A Natural Anti-Inflammatory Gains Acceptance

A Natural Anti-Inflammatory Gains Acceptance

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Home Page > Health > Supplements & Vitamins > A Natural Anti-Inflammatory Gains Acceptance

A Natural Anti-Inflammatory Gains Acceptance

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Posted: May 29, 2009 |Comments: 1
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Acceptance among doctors of the use of natural anti-inflammatory compounds has been increasing in response to evidence that pins the blame for some heart attacks and deaths on COX-2 drugs. COX-2 inhibitors are drugs for inflammation that selectively block the COX-2 enzyme. Blocking this enzyme impedes the production of the chemical messengers (prostaglandins) that cause the pain and swelling of arthritis inflammation.

When COX-2 drugs appeared on the market in 1999, they were touted as the answer to the problems of the older nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), which while effective against inflammation and the consequent pain, had a range of nasty side effects that included stomach ulcers and renal failure.

The COX-2 drugs were said to offer relief from the misery of arthritis pain and other forms of chronic inflammation, without the dangers of the older drugs. For a while, COX-2 drugs appeared to live up to the marketing hype. COX-2 drugs such as Vioxx and Celebrex became the most frequently prescribed new drugs in the United States. By October 2000, US sales exceeded 100 million prescriptions per year and were increasing rapidly. Sales of Celebrex alone reached .1 billion during 2001.

The future for this new class of drugs looked stellar, until a few doctors began to notice that their patients on COX-2 drugs experienced more adverse cardiac events than other patients. Research by concerned doctors led to one of the most popular COX-2 drugs, Vioxx, being withdrawn by its maker, Merck, in September of 2004, in response to data showing that it appeared to increase the risk of heart attack by several hundred percent. Other COX-2 withdrawals followed in various parts of the world.

There have been about 16,000 lawsuits against Merck in the United States and many more legal actions elsewhere in the world. It is thought that COX-2 inhibitors increase the risk of heart attack because they make blood platelets stickier, which can lead to the blockage of blood vessels. While Vioxx and Celebrex have the misfortune of being the best known of the COX-2 drugs accused of causing harm, they are by no means alone. A survey of 1.5 million patients that was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that the COX-2 inhibitor Dicolfenac increased the risk of heart attack by 40 percent.

COX-2 drugs are still being prescribed throughout the world, although evidence of the risks involved has caused an increasing number of doctors to look at other options.

This is a big step for most American-trained doctors, because US medical schools teach little about the use of natural alternatives.

By comparison, European medical schools treat natural alternatives as first-choice therapeutic options. The medical culture in Europe is quite different from that in the United States. A German doctor, for example, would likely consider prescribing a natural remedy for a patient as a first-choice option and would not resort to a synthetic drug unless or until the natural remedy had been shown to be insufficient for the needs of that patient.

The US situation is changing, though. Organizations such as the American Association of Integrative Medicine have made great strides in making medical professionals aware of low-cost, low-risk, efficacious natural options to synthetic drugs.

For example, there are natural anti-inflammatory options, such as marine oils and various plant oils, that have been found to have a modulating effect on the body’s inflammatory response. The problem with natural anti-inflammatories is that, with one notable exception, they are not particularly potent, so large doses are needed to achieve a therapeutic benefit.

The notable exception is a product called Lyprinol, which is the result of a patented process that extracts the lipid (marine oil) fractions of the New Zealand green-lipped mussel. Research conducted at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane, Australia, by Dr. Sir Michael Whitehouse and published in the peer-reviewed journal Inflammopharmacology, showed that Lyprinol was 350 times more potent than salmon oil, 350 times more potent than other green-lipped mussel products (powders), and 400 times more potent than flax seed oil. Dr. Whitehouse also compared the efficacy of Lyprinol with that of synthetic anti-inflammatory drugs, and Lyprinol was the winner again. He found that as an anti-inflammatory the mussel oil was 97 percent effective. None of the other marine oils, or pharmaceuticals such as Indomethacin, were able to achieve a result that matched the effectiveness of the mussel oil.

Even more important, Lyprinol achieved this high level of efficacy without causing any nasty side effects and or adverse interactions with other medications. The mussel lipid fraction extract is also protein free, and therefore safe for people who have an adverse reaction to shellfish. During more than two decades of use and research, there has never been a single recorded adverse reaction to the pure extracted oil of the New Zealand green-lipped mussel.

The mussel oil has another advantage over fish oil, in that it does not inhibit blood clotting. The consumption of large quantities of fish oil can be contraindicated for some patients who are on blood-thinning medications, because fish oil inhibits clotting.

In addition to the anti-inflammatory benefits of Lyprinol, it also plays a role in promoting good heart health, as one would expect of a potent omega 3 marine oil. Diets high in marine oils have been shown to be beneficial for cardiovascular health, because they inhibit the accumulation of atherosclerotic plaque (hardening of the arteries). Marine oils also reduce the level of the “bad” LDL cholesterol in the blood and help to keep the blood vessels supple and elastic.

Because Lyrinol has been shown to be 350 times more potent than salmon oil as a source of omega 3, it can deliver a worthwhile heart health benefit with a much smaller dose. For example, just one Lyprinol capsule has the potency of about a quarter of the typical bottle of fish oil capsules.

Work conducted by Dr. Whitehouse and others published in

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