Reader,

If you’re like most people, you instinctively reach for a bottle of aspirin or ibuprofen when you first start to feel those agonizing aches and pains.

But new research confirms what I’ve been telling my patients for more than a decade…

This quick-fix could be the very reason your pain drags on for months — or even years.

You see, Big Pharma’s “solutions” to pain — NSAIDs and steroid drugs — don’t just numb the pain.

They shut down your body’s built-in healing system.

Let me show you what I mean…

Your body isn’t broken. And pain isn’t a mistake.

It’s a signal.

Pain – and the inflammation that goes with it – is one of the most sophisticated repair systems that evolution ever designed. It’s how your body rushes healing cells to the site of damage.

It’s how you recover.

But when you block this natural process, you sabotage your body’s ability to fix the problem.

A team of scientists at McGill University confirmed this in a recent study. They found that NSAIDs and steroids interfere with neutrophils. These are your body’s first responders… a special kind of white blood cell that launch the inflammatory cascade and begin repair.1

Here’s the truly shocking part:

When they blocked neutrophils in lab mice, the pain lasted 10 times longer.

Then the researchers turned their attention to human participants. They followed 98 adults who went from having acute back pain to chronic lower back pain (pain that lasts three months or longer).

They found that those who took standard painkillers were far more likely to still be suffering — even a decade later.

In people whose lower back pain healed normally, researchers discovered that their neutrophils did their job as nature intended. These natural defenses guided the body through the healing process and protected them from transitioning into chronic pain.

But those whose pain became chronic displayed signs that the healing process was disrupted, indicating that anti-inflammatory drugs that block neutrophils interfere with the healing process by reducing inflammation too soon.

In other words, the very drugs that are sold to relieve pain may be the reason so many people develop chronic pain syndrome.

Work With Your Body To Stop Pain

Instead of silencing your body’s healing signals, you need to support them. You can eliminate pain — and accelerate healing — when you work with your body.

Here’s what I tell my patients:

  1. First, Turn Down The Inflammation With Curcumin. Almost every form of chronic pain shares one root cause: excessive inflammation. Curcumin turns off your body’s nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-kB) molecule. This molecule activates more than 400 proinflammatory genes that cause pain.

    Clinical studies show curcumin reduces arthritis joint pain by 60% and joint swelling by 73%.2 Additional research found that it works as well as ibuprofen for arthritis knee pain — but without the stomach ulcers, kidney damage, or heart risk.3,4

    I recommend supplementing with at least 2,000 mg. Look for a supplement that also contains piperine. This black pepper compound has been shown to make curcumin more bioavailable.

  2. Then, Move the Way You Were Designed To. Conventional advice says, “If it hurts, stop moving.” That’s the worst possible thing you could do.

    Movement is how your body flushes out inflammatory waste products and lubricates your joints. When you stay still, those toxins stagnate — and pain gets worse.

    It sounds simple, but walking is the best joint-friendly movement. It keeps blood moving, flushes out inflammatory waste, and bathes cartilage in nutrients. Even 10 minutes, two or three times a day, can reset your pain signals.

  3. Next, Consider PRP Therapy: The medical industry doesn’t want to accept this fundamental truth: Your body has the ability to heal using platelet-rich plasma (PRP).

    PRP uses natural compounds from your blood to regenerate and restore youthful joints. And numerous studies show it works:

    A 2024 meta-analysis concluded that PRP significantly alleviated pain and improved function, stiffness, and quality of life in patients with knee osteoarthritis within a 12-month follow-up.5

    A second study looked at 75 patients suffering from mild to moderate knee osteoarthritis.6 Twenty-five got PRP, 25 received HA, and another 25 got a corticosteroid injection. Pain measurement tests were taken at baseline, 6,12, and 26 weeks. By the end of the trial, the researchers concluded that:

    “Injections of PRP can provide...significant functional improvement for at least 6 months in patients with mild to moderate knee osteoarthritis that is superior to [steroid] injections.”

    If you’re interested in long-lasting, natural pain relief using PRP therapy at the Sears Institute for Anti-Aging Medicine, please call 561-784-7852.

To Your Good Health,

Al Sears, MD, CNS

References:

  1. Parisien M, et al. “Acute inflammatory response via neutrophil activation protects against the development of chronic pain.” Sci Transl Med. 2022 May 11;14(644):eabj9954.
  2. Chandran B, Goel A. “A randomized, pilot study to assess the efficacy and safety of curcumin in patients with active rheumatoid arthritis.” Phytother Res. 2012;26(11):1719-25.
  3. Paultre K, et al. “Therapeutic effects of turmeric or curcumin extract on pain and function for individuals with knee osteoarthritis: a systematic review.” BMJ Open Sport Exerc Med. 2021 Jan 13;7(1):e000935. 
  4. Shep D, et al. “Safety and efficacy of curcumin versus diclofenac in knee osteoarthritis: a randomized open-label parallel-arm study.” Trials. 2019 Apr 11;20(1):214.
  5. Mende E, et al. “A comprehensive summary of the meta-analyses and systematic reviews on platelet-rich plasma therapies for knee osteoarthritis.” Mil Med. 2024 Nov 5;189(11-12):e2347-e2356.
  6. Swedowski D, et al. “Intra-articular injection of platelet-rich plasma is more effective than hyaluronic acid or steroid injection in the treatment of mild to moderate knee osteoarthritis: a prospective, randomized, triple-parallel clinical trial.” Biomedicines. 2022 Apr 25;10(5):991.