miracle drug

I used to be a regular taker of ibuprofen. I considered it a miracle drug. After all, something hurts and then you take ibuprofen and then it hurts less. Miracle!

A few years ago, I was overdoing it in martial arts + hiking + jogging, and ibuprofen was the thing that got me through my days. Thanks to ibuprofen, I didn't notice that my wrists couldn't handle that many pushups. Thanks to ibuprofen, the knee pain that kept me from walking up the stairs in the morning was gone by 9 am. Thanks to ibuprofen, I could work out 12 days in a row, long past when my body was telling me to take a day off.

When I quit taking ibuprofen every day, I was no longer able to do as much in the way of working out. I had to do a plank instead of some of those pushups. I had to stop jogging when my knees hurt, and get poles for hiking. I had to keep my martial arts to three or four days a week and my hiking to one or two. 

Last summer, when my shoulder started hurting and then hurt more and more, I went back to three ibuprofen three times a day and my shoulder continued to get worse, until the day I quit ibuprofen and switched to turmeric. 

(Insert turmeric evangelism here.)

I haven't taken one single ibuprofen since August. Some days, like today, I still get sinus headaches (welcome to the valley of sickness), but I can usually make them go away by drinking a bunch of water. Otherwise, the turmeric seems to keep most minor injuries from hurting too much, and I think it's helping with my allergy inflammation, too. I haven't gone back to martial arts, but many days I run 60 flights of stairs in batches throughout the day, and my knees are doing great.

I spend a lot of time trying to sell people on turmeric. It's the beeeeeeeest. No, seriously, just try it. You'll like it. You'll be hooked.

Apparently I have a new miracle drug.