Every day millions of Americans take pain relievers because it is a quick and convenient way to deal with routine pain from headaches, arthritis, or menstrual cramps.
But what many people don’t realize as they reach for a bottle of ibuprofen, aspirin, or naproxen is that these medications may be making their health worse instead of better.
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They can cause a surprisingly common condition called leaky gut syndrome.
“Leaky gut syndrome is a breakdown of the barrier of the intestinal lining. Normally the gut lining stops harmful substances in the gut from entering the body,” says Leo Galland, M.D., a Harvard-educated, internationally known integrative medicine clinician who has pioneered treatment for leaky gut.
Leaky gut can damage health in a variety of ways, making it difficult to diagnose, Dr. Galland tells Newsmax Health. It can cause fatigue, joint pain, allergies, digestive troubles, mood swings, and other symptoms.
Over-the-counter pain relievers known as NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) are believed to be a prime cause of leaky gut.
Common NSAIDs include aspirin (Bayer, Excedrin, Anacin), ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin, Nuprin), and naproxen (Aleve, Naprosyn).
“NSAIDs produce an increase in intestinal permeability which depends on dose and frequency,” Dr. Galland says. “This creates an increased level of antibodies compared to bacteria in the gut and leads to inflammation that causes a variety of health problems.”
The higher the dosage, the more likely a person is to suffer leaky gut syndrome. In fact, people who take prescription-strength doses of aspirin, ibuprofen, or naproxen are at great risk, researchers have found.
“About 70 to 80 percent of people who take prescription strength NSAIDs for two weeks will have leaky gut syndrome, based on studies in England,” Dr. Galland notes.
NSAIDs can be particularly damaging to people who have autoimmune conditions such as Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, or psoriasis.
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This poses a dilemma for patients who use NSAIDs to relieve pain from these very conditions. Likewise, middle-aged Americans at risk for heart attacks are often advised to take daily aspirin.
Dr. Galland recommends an anti-inflammatory diet to reduce the need for painkillers. This means avoiding foods with added sugar and refined starches made from white flour, and decreasing consumption of saturated fat, using extra virgin olive oil instead. Eat at least nine servings of fruits and vegetables a day and at least four servings of fish a week.
Supplements that can help ease pain and heal leaky gut include deglycerinated licorice, L-glutamine, and colostrum, Dr. Galland says. These are widely available at health food stores and on the Internet.
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