Chronic pain and inflammation can be elusive conditions to treat. Many people end up at their doctors’ offices with recommendations for over-the-counter anti-inflammatory drugs or prescriptions for opioids to find temporary pain relief.
However, people seeking to promote healing and reduce inflammation now are turning to vitamin supplements such as Active Recovery Blend from VitaKinetics, developed by Carolyn Dolan, DPT, Cert. MDT, to reduce underlying inflammatory conditions that many of us encounter as we age.
When Dolan, physical therapist and mother of three, began to feel the physical effects of stress, chronic fatigue, and pain, she turned to nutrition and a simple lifestyle program to understand and experience the scientific benefits of nutritional intervention.
In addition to guiding herself and her family to better health, Dolan began coaching her physical therapy patients on nutrition to support their pain management. When their chronic pain issues improved and even resolved, she dedicated herself to studying how the body works under stress.
“The inflammatory process of our bodies is our natural healing process,” Dolan says. “Acute or early inflammation is what often causes pain, and we tend to turn it off with anti-inflammatory meds or we try to block perception of pain with opioids. Neither of these methods support healing. Inflammation is actually critical for healing.”
However, Dr. Dolan says that inflammation is aggravated if our gut-brain connection is disrupted.
“Stress, certain medications and foods, excessive exercise, and even lack of movement can aggravate the gut-brain connection and exacerbate inflammation,” she says. “In my clinical practice, I saw a gap in products that supported healing and naturally reduced discomfort during recovery from injury, surgery, or inflammatory conditions. The only option was pharmaceuticals, and I wanted something different.”
Seven years, a master’s degree in nutrition, and a book later, Dolan launched VitaKinetics, a supplement that promotes gut-brain health and optimizes the inflammatory process to allow for healing and natural pain reduction.
Dolan explains that while pursuing a Master of Science in holistic nutrition, she wrote a thesis called, “Recovery from Orthopedic Surgery/Injury: Optimize Healing and Reduce Pain Naturally.” In it, she actually was trying to disprove the efficacy of certain supplements and prove that only lifestyle interventions were needed for reduction of inflammation, such as eating well, specific movements, adequate sleep, and stress optimization.
“I actually found much research about the use of supplements to support the body’s natural ability to recover,” Dolan says.
What she learned in her research and patient work was that in order to optimize recovery from an injury, surgery, or chronic pain condition, the nutritional and inflammatory status of the patient is critical.
After much research on the effectiveness of specific supplements on inflammation, she narrowed down the Active Recovery Blend formula to the following:
Vitamin D3 – Heals leaky gut, reduces pain, improves sleep
Vitamin C – Antioxidant power to reduce pain and risk for developing chronic pain states
Turmeric/Curcuminoids – Promotes healing and reduces inflammation naturally
Microbiome Support (Prebiotic) – Promotes gut and immune health, reduces pain and infection rates
Enzyme – Optimizes nutrient absorption and soft-tissue healing, reduces pain and inflammation
She says that the ingredients in VitaKinetics have gone through animal and clinical studies, and as far as this blend, it has been beta tested on patients for nearly four years in some form.
“We selected each ingredient for the product based on safety and effectiveness from the research,” Dolan says.
According to Dolan, Active Recovery Blend is not a miracle cure for pain or inflammation. It is simply a tool to aid the body in recovering effectively and naturally. Each therapeutic dose reduces the risk to develop chronic pain, optimizes soft-tissue healing, and supports the body’s natural inflammatory healing response. Sometimes results are noticed quickly, but unlike pharmaceuticals, the changes and progress are gradual and require consistency through a full healing cycle to reach maximum benefits.
“It enables you to recover better and faster in combination with physical therapy efforts and other factors that reduce stress or inflammation,” she says.
Taking VitaKinetics is step five of Dolan’s recommended simple lifestyle program; however, she says that steps one through four are integral to overall health and to making the supplement effective.
Here are the additional tenets of her lifestyle program:
1. Eat well
2. Move well
3. Sleep well
4. Connect well
She says VitaKinetics is also a tool that requires the consumption of real foods, including whole sources of fruits, vegetables, and animal proteins that are salted to taste, in order to gain the fundamental components for healing.
“VitaKinetics Active Recovery Blend works optimally to support the healing system when the basic nutrients are provided to the body from real foods,” she says.
For additional details about VitaKinetics, visit Vitakinetics.com.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
