If there's a bottle of ibuprofen next to your coffee maker, you've probably stopped counting the pills. Two in the morning so your knees are ready for the stairs. Two more after lunch on a bad day.

You stopped counting a long time ago. Your stomach didn't.

A painkiller you take for a few days and a painkiller you take every morning for years are two very different habits. The box was written for the first one.

There's another option with an odd nickname: "natural ibuprofen." It's a turmeric extract, and in a clinical trial it went head to head with ibuprofen on knee pain. Here are the questions people ask about it, with straight answers.

Why should I stop taking so much ibuprofen?

Start with the side of the box. Ibuprofen is an NSAID, and the Drug Facts panel on a store-brand box carries a stomach bleeding warning. The people it lists as more likely to bleed include anyone 60 or older and anyone who takes it longer than directed.

Directed means a few days. The same box tells you to stop and ask a doctor if your pain lasts more than 10 days.

Two pills every morning comes to more than 700 a year.

Your kidneys are on the box too. Kidney disease is on the list of conditions to ask a doctor about before you take it at all.

What is the "natural ibuprofen"?

The nickname belongs to a turmeric extract standardized to 95% curcuminoids, the compounds in turmeric root that the joint research is about.

The one on this page is Curcuma Labs Pure Turmeric Curcumin 95. It comes as a golden softgel, with 1,000 mg of extract per serving, black pepper extract, and the extract carried in coconut MCT oil.

It's a dietary supplement. Its label carries no NSAID stomach bleeding warning, because it isn't an NSAID.

Did it really go head to head with ibuprofen?

Yes. In 2014, the journal Clinical Interventions in Aging published a 4-week trial in 367 adults with knee osteoarthritis.¹ One group took ibuprofen, 1,200 mg a day, which is the most an over-the-counter box allows. The other group took a turmeric extract, 1,500 mg a day.

On knee pain, the turmeric extract matched the ibuprofen.

Look at what the people in that trial took. It was an extract, the concentrated form, at a real daily dose. Most of the turmeric people try at home is neither.

Then why didn't the turmeric I tried do anything?

Most turmeric at home is the spice. People stir ground root into warm milk and call it a golden latte. Or they buy supermarket capsules that hold the same powder as the jar on the spice rack.

Ground turmeric root is only 2 to 5% curcuminoids. A 1,000 mg capsule of root gives you 20 to 50 mg of them. A 95% extract gives you about 950 mg in the same 1,000 mg.

There's a second problem. Curcumin dissolves in fat, and a capsule of dry powder brings none with it. Swallowed with a glass of water before breakfast, much of it passes straight through.

So if a golden latte or a supermarket capsule did nothing for your knees, it never got a fair test.

What makes this softgel different?

Three things on the label, and you can check every one.

1. The dose. 1,000 mg of turmeric extract standardized to 95% curcuminoids, about 950 mg a serving.
2. The oil. The extract is carried in coconut MCT oil inside a softgel, because curcumin needs fat and dry powder has none. You still take it with a meal, which adds more.
3. Black pepper extract. In a study in people, black pepper extract raised the amount of curcumin that reached the blood.²

Every batch is also tested by an independent lab for potency, heavy metals and microbes, and the certificate of analysis is a QR scan away on the bottle.

Curcuma Labs Pure Turmeric Curcumin 95

• 1,000 mg turmeric extract per serving, standardized to 95% curcuminoids
• The extract carried in coconut MCT oil inside a golden softgel
• Black pepper extract (BioPerine®) in every serving
• Ginger root, bee propolis and vitamin C, with no proprietary blend
• Every batch tested by an independent lab, with the report on a QR code
• 60-day money-back guarantee, even on opened bottles

How fast will I notice a difference?

Slower than a painkiller, and it's better to know that going in. Ibuprofen is dosed by the hour. A turmeric extract is taken every day and builds over weeks, and the trial ran for four of them.

How do I take it?

1. Take 3 softgels a day with a meal. Dinner is the easiest one to remember.
2. Take them every day, the good days included.
3. Judge it at week 4, by the things you've been working around.

Can I take it with my other medications?

Ask your doctor first if you take a blood thinner or diabetes medication, have gallbladder problems, or are scheduled for surgery. It also contains bee propolis, so skip it if you're allergic to bees or bee products.

What if my knees are bone on bone?

The 367 people in the trial had knee osteoarthritis, the wear-and-tear kind. That's who it was tested on.

How much does it cost?

Curcuma Labs keeps its prices on its own website, and they depend on the bundle. Right now there are two:

• Buy 2, Get 1 Free, which works out to 68% off
• Buy 3, Get 2 Free, where readers save up to 71%

One bottle is about a month, so three bottles cover the whole 4 to 8 weeks with room to spare.

Where can I get it?

Curcuma Labs sells it through its own website, and that's where the bundles are.

Is there a guarantee?

Yes. Every order comes with a 60-day money-back guarantee, and it covers opened bottles. You can take it every day for 8 weeks and still ask for your money back if the stairs feel the same.