For this issue on Best Naturopathic Therapies, I have excerpted part of the section on the natural treatment of pain from my new book Pain Free 1-2-3!-A Proven Program to Get You Pain Free . The book teaches a Comprehensive Medicine approach to overall pain management for both prescribing and non-prescribing practitioners. Acupuncture, manipulation, etc are discussed elsewhere in the book and therefore are not in this article.

Natural therapies

Many natural therapies can be very helpful for pain. My 3 favorite pain relieving herbals are willow bark, Boswellia, and tart cherry. All 3 of these can be found in combination in the End Fatigue “Pain Formula” by Integrative Therapeutics.

Begin with 2 tabs 2-3 times a day as needed until maximum benefit is achieved (4-6 weeks) and then you can use the lowest effective dose. Let’s look at these 3 herbals.

Willow bark is the original source of aspirin, but when used as the entire herb it has been found to be much safer and quite 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 (e.g. aspirin induced asthma or anaphylaxes–which is very unusual) should not use Willow bark. Like aspirin and Celebrex, it acts as a COX (Cyclooxygenase enzyme) inhibitor, decreasing inflammation. There are clearly a combination of other factors in Willow bark that markedly enhance its effectiveness and safety–which can be a major benefit over aspirin and NSAIDs (e.g.–Motrin) which cause an enormous amount of gastritis and ulcer bleeding, to the point of killing 15,000-20,000 Americans yearly! The studies on Willow bark are quite consistent in their effectiveness in reducing pain.