Inflammation is bad and we need to eliminate it to feel good, right? Wrong!
Inflammation is typically not only a normal process but a necessity with real benefits. After sustaining an injury, inflammation lasts for 4-7 days and acts as the kick-starter for the body’s natural healing process. Without it, your healing may be delayed or of poor quality.
Luckily, one or two tablets do not have an immediate effect and any relief we tend to get from taking one or two anti-inflammatories, would either be from the pain killer (often paracetamol and/or an opioid like codeine, heroine’s little brother) included in your medication of choice or the wonders of the placebo effect because it requires several days of consistently targeting inflammation to make a perceivable impact.
So, taking anti-inflammatories after an injury, should be carefully considered. But what about all the other versions of pain where inflammation may play a role?
An infection will typically feel better with anti-inflammatories but no amount of anti-inflammatories with clear up the infection.
Auto-immune conditions are not my strong suit, but we rarely see patients who have been advised by their specialist to use anti-inflammatories as the main approach in coping with their pain. Addressing the dysfunctional immune response is usually the aim and my physio-colleagues who have a special interest in such conditions are seeing real results in improving their patients’ quality of life!
Cancer has a massive inflammatory component and while reducing that could perhaps be of value, any medication is best to be discussed with the treating physician.
Post-operatively, many patients are given anti-inflammatories, but I fail to see the reasoning here. After an operation, we all have 1 real goal: Healing!
Arthritis and Tendonitis have been renamed to arthropathy and tendinopathy because the ~itis implies inflammation while researchers battle to consistently find inflammation in these conditions, if at all. In fact, recent therapies to treat ‘arthritis’ and ‘tendonitis’ have been aimed at INDUCING inflammation to restart the healing process, to try and resolve chronic conditions. *I’ll refrain from sharing my thoughts on this here, but if you’re interested, please get in touch 😉
In short, I’d suggest that you think twice about why you’re taking an anti-inflammatory and consider targeting the underlying cause of your symptoms (typically pain where we opt to randomly include the assumption of inflammation) instead. When it comes to that of injuries and chronic pain, I trust that you’ve already seen my thoughts but if not, please feel free to read through my previous Physio Tips
Your health and physical wellbeing should be a priority deserving of quality care. Make sure to discuss any concerns you may have directly with your preferred physiotherapist, so that you can receive the appropriate guidance for your unique situation.