Question: what other things can you use as a pain reliever?

Ali Hill answered on 14 Jun 2018:

Hi Avalon224,

Good question! Do you mean in terms of what other foods we could use?

Ginger’s often used to get rid of sickness. It’s used quite a lot in pregnancy because there are a lot of drugs you can’t take when you’re pregnant in case it affects the baby, but ginger is fine.

Have you ever used ibuprofen or nurofen if you have a headache? One of the reasons it works is because it gets rid of inflammation – you often get inflammation when you have pain or injury. But actually there are lots of other foods that might be able to do the same thing. Fish have something in them called omega 3s – which we know can reduce inflammation. A few years ago I was researching into whether if you had fish oil when you were pregnant it would stop the baby getting asthma or hayfever or allergies when they were adults. All of those conditions are caused by inflammation. Its always hard to say for sure in science if something works, but it looks promising. Lots of other scientists are looking into it at the moment.