Alarming News for Ibuprofen Users

This article originally appeared on The Epoch Times and was republished with permission.

Guest post by Cara Michelle Miller

Doctors have recommended nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like ibuprofen to relieve acute inflammation for decades. But does short-term relief—and interfering with the body’s natural healing process—come at the cost of chronic pain?

Pain from a minor injury, like a sprained ankle or thrown-out back, often resolves on its own. But for some, acute pain lingers, becoming chronic. The “standard medical care for this type of pain is probably making matters worse, is what the research suggests,” Jeffrey Mogil, a neuroscientist at McGill University, told The Epoch Times.

Early-Stage Inflammation Prevents Chronic Pain

Injuries trigger inflammation for a reason, and researchers are working to understand it better.

One study, published in Science Translational Medicine, focused on 98 lower-back pain patients over a three-month period. During that time, half of the volunteers fully recovered, while the other half developed chronic low-back pain. Using RNA sequencing, the researchers compared the activity levels of immune cells between both groups.

They discovered that neutrophils, immune cells that feature prominently at the onset of the inflammation sequence, play a role in remaining pain-free. Neutrophils help the body fight infection and repair tissue damage.

According to the researchers, the chronic pain group started with less inflammatory neutrophil activity and later had little to no activity in the cells that create inflammation. Contrastingly, the genes of the recovered patients were very active with inflammation-related cells.

“Neutrophils rush in pretty early after some sort of injury, causing a process that ends up preventing chronic pain,” said Mr. Mogil, a senior author of the paper, “and you probably shouldn’t block it.”

Scientists have known that anti-inflammatory drugs inhibit neutrophil activity in people and animals. However, the link to chronic pain had been missed because prior studies did not follow patients long enough beyond immediate pain reduction.

“NSAIDs definitely interfere with the process,” Eugene Aiello, a chiropractic physician and neurologic researcher, told The Epoch Times. “But not everybody in the chronic [pain] group was taking NSAIDs. More studies are needed to identify what else is preventing the neutrophils from completing the repair process.”

Recognizing Whether Inflammation Is Good or Bad

There are generally two types of inflammation: acute and chronic. To determine whether inflammation is helpful or not, we must understand how these differ.

Chronic inflammation is long-lasting and spreads throughout the body. It becomes the problem rather than the solution to infection or injury. It can lead to more serious conditions such as heart disease or even cancer.

In contrast, acute inflammation is beneficial—provided it is robust, short-lived, and site-specific. When a ligament or tendon is strained or torn, it triggers an influx of blood, fluids, and immune cells to the area.

“Swelling is the body’s innate wisdom to increase the surface area so that healing mediators can then come into that area,” Brandon LaGreca, a licensed acupuncturist nationally certified in Oriental medicine, told The Epoch Times.

Neutrophils are part of these first responders. Their presence is key to removing damage and debris through lymphatic drainage, setting the stage for damaged tissue to be repaired.

Pain and swelling are a clear message that the “paramedics” are at work. Decreasing pain without shutting down the “highway” is critical for supporting the healing process.

“If you’re injured, one Advil for discomfort or to get sleep is different than taking 800 milligrams of Advil three times a day for three weeks,” said Mr. Aiello. “That’s when you’re likely to have a problem.”

“There are ways to block pain without blocking inflammation, and the most well-known of those is Tylenol,” said Mr. Mogil. But the overuse of Tylenol, or acetaminophen, comes with risks like liver injury.

Reconsidering the Standard Treatment for Acute Pain

Based on their initial study, Mr. Mogil and the other researchers hypothesized that inhibiting the body’s initial inflammatory response leads to chronic pain. They expanded on the research with a study in which mice with an injured paw were given either an over-the-counter anti-inflammatory drug or saline.

Although the mice in the drug group initially showed fewer pain symptoms because their inflammation response was dulled, the pain eventually returned and became chronic. For mice that received saline, the pain subsided in half that time, and they remained pain-free.

To see if their hypothesis might apply to humans, the researchers did a separate analysis of patients in the United Kingdom. Those with acute back pain who reported taking anti-inflammatories were around 70 percent more likely to have pain two to six years later, an effect not seen in people taking acetaminophen or antidepressants.

While the researchers linked blocking early-stage inflammation to the development of chronic pain, decades of medical orthodoxy will not be overturned by a single study. Clinical trials are needed for that, but funding has proven difficult for the researchers to get.

Read the full story at The Epoch Times.