A pinched nerve in the lower back can lead to sciatica pain. And for those who experience it every day, the pain can be quite unpleasant. While yoga and chiropractor visits can help alleviate the pain, there’s another way to deal with this condition.
Reversing Sciatica Pain With Turmeric
Turmeric is a powerful spice that has anti-inflammatory effects. Because sciatica can be caused by inflammation of your sciatic nerve, lowering inflammatory responses in your body can help.
Turmeric achieves this by reducing your levels of inflammation causing enzymes. (1)
Take 300 mg of turmeric, 3 times per day to help ease pain and inflammation. You can drink it as a tea, use it for cooking or apply it topically as a paste. (2)
In fact, turmeric has been the go-to solution in Ayurveda for centuries when it comes to treating arthritis (3). A study done by Malaysian scientists confirmed that turmeric extract could help ease nerve-related pain. (4)
Turmeric Safer And More Effective Than NSAIDs
One of the many unique properties of turmeric in fighting inflammation is that it can selectively block “COX-2” (an enzyme responsible for inflammation) without affecting “COX-1”, which plays a key role in maintaining your stomach lining. (5)
See also: sciatica stretches
On the other hand, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) that include aspirin, ibuprofen, and naproxen cannot do this and inhibit both COX-1 and COX-2 enzymes to stop inflammation.
And because these drugs disrupt COX-1 they can lead to stomach problems in the long-term.
Drug companies have been spending millions of dollars trying to come up with a drug that could selectively inhibit COX-2 without affecting COX-1 (6). So far, they haven’t had much success.
But then again, why take drugs that most likely come with side effects when you can just eat turmeric. Plus, turmeric offers a wide range of health benefits!