Sore, stiff joints are one of the most common afflictions that come with age. Arthritis in its various forms affects more than 50 million American adults. The disease can reflect a degenerative process?a wearing away of the protective cartilage that cushions the connections between bones, such as in osteoarthritis (OA), the most common type. Or it can be due to inflammation inside the body, such as in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), which causes the immune system to mistakenly attack the joints.
No matter what form you have, arthritis symptoms are typically the same: pain, stiffness, swelling, loss of motion, and deformity in the joint. The longer the disease progresses and the more the cartilage wears away, the worse arthritis symptoms become.
Pain in the joints is the main symptom of both OA and RA. That pain can range from mild to severe, but it will usually increase with activity. Arthritis is a progressive disease. Left untreated, arthritis symptoms will get worse over time. As the joint cushioning wears away, you might notice a popping or cracking, the sound of bone rubbing against bone. The irritation from this motion causes the joint to swell up and become red and tender to the touch. Arthritis pain and stiffness can reduce your range of motion, making it more difficult to do your daily activities, from climbing stairs to exercising. Eventually, the damage will lead to permanent changes?knobs that stick out from the bone and deform your fingers and other joints.
Treatment for OA aims to reduce pain and stiffness, and slow down its progressive joint destruction. OA therapies include exercise, physical therapy, and medicines to reduce pain. Weight loss can take some of the pressure off painful joints. If all other treatments fail, surgery is an option. For RA, disease-modifying drugs slow the progression of joint damage and may stall or prevent the need for surgery.
There’s no way around it: As time passes, we tend to lose muscle mass, our organs tend to function less efficiently, and our risk of disease increases. The good news is that there is a lifestyle change we can make to mitigate these risks, and it involves exercise—particularly balance exercises … Read More
Tai chi is a Chinese phrase that means extreme opposites. In English, the best word to conceptualize its meaning is simply balance. One can achieve tai chi in any action, thought, or profession in life. It is a mindset, not necessarily a martial art. The slow, precise movements of tai … Read More
In the vast majority of people with psoriasis, the skin disease precedes the arthritis, but 10 to 15 percent of people will have both skin and joint symptoms. Having the skin disease does not guarantee that you’ll develop psoriatic arthritis; in fact, only 15 percent of people with psoriasis are … Read More
Sulfur is one of the most abundant minerals in the human body and is essential to many important physiological processes, but a recent study suggests that much of the population, especially seniors, may not be getting enough.[2] One solution is methylsulfonylmethane (MSM), a naturally occurring sulfur compound with a host … Read More
Part 1 looked at SAM-e, boswellia extract, vitamin D, curcumin phytosome, and avocado-soybean unsaponofiables and is available here. No discussion about natural remedies for joint pain would be complete without the inclusion of glucosamine, chondroitin, and methylsulfonylmethane (MSM). These three compounds have been studied in more clinical trials and have … Read More
What if there was one natural treatment for simultaneously beating depression AND arthritis, and it was just as effectively as prescription antidepressants and pain killers (NSAIDS)? What if numerous clinical studies, reviews, and meta-analyses had examined this natural remedy and concluded that it was superior to placebo, as effective as … Read More
