How To Reduce Inflammation
Less Really Is Better!

This is How to Reduce Inflammation if you have a Carpal Tunnel or Tendonitis repetitive strain injury.

If you have either or both of the above, then you have the INFLAMMATION and PAIN that is part of the Pain Causing Dynamic.

Inflammation can be caused by in impact injury, a repetitive strain injury, an accident at work, a pulled muscle, Tendonitis, etc. For all intents and purposes, inflammation from one is the same as inflammation from the other.

The same methods that reduce inflammation from one kind of injury reduce it from other kinds of injury.

Can You Reduce And Eliminate Inflammation?

Yes, you can.

Do you REALLY want to know how to reduce inflammation?

Yes you do.

Did you know that you can effectively stop the inflammation process? Even stubborn, chronic inflammation.

Inflammation has it benefits, but in my experience, you heal much better and faster without it, or at least with it minimized such that you get all the benefits without any of the negatives.

This page not only contains information about How to reduce inflammation but also the Why it works.

You are probably in pain now and if you knew how to get out of pain, you already would have. Tendon inflammation from Tendonitis can cause chronic, and debilitating pain. This is why you want to learn how to reduce inflammation.

I must warn you. Inflammation reduction is an art -and- a science.

You need to learn what works, and then experiment with how it works best for -you- and your exact situation.

This website, and this page specifically, is exactly the resource you need if you have any kind of Tendonitis and want to become pain free, and stay that way.

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See:  What Is Tendonitis to fully understand how and why inflammation is related to Tendonitis

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If you learn how to reduce inflammation you will not only feel less pain, you will actually HAVE less pain.

Which is great....

But more importantly, you will not only learn how to reduce inflammation, you will discover how to STOP the Inflammation Process that is a major part of the Pain Causing Dynamic.

"There is no better inflammation reducer than what you will find on this page."

The first stage of reversing your Tendonitis and/or Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is to reduce the Process of Inflammation you have going on.

This is vital to getting you out of pain now, and keeping you out of pain later.

There is nothing fancy about How To Reduce Inflammation. On the surface it is very, very simple. Don't discount it because of that.

Try what I suggest, exactly as I suggest that you do it, then make up your mind.

At the bottom of this page is a short explanation as to how this works.

You will notice that I do not suggest Anti-inflammatory Medicine or Corticosteroid shots. In my professional opinion, they can be effective in the very short term, but do not counter and certainly can not end the pain causing inflammation process.

Nor do they beneficially affect your structure so they can't stop or reverse the Downward Spiral of pain and tightness. My practice consists almost entirely of people with chronic inflammation. And the reason it's chronic inflammation is because all the usual methods just aren't the right tool for the job of getting rid of it.

Have you been on anti-inflammatories for long periods of time? Still hurt? Still have inflammation?

If I'm going to try an inflammation reducer, I want the best inflammation reducer. And that means the most results for the smallest amount of time and effort.

Below you will find a short 'Do This' description for each of the various kinds of Tendonitis. I'm not going to talk a lot about each one, I'm just going to tell you what to do if you have...

If You Have Achilles Tendonitis How To Reduce Inflammation

How to Reduce Inflammation if you have Achilles Tendonitis:

ICE DIP

This is the big, superficial but overall most bang for your buck.  It sets you up for ice massage to get into deeper inflamed tissue.

1.  Get a 5 gallon bucket.

2.  Fill it with water and ice and/or frozen water bottles.

3.  Get it as arctic cold as possible.

4.  Dip your foot and lower leg into the bucket, you want to cold to get as high up towards the knee as possible.

5.  10-20 seconds in the water, then take your foot out.

6.  Hang out at least a few minutes (or go about your day and come back and) then dip again.

7.  Repeat a minimum of 10 times.

ICE MASSAGE

1. Buy some Dixie Cups. Fill them with water and freeze them in a freezer. 

2. At least 4 times a day, pull out a Dixie Cup and tear off the top half inch or so.

3. Ice Massage the most painful part of the muscle/Achilles tendon with the ice cube in the Dixie Cup.

4. For a minimum of 5 minutes (at least 4 times per day), push the ice into the painful area. Up and down the painful parts. (Keep it moving, don't just let the ice sit in one spot.) In a sense, you want to gently grind on anything that hurts, and everything connected to it.

If your skin gets numb from the cold, it's time to stop. You don't have to work it that long, but depending on how much real estate you have to cover to ice massage your injury, this might take you 5 minutes or more.

Cold is very effective. It is even more effective when you 'push' the cold deeper into your structure.

It is even MORE effective when you gently rub cold 'into' an injured structure.

How do you know you're at the right spot? Keep pressing and rubbing around. You'll KNOW when you're on it.....

You are likely to find a very specific, sharply painful 'hot spot'.

WARNING!: It can take up to 2, 3, or 4 days to feel benefit. There is a lot going on in your structure, it can take a while for all that to reverse. At a certain point, you will turn a corner and feel great benefit.

And make sure that you work the actual tendon(s) to reduce tendon inflammation.

ICE PACK

This is a secondary treatment to add in before and/or after Ice Massage.

1. Get an ice pack as big and as heavy as you can find. This can be an ice pack, a frozen gel pack, or a giant pack of frozen corn.

(I don't suggest frozen peas as they start to smell like....well...peas as they thaw.)

2. Center the heavy icepack on the painful tendon. Arrange the ice pack so it covers as much of your flesh as possible.

3. Let it stay on for 2-5 minutes. You can strap it to your lower leg/ankle if it is necessary to move around, that's fine.

Do this at least once sometime before ice massaging and once relatively soon after.

Always wait at least 5-10 minutes between taking ice off and putting it back on. You want the area to get full of new warm blood before shunting that fluid out again.

You can do this throughout the day, too. Ice is your friend. The more you do, the better you will feel.

I urge you to treat this as a serious experiment for 7 days. Not only will it make me look good, but your Achilles will feel amazingly better if you do this -exactly- for a week.

Feel free to email me with questions, comments, etc.

Find out more about Achilles Tendonitis.

If You Have Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
How To Reduce Inflammation

How to Reduce Inflammation if you have Carpal Tunnel Syndrome:

ICE DIP

a.k.a. Super Icing!

1. Find a (kitchen) sink.

2. Fill it up with water and ice and/or frozen water bottles.

3. Repeatedly over a two hour period, dip your entire hand and forearms into an Ice Dip in your sink for 5-10 seconds. 5-10 seconds ONLY.

Repeat this a minimum of 10 times, while you're making dinner, when a commercial comes on, between chores, etc.

Carpal Tunnel Symptoms can be caused by B-6 deficiency.

Which gets really interesting when you take into account that Inflammation Causes Vitamin B6 Deficiency.

Sometimes it's a question of which came first, the chicken or the egg? Inflammation first or pain first or B6 deficiency first?

Who cares? Make sure your B6 is up to snuff, Ice Dip, and see what happens.

There's a few factors involved in knowing how to reduce inflammation. Inflammation chemical, nutritional deficiency, etc.

You want the CUMULATIVE effect of Ice Dipping over and over.

Just your forearm, not your whole body like this guy in the picture. (Although that would be very very good for you!)

I urge you to treat this as a serious experiment for 7 days. Not only will it make me look good, but your hands/wrists/forearms will feel amazingly better if you do this for a week.

WARNING!: It can take up to 2, 3, or 4 days to feel benefit. There is a lot going on in your structure, it can take a while for all that to reverse. At a certain point, you will turn a corner and feel great benefit.

Feel free to email me with questions, comments, etc.

Find out more about Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

If You Have Golfers Elbow
How To Reduce Inflammation

How to Reduce Inflammation if you have Golfers Elbow:

ICE DIP

a.k.a. Super Icing!

1. Find a (kitchen) sink.

2. Fill it up with water and ice and/or frozen water bottles.

3. Repeatedly over a two hour period, dip your entire hand and forearm into an Ice Dip in your sink for 5-10 seconds. 5-10 seconds ONLY.

You could dip just your forearm and elbow, buy you might as well get your whole lower arm/hand.

Repeat this a minimum of 10 times, while you're making dinner, when a commercial comes on, between chores, etc. You want the CUMULATIVE effect of Ice Dipping over and over.

If you are extra motivated to get out of pain, also ad this in:

ICE MASSAGE

1. Buy some Dixie Cups. Fill them with water and freeze them in a freezer.

2. At least four times a day, pull out a Dixie Cup and tear off the top half inch or so.

3. Ice Massage the most painful part of the muscle/tendon at your elbow joint with the ice cube in the Dixie Cup.

4. For about 5 minutes, push the ice into the painful area. Up and down the painful parts. (Keep it moving, don't just let the ice sit in one spot.) In a sense, you want to gently grind on anything that hurts, and everything connected to it.

Cold is very effective. It is even more effective when you 'push' the cold deeper into your structure.

It is even MORE effective when you gently rub cold 'into' an injured structure.

How do you know you're at the right spot? Keep pressing and rubbing around. You'll KNOW when you're on it.....

I urge you to treat this as a serious experiment for 7 days. Not only will it make me look good, but your hands/wrists/forearms/elbow will feel amazingly better if you do this for a week.

WARNING!: It can take up to 2, 3, or 4 days to feel benefit. There is a lot going on in your structure, it can take a while for all that to reverse. At a certain point, you will turn a corner and feel great benefit.

And make sure that you work the actual tendon(s) to reduce tendon inflammation.

Feel free to email me with questions, comments, etc.

If You Have Patellar or
Knee Tendonitis
How To Reduce Inflammation

How to Reduce Inflammation if you have Patella Tendonitis or Knee Tendonitis:

There are various tendons and ligaments attaching to your knee joint.

If you have Knee Tendonitis on a knee tendon or exterior ligament 'ligamentitis', use this method to reduce inflammation.

ICE MASSAGE

This is your primary anti-inflammation treatment.

1. Buy some Dixie Cups. Fill them with water and freeze them in a freezer.

2. At least 4 times a day, pull out a Dixie Cup and tear off the top half inch or so.

3. Ice Massage the most painful part of the muscle/tendon at your knee joint with the ice cube in the Dixie Cup.

4. For a minimum of 5 minutes (at least 4 times per day), push the ice into the painful area. Up and down the painful parts. (Keep it moving, don't just let the ice sit in one spot.) In a sense, you want to gently grind on anything that hurts, and everything connected to it.

If your skin gets numb from the cold, it's time to stop. You don't have to work it that long, but depending on how much real estate you have to cover to ice massage your injury, this might take you 5 minutes or more.

Cold is very effective. It is even more effective when you 'push' the cold deeper into your structure. It is even MORE effective when you gently rub cold 'into' an injured structure.

How do you know you're at the right spot? Keep pressing and rubbing around. You'll KNOW when you're on it.....

You are likely to find a very specific, sharply painful 'hot spot'.

ICE PACK

This is a secondary treatment to add in before and/or after Ice Massage.

1. Get an ice pack as big and as heavy as you can find. This can be an ice pack, a frozen gel pack, or a giant pack of frozen corn.

(I don't suggest frozen peas as they start to smell like....well...peas as they thaw.)

2. Center the heavy icepack on the painful tendon. Arrange the ice pack so it covers as much of your flesh as possible.

3. Let it stay on for 2-5 minutes. You can strap it to your knee if it is necessary to move around, that's fine.

Do this at least once before ice massaging and once after.

Always wait at least 5-10 minutes between taking ice off and putting it back on.  You want the area to fill up again with warm new blood before shunting that fluid out again.

You can do this throughout the day, too. Ice is your friend. The more you do, the better you will feel.

I urge you to treat this as a serious experiment for 7 days. Not only will it make me look good, but your knee will feel amazingly better if you do this -exactly- for a week.

Feel free to email me with questions, comments, etc.

And make sure that you work the actual tendon(s) to reduce tendon inflammation.

See: Patellar Tendonitis

If You Have Plantar Fasciitis
How To Reduce Inflammation

How to Reduce Inflammation if you have Plantar Fasciitis:

The Ice Dip:

The #1 Option....a.k.a. Super Icing!

1. Get a large bucket or the equivalent. Something that you can fit your entire foot into.

2. Fill the bucket most of the way with water and ice, or water and frozen water bottle(s).

3. Once it gets arctic cold, dip your foot into the bucket of ice water.

4. Notice that I said 'dip'. Dip your foot into the ice water for 5-10 seconds. 5-10 seconds -only-.

4b. You can actually leave your foot in longer if you want, but the benefit is not worth the suffering:)

5. Take your foot out after 5-10 seconds.

6. Repeat this at least 10 times per day. I suggest doing this 10 times within a two hour period.

You are after the CUMULATIVE effect of the anti-inflammation properties of Ice Dipping.

I urge you to treat this as a serious experiment for 7 days. Not only will it make me look good, but your feet will feel amazingly better if you do this for a week.

WARNING!: It can take up to 2, 3, or 4 days to feel benefit. There is a lot going on in your structure, it can take a while for all that to reverse. At a certain point, you will turn a corner and feel great benefit.

Don't ask questions or listen to the complaints in your head. Just try it out and see how well it works:)

Find out more about Plantar Fasciitis.

If You Have Rotator Cuff Tendonitis
How To Reduce Inflammation

How to Reduce Inflammation if you have Rotator Cuff Tendonitis:

This one is a bit tricky. Depending on where your pain is located, you may not be able to reach it and may need to talk a friend or family member into giving you a hand.

ICE MASSAGE

1. Buy some Dixie Cups. Fill them with water and freeze them in a freezer.

2. At least four times a day, pull out a Dixie Cup and tear off the top half inch or so.

3. Ice Massage the most painful part(s) of your shoulder with the ice cube in the Dixie Cup.

4. For about 5 minutes, push the ice into the painful area. Up and down the painful parts in the shoulder. (Keep it moving, don't just let the ice sit in one spot.) In a sense, you want to gently grind on anything that hurts, and everything connected to it.

Depending on how muscular you are, you may have to push that ice cube hard into the shoulder to contact deep enough. Once you get there, you will discover many wonderful things about your shoulder:)

When you put pressure on the affected tendon, you'll know it.... Rub there for a while and explore the are with the ice.

Cold is very effective. It is even more effective when you 'push' the cold deeper into your structure. It is even MORE effective when you gently rub cold 'into' an injured structure.

You can use the Ice Pack (see other sections here), but you HAVE to do Ice Massage if you want true Inflammation relief.

I urge you to treat this as a serious experiment for 7 days. Not only will it make me look good, but your shoulder will feel amazingly better if you do this for a week.

WARNING!: It can take up to 2, 3, or 4 days to feel benefit. There is a lot going on in your structure, it can take a while for all that to reverse. At a certain point, you will turn a corner and feel great benefit.

WARNING!: It can take up to 2, 3, or 4 days to feel benefit. There is a lot going on in your structure, it can take a while for all that to reverse. At a certain point, you will turn a corner and feel great benefit.

And make sure that you work the actual tendon(s) to reduce tendon inflammation.

Feel free to contact me with questions, comments, etc.

Find out more about Shoulder Tendonitis.

If You Have Shin Splints
How To Reduce Inflammation

How to Reduce Inflammation if you have Shin Splints:

This is how to reduce inflammation if you have shin splints. Even better, it's free.

Well, even better is that it's very very effective.

If You Have Tennis Elbow
How To Reduce Inflammation

How to Reduce Inflammation if you have Tennis Elbow:

ICE DIP

a.k.a. Super Icing!

1. Find a (kitchen) sink.

2. Fill it up with water and ice and/or frozen water bottles.

3. Repeatedly over a two hour period, dip your entire hand and forearm into an Ice Dip in your sink for 5-10 seconds. 5-10 seconds ONLY.

You could dip just your forearm and elbow, buy you might as well get your whole lower arm/hand.

Repeat this a minimum of 10 times, while you're making dinner, when a commercial comes on, between chores, etc. You want the CUMULATIVE effect of Ice Dipping over and over.

Do this a minimum of 7 days in a row.

If you are extra motivated to get out of pain, also add this in:

ICE MASSAGE

1. Buy some Dixie Cups. Fill them with water and freeze them in a freezer.

2. At least four times a day, pull out a Dixie Cup and tear off the top half inch or so.

3. Ice Massage the most painful part of the muscle/tendon at your inner elbow joint with the ice cube in the Dixie Cup.

4. For about 5 minutes, push the ice into the painful area. Up and down the painful parts. (Keep it moving, don't just let the ice sit in one spot.) In a sense, you want to gently grind on anything that hurts, and everything connected to it.

Cold is very effective. It is even more effective when you 'push' the cold deeper into your structure. It is even MORE effective when you gently rub cold 'into' an injured structure.

How do you know you're at the right spot? Keep pressing and rubbing around. You'll KNOW when you're on it.....

I urge you to treat this as a serious experiment for 7 days. Not only will it make me look good, but your hands/wrists/forearms/elbow will feel amazingly better if you do this for a week.

WARNING!: It can take up to 2, 3, or 4 days to feel benefit. There is a lot going on in your structure, it can take a while for all that to reverse. At a certain point, you will turn a corner and feel great benefit.

And make sure that you work the actual tendon(s) to reduce tendon inflammation.

Feel free to email me with questions, comments, etc.

Find out more about Tennis Elbow.

If you have Trigger Finger or
Trigger Thumb
How To Reduce Inflammation

How to Reduce Inflammation if you have Trigger Finger or Trigger Thumb:

ICE DIP

a.k.a. Super Icing!

1. Find a (kitchen) sink.

2. Fill it up with water and ice and/or frozen water bottles.

3. Repeatedly over a two hour period, dip your entire hand and forearms into an Ice Dip in your sink for 5-10 seconds. 5-10 seconds ONLY.

Repeat this a minimum of 10 times, while you're making dinner, when a commercial comes on, between chores, etc. You want the CUMULATIVE effect of Ice Dipping over and over.

If you are extra motivated to get out of pain, also ad this in:

ICE MASSAGE

1. Buy some Dixie Cups. Fill them with water and freeze them in a freezer.

2. At least four times a day, pull out a Dixie Cup and tear off the top half inch or so.

3. Ice Massage the most painful part of your Trigger Finger with the ice cube in the Dixie Cup.

4. For about 5 minutes, push the ice into the painful area. Up and down the painful parts of the finger. (Keep it moving, don't just let the ice sit in one spot.) In a sense, you want to gently grind on anything that hurts, and everything connected to it.

Cold is very effective. It is even more effective when you 'push' the cold deeper into your structure. It is even MORE effective when you gently rub cold 'into' an injured structure.

I urge you to treat this as a serious experiment for 7 days. Not only will it make me look good, but your thumbs/hands/wrists will feel amazingly better if you do this for a week.

WARNING!: It can take up to 2, 3, or 4 days to feel benefit. There is a lot going on in your structure, it can take a while for all that to reverse. At a certain point, you will turn a corner and feel great benefit.

And make sure that you work the actual tendon(s) to reduce tendon inflammation.

Feel free to email me with questions, comments, etc.

Find out more about Trigger Finger Tendonitis.

If You Have Wrist Tendonitis
How To Reduce Inflammation

How to Reduce Inflammation if you have Wrist Tendonitis:

ICE DIP

a.k.a. Super Icing! The Best Inflammation Reducer!

1. Find a (kitchen) sink.

2. Fill it up with water and ice and/or frozen water bottles.

3. Repeatedly over a two hour period, dip your entire hand and forearms into an Ice Dip in your sink for 5-10 seconds. 5-10 seconds ONLY.

Repeat this a minimum of 10 times, while you're making dinner, when a commercial comes on, between chores, etc. You want the CUMULATIVE effect of Ice Dipping over and over.

ICE MASSAGE

If ice dipping for 3-7 days doesn't totally take care of your pain issue, add in ice massage to specific injury spots.

1. Buy some Dixie Cups. Fill them with water and freeze them in a freezer.

2. At least 4 times a day, pull out a Dixie Cup and tear off the top half inch or so.

3. Ice Massage the most painful part of the wrist tendon with the ice cube in the Dixie Cup.

4. For a minimum of 5 minutes (at least 4 times per day), push the ice into the painful area. Up and down the painful parts. (Keep it moving, don't just let the ice sit in one spot.) In a sense, you want to gently grind on anything that hurts, and everything connected to it.

If your skin gets numb from the cold, it's time to stop. You don't have to work it that long, but depending on how much real estate you have to cover to ice massage your injury, this might take you 5 minutes or more.

Cold is very effective. It is even more effective when you 'push' the cold deeper into your structure.

It is even MORE effective when you gently rub cold 'into' an injured structure.

How do you know you're at the right spot? Keep pressing and rubbing around. You'll KNOW when you're on it.....

You are likely to find a very specific, sharply painful 'hot spot'.

I urge you to treat this as a serious experiment for 7 days. Not only will it make me look good, but your hands/wrists/forearms will feel amazingly better if you do this for a week.

WARNING!: It can take up to 2, 3, or 4 days to feel benefit. There is a lot going on in your structure, it can take a while for all that to reverse. At a certain point, you will turn a corner and feel great benefit.

And make sure that you work the actual tendon(s) to reduce tendon inflammation.

Feel free to email me with questions, comments, etc.

Find out more about Wrist Tendonitis.

WHY Does Icing
Reduce Inflammation?

How To Reduce Inflammation -- Do you know how to reduce inflammation now?

After learning How to reduce inflammation, many people wonder Why icing works.

The HOW to reduce inflammation is using ice/cold in a particular manner.

The WHY is valuable to know also.

There is a very simple explanation, even though the actual mechanism is very, very complex.

Do keep in mind that knowing how to reduce inflammation is more important than knowing why.

In this situation, DOING the activities makes the difference.

Knowing why and how without taking action will leave you in pain.

Like the rest of the information I've put on this site, my hope is that knowing why, having a complete picture, will help you make the best decisions for your health.

How To Reduce Inflammation - Why It Works

The Three Most Important Factors for How To Reduce Inflammation:

1. Throughout your body you have arteries that pump blood everywhere.

2. Every little bit of muscle has a small amount of muscle surrounding the tube.

3. Cold makes muscle contract.

Imagine for a moment that your tissue is a living sponge.

When you put cold on your skin, or dip a body part in water that is cold as ice, it causes muscle to contract.

The sponge literally squeezes itself, wringing old fluid out.

So let's say that you have Tendonitis. This means that your muscles are a half squeezed sponge, trapping waste product in and keeping new blood and nutrition out.

Like a regular sponge, lack of fluid causes it to become dry and crunchy.

Waste product and pain enhancing chemical get trapped and continue to cause you pain.

When you Super Ice or Ice Massage, the cold forces the sponge to squeeze itself, pushing irritant out.

Then you take the cold off, and the body overcompensates and pushes in a lot of new blood, nutrition, and oxygen.

Not only does icing reduce pain by getting irritant out and new blood in, but changing the ecology of you tissue like that causes the nervous system to relax, loosen muscles, and allow more even more circulation.

Icing does not mask the pain like pain killers and anti-inflammatory drugs.

Icing actually helps your body heal itself at a deep structural level and if you do it enough can overwhelm the inflammation process.

Whereas surgery causes damage while it deals with a symptom, icing does no harm and helps heal the SOURCE of your pain.

How To Reduce Inflammation Caused By B6 Deficiency

If you noticed in the Carpal Tunnel Syndrome section above, I said that Inflammation Causes B6 deficiency. Understand that this creates a physical trap. Because B6 deficiency keeps pain and inflammation in place.

Chicken or the egg...doesn't matter. If you are B6 deficient caused by inflammation, or anything else, then you may not physically be able to reduce your inflammation process because you literally don't have the pieces of the parts necessary to stop the inflammatory process.

So even if your pain isn't called Carpal Tunney, there's no reason not to make sure that your B6 is up to snuff.

How To Reduce Inflammation of a Tendon

One thing to keep in mind with Tendonitis and specific tendon inflammation and using ice and cold as an inflammation reducer, is that an inflamed tendon is not a very squeezable sponge.

A muscle is very squeezeable and it's easy to get old fluid out and new fluid in. A tendon, however, is tough, dense, and, well....not very squeezable.

So if you are ice massaging, feel free to push that ice cube into that tendon. Force a squeeze. Force that cold deep into the tendon.

Chemical can get lodged deep in that very unsqueezable sponge. Force it out.

If you have an inflammed tendon and want to reduce pain, try this for at least a few days, and see what happens.

Now You Know How To Reduce Inflammation

And knowing how to reduce inflammation is a great place to start.

Practice.

Experiment.

Do it like your well being depends on it.

Learn how much or how little it takes to work for you and the activities you want to do.

Now that you know how to reduce inflammation, put it to work.

It takes a little time and attention, but it's free and one of your most effective options.

Knowing how to reduce inflammation isn't rocket science, but it's the cheapest and most effective method I know of. 

Return to the top of this How To Reduce Inflammation page.

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