Reducing Inflammation — The Natural Approach
Natural anti-inflammatory supplements
Here are some of the recommended supplements to help you naturally ward off inflammation.
- A high-quality daily multivitamin/mineral complex. Though many studies have examined the impact vitamins such as folic acid and the other B’s have on our tissue function and levels of inflammation, the role these vitamins play remains unclear. There is, however, 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 EFA’s as described above, 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.
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One day we’ll better understand how vitamins, minerals, and micronutrients work on our behalf as natural anti-inflammatories. What’s important for us to understand now is that the damaging effects of inflammation can be prevented and reversed by making healthy dietary changes today. 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 from a rainbow of anti-inflammatory botanicals. The natural world has so much to offer us in the way of compounds that quiet inflammation in our bodies. Many of these are traditional medicinal foods, herbs, and spices used for centuries in the past, yet whose specific mechanisms of action biochemists are still exploring today. The study of phytotherapy is helping to bring about a whole new range of anti-inflammatory agents that more effectively target the inflammatory cascade, well upstream of where conventional NSAID’s and COX-2 inhibitors cause their damaging and unwanted side effects.
- 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). But don’t let their long names put you off — 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, or found less widely in nature, or still waiting to be discovered. 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 I’ve only touched on above, many herbs have powerful anti-inflammatory actions. Here’s just a sampling:
Boswellia (Boswellia serrata). Also known as Indian frankincense, Boswellia serrata has long been recognized in Ayurvedic medicine for its anti-inflammatory benefits. Today scientists studying extracts of boswellia report that it can switch off key cell signalers and pro-inflammatory mediators known as cytokines in the inflammatory cascade. Ginger (Zingiber officinalis). Valued for centuries the world over for its medicinal qualities, ginger today is being studied by biochemists and pharmacologists interested in its analgesic, anti-inflammatory, anti-nausea, and sugar-moderating effects in the body. In the past 30 years or so their work has confirmed how ginger shares properties with conventional over-the-counter and prescription NSAID’s, in that it suppresses the synthesis in the body of the pro-inflammatory molecules known as prostaglandins — but with few if any side effects. Recently, however, an even more exciting body of work 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 through its effects on cell-signaling.
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