Most people think inflammation is either good or bad. In reality, inflammation is a normal part of the healing process. The challenge is knowing when inflammation is helping and when it has overstayed its welcome.
That’s why it’s useful to think about inflammation in three different categories: acute inflammation, chronic inflammation, and inflammation resolution.
Acute Inflammation: When You Need Relief Now
Acute inflammation occurs when you strain a muscle, overdo it in the garden, experience back pain or menstrual cramps, or develop exercise-related soreness. In these situations, the goal is often fast relief.
Unlike many natural anti-inflammatory products that may take days or weeks to work, Metagenics Soreness Relief combines turmeric, boswellia, and black sesame oil in a formulation and is designed to provide relief within hours.
In a placebo-controlled trial of 232 adults with exercise-induced musculoskeletal pain, about 99% reported perceptible pain relief within ~1 hour and 96% achieved meaningful pain relief within ~3 hours after a single dose.
Chronic Inflammation: Supporting the Body Over Time
While acute inflammation is often short-lived, chronic inflammation can linger for months or years. Conditions such as osteoarthritis, fibromyalgia, obesity, insulin resistance, and the aging process are all associated with ongoing inflammatory activity.
For these situations, a broader approach may be beneficial.
Metagenics Inflavonoid Intensive Care contains a combination of curcumin, boswellia, ginger, fenugreek, and xanthohumol from hops. Rather than providing quick relief for a sore back or strained shoulder, it is designed to help support multiple inflammatory pathways involved in long-term inflammation.
It is best viewed as a daily inflammation-support product rather than a rescue product.
The Missing Piece: Resolution
One of the most exciting discoveries in inflammation research is that the body doesn’t simply wait for inflammation to fade away. It actively produces compounds that help stop inflammation, clear away cellular debris, and promote healing.
These compounds are known as Specialized Pro-Resolving Mediators, or SPMs.
Research suggests that people with chronic inflammatory conditions, obesity, and age-related inflammation may have difficulty producing enough of these important resolution signals.
Researchers are asking: What if the problem isn’t too much inflammation – but difficulty turning it off?
SPM Active: Supporting Resolution
SPM Active works differently from traditional anti-inflammatory products.
Rather than suppressing inflammatory pathways, SPM Active helps support the body’s natural inflammation-resolution process. In studies, SPM supplementation has been associated with improvements in chronic pain, osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis symptoms, sleep, physical function, and quality of life.
Many researchers now believe that healthy inflammation management involves more than simply reducing inflammation. It also requires helping the body resolve inflammation efficiently.
Putting It All Together
A practical approach to inflammation may involve the following Metagenics products:
- Soreness Relief for occasional acute aches and pains
- Inflavonoid Intensive Care for ongoing inflammatory support
- SPM Active to help support the body’s natural inflammation-resolution pathways
Lyle Sunada is a NAMS Certified Menopause Practitioner and pharmacist at Cloverdale Pharmasave with special interests in hormone balancing, natural and integrative medicine.
