Unlike the common symptoms of osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis where it occurs in the knee, hip, feet, hands and fingers - these two types of the disease can also flare up in the chest.
Both women and men can develop chest arthritis but for women it can be particularly uncomfortable.
When it spreads to the breast bone, simple functions like breathing, coughing, sneezing and laughing cause the lungs to press against this bone which creates pressure against the inflamed region.
Some women describe the feeling as similar to being given a bear hug, while lying down on ones side may provoke the same lung restricting pain.
However, if this restrictive feeling is just starting to affect you and you haven't been diagnosed as of yet, you could well be experiencing Costochondritis.
This is not incurable and may go away after a few weeks or months, but the symptoms are very similar, but this time it's just a temporary inflammation of the cartilage of the breast and ribs that are causing the chest pain.
If unfortunately this isn't the case and the cartilage attached to the breast bone continues to flare up then there are a combination of treatments that may work for you:
Treating Arthritis in the Chest:
1. Minocycline
This is in fact used to treat severe cases of rheumatoid arthritis, but sometimes when breathing can become so restricted that it becomes life threatening, then Minocycline may be prescribed to treat osteoarthritis in the chest.
Some patients may go on using this indefinitely, so bear in mind it is an NSAID and there will be risks involved if used long-term, but for short term-term it may provide the relief you need.
2. Cortisone injection
A steroid injection into the swollen cartilage to reduce the inflammation may provide the relief you need if it's flared up.
You may only need this once or not, impossible to tell with this disease.
3. Tylenol Extra Strength
Supposedly, this is one of the few NSAID's that work well for chest arthritis.
Celebrex was also once touted as an effective NSAID, but this has now been taken off the shelf due to the inherent health risks patients experienced, so be careful using any NSAID long-term.
4. FDA homeopathic pain relievers
If the pain isn't too unbearable then FDA homeopathic natural supplements are as good if not better than most NSAIDs, plus they're completely safe and are used long-term.
The common ingredients now most people are familiar with are Glucosamine Complex, Chondroitin Sulfate and MSM.
They work on three fronts.
They alleviate the swelling, reduce the pain and help re-build bone density.
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