Nate Polaske wrote:
>
> I struggled for months with this pain, mostly because I didn't want to
> stop running. I took anti-inflammatories twice a day like I was told, but
> in the end, that made things a million times worse. I would take two
> weeks off, then go run again, feel fine, and then the pain would be
> horrible the next morning. They did an excellent job covering up the
> pain, but I don't think they helped the healing at all (maybe even
> hindered it). The drugs will only prolong your suffering, in my opinion.
>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflammation :
"Inflammation (Latin, inflammatio, to set on fire) is the complex biological
response of vascular tissues to harmful stimuli, such as pathogens, damaged
cells, or irritants. It is a protective attempt by the organism to remove
the injurious stimuli as well as initiate the healing process for the
tissue. Inflammation is not a synonym for infection. Even in cases where
inflammation is caused by infection it is incorrect to use the terms as
synonyms: infection is caused by an exogenous pathogen, while inflammation
is the response of the organism to the pathogen."

anti-inflammatories suppress that reaction, but do not fix the cause for the
inflamation. It's a good way to releive the pain when it is such that you
cannot sleep for example. But, if a pain prevents you from doing something
(your body telling you something), taking anti-inflammatories and doing it
anyway is asking for trouble, because your putting your body through
something that hurts it, but are now death to the signals (the pain). This
is a common cause for stress fracture ; your bones are reacting to say an
added load (more mileage), and rather than wait and let them grow stronger
you suppress the pain with the anti-inflammatory and force the bones to go
beyond what they are able to.

In the "The cutting edge runner", Fitzgerald explains that different part of
your body adapts at different paces, and contrary to popular belief, the
cardiovascular system is the fastest to adapt, then the muscle, then the
bones, and finally the articulations. That's why you need to increase
mileage slowly. Remember the story of the first marathon !


--
Yves.
http://www.SollerS.ca