A new study from McGill University published in Science Translational Medicine questions the long standing medical approach of prescribing anti-inflammatory drugs and steroids for acute pain.
Inflammation plays a key role in resolving pain and when this mechanism is interfered with the pain can be prolonged up to ten times the normal duration in animal model studies. In humans, analysis of 500 000 people in the UK revealed those taking anti-inflammatory drugs were more likely to have pain two to ten years later.
“Our findings suggest it may be time to reconsider the way we treat acute pain. Luckily pain can be killed in other ways that don’t involve interfering with inflammation,” says Massimo Allegri, a Physician at the Policlinico of Monza Hospital in Italy and Ensemble Hospitalier de la Cote in Switzerland.
Although the authors mention using pain killer medications that don’t disrupt inflammation, an obvious safer if not more effective alternative is photobiomodulation therapy (PBMT). PBMT accelerates the inflammatory process as opposed to artificially blocking the pathway leading to faster resolution of the underlying cause of the pain.
Click Here read more about this research and Click Here To watch a webinar on more information on PBMT’s effects on inflammation and pain.