Health: can an anti-inflammatory help healing?

Self-tutoring about anti-inflammatories: the tutor wonders if/how they might help healing, at least in some cases.

I will say, first, that sources I’ve read suggest to me that anti-inflammatory drugs don’t help healing; they just relieve the pain. That notion seems logical.

My wife, however, sees it differently. She believes that inflammation, when it gets excessive, can hinder the body’s natural healing. In such a case, she reasons, it needs to be “knocked back” a bit. Therefore, she believes in taking some anti-inflammatory medication for a painful injury.

I twisted my right knee about three weeks ago, and a few times, when the pain’s been very bad, I’ve taken an ibuprofen – just one that day. I’ve done so on perhaps three different days since the injury. Typically, the pain doesn’t necessarily abate all that much, but the day after, the knee will be noticeably better. My wife’s reasoning seems to be upheld thus.

BTW: the reason I’ve needed to do this on several occasions is that, just when the knee would seem to approach normal again, I’d do something without thinking and re-injure it. Hopefully, this time around, I don’t.

Source:

clevelandclinic.org