure.   If this is what you want to happen because its a blood pressure medication, it's a good thing.   However, there are also various other ways the body can react to the drug and sometimes this is not such a good thing - this is called a "side effect".  It is the reason someone can wind up on 4 blood pressure medications.  Each drug is given in an attempt to balance another drug so as not to create the various side effects of the other drugs.  It is a balancing act. 

The Natural Approach

What a nutritional supplement does is give the body the actual tools it needs to fix the body. 

In the case of neuropathy, it is the nerve cell that is damaged.  The body needs certain tools (nutritional factors) to do this repair.   Drugs don't repair anything; they treat the symptom, not the cause of the problem. 

As with our example of blood pressure, if they don't know what is causing the high blood pressure, the drug just lowers it artificially.  the supplement doesn't force the blood pressure low, but addresses the cause of high blood pressure and brings your body into better balance, and the blood pressure goes to normal.  

The cause of nerve damage is known - it can be the result of too much sugar in the blood, the chemicals used in cancer treatments, injury to the nerve, etc. - but one thing is known,  the damage is done to the cell and this causes the pain.  

You can cover this up with pain killers, or with other drugs that are manufactured to handle this, but the drugs aren't repairing anything.   They are trying to forces the body to not give you pain, not give you numbness, etc.,  And sometimes more damage to the nerve cell might happen due to the drug or other drugs you are taking,

The Nutritional Approach

Nutritional supplements are actually vitamins and minerals that the body needs to repair the cells.  The body needs certain nutrients to function properly.  

In the case of neuropathy, there are specific ingredients needed by the body to repair the cells.  These are the supplements you want to take.

Another difference is that if you are taking a drug and just covering up symptoms, you have to continue to take the drug to get relief and sometimes even have to increase the drug to get the same relief.

If you take natural supplements, the body can fix the problem, and as long as you don't do anything to damage the cells again, there is an end to taking the supplements.

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