By Terry Lemerond and Jan McBarron, MD

Boswellia serrata, also known as Indian frankincense, extracted from the boswellia tree, has been used for centuries in Asian and African traditional medicines to treat inflammation.

Not only can boswellia reduce pain effectively without side effects, research confirms that this powerful anti-inflammatory can also prevent cartilage from degenerating. There are four acids in boswellia’s resin that have been scientifically confirmed as anti-inflammatories, but Acetyl-11-keto-?-boswellic acid (AKBA) is thought to be the most powerful.

Study Confirms Boswellia Reduced Pain and Stiffness

A study published in Phytotherapy Research in 2019 confirmed that boswellia safely reduced pain and stiffness in people with knee osteoarthritis. This confirms the pivotal 2003 Indian study that showed boswellia reduced inflammation and increased flexibility and walking time in subjects with knee osteoarthritis.

What’s more, boswellia reduced knee pain by more than 70 percent in a 2011 human trial. An Indian study confirmed that boswellia “significantly reduced” the degeneration of knee cartilage, something scientists believed was impossible.

Several studies show that boswellia reduced joint swelling in patients with the autoimmune disease rheumatoid arthritis. Probably the most exciting research into boswellia comes from Germany in 2019, confirming that boswellia slows or even stops the autoimmune process by calming the overblown immune response and reducing the number of the pro-inflammatory chemicals, leukotrienes.

In terms of nerve pain, animal research published in 2017 in the journal Evidence Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine shows that boswellia blocked neurological pain receptors—binding to the opioid receptors in the brain safely and without addiction. What if a safe and effective herbal could produce pain relief without addiction? Boswellia can.

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Terry Lemerond is a natural health expert with over 50 years of experience helping people live healthier, happier lives. Terry shares his nutrition and health knowledge through his newsletters, podcasts, webinars, radio program, and his website TerryTalksNutrition.com 

Jan McBarron, MD, ND, and her husband, Duke Liberatore, started Duke and the Doctor Health Talk Radio in 1993, which ran daily for more than 20 years. She retired from seeing patients but continues to educate through her blogs and websites, as well as on social media.

Well Being Journal adapted this passage by permission from Nature’s Remedy to Conquer Pain, copyright 2021 by TTN Publishing, LLC.