01/20/2016
Boswellia
Boswellia serrata, also known as frankincense, has been used in traditional Ayurvedic medicine for centuries, today it could be used as an alternative to apirin.
Boswellia has been found to be quite helpful in treating inflammation and pain, and it could be used for longer period of time without causing ulcers like aspirin family medications. It has been shown in studies to be helpful for both rheumatoid arthritis
and osteoarthritis.
In one study, thirty patients with osteoarthritis of the knee were given 1,000 mg of either an extract of boswellia or a placebo for eight weeks; the groups were then switched for the next eight weeks. All of the patients on the boswellia showed significantly decreased pain and improved ability to walk. In fact, the improvement was quite remarkable, with the pain index falling by 90 percent after eight weeks and a similarly dramatic increase
in function!
Boswellia has also been demonstrated to have significant anti-inflammatory properties. Unique to boswellia is that it blocks two inflammatory chemicals that are increased simultaneously in a variety of human diseases. This results in its being helpful in asthma and colitis, as well as pain. In one study of asthmatics, forty patients were treated with 300 mg three times day for six weeks. Seventy percent of the asthma patients showed
improvement in symptoms and lung function and a decrease in allergic blood cells
(eosinophils).
Boswellia also helped in the treatment of ulcerative colitis. In one study of twenty patients in which boswellia, 300 mg three times a day, was given for six weeks, fourteen went into remission, while with sulfasalazine (the standard prescription treatment), the
remission rate was four out of ten. Test tube studies suggest that Boswellia also markedly inhibits cancer.
Boswellia does not appear to have any major side effects that resulted in people withdrawing from the studies, and it rarely causes minor gastrointestinal disturbances or
rash. A common dose is 150 to 350 mg three times a day.
