After surgery, many people are told to take anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen to manage pain.
But new research from Michigan State University (MSU) suggests that this common advice might not always be the best idea. According to the study, blocking inflammation right after surgery may actually slow down recovery and make pain last longer.
The study, published in the Journal of Pain Research, found that allowing the body’s natural inflammation process to happen can actually help people heal faster and experience less pain in the long run. This goes against the long-standing belief that inflammation is bad and should always be reduced as soon as possible.
Geoffroy Laumet, an associate professor at MSU and the senior author of the study, explained that the original idea was that stopping inflammation would reduce pain. Instead, the researchers were surprised to find that the opposite was true.
When they blocked a key inflammation molecule called TNF-α (tumor necrosis factor alpha) in mice after a small surgery, the animals ended up in pain for a much longer time. Their bodies could not shut off the pain naturally.
At first, Laumet thought it was a mistake. But when other researchers in the lab repeated the experiments using three different ways to block TNF-α—including Etanercept, a drug already approved for humans—the same result appeared every time. This confirmed that the findings were real.
This is an important discovery because more than 40 million surgeries are done in the U.S. every year. Around 10% of those patients develop long-term pain that can last for years and be hard to treat.
That’s about 4 million people each year dealing with chronic pain after surgery. The study suggests that the body’s natural use of TNF-α might play a key role in whether someone recovers normally or ends up with lasting pain.
But does this mean we should all stop taking pain medicine like ibuprofen after surgery? Not necessarily. Pain, inflammation, and healing involve many different molecules, and scientists don’t yet fully understand which ones help and which ones hurt recovery.
Laumet said the goal is to find out which molecules actually cause problems and which ones help resolve pain so doctors can target only the harmful ones and leave the helpful ones alone.
Even though blocking TNF-α after surgery might not be a good idea, there are still cases where doing so makes sense—like treating autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. In those cases, reducing joint inflammation helps people move more easily.
Laumet hopes that one day medicine will be able to block pain without interfering with the healing effects of inflammation. “Inflammation is not always bad,” he said. “Yes, it can hurt, but it’s also helping your body heal. Automatically trying to stop it after an injury might not always be the smartest move.”
This research reminds us that sometimes, letting the body do its job—even when it’s uncomfortable—can be the best path to healing.
If you care about pain, please read studies about vitamin K deficiency linked to hip fractures in old people, and these vitamins could help reduce bone fracture risk.
For more health information, please see recent studies that Krill oil could improve muscle health in older people, and eating yogurt linked to lower frailty in older people.
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