March 2026 | What’s going on…                                                    Home

We all suffer from pain at some point – a headache, a splinter in your finger, damage to a wrist or knee due to sport, or your back from arthritis. The pain in these, and so many other situations, is mostly due to inflammation – when our immune system responds to injury, infection or irritation by sending out chemical messages that cause blood vessels to widen and leak fluid into the surrounding tissue.

When pain arrives, we often turn to the obvious and easy route – drugs. But anti-inflammatory drugs (Ibuprofen, codeine and so on) are not the only option and some of us can’t take them. There are some natural ways to finding pain relief and reducing inflammation, especially if the cause of your pain is likely to be long-term. The first step could be to adjust our diets. Consider Paleo or Keto diets as these focus on unprocessed and healthier foods along with lower carb intake, which converts to sugars in their breakdown. Another option would be probiotics, which rebalance your good gut bacteria. Most of your immune system is found in the gut so this helps modulate your immune system responses. Natural foods that are fermented or contain live cultures should be a daily choice. You can buy commercial probiotics at supermarkets or from healthfood stores, or ask us for advice.

Perhaps a more topical solution would be to see if you would benefit from CBD’s. This is a compound derived from cannabis that is well regarded for reducing inflammation and pain relief, among other things, but will not give you the high of cannabis. We have a small selection at the practice, plus they are available in many other stores. 

All these will require a little research to see what would benefit you the most. Try reading up on specific compounds like blackseed oil, turmeric, ginger and, of course, Omega 3’s. If you need some more advice, we are here for you.

Take 4 medium beetroot (c.500gms) scrub and boil until tender. When cold slice into rounds. In the meantime, make the pickling liquid: add
1 cinnamon stick, 1 bay leaf, 1 tsp each of mustard seeds, cloves, black peppercorns and 1 star anise to a pan. Pour over a litre of malt vinegar and bring to the boil slowly, then turn off and allow to cool. Leaving overnight is good for developing the flavour. Pack the beetroot slices into a very clean jar, add the pickling mix and forget for a week.