Top supplements to ease joint pain and inflammation

If those constant aches and joint pains are bringing you down — or worse, ruining your quality of life — these natural solutions should help.

If you've ever crawled out of bed in the morning aching as if you'd played a mean game of football in your sleep, heard your knees creaking as you descended the stairs or needed two ibuprofen before you could even bend over to tie your shoelaces, think about taking the following supplements to help reduce the wear and tear on your joints and reduce pain. (Always talk to your doctor before taking any medication or supplement.)

• Researchers found that ginger reduced knee pain significantly in patients with osteoarthritis of that joint, as well as improving knee movement.
• It turns out that ginger has some anti-inflammatory effects, just like ibuprofen.

• A study found that 86 per cent of people with arthritis who took cod liver oil had far fewer enzymes that cause cartilage damage compared to those who got a placebo.
• Plus, they had far fewer pain-causing enzymes. Cod liver oil is a fish oil, so taking a basic fish-oil supplement is fine.

Even the most conservative orthopedic surgeon admits that this supplement, derived from animal products, will not only provide pain relief, but may even slow the degeneration of cartilage.

• Glucosamine doesn't fight pain right away in the way that drugs such as ibuprofen do. But, over time, it becomes an effective pain reliever and anti-inflammatory.
• More importantly, it can actually help to repair damaged cartilage – something ibuprofen can't do at all.
• In fact, drugs like ibuprofen may even interfere with normal cartilage repair. So if you have pain and need relief right away, use a drug such as ibuprofen for prompt pain relief, but start taking glucosamine at the same time.
• After about a month, you should be getting enough pain relief from the glucosamine to allow you to stop the ibuprofen. Then continue the glucosamine indefinitely for its anti-inflammatory and cartilage-repairing effects.