Kickas.org Forums Treatments, Drugs and Alternatives Alternatives and ALCHEMISTS Controlling inflammation

Hi all,

I have been searching in the web for supplements to reduce inflammation, other than following LSD / NSD. One such site being inflammationfactor.com. There are several items listed in the web as anti inflammatory properties. Some of them are curcumin, sweet potato, ginger, garlic, fish oil, chili pepper etc.,

Any one has any idea by taking combination of these items whether one can control AS inflammation. Anybody has tried. I have seen from the signatures of several members, some are trying few of these. There are papers published on the study of extracts of these for inflammation.
I would like to know how the effect of these items can be compared with effect of any NSAID. Any one has studied, preferably effect of each item. Kindly share.
Thanks in advance.

Jay

I take curcumin capsules every day and they seem to work for me. I wouldn't try sweet potato since it is very starchy and can trigger AS symptoms. I also take fish oil capsules twice a day, but I think that following the NSD is the real inflammation killer. Being strict on the diet has helped me reduce my pain in 70 80 percent.

Thank you. I have read that beta carotene in sweet potato is helpful against inflammation. I had it earlier, but yet to test or hear about it from others on inflammation.

Jay

Wouldn't hurt to try.

My opinion, these things can help with low levels of inflammation but are no match for flares.

I take fish oil every day for my blood sugar and cholesterol. It seems to help in that area somewhat.

I like ginger and consume a lot of it in my diet. When my gastritis really flares, tea made with fresh ginger soothes it better than almost anything. I find peppermint to be very anti-inflammatory for my GI tract as well.

But nothing works on my flares except for methylprednisone and Humira.

LDN works well at fighting my enthesitis.

But adding in supplements to help the drugs work even better, nothing wrong with that.

That's been my rheumy's and my approach.

The supplements were making me feel better between flares.

But still needed the big guns for flares.

I just found this interesting article on inflammation and the body. As our systems are so intertwined this approach sounds like it might work for some of us (we're all wired differently so no blanket statements ):

http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/04/gut-microbiome-bacteria-weight-loss

While I do believe that the gut microbiome is to blame for most chronic illnesses and am looking forward to the day that fecal transplants are mainstream enough that I will be allowed by the medical establishment to do that, if diet alone could change our gut microbiome to eliminate inflammation, I wouldn't have needed to end up on Humira, Metformin, and Pravastatin. But I do believe a fecal transplant could change it. Yes, diet helps, but it is not the panacea that that mother jones article would have us believe, IMO.

Good article for a jumping off point though.

Yes. I fully accept that biological medicine can not be matched.
The following article shows some comparison of food extracts with respect to NSAID. I was just trying to figure out whether it is possible to replace selectively such items in place of NSAID as supplement.
Work on ::
Papain(papaya) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11589110
Extra virgin olive oil http://www.arthritistoday.org/what-you-can-do/eating-well/arthritis-diet/olive-oil-inflammation.php
Ginger http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12468270

Is it possible to compare dose of NSAIDs with biological medicine. Just for curiosity.

Jay

Both my husband and I have found Scudder's Alterative to be very helpful for pain. The main ingredient is Corydalis.

I don't know anyone who got relief from pain by taking olive oil. Papain is a good thing to take, but you would have to try it yourself to see how much relief you can actually get for any serious pain. Ginger is good for some things, it's a good food item for some, you can try that on your own, too.

Cleaning up the liver and getting bile flowing is one of the best things anyone who has pain can do for themself.

Thank you for sharing information. Wish you a happy new year.

Jay

Stinging nettle tea was the best I've tried. Ginger works ok as well but short lived