Inflammation is the body’s protective response to harmful or foreign substances like irritants, pathogens and damaged cells. The process is intricate as it involves the immune and vascular systems. It can be classified as acute or chronic.

Symptoms:

Common symptoms of inflammation include pain, heat, redness, swelling, joint pain, and joint stiffness. Often, only a few of these symptoms are present.

Inflammation may also be associated with general flu-like symptoms including fever, chills, fatigue/loss of energy, headaches, loss of appetite, and muscle stiffness.

Causes:

Inflammation is a process by which chemicals from the body's white blood cells are released into the blood or affected tissues to protect your body from foreign substances and repair the area that was affected. This release of chemicals increases the blood flow to the area of injury or infection and may result in redness and warmth. Some of the chemicals cause a leak of fluid into the tissues, resulting in swelling. This protective process may stimulate nerves and cause pain.

In autoimmune diseases, the body's normally protective immune system causes damage to its own tissues, triggering an inflammatory response when there are no foreign invaders to fight off. The body responds as if normal tissues are infected or somehow abnormal.

Treatments:

NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) are taken to alleviate pain caused by inflammation. They block the enzyme, COX (cyclooxygenase), which inhibits the production of prostaglandin. Prostaglandins play a key role in the inflammatory process. If prostaglandin synthesis can be blocked, pain is either eliminated or reduced. Examples of NSAIDs include naproxen, ibuprofen and aspirin.

People should not use NSAIDs long-term without being under the supervision of a doctor because there is a risk of stomach ulcers, and even severe and life-threatening hemorrhage. NSAIDs may also worsen asthma symptoms and cause kidney damage. NSAIDs with the exception of aspirin, can also increase the risk of stroke and myocardial infarction (heart attack).

Acetaminophen (paracetamol, Tylenol) can reduce pain associated with inflammatory conditions, but have no anti-inflammatory effects. They may be ideal for those wishing to treat just the pain, while allowing the inflammation to run its course. There is also some risk associated with the use of acetaminophen as it can cause liver damage.

As already described above, these drugs are not without their side effects, especially when taken orally. When medication is taken orally, they are absorbed into the blood. When this happens, organs and tissues outside of the site of treatment are exposed to these drugs through distribution within the bloodstream. This causes other parts of the body to be affected in unintended ways and could possibly cause organ damage and other complications.

BioMed specializes in the formulation of topical prescription pain medications, designed to be applied on the skin at the site of pain. This application allows for the drugs to be administered without absorption into the bloodstream, greatly minimizing the side effects caused by systemic absorption. Ask your healthcare provider if topical prescription pain medications are right for you.

Here are examples of commonly prescribed formulas for inflammatory pain:

For more information:

1 - WebMD.com article, What Is Inflammation?:
http://www.webmd.com/arthritis/about-inflammation

2 - MedicalNewsToday.com article, Inflammation: Chronic and Acute:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/248423.php?page=2#why_does_inflammation_cause_pain

3 - British Journal of Anaesthesia, Mechanisms of Inflammatory Pain:
http://bja.oxfordjournals.org/content/87/1/3.full