Effective Natural Therapies for Pain

By Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum
Published on May 13, 2013
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“Pain Free 1-2-3,” by Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum, offers over 100 natural and prescription treatment ideas for pain.
“Pain Free 1-2-3,” by Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum, offers over 100 natural and prescription treatment ideas for pain.
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Saint-John's-wort has been found to be helpful in treating neuropathic pain for some people. This treatment is safe, inexpensive and helps depression.
Saint-John's-wort has been found to be helpful in treating neuropathic pain for some people. This treatment is safe, inexpensive and helps depression.

Pain Free 1-2-3 (McGraw-Hill, 2006) demonstrates the three critical components for healing tissue: getting optimum nutrition and sleep, correcting hormonal levels, and eliminating the factors that put stress on the body. Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum provides more than 100 treatments combining both natural and prescription approaches to guide you in aiding the body in healing, locating the source of pain and tailoring treatments for maximum effect. The excerpt below comes from chapter 11, “Natural Therapies.”

You can buy this book in the MOTHER EARTH NEWS store:Pain Free 1-2-3.

Many natural therapies can be very helpful for pain. My three favorite pain-relieving herbs are willow bark, boswellia, and cherry. Let’s look more closely at these three herbs.

Willow Bark

Willow bark is the original source of aspirin, but when used as the entire herb it has been found to be much safer than aspirin and more effective. The active ingredient is salicin, and willow bark has been shown to be effective in both osteoarthritis and back pain. People who are severely allergic to aspirin (those with aspirin-induced asthma or anaphylaxes, which are very unusual) should not use willow bark. Like aspirin and Celebrex, willow bark acts as a cyclooxygenase enzyme (COX) inhibitor, decreasing inflammation.

There is clearly a combination of other elements in willow bark that markedly enhances its effectiveness and safety — which can be a major benefit over aspirin and NSAIDs such as Motrin. Unfortunately aspirin and NSAIDs cause an enormous amount of gastritis and ulcer bleeding to the extent of killing fifteen thousand to twenty thousand Americans yearly! The studies on willow bark are quite consistent in showing its effectiveness and safety in reducing pain. Let’s look at some of the research.

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