Even though there are plenty of published studies showing the dangers of over-the-counter medications, many are still unaware of the basic facts.

Medications such as aspirin may still seem harmless to most people, but you are one of the enlightened who knows better, and that they are dangerous and potentially deadly. Aside from increasing your chances of getting breast cancer, taking over-the-counter painkillers for six months or more can double your chances of dying from a stroke or heart attack.

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How to Treat Your Pain Without Causing More Damage

The best way to avoid drugs and still get relief from your pain is to utilize treatments that address the underlying cause of your symptoms. Obviously, pain can result from a number of different causes, but there are certain steps you can take that end up addressing many of these causes at the same time.

My favorite options for treating the underlying cause of pain are as follows:

• Start taking a high-quality fish or cod liver oil. Omega-3 fats, which are found in fish or cod liver oil, are precursors to mediators of inflammation called prostaglandins. In fact, that is how Vioxx and other anti-inflammatory painkillers work, they manipulate prostaglandins.

• Eliminate grains and sugars from your daily diet. Sugar and grain avoidance for most people will lower insulin levels. Elevated insulin levels are one of the most important reasons why inflammatory prostaglandins are produced. That is why stopping sugar and sweets is so important to controlling your pain and other types of chronic illnesses.

• Optimize your intake of vitamin D by getting daily sun exposure. If sun exposure is hard to come by for one reason or another, cod liver oil is an excellent alternative source of vitamin D you can use in the meantime. It's also extremely important to have your vitamin D levels tested to know where your levels fall before you begin supplementation.

• Retool your diet based on your body's unique metabolic type. Metabolic typing is a tool I have seen work in thousands of patients to reduce their pain.

• There are also some very effective natural alternatives to anti-inflammatory drugs that can help provide temporary relief for your pain while you are in the process of implementing the above strategies.

• If you are a woman with monthly pain from menstrual cramps, two excellent herbal alternatives specific to that type of pain are Cramp Bark (Viburnum opulus) and Wild Yam (Dioscorea vilosa).

Finally, if you have been taking an aspirin a day for heart disease, there is a safer, healthier and more effective option. It's called CardioEssentials, and it contains a revolutionary powerful enzyme called nattokinase, derived from the food natto, that has been used successfully for circulatory problems for over two decades.

Related Articles:

Is Aspirin The Most Trusted Painkiller of All?

The Toxicity of Acetaminophen

Aspirin Not Recommended for Heart Disease Anymore