Fight sports and work related pain the natural way!

Whether you an elite athlete, an occasional gym goer, or someone who finds themselves out of breath in a five-a-side football game three times a year, as we get older we all become more susceptible to stiffness and aches. In the modern world, we also have a new problem to contend with. Most of us spend hours everyday working in front of a computer and a lot of our free time looking down at our mobile phones. This is creating problems with our postures, further increasing the chances of us suffering from constant niggling pain.

So what can we do to get some relief from this pain? Looking from a broader perspective, there is regular massage, physiotherapy, yoga, and ergonomic improvements to our work spaces; but what if we look at this in terms of what we are actually running our bodies on? How many of us are rarely going a day without using anti-inflammatory drugs such as Ibuprofen or Aspirin?
 
Though NSAID's (Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) play an important role in dealing with many acute conditions within medicine, taking them everyday for these kind of sports injuries or aches and pains is not the answer! My main issue with NSAID's, is that they interfere with our bodies natural ability to fix injuries itself. We create inflammation to protect our cells and tissues from damage, so having excess anti-inflammatory medication in our bodies for these kind of issues is simply slowing down our recovery process.
The other issues to consider are the side-effects of long term use. Although the risks are extremely low for occasional periods of short term use, long term use is heavily linked with stomach ulcers and kidney failure. Many athletes also claim they find it harder to stay hydrated, both during and just after extended use of NSAIDs.

The Natural Route

There are such a wide variety of foods and supplements available, making dietary choices has never been simpler. The strongest argument for looking at sports and work related injury from a nutritional angle instead of medicinal one, is down to longevity. If you have a work related injury, it is going to take time to fix through physiotherapy and ergonomic changes. Are you going to take medicine the whole time in the hope that one day you’ll sort the problem out and you’ll stop relying on them? What if you are a dedicated lifelong runner? How many tablets will you have consumed over the space of a decade if you are taking them morning, noon and night, just so you can train every day?

The benefits of adding anti-inflammatory foods and supplements to your diet extend way beyond a little bit of pain relief. Each flavour and colour brings its own unique set of active ingredients, so the anti-inflammatory effect these foods have on the body are produced in many different ways. The high levels of bromelain present in the stems of pineapples have been used to reduce swelling after surgery for centuries, whilst the levels of quercetin within lingonberries acts not only as a powerful anti-inflammatory its own right, but is said to significantly increase the bodies uptake of other important nutrients, that often struggle to absorb into our blood. Adding a variety of different foods and natural anti-inflammatory supplements to your diet won’t only help you manage your niggling aches and pains, but will aid digestion, support your heart, and promote overall health.

Our Lingonberry Powder is a really simple way to add more natural anti-inflammatory compounds into your diet. Adding a couple of spoonfuls to a jug of water and leaving it to cool in the fridge over night is my favourite way to take it. This method requires minimal stirring, as the powder just dissolves over night. It is really refreshing and can be infused with any fruit you may have in the house, which create nice subtle flavour variations. Lemon and cucumber are the obvious choices for this!

Here are our 5 favourite anti-inflammatory foods 

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