Protaren is a prescription pain cream typically prescribed to help relieve osteoarthritis-related knee and joint pain.
It’s a unique approach to arthritis pain and inflammation in that Protaren contains a clinically studied prescription ingredient with recognized inflammation-reducing and analgesic (pain-blocking) properties.
Protaren is the easiest way to get a prescription pain cream sent to your door without seeing a doctor.
Ordering and prescribing is all done online or by phone, with patients receiving their formula sent to their doorstep, if approved.
This active ingredient in Protaren, ketoprofen, isn’t a totally new discovery––but Protaren is the first time that patients across the country have had access to a powerful, topical prescription-grade anti-inflammatory and pain medication from the comfort of home.
This non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) has demonstrated an ability to fight pain in a variety of joint and muscle tissue conditions and injuries, including athletic strains, and Protaren is the fastest and simplest way to get it delivered rapidly to patients who need it.
What’s in Protaren Pain Cream?
Protaren is a compounded prescription cream that contains ketoprofen, a NSAID (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug) that has analgesic, anti-inflammatory, and antipyretic (fever-reducing) properties.
Protaren contains a 10% concentration of ketoprofen (100mg of ketoprofen in every 1g of cream delivery solution).
Protaren is intended to be applied topically to painful or uncomfortable joints, where ketoprofen can provide targeted relief of inflammation and discomfort.
Topical ketoprofen has been used by doctors for many years in the U.S. and Europe for the treatment of arthritis and muscle injuries, but Protaren is the first time patients can get ketoprofen through telemedicine, where doctors can prescribe and help patients remotely without seeing them in-person.
A full list of Protaren’s ingredients list can be found at the end of this article.
Is Protaren Safe?
Topical NSAIDs like ketoprofen have been embraced by many in the medical and pain treatment community specifically because of their lower risk of side effects and adverse events compared to oral pain medications.
Oral pain medications, including NSAIDs like ibuprofen, are known to contribute to gastrointestinal conditions and kidney damage when taken at high doses or chronically over long periods of time.
Using even common over-the-counter pain meds for too long can be dangerous. In fact, the U.S. FDA, which regulates drugs like ibuprofen, advises explicitly on that medications’ packaging not to take it longer than 10 days. Oral ibuprofen is the most common NSAID involved in overdoses!
“[Oral] NSAIDs have the potential to induce acute kidney injury, and patients with osteoarthritis with co-morbid conditions including hypertension, heart failure, and diabetes mellitus are at increased risk,” concluded one group of researchers in 2019.
For anyone suffering from chronic pain or common inflammation-related joint pains, taking oral pain medications can present real risks in the long run.
Are Topical NSAIDs Safer Than Pills?
Topical NSAIDs, like Protaren’s active ingredient, may be a good option for many people suffering from arthritis pain.
Topical NSAIDs can provide joint and muscle pain relief with fewer safety concerns than oral medications, and they’re recommended as the first line of defense by major medical organizations including:
- The American College of Physicians (ACP)
- The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP)
- The American College of Rheumatology (ACR)
So why use medications like the topical NSAIDs in Protaren?
A group of researchers from the University of Minnesota wrote in 2015, “Administration of topical ketoprofen or ibuprofen has been shown to result in plasma drug concentrations [the drug in the blood system] 99% lower compared with similar amounts of the oral form. At the same time, multiple studies have demonstrated topical NSAIDs to be comparably well absorbed into local tissues compared with oral NSAIDs, with even higher local tissue concentrations in certain areas…while exhibiting 90% reductions in peak systemic concentrations.”
In other words, topical NSAIDs like those in Protaren can lead to a reduction in the amount of medication in the blood, while keeping medication in the tissue where it’s actually needed.
Compared to oral medications like ibuprofen, this is a significant opportunity to reduce the risk of systemic side effects.
The Problem With Getting Topical NSAIDs
There's a problem, however.
Many people with pain have tried topical pain creams, even those containing NSAIDs, from the store––and found they didn’t work or didn’t work well enough.
Most topical pain creams, gels, and patches contain pain-”masking” ingredients, like menthol or capsaicin. These creams can help to cover up pain with a cooling or soothing sensation, but they don’t always address inflammation or the root cause of pain.
Others that do contain an active NSAID like diclofenac, simply don’t work for some people suffering from pain.
That’s where a prescription for topical ketoprofen (like in Protaren) comes in.
When store-bought creams, gels and patches don’t work, a prescription-grade ingredient like ketoprofen may provide much-needed relief for those suffering from arthritis.
Does Protaren Work?
Topical ketoprofen like in Protaren has shown in multiple research studies to help reduce pain and inflammation.
Topical ketoprofen was deemed an effective means of treating patients with knee osteoarthritis in an exhaustive 2017 review of medical studies, with improvements in pain and function superior to the common medication celecoxib, an oral placebo, and a topical placebo.
A 2013 study showed that topical ketoprofen led to a significant reduction in pain, removed redness and swelling, and improved walking ability in Rheumatoid Arthritis patients.
Researchers in one analysis write that for ketoprofen gels "7 or 8 people out of 10 with a painful strain, sprain, or muscle pull had much reduced pain after seven days, compared with only 2 or 3 out of 10 with placebo.”
Another study revealed that “Ketoprofen cream provides a good level of pain relief, removes swelling and tenderness, and improves the functional impairment, without the systemic adverse events associated with oral NSAIDs.”
“Robust evidence from systematic reviews exists for the effectiveness of topical NSAIDs including … ketoprofen (2573 participants) to provide pain relief for chronic musculoskeletal pains such as knee or hand osteoarthritis,” conclude yet another group of researchers.
While topical formulas of ketoprofen have been in use in Europe for many years, they just aren't easy to find in the United States. Until now.
How to Order Protaren
With the reliability and safety of telemedicine technology today, getting Protaren prescription pain cream is simple for qualifying patients.
Fill out a brief survey about your pain and symptoms, and if appropriate, a physician can write a prescription for Protaren to be sent right to your door.
It’s shipped directly from the pharmacy with free shipping, and there’s no co-pay, no insurance involvement, and follow-up with your clinician is free.
What are Protaren’s side effects?
The primary side effect seen in the use of topical ketoprofen has been photoallergy, a skin reaction following exposure to sunlight, though this is not common.
In 2010, the European Medicines Agency, which helps to regulate drugs in the European Union, reviewed topical ketoprofen’s safety profile.
They concluded that the benefits of topical ketoprofen continue to outweigh its risks, but that ketoprofen should be available with a doctor’s prescription so that a trained expert can help patients use it safely and effectively.
That's how topical ketoprofen is prescribed in the U.S., with a doctor's prescription.
That's where Protaren comes in, to help Americans tackle joint discomfort without leaving the comfort of home.
What is Osteoarthritis?
Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis and tends to affect older men and women.
Osteoarthritis (and osteoarthritis pain) begins when the protective cushioning of cartilage at the end of each bone that meets in a joint – like your knee, elbow, or fingers – starts to wear down over time.
OA can affect any joint, but it most often affects knees and hips, which experience extensive wear-and-tear over many years.
That’s why OA of these large joints tends to appear later in life: those bones and cartilage have been working hard for decades!
That’s also why so many older Americans have hip and knee replacements in their 60s and 70s. Cartilage is wearing down, and OA has begun.
According to recently published medical research, as many as 14 million Americans suffer from symptomatic knee osteoarthritis (OA). This could be a low estimate, too, as osteoarthritis is a common issue among those who are aging, and is one of the leading causes of disability in those 65 and older.
One recently published study estimated that about 13% of women and 10% of men over the age of 60 years have symptomatic knee OA.
And, the number of people affected by symptomatic knee OA is expected to increase as the population ages and the rate of obesity continues to increase in the U.S.
Symptoms of Osteoarthritis
Symptomatic OA refers to OA that has progressed enough for individuals to start noticing the symptoms.
People with symptomatic OA not only suffer from pain and joint discomfort in many cases, but they’re also at a higher risk of death compared to the general population. A history of diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and existing walking disabilities are all risk factors in the development of OA.
Osteoarthritis symptoms usually develop over time and do not appear all at once.
In addition, everyone experiences OA a little differently: some people have pain and no swelling, others experience stiffness and a grating sensation or discomfort, but never really experience pain. It varies from person to person.
Symptoms of osteoarthritis can include one or more of the following:
- Tenderness
- Stiffness
- Loss of flexibility
- A grating sensation
- Pain
- Swelling
- General discomfort
Osteoarthritis is frequently accompanied by swelling and inflammation of the joint as the tissue in that area becomes sensitive and agitated.
How is OA Different from Arthritis?
Arthritis is a broader, catch-all medical term for inflammation in joints.
It does not always include arthritis caused by bone-to-bone connection or cartilage deterioration, as with OA. Arthritis, and the tell-tale inflammation that many people are familiar with affects other joints more frequently as well, like finger and wrist joints.
Protaren’s Ingredients
What's in Protaren?
While ketoprofen is the active ingredient in Protaren, it also contains 9 mg of phenoxyethanol per gram, as a preservative.
The other ingredients in Protaren are water, carthamus tinctorius seed oil, aloe barbadensis leaf extract, helianthus annuus seed oil, olea europaea fruit oil, butyrospermum parkii butter, beeswax, cetearyl alcohol, glyceryl stearate, peril la ocymoides seed oil, isopropyl palmitate, lysolecithin, hydrogenated lecithin, perilla ocymoides leaf extract, isopropyl myristate, squalane, punica granatum extract, tocopheryl acetate, cholecalciferol, cetyl alcohol, retinyl pa Imitate, vitis vinifera seed extract, wheat amino acids, triticum vulgare germ extract, oenothera biennis oil, xanthan gum, phenoxyethanol and ethyl alcohol.
Where Can I Get Protaren?
You won't find Protaren at your local pharmacy.
You won't find it at the grocery store, either.
Protaren is a prescription pain cream available exclusively through our secure telemedicine platform. It's the fastest way to get a prescription pain cream, with no doctor's office visits, no waiting in a waiting room, and free shipping straight from the pharmacy.
It starts with a short questionnaire and, if approved, your prescription is written and your medication shipped in no time.
Click here to learn more and get started with prescription Protaren today.
Sources
Epidemiology of Osteoarthritis: Literature Update - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5832048/
Knee osteoarthritis prevalence, risk factors, pathogenesis and features: Part I - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3766936/?report=reader
Knee Osteoarthritis: A Primer - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5638628/
Safety of Oral Non-Selective Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs in Osteoarthritis: What Does the Literature Say? - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6509083/
Effectiveness and safety of topical versus oral nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs: a comprehensive review - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23703519/
Single Blind, Comparative Study of Ketoprofen Cream Vs Diclofenac and Piroxicam Cream in Management of Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients - https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265378550_Single_Blind_Comparative_Study_of_Ketoprofen_Cream_Vs_Diclofenac_and_Piroxicam_Cream_in_Management_of_Rheumatoid_Arthritis_Patients
Safety and efficacy of topical ketoprofen in transfersome gel in knee osteoarthritis: A systematic review - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/msc.1163
FORMULATION DEVELOPMENT, EVALUATION AND ANTI-INFLAMMATORY EFFECTS OF KETOPROFEN CREAM ON RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS PATIENTS - https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259611554_FORMULATION_DEVELOPMENT_EVALUATION_AND_ANTI-INFLAMMATORY_EFFECTS_OF_KETOPROFEN_CREAM_ON_RHEUMATOID_ARTHRITIS_PATIENTS/
Topical NSAIDs for acute musculoskeletal pain in adults - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26068955/
