One of the biggest issues regarding herbal painkillers – as well as other, non-pill methods of pain relief – is
that they are never as scrutinized as their chemical pill cousins. Chemical pills manufactured by pharmaceutical
companies are subjected to endless rounds of testing, both for efficacy and for side effects. Only when declared
safe are they released onto the medical market. The same rigorous testing is rarely applied to herbal remedies,
largely because of their natural properties – properties which, we are lead to believe, mean they are safer.
In truth, herbal remedies are less likely to cause unwarranted side effects than those of a chemical nature – hence
the lesser restrictions on their sale to the general public. Yet this advantage quickly changes itself, in that the
lack of testing also means a lack of clinical data to analyze. It is therefore extremely difficult to understand if
these so-called herbal painkillers actually do what they’re supposed to. Without full clinical trials, one can
never be sure.
So much of herbal medicine is balanced on folklore and personal experience. One person has a friend tell them
‘this’ particular herbal remedy works, and they naturally believe their friend – so they try it for themselves.
They then either find themselves sorely – quite literally – disappointed, or it does work. Let’s say for a moment
that the herbal remedy does indeed rid them of their pain – is it genuine, or is it a psychological response
whereby something ‘works’ because they believe it will? This is known as the placebo effect, and is the main way
conventional doctors dismiss the claims of herbal remedies.
Essentially, there is no way of knowing if anything aside from conventional, chemical drugs can actually rid a
person of pain. Perhaps the best method is experimentation – you may find one herbal remedy works better for you
than others.
However, the most effective type of pain management is to restrict what you take painkillers for. The more you take
conventional painkillers, the less effective they become. If you’re popping the Advil for a mild headache, the drug
is not going to be as useful when you really need it – such as when you’ve had a tooth out, or broken a bone. This
kind of tolerance lends itself to increasing the chances of side effects from painkillers; the very thing that
turns most people toward herbal medicine in the first instance.
The less you take a chemical painkiller, the more effective each dose will be. Try and rate your pain on a scale of
1 to 10 – 10 being a huge accident with severe injuries that are possibly life-threatening. A five would be a bad
toothache following an extraction. If the pain you are experiencing rates any lower than a five, try not to take
any painkillers. The problem is, this simple and easy solution is actually nothing of the sort. The only way to
ensure painkillers continue to be effective and do not have negative connotations on your health is to limit the
times you take them. This, and no herbal remedy, is as close as you will probably come to a pain-free-pill-free
life.