pain

I don’t need to tell you that Big Pharma is trying to brainwash us.

You can’t turn on the TV these days without seeing a commercial for some new “wonder pill!”

And whenever you walk into a doctor’s office, everything from the tissues to the pens have a drug company logo on them.

Get sick? Take a prescription drug. That’s what the mainstream wants us to think.

But what would happen if all of those ads… and all of those pills… didn’t exist?

A fascinating discovery has just been made on the island of Borneo in the Pacific Ocean.

It’s leaving pain researchers speechless – and it could forever change how you look at natural medicine.

Researchers had been following a group of orangutans when they noticed something amazing.

When the primates’ muscles got sore, they tore off the leaves on a plant called Dracaena cantleyi (it’s related to asparagus) and rubbed the resin on themselves.

Dracaena cantleyi is actually a powerful anti-inflammatory that has been shown to relieve muscle and joint pain. It’s mainly used in Pacific Island folk medicine.

But just think about that for a second: These orangutans are actually wired to look for cures in nature. They instinctively know that these cures exist, and they seek them out.

I’ve been saying for years that nature has given us all we need to heal just about any health condition or disease.

I’m talking about everything from diabetes… to cancer… to memory loss… to chronic pain.

We just need to step outside the Big Pharma bubble and look.

Now, Dracaena cantleyi is a bit of a local remedy, and you’re not really going to find it in America.

But there are plenty of all-natural pain relievers out there. Some of my favorite include:

• Curcumin: This anti-inflammatory compound comes from the spice turmeric and has been proven effective against severe arthritis.
• White willow bark: This is the natural remedy that the drug companies copied when they developed aspirin. But it’s a lot less harsh on your gastrointestinal system.
• Arnica: This herb can even be purchased as a topical for quick pain relief.

You can buy these natural remedies at just about any online or local supplement shop – and for a lot less than you’d spend on pain drugs.

If you love your General Tso's chicken, I bet you'd say that nobody can take your favorite takeout dinner away from you.

But a flavoring often used in Chinese food can be hazardous to your health -- and eating it can cause everything from headaches to heart palpitations.

It's called MSG (a.k.a. "monosodium glutamate") -- and thankfully, many Chinese restaurants in the U.S. now leave it off the menu.

But MSG is still lurking in a lot of America's favorite packaged and fast foods. And according to a new study, regularly eating this flavor additive could saddle you with pain that just won't quit.

The study, recently published in the journal Nutrition, involved 30 Kenyan people who'd lived with chronic pain for at least three months.

Now, in this particular part of Kenya, it's pretty common to find folks with headaches -- and researchers thought that might be because they use a spice mix containing MSG in their daily cooking.

You see, we know that in high amounts, MSG can be toxic: It can over-stimulate, damage, and even KILL nerve cells.

And that, as we've found, can cause otherwise unexplained pain.

Then again, the study's authors acknowledged that the headaches could be a symptom of dehydration, which is also widespread in that part of Africa.

But these Kenyans were also experiencing neurological symptoms that are commonly found in patients with chronic pain right here in the U.S. -- including chronic fatigue, cognitive dysfunction, and sleep issues.

So, researchers split participants into four groups, with each group receiving one of the following:

1. a seasoning substitute that didn't contain MSG
2. bottled water to increase their water intake
3. both the seasoning substitute and bottled water
4, acetaminophen (a.k.a. Tylenol)

By the end of the study, it turned out that members of the group that cut MSG out of their diets AND drank more water reduced their chronic pain scores by 30 percent or more. And sure, that means that dehydration played SOME role in their discomfort.

But although this study was small, these results are really something -- because making a small dietary adjustment was enough to send their pain packing!

So, if you're living with ongoing aches (whether in the head or elsewhere), it's a good idea to look at your diet -- and start by cutting out any and all MSG.

But you should know that it's not always labeled as "monosodium glutamate" or "MSG," because the FDA allows it to be listed under a bunch of OTHER names, such as "hydrolyzed protein," "protein isolate," "protein extract," and "autolyzed yeast extract."

The feds, of course, allow ALL of those in foods because they classify them in the "generally recognized as safe" category.

But we know how wildly overly optimistic the FDA can be about the safety of certain food additives. And if you're in pain, you don't want to wait for government hacks to start paying attention to scientific findings like these.

The best way to steer clear of MSG? Avoid packaged and fast foods entirely!