Everyone has times of aches and higher inflammation, from numerous causes. Here’s how to help.
An old-timey joke goes like this: “I went to the doctor and told him ‘It hurts when I do this.’ The doctor said, ‘Then don’t do that.’”
If only it were that easy.
Pain tolerance is individual—no two people experience pain the same exact way, which is why hospitals have a pain chart to assess how to help the patient lessen the discomfort.
However, although pharmaceuticals such as opioids are indeed effective in helping manage pain, it has come with a dramatic price tag—millions of people becoming addicted and turning toward illegal drugs, such as heroin, to continue not only the pain numbing but a feeling of euphoria.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse notes that 130 people die each day from opioid overdoses, and this number has risen dramatically. Between 1999 and 2017, opioid overdose fatalities increase from 8,048 to 47,600, at a newly estimated cost of $78.5 billion per year. Further, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, nearly 12 million people in the United States misuse opioid medication.
Because opioid addiction has become a national crisis, you may have customers who have difficulty getting off them and finding alternatives that will provide comfort. “Retailers need to tread lightly here. While natural support options do exist, you need to be aware of what’s permissible to claim and what isn’t,” asserted Laura Fuentes, CEO and co-founder of Florida-based Green Roads. “There’s nothing wrong with directing consumers who say they are battling with opioid addiction to online resources about a given product, as well as addiction resources in general.”
Michael Smith, MD, of Life Extension, Florida advised to not make any promises. Although there are research-supported nutritional strategies, chronic pain is a complicated disease process. “Share with them the research and different strategies and help them get started. Be there for them when adjustments are needed.”
A salient point is that opioid use has a Band-Aid effect on pain by masking it rather than addressing the root cause, pointed out Kelly Pris, marketing director, Mountain Meadow Herbs, Montana. Natural products manufacturers’ goal “is to get to the root of the problem and help people to support their body naturally so that the pain, whatever it is a result of, becomes a non-issue because the body is healthy and able to support itself,” she noted.
A similar viewpoint is offered by Sara Pluta, education director for Emerald Health Bioceuticals, who said, “The best way for retailers to respond to the opioid epidemic is to provide consumers with safe, natural alternatives that just as successfully treat pain and inflammation without the serious
consequences of opioid use.”
Pluta further explained that one of the most effective methods for treating inflammation is through the support and activation of the endocannabinoid system—“the most critical biological system in the body that promotes homeostasis in every cell, tissue and organ. It’s intricately involved in balancing the neurotransmitters that influence pain and inflammation, which is significant because when inflammation becomes out of control, it can cause severe tissue damage and disrupt your health on a deep cellular level leading to chronic disease.”
“First and foremost,” emphasized Cheryl Myers, chief of scientific affairs and education, Wisconsin-based EuroPharma Inc., “consumers need to work with their health care practitioners regarding their desire to reduce or eliminate opioid use. The best health outcomes occur when all the members of the team are on board with the treatment goal.”
Myers added that although most people know that opioid drugs are highly addictive, what many people do not know is that pain relievers in the opioid family increase pain sensitivity. Another issue is increasing tolerance as the body becomes used to the substance and requires more to achieve the same level of pain management. Finally, opioid pain relievers such as the common ones—Vicodin, Percocet and Oxycontin—have no impact on inflammation and do nothing to alleviate the underlying cause of pain.
“When doctors first work with patients to help them stop these drugs, initially the pain increases disproportionately when the dosage is decreased,” she explained.” Patients will then feel a sense of hopelessness that they could transition off these drugs because their pain is too bad. What they may fail to understand is that the increase in pain is often due to the activity of the opioid drug itself.”
When approached by a customer who is taking opioids and wants to move to something natural, Marita Schauch, ND, health educator on behalf of Washington-based Natural Factors, suggested it’s important to listen to his or her story and understand that the individual cannot suddenly cease taking the opioid. This is the chance—and opportunity—to teach how diet, lifestyle and certain dietary supplements can help manage discomfort and inflammatory response.
Key Products
There are many products touted for management of aches and pains, and many of those that work to do so by addressing inflammatory response. Two of the biggest sub-categories are curcumin/turmeric and CBD. Consumers are highly aware of both and are frequently driven into independent natural products stores in search of better-quality curcumin and CBD, as well as a wider breadth of offerings to choose from.
Theracurmin from Natural Factors, said Schauch, has a high number of human clinical trials showing its efficacy in use for managing discomfort. Additionally, he said, “Theracurmin delivers measurable benefits for liver, skin, heart, arterial, muscular, oral and cognitive health, in amounts as low as 30 mg to 180 mg daily, depending on the study.”
Europharma’s Curamin and Curamin Extra Strength “deliver ingredients that relieve pain right away and help stop the inflammatory damage that causes pain. That, in turn, not only makes people feel better, but it gives them a chance to heal,” Myers said.
Curamin formulas feature BCM-95 Curcumin, which is blended with turmeric essential oils for better absorption and blood retention, plus the benefits of turmerones, including ar-turmerone, which are anti-inflammatory compounds. This curcumin is paired a unique boswellia extract that is standardized to ensure one of the herb’s most beneficial compounds, acetyl-11-keto-β-boswellic acid, or AKBA, at a minimum of 10 percent while purifying the herb to remove most of the beta boswellic acid (BBA), which is a proinflammatory compound.
“Curcumin modulates all inflammatory pathways, while boswellia zeroes in on 5-LOX inflammation,” Myers described “This gives Curamin formulas a wide spectrum of pain relief while simultaneously aiding in tissue repair.” These formulas also contain DL phenylalanine, an amino acid that slows down the degradation of enkephalins, one of the brain’s natural painkilling substances, enkephalins.
She reported that EuroPharma’s curcumin (BCM-95) has been clinically studied for rheumatoid arthritis on its own, and for osteoarthritis alone and in combination with uniquely standardized boswellia (> 10 percent AKBA—the heavy lifter, while purified to < 5 percent BBA, a compound that promotes inflammation).
In the rheumatoid arthritis study, BCM-95 Curcumin was compared to the prescription drug diclofenac sodium (NSAID). Both BCM-95 curcumin and the drug relieve pain and other RA symptoms about the same amount, Myers noted, but in the drug group, 14 percent of the patients had to drop out of because of side effects.
A recent osteoarthritis study compared BCM-95 Curcumin to diclofenac sodium (e.g., Voltaren). “The curcumin was equal to the drug for pain and symptom relief,” she said, “but superior in safety and tolerability. In the drug group, 28 percent of the patients had such severe gastrointestinal adverse effects that they needed another prescription drug (an H2 blocker) added to their regimen just to deal with the side effects. That did not happen in the curcumin group.”
In an osteoarthritis study, BCM-95 Curcumin combined with our uniquely standardized boswellia, were compared to the prescription drug celecoxib (One brand name is Celebrex). One group received celecoxib, 100 mg, twice daily while the second group received a 500 mg blend of the high-absorption curcumin and the boswellia twice daily. For pain relief, 64 percent of those taking the herbal ingredients versus 29 percent in the drug group improved from “moderate to severe arthritis” to “mild to moderate arthritis.”
Life Extension’s ComfortMAX is a supplement that promotes nerve health and comfort, according to Smith, by inhibiting inflammatory compounds in nerve cells and encouraging healthy neurotransmitter levels in the brain. ComfortMAX provides dual-action nerve support to help inhibit discomfort. “It delivers two potent ingredients: palmitoylethanolamide and honokiol, a compound derived from magnolia bark,” he explained. By promoting nerve comfort in two separate yet complementary ways, the ingredients in ComfortMAX address the first step in chronic pain development, which is peripheral nerve inflammation. It blocks the immune-modulated inflammation initiated by mast cells. This type of inflammation targets peripheral nerves.”
The CBD Wave
Millions of people are seeking CBD—both devotees and newbies. Most of them are aware that CBD supplements can do two things: ease tension/anxiety, and manage discomfort. And the beauty is that CBD (especially THC-free) can provide these benefits without any side effects or fear of GI (gastrointestinal) damage that is incurred by NSAIDS.
Colorado-based New Frontier Data, a market research firm, has estimated that sales of CBD products (including supplements)—reached approximately $390 million in 2018, and is on the path to potentially tripling to $1.2 billion in 2022. Meanwhile, Nutrition Business Journal pegged the CBD market growth at 57 percent in 2018.
CBD is so hot amongst retailers, that in one store, Harmony Farms (Raleigh, NC), CBD is now its own section. And according to one of the original store founders, Penny Eubanks, “we are about to expand this further.”
Not only that, she added, but the retailer also decided to add a meeting room to teach customers all about CBD. And there is a great emphasis that retailers need to focus on, “consider the person, not just his/her pain in isolation,” she advised.
There are hundreds of innovative companies getting into the CBD product arena, so you have many to choose from.
Pluta described Emerald Health Bio’s Endo Inflame as a product that promotes the body’s healthy response to pain and inflammation by supporting the endocannabinoid system and targeting pain and inflammation receptors to stop overactive inflammatory responses. It features the company’s PhytoCann Complex—a blend of cannabis-free herbs and botanicals, plus curcumin and boswellia.
Further, she added, the company’s new Endo Omega products (vegan and marine) provide the “ideal ratio” of omegas (fish or algae), EFA-rich hemp seed oil, and MCT oil to supply the body and ECS with the raw materials it needs to produce its own endocannabinoids, and ultimately modulate the inflammatory cascade.
Green Roads’ CBD comes from hemp plants grown on American farms and is pharmacist formulated, Fuentes pointed out. “We test our raw materials for microbials, pesticides, heavy metals, and more. We create our product line using custom, proprietary formulations. We let external labs test our finished goods before they hit the shelves, and we let customers review the resulting lab sheet via a QR (quick response) code,” she stated.
Green Roads offers a bevy of SKUs in oils, syrups, gummies, bundles, topicals and even for pets.
EuroPharma’s Hemp Select, described Myers, “is a European, CO2-extracted full-spectrum hemp oil, containing a complete set of phytocannabinoids, rather than just a single compound like the phytocannabinoid CBD. Hemp Select provides phytocannabinoids that connect with cannabinoid receptors in the body to reduce the stimulation of pain pathways. There is also preliminary research that using full spectrum hemp helps ease the transition off opioid medications via certain brain pathways associated with reward and addiction,” she emphasized.
Botanicals have also been relied on by consumers for years to help manage mild to moderate aches and discomforts.
For example, Mountain Meadow Herbs’ liquid Joint & Muscle Formula, according to Pris, started as three separate formulas—Herbal Calcium, Allevi-Ritis and Anti-Inflammatory—that the company finally combined to the 3-in-1 formula. “We discovered superior benefits from the formulas when used in conjunction with each other, so combining them was a no-brainer,” she commented.
Herbal Calcium contains herbs naturally rich in calcium that help to support the central nervous system “so that your muscles and your brain effectively communicate to each other, eliminating much of the discomfort that is associated with those misfires in contraction and release,” she described.
Mountain Meadow Herbs’ new product for joint and inflammation support, Active Joint & Muscle, blends stinging nettle leaf, garlic, horsetail, celery seed and turmeric. Said Pris, “This product has the key ingredients to promote ideal comfort for the entire musculoskeletal system. We promote the two products working synergistically, using the liquid Joint & Muscle Formula as a daily supplement and the Active Joint & Muscle during periods of over-exertion.”
Creative Merchandising
Natural product retailers can implement creative and educational marketing and merchandising campaigns to create customer loyalty and trust, especially for those consumers who are experiencing discomfort and do not want to use opioids or NSAIDS.
“It is important to speak to the potential issues with opioid use and rather than create fear, encourage hope through alternative support channels,” stressed Pluta. She advised to partner with local pain clinics and health care practitioners to provide complementary support via botanicals, nutraceuticals and lifestyle modifications.
Fuentes advised retailers to begin their education efforts by researching what types of claims they are allowed to make during conversations with customers. She suggested placing pamphlets from opioid addiction treatment centers near the register.
Think seasonally, Myers offered. For example, when people get back outdoors after hibernating in winter, create a theme to provide relief from “returning to outdoors” in springtime. Summer swimming and sports can be a theme as well. In fall, “leaf raking relief” and in winter, “snow shoveling relief” all can work.
Community involvement is suggested by several sources, and includes local sponsorships for outdoor events (think charity runs/walks), and holding in-store seminars featuring experts in natural healing for discomfort, along with sampling.
In the discomfort management sector, pointed out Pris, “Customer loyalty can be easily obtained through membership benefit-type of programs.” This is especially attractive for those who are dealing with chronic issues.
Said Myers, “Being able to offer clinically proven, significant relief for pain and inflammation gives people an excellent intervention while working with their healthcare practitioner to transition away from opiate drugs. And unlike this class of prescription drugs, there are no issues with dependence, addiction, liver damage, constipation and other adverse effects from opiates.” VR
For More Information:
Emerald Health Bioceuticals, www.emeraldhealthbio.com
EuroPharma Inc., www.europharmausa.com
Green Roads, www.greenroadsworld.com
Life Extension, www.lifeextension.com
Mountain Meadow Herbs, www.mmherbs.com
Natural Factors, www.naturalfactors.com
