Natural Alternatives for Pain Relief

Aspirin: No Safe Option For Pain Relief

With Vioxx off the market and Celebrex and Bextra under tremendous scrutiny, patients seem to be turning back to aspirin-based pain relievers, believing they're a safer option.

A good indication patients are seeking other alternatives: Aspirin sales at Drugstore.com have increased an unexpected 15 percent.

More little-known facts about aspirin:

• Amazingly, more than 100 BILLION aspirin tablets are taken each year.

• The history of aspirin dates back to 400 B.C. when it was used to relieve pain during childbirth.

• Aspirin was first marketed in 1899 and has been sold as a "generic" drug since Bayer's patent ran out in the 1930s.

If you read this blog with any regularity, however, you know aspirin is indeed a dangerous drug, particularly for people who use it as a blood thinner.

A quote from a Harvard pharmacist says it all about aspirin's safety: "My guess is that if aspirin was launched in 2004, it would not be an over-the-counter drug. People have the misunderstanding that if you can simply buy it without a prescription, that it is completely safe to use. But every drug has side effects." Indeed...

If you need to relieve pain, you do have an array of safer options at your disposal:

• Start taking a high quality fish oil, depending on where you live.

• Eliminate grains and sugars from your daily diet.

• Optimize your intake of vitamin D. Sun exposure is clearly the best way to achieve this, but in the winter taking a quality Vitamin D supplement is far more realistic than spending the next two months in the Caribbean.