There’s a good and a bad side to inflammation and to the drugs used to treat it. When it first appears, it’s a sign that your body is responding to a problem and trying to deal with it. It’s the way we fight off infections, for instance. But if an area is still inflamed after the problem has been dealt with, that can get in the way of healing. When this happens, using anti-inflammatory drugs in the short term can improve healing – as long as the problem that triggered the inflammation in the first place has gone. If it hasn’t, then those for example with chronic pain, such as lower back pain who might take anti-inflammatory drugs for prolonged periods of time, are just ignore the underlying causes. In the case of arthritis, there are a number of causes of arthritis, possibly a food allergy, a lack of omega-3 fats or a physical misalignment.
But anti-inflammatory drugs don’t just mask the problem, there are also some real dangers in taking pain killers. They come in several forms but by far the most commonly used are a type known as NSAIDs (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs), which include aspirin and ibuprofen. Prescriptions for NSAIDs cost the UK’s National Health Service about £250 million a year.
It may seem extraordinary, but this class of drug is responsible for more deaths than any other. Of the 10,000 deaths in the UK every year from prescribed drugs, anti-inflammatory drugs account for 2,600. In the US, the figure is 16,500 deaths a year – more than from asthma, cervical cancer or malignant melanoma.
The other, more heavyweight drugs are the corticosteroids such as prednisone. They are based on the steroid cortisone (hence the phrase ‘non-steroidal’ to distinguish the aspirin-type drugs) and can be very dangerous over the long term. This is because they suppress the production of cortisol, the body’s natural anti-inflammatory hormone, which is reserved for emergencies and acts as an immediate painkiller following serious accidents.
The long-term use of painkillers is also associated with ‘chronic daily headache’. Painkillers should never be taken more than 1 day in 4, or 7 days a month5. Despite this danger the average person takes in excess of 300 doses of these painkillers a year! That’s six a week.
This report continues in full for 100% Health members and covers:
How’s your pain questionnaire
Inside story: pain
The problem with anti-inflammatories
Why some NSAIDs cause heart problems
How COX 1 and COX 2 Painkillers induce side effects
Back to aspirin
Side effects of aspirin
Paracetamol and the liver
The cortisone dilemma
Pain killers do the benefits outweigh the risks
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