According to The People’s Pharmacy, arthritis affects more
than forty million and can range from the occasional twinge in a finger to
incapacitating whole-body pain.
Arthritis has a tremendous number of
types— more than 200. Though they are different in one way or another their
similarity is that all of them involve a sort of joint malfunction that
oftentimes results in swelling and pain.
Several promising prescriptions and
over-the-counter drugs that assure arthritis-infected people have been
introduced to the market. Although they can temporarily relieve inflammation
and pain they all have potential side effects. According to statistics, an
estimated number of 10,000 people are admitted to hospitals because of adverse
reactions to Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs). They were
hospitalized due to indigestion, constipation, diarrhea, bleeding ulcers,
kidney damage, skin rash, ringing in the ears, drowsiness, fluid retention, and
confusion after taking those drugs. With this in mind, it is very
important for people, especially those who are crippled with arthritis to be
knowledgeable.
Be
well-informed about home remedies, herbal therapies, and nutritional
supplements.
Lose
Weight – The more overweight a person is, the
more stress and pressure he is putting on his joints. This increases the stress
on the specialized connective tissues between bones called cartilage. If this
happens, a series of inflammations, swellings, and pains will surely take place
which results in arthritis.
“There’s no one magic food or diet
that’s going to do away with arthritic pain,” says Art Mollen, D.O., director
of Southwest Health Institute in Phoenix, Arizona. “But if you’re overweight
and you lose weight, it will reduce a significant amount of the stress and pain
you feel in your spinal column, knees, hips, ankles, and feet.”
Stay
away from addictive drugs – Drugs
like tranquilizers, sleeping pills, and narcotic painkillers can unfortunately
be one of the factors why you are suffering from arthritis. “It’s not that
these drugs don’t work,” tells Dr. Nelson Hendler, assistant professor at the
Department of Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. ” They
do— but for most people, they are needed in ever-increasing amounts and end up
creating many more problems than they solve.”
Furthermore, Dr. Hendler believes
that such drugs should be slowly replaced with other forms of treatments
without the use of narcotic pain relievers like aspirin and ibuprofen.
Use
ice to prevent, heat to reduce – “I
recommend cold treatments for those times when a joint’s been stressed from
overuse or overwork,” suggests massage instructor at the Atlanta School of
Massage in Georgia Donna King.
She has been suffering from a series
of arthritis in his hands for a long time and to relieve it, she uses ice in a
plastic bag or a bag of frozen peas by applying it on the affected area for
15-20 minutes and removing it for 10-15 minutes. “That can be repeated for
hours at a time if needed,” she instructs.
If ice is good for preventing the
pain, heat, on the other hand, is good for reducing the pain. “When joints
become hot, swollen, and tender, heat is the best solution,” explains King.
“Cold would make them very painful.”
Lose
Stress – Beth Ziebell, Ph.D., a psychologist
focusing on stress and pain management in Tucson, Arizona says, “If you are
hurting and you tense up, you hurt more.
People who have things in their lives
under control will be better pain managers than people who don’t.” Moreover,
Dr. Ziebell gave some helpful tips that you might consider:
Learn to pace
" People with arthritis need to learn how to pace themselves
and not try to do everything they can do on the days when they’re feeling
good,” she explains. “All that does is make you tired and sore the next day.
Try to do a little each day, whether you are having a flare-up or not.”
Learn to relax
“Take a lesson from natural
childbirth classes. Childbirth is very painful but women learn how
to deal with
that pain by learning how to relax. If you focus on pain, it hurts more but if
you
get busy doing other things that are important to you, you’re not going to
feel it.”
Take
C and see – According to various conducted
studies, people with rheumatoid arthritis are Vitamin C- deficient. On the
medical models of Professor Robert H. Davis Ph.D. of Pennsylvania College of
Pediatric Medicine, it showed that the lack of Vitamin C can intensify
rheumatoid arthritis and that strong supplementation of the vitamin can bring
‘regression’ to the disease.
“Vitamin C is a good home remedy for
someone with rheumatoid arthritis,” he explains. “The toxicity of vitamin C is
virtually zero and if a person took about 500 mg spread throughout each day,
which is not excessive, that would get enough of the vitamin through to do some
good.”
However, to avoid complications, everyone
should start with 1 gram a day and increase the dosage daily or just ask the
prescription of your doctor to be safe.
Get
a massage – A relaxing massage using 15 drops of
oil containing rosemary, marigold, and lavender mixed with 50 ml of almond oil
will lighten the pain, or any other available liniments will do.
For best results, King advised
working the muscle that is attached to the tendons leading to your painful
joints.
Stretch
gently – “When it comes to arthritis,” says
Mary P. Schatz, M.D., a private practitioner in Nashville, Tennessee., “Moving
hurts, but not moving destroys. Incorrect moving harms but intelligent moving
heals.”
Stretching your body counts because it can improve your strength, flexibility
as well as your mobility— the three most vulnerable physical vitalities when
you are affected with arthritis. And one of the most practiced techniques to
improve those three and can therefore alleviate the pain is no other than yoga.
“Yoga teaches movement with proper
joint alignment which helps bring deformed joints back to normal positions as
appropriate muscles are lengthened and strengthened,” explains Dr. Schatz.
“Smart yoga exercise is the key to restoring health to arthritic joints.
Furthermore, yoga can make the
muscles relax, allowing the stimulation of endorphins, the body’s natural
painkillers.
Be
Careful of what you eat – The
foods you eat may sometimes be the factor why arthritis never leaves you. Why?
Because arthritis is some sort of an allergy like asthma that can be triggered
if you consume foods you are allergic to. Though there are foods that are
advisable for the alleviation of arthritic pain, there are also foods that can
further put you in incredible pain.
“I think I’ve seen the most dramatic
results when my rheumatoid arthritis patients avoid foods from the nightshade
family and milk products,” tells Dr. Elson Haas, director of Marin Clinic of
Preventive Medicine and Health Education in San Rafael, California and is also
the author of the book Staying Healthy with the Seasons.
The foods mentioned by Dr. Haas may
be true for some people but not for all. That’s why you need to check for
yourself and make a testing plan for you to discover how your arthritis reacts
to the foods that you eat.
Try
the duo of gins and raisins – The
use of gins and raisins as a treatment for arthritis is still a mystery. Though
science cannot provide substantial pieces of evidence and proof for this but
for many people, it had been an effective home remedy for arthritic pain and
one of those people was Betsy White.
In 1995, Joe and Terry Graedon of The
People’s Pharmacy received a letter from this North Carolinian Betsy White. For
many years, she had been relying on a wheelchair and walker. But unbelievable
things happen when he tried the gin-soaked raisins.
“My doctor checked me over and was
amazed! He could find no swelling or heat in my joints. I’m still on Imuran and
prednisone, but we are reducing the dose gradually with great success.”
After a few months, Betsy White writes
again to them, saying: “This is the gin-raisin lady just giving you an update.
I’m still doing well, seeing my doctor once a month. He and his nurse are
pleased as I am with my progress and my continued mobility. I am out of my
wheelchair…..and I recently celebrated my 25th wedding anniversary and
entertained 128 family and friends.”
When checked by the Graedons after
four years, she responded: “I’m still doing great! I’ve had four years of being
mobile. I can do for myself, drive and shop as an independent person.”
Although this treatment has not had enough
scientific pieces of evidence if we try to look at juniper berries which are
used in making gin, this berry was used for a long time by American Indians to
treat arthritis and this herb is known to have anti-inflammatory properties.
Make
your loved ones involved – “For
better or for worse, for richer and for poorer, in SICKNESS and in HEALTH…”
These lines are often present in
wedding vows, right? Yes, and that should be the motivating mantra for husbands
and wives— to care for each other in sickness and in health.
”When a wife tries to do everything
herself and is constantly asking her husband how he feels, she is reinforcing
in pain,” explains Judith Turner, Ph. D., a psychologist with the Pain Center
at the University of Washington.
She also advises being attentive and
supportive not only when your partner is in pain but also when he is at ease.
“That’s time to say, ‘Gee, I’m really happy to see you doing things’, she says.
“Praise is really important and something people tend to forget to do.”
Couples need to support each other in
sickness and in health. Arthritis is a common ailment affecting all people
regardless of age, gender, and any other factors. Though there is a chance that
this is somehow caused by the genes inside us, most probably, it is caused by
our unhealthy behaviors. The remedies mentioned above are nothing compared to
this great medicine called “discipline”.
