3 Time-Honored Alternatives to Taking Ibuprofen

Sometimes when I’m doing things that require real endurance, my fullest effort, or my last bit of energy, afterwards I can be left feeling sore, hurt, or outright exhausted. But instead of taking an Ibuprofen, effectively shutting down my own recovery response, I do 1 or all 3 of these Time-Honored Alternatives to Taking Ibuprofen. While the immediate fix may not be as noticeable, the resistance that is built up by doing these alternatives keeps my need for pain intervention at a minimum and my overall pharmaceutical usage at nil.

3 Time-Honored Alternatives to Ibuprofen - Aria Zoner

Some of this I’m sure you’ve heard before, so I’ll save you the pain and be swift. Here are the 3 ways that I typically deal with pain, when I find myself in it…

2017 – Health Hacks with Aria Zoner

– September –

3 Time-Honored Alternatives to Taking Ibuprofen

Option 1: Adjust your Diet

Inflammatory foods can cause whatever pain you do have to hurt even worse. Anti-inflammatory foods on the other hand, help to relieve pain and also feed your body with the nutrition that is needed to have a successful recovery.

Option 2: Be RICE to yourself

This universal recipe works to help reduce the sensation of pain in the body. If no ice is available, see Option 3.

RICE

Option 3: Embrace the Brutality

This 3rd option I originally learned from TBW Productions who urges us to Embrace the Brutality. And I gotta say, I couldn’t agree with him more. Whenever I’m in pain, I see it as a chance to test my grit, to sit in the aftereffects of what it means to go huge, and to let my body know that it needs to get stronger.

Now I’m not saying that I run towards pain, but I don’t necessarily run away from it either. I see pain for what it is, a sensation that lets my body know that something is wrong. If I numb that sensation with Ibuprofen then just keep going on with my day, how will my body know that something’s wrong? And how will it have the time to heal itself?

In Summary:

Painful times are the reason why I always pack an extra sack of rice in my resupply bag, just in case I do push it too hard or genuinely get hurt and unexpectedly need to lay up somewhere for a couple of days until I’m healed enough to continue moving on.

Whenever I’m in pain I:

  • Eliminate inflammatory foods from my diet and increase my intake of anti-inflammatory foods
  • Be RICE to myself
  • Embrace the Brutality

How do you deal with pain management on your adventures? Leave a comment below, I’d love to know…

*During 2017, I’m releasing 3 new Health Hacks each month here at The Trek. To catch up on the year so far, check out my author page – Aria Zoner

For additional tips on wellness, nutrition & long-distance hiking, visit Whole Food Hiker.

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Comments 4

  • keith wingad : Dec 29th

    I do what I can to prevent the pain from coming in the first place. So, for example, as it relates to knee pain, I wrap my knees with ace bandages and then use a knee brace (Cho-Pat in my case). By doing this, I significantly reduce the effects of the trail on my knees and keep pain away, or mostly so. Additionally, by doing this I mitigate the chances that an injury might occur due to the inevitable falls faced on my daily hike.

    Reply
    • Aria Zoner : Dec 31st

      I like your preventative and proactive approach! Like me, you probably use poles on your more serious hikes, I would guess.

      Reply
  • Darrell Barrett : Dec 29th

    High quality fish oil supplements do wonders as well as taking high quality magnesium supplements.

    Reply
    • Aria Zoner : Dec 31st

      I wouldn’t run my car without oil, or my body. Do you do take fish or krill/phytoplankton based omega supp? I like the krill or algae-based ones cause their lower on the food chain. Cod liver oil was good enough in the day, but now we want a lower viscosity.

      Reply

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