Vijay Vad

I have suffered from chronic knee pain for all of my adult life, following an accident at the age of 18 while serving in the U.S. Navy. The accident resulted in a sprain-type injury in both knees due to a violent twisting with my feet trapped and stationary. The injuries never fully resolved, and, after more than a year of treatment and rehabilitation attempts, I was honorably discharged due to physical disability, with a diagnosis of chondromalacia patella in both knees.

About a year later, I developed a life-threatening allergic response to non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), a class of drugs which includes Motrin and Naprosyn and on which I relied heavily to manage the pain and inflammation of my condition.

The author was born in India and was strongly influenced by the healing power of herbs and spices...essentially eating foods with particular spices to treat certain ailments. He received his medical training in the "Western" world, steeped in its reliance on invasive surgical procedures and phenomenally expensive drugs...and the shunning of the idea that disease could be treated by simple herbs or vitamins. After all, he says, the pharmaceutical industry has a vested interest in keeping such knowledge from gaining a foothold in mainstream medicine: you can't obtain a patent on ginger root.

This book presents "both sides" of the author's knowledge and training, with detailed guidance on dosage and safety for several readily-available herbs and nutritional supplements known to have analgesic or anti-inflammatory properties, along with information on steroidal and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, surgical interventions for orthopedic problems, and stretching exercises derived from yoga. He provides case studies from among his orthopedic patients to show how a combination of modalities may succeed where "standard" Western orthopedic treatments may fail to achieve a satisfactory outcome.

As I noted earlier, I personally suffer from inflammatory orthopedic conditions and am highly allergic to the drugs used to treat those conditions. I selected a regimen of herbs and supplements least likely to interact with other medications I take, and I began an admittedly unscientific experiment on myself. Given its success, and the fact that part of the regimen was recommended to me by an orthopedic nurse-practitioner unaware of my personal experiment, I cannot overstate my praise for and recommendation of this book. I wish it had been written 20 years ago, and it will be at the top of my gift list for friends and family who suffer from inflammatory pain.… (más)