Have You Taken Your NSAIDS (Ibuprofen) Today?
I talk to people every day who take NSAIDS for what ails them. We have an ache, a pain, or are just uncomfortable and reach for those tiny… ok, sometimes not so tiny pills without really knowing the risks. After all we can get them over the counter so they must be ok, Right?! Well, no. But they are cheap.
When we get injured, we are told to take ibuprofen for the pain and use ice to reduce inflammation. Both of these are bad for your joints and proper healing. And, they both stop it dead in its tracks. You may be saying WHAT? This lady is crazy. We have been adding ice and ibuprofen for years and have been getting better and we do heal. The question no one seems to ask is how well do you heal and at what cost to your ligaments and tendons in the long run.
Connective tissue takes about 300 days to fully repair. When we stop inflammation, we stop the healing cascade dead in its tracks because the first phase of healing is inflammation. This is the message to the body for the real healing to begin. Then the next phase is tissue regeneration and finally, it remodels into new healthy tissue. If you don’t allow the inflammation, the rest doesn’t happen, and the result will be weak joints and poor collagen deposition.
Did you know? In April 2007 the British Medical Journal published research and found “With use for one to seven days the probability of increased myocardial infarction risk was 92% for
celecoxib, 97% for ibuprofen, and 99% for diclofenac, naproxen, and rofecoxib.” In fact, have you read the black box warning that comes with your bottle? It states that with use, you increase your risk of cardiovascular thrombotic events including heart attacks and strokes.
Further, by taking NSAIDS, you increase other risks such as: GI (gut) bleeding, kidney damage, leaky gut, nutritional deficiencies, ovulation changes, mitochondrial damage and more.
In our office, we take you off your NSAIDS, because they inhibit regenerative medicine (Prolotherapy) injection efficacy. With Prolotherapy, our goal is to initiate the healing cascade by creating first phase local inflammation which ultimately leads to stronger and healthier ligaments, tendons, joints and collagen deposition.
If you care about your joints, and want to stop your joint pain, start with eliminating your NSAIDS use.
Want to know more? Check out my website at drlisagigharbor.com.
In Health
Dr. Lisa