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Nutraceutical Applications in Pain Management: Exploring the Efficacy of Nutraceuticals for Analgesic Pain Management in Clinical Care
Director: Barry Miles Belgorod, MD, F.A.C.S.
What is a Nutraceutical?
A Nutraceutical is any substance that is a food or part of a food that provides medicinal or health benefits. Dr. Barry Belgorod is pioneering research in the field of Nutraceuticals; with his team at BMB Patent Holding Corporation, he has isolated Nutraceutical compounds from green bell peppers that have profound potential for pain management in analgesic applications. This natural product hold powerful potential benefit with little potential health risks, as the compound is derived from a commonly ingested fruit sold in supermarkets world-wide that FDA rated GRAS (generally regarded as safe).
Nutraceuticals for Pain Management: Potential Benefits
Analgesics (pain medications) are the second most prescribed pharmaceutical class (2001),* and over half of the adults in the
United States
experience chronic or recurrent pain each year.
Analgesics differ from anesthetics, in that analgesics solely render sensory pathways insensible or less sensible to pain. In contrast, anesthetic agents will impair touch and proprioception so that the area being treated may become entirely numb to feeling. Nutraceuticals are non-narcotic and do not pose a risk of addiction, unlike opioid analgesics, which carry the potentially serious side effects of tolerance, impaired higher cortical function, repressed respiratory function, constipation and rarely, addiction. Other non-narcotic analgesics, including salicylates such as aspirin, acetaminophen, and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or “NSAID’s” such as Cox-2 inhibitors are not potent enough to control severe pain and may have side effects of gastric irritation, anticoagulation, myocardial infarction and stroke. These Nutraceutical compounds show great promise to treat pain without any of the unwanted side effects from other forms of conventional medical pain management.
Nutraceuticals for Pain Management: Applications
In preliminary studies, application has shown efficacy instantaneously in small doses, applied topically, while keeping touch, taste, and temperature in tact without any pungency. It is expected that these novel compound classes will be suitable for administration to several classes of pain, including oral (post-chemotherapy and radiation therapy mucositis treatments), dermatological (topical treatment for neuropathic pain and wound care analgesia to minimize opioid use), ocular (topical post-operative analgesia and anti-inflammatory), nasal, vaginal (analgesia for vaginitis), rectal (inflammatory bowel disease and OTC treatment for pain and inflammation of hemorrhoids) and possible systemic administration.
Barry Miles Belgorod, M.D., F.A.C.S.
Dr. Belgorod is a board-certified Eye Physician and Surgeon (Diplomat of the American Board of Ophthalmology). A member of the faculty Weill Cornell Medical College, he is a Fellow at the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the New York Academy of Medicine and the American College of Surgeons. He holds appointments at
Lenox
Hill
Hospital
and New York-Presbyterian Hospital. Dr. Belgorod’s pioneering research has explored the following areas: new glaucoma pharmaceuticals, electronic photochromic lens, tangential laser photoablation for laser vision correction, and new topical analgesic pharmaceuticals. He completed his medical training at the
University
of
Pennsylvania
and the Manhattan Eye,
Ear & Throat
Hospital
. Visit Dr. Belgorod’s website to learn more at www.barrybelgorod.com
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