Hemp Seed Oil Can Help Treating Arthritis

Many people would dismiss arthritis as a simple and natural process of aging when in fact it is not. It is a crippling disease; slow yet decapitating. Arthritis has many forms and accompanying painful symptoms. Somehow, in the advent of modern-day technology and medical breakthroughs, we look for an organic alternative way of battling arthritis knowing that it is safer and economical yet effective.

Arthritis simply means inflammation of the joints. We have a variety of joints in our body and this condition pertains to the swelling and pain that occurs in the affected area of someone inflicted with it.

What happens to the affected area is coined as "cartilage and bone gravel." Due to the overstretching of muscles which cause damage to the joints, what is left of the bones as well as the cartilage, would forcefully rub against each other which causes throbbing pain as well as worsening the damage of the affected joints. This continues to happen over and over again; it becomes a painful cycle and it gets worse over time.

Although it seems to be a dead end, there are lots of alternative natural treatment options available and there is one that will suit your criteria perfectly.

In this context, we would like to recommend hemp seed oil capsule, which is said to be "nature's most perfectly balanced oil" and "the most nutritionally complete food source there is in the world". Its liquid formulation can be taken with a spoon and really tastes good. This is recommended for long-term use. It has advantage over its other counterparts because it has a perfectly balanced fatty acid profile.

Moreover, this also contains essential fatty acids (EFA's) and gamma linoleic acid (GLA), both of which are very vital to achieve overall optimum health.

GLA (Gamma-Linolenic Acid) studies have also proven that hemp oil lowers the risk of heart attack and strengthens the immune defenses. The essential fatty acids helps lower blood cholesterol, promote good blood flow, and helps improve overall organ function.

Cannabis sativa is referred as the most important of all crops as it has provided us with useful edible seeds, oil, and medicine. Imbalances in specific fatty acids seem to be correlated to common diseases such as arthritis, eczema, acne, and a lot more. This further promotes the use of hemp oil as it is rich in essential amino acids and essential fatty acids. It is also rich in protein.

It can also be used in cooking delectable and healthy dishes. It has a distinct nutty taste to it which makes it ideal to incorporate in your side dishes with veggies, which make this a must-have for vegetarians. It could also be taken as part of a sumptuous dips and salad dressings. Better yet, it can be taken in its natural form as a dietary supplement.

How To Deal With Arthritis And Its Symptoms

There are more than 100 kinds of arthritis and related conditions. The word arthritis comes from "art her" (joint) and "it is" (inflammation). It is used to describe a wide range of diseases of the joints and related tissues that cause pain, stiffness and sometimes joint deformities and loss of function. Some kinds of arthritis also attack the skin and internal organs. You may have heard arthritis mentioned to as rheumatism or rheumatic disease: the terms are used interchangeably and arthritis specialists are called rheumatologists. The risk of getting many kinds of arthritis increases as we age.

Today, joint diseases account for half of all debilitating conditions in people aged 60 and older. Because medicine and diet are helping us live longer, more people than ever will develop osteoarthritis in the future. Other forms of arthritis also attack children and people in the prime of life. Some of these rheumatic diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus are very serious. Arthritis can be a complex condition to diagnose and treat. Many people, especially as they age, develop osteoarthritis, in addition, to other kinds of arthritis, or are also being treated for other debilitating diseases, such as heart disease or type two diabetes. Moreover, because no two individuals have exactly the same symptoms, your doctor will most likely prescribe a combination of treatments adjusted specifically for you.

A team approach is recommended for treating; the severe types of arthritis.When treating chronic ailments, doctors today are increasingly open to the idea of including some complementary therapies. The cause of most kinds of arthritic condition is not known, nor is there a cure for the majority of them. Many symptoms do respond to treatment. By working closely with your healthcare team and using a combination of conventional medications, complementary therapies and exercise, you can minimize the effects of this age-old disease and remain active.

Some kinds of arthritis need early and aggressive treatment to prevent or lessen irreversible bone damage. Infectious arthritis, for example, can be cured when treated with antibiotics-if you think you probably have an infection, call your doctor at once. Joint damage from rheumatoid arthritis can be reduced or prevented with powerful drugs. If you notice any of the following symptoms see your doctor. Consent or recurring pain or tenderness in a joint that lasts for more than two weeks. Swelling in one or more joints, especially with warmth and redness. Hardness around the joints that last a minimum for an hour in the early morning. Sudden difficulty using or moving a joint normally.

Ginger - A Miracle Food and Drug, More Than You Think

Ginger has been touted consistently as a miracle food and drug. Are the praises heaped on ginger real and scientific?

Ginger: Topnotch Kitchen Staple
Ginger is native to South Asia, where it has been a part of the diet for over 3,000 years. Ginger was regarded as a rare, valuable treatment in Europe when Marco Polo first brought it back from Asia. Truly, ginger can do a lot more than put a snap in your cooking. It can take the crackle and pop out your joints. A new, rock-solid scientific study has proved the zesty spice is as good as prescription medicine at conquering arthritis pain.

Ginger: Alternative cure for Osteoarthritis
Ginger has played a major role in traditional Chinese medicine and in Indian Ayurvedic pain treatments for more than 2,500 years. Olympic track champion Carl Lewis, at one time the fastest man on Earth, claims ginger supplements are helping him with his battle with osteoarthritis, the most common form of the disease.

Now, researchers have compared the effects of concentrated ginger capsules with that of conventional painkillers in treating the inflammation of osteoarthritis, caused when the cartilage pads between joints gradually wear away.

During a six-week trial, 250 patients suffering moderate to severe osteoarthritis of the knee were given either a specific ginger extract or a placebo, a substance that has no medicinal properties. The ginger extract group took two 225-milligram pills daily. Both groups were allowed to take everyday acetaminophen pills if their pain grew too severe. By the end of the trial, two out of every three patients in the ginger group reported a market decrease in the crippling agony of arthritis. More importantly, the group suffered none of the severe side-effects-gastrointestinal upset, tissue damage and even internal bleeding--known to occur with powerful prescription arthritis remedies.

The ginger extract, according to the result, reduced significant pain. The pain after walking was almost twice as good an improvement as the placebo. The effect is similar to that seen with trials using conventional drugs.

The Many Uses of Ginger
It is used as seasoning to some baked goods like cookies, biscuits, pies, gingerbread, and to ad flavor to vegetable and meat dishes. It is also used as an ingredient of ginger tea, ginger ale, and other beverages. Ginger oil is used in perfume making and as an alternative medicine for certain common ailments like toothache and stomachache.

Using a Far Infrared Sauna As an Arthritis Treatment

If you read my last article on using Far Infrared Portable Saunas as a means to combat your body aging, then you may already see where I'm going with this. But let's summarize real quick for those of you who are new.

Last time I wrote about how the human body at the tissue level is made up of proteins which happen to be polymers. And polymers can be heat treated to remove defects, soften the tissues and repair damaged material. Since human tissue is a polymer then human tissue can also be heat treated using Far Infrared Portable Saunas to repair damaged tissues, imperfections, and soften the tissues, which restores them to a more natural and healthy state. For more info please take a look at the links at the end of this article.

Well if you're familiar with Arthritis then you probably know that there are tons of different types, but mostly they all involve damaged cartilage and tissues in the joints, along with inflammation and severe pain. The inflammation comes from the damaged fiber particles from the joints blocking fluid movement in the joint. This causes swelling (inflammation) and heat in the joint from the fluid friction caused by the blocked passages. Between the swelling, pressure and damaged tissues there is considerable pain. There are all types of treatments, including drugs, dietary, physical therapy and more. But none of these treatments help repair the damaged tissues or cure the Arthritis. They mainly deal with helping reduce the pain and the inflammation or in the case of dietary treatments, reducing the weight placed on the joints in order to lessen the damage being caused. Physical therapy is highly recommended as it helps increase the joint tissues strength and flexibility while stimulating your body's metabolism and its natural defenses.

What You need to know is that since the tissues are hardening and defects are being created due to the damage being done the use of heat via a Far Infrared Portable Sauna can help anneal the damaged joint tissues. This will help soften the tissues, increase the strengthening caused by physical therapy, help remove defects and lessen the effects of Arthritis on the victim.

I will advise caution in one area though, if you use a Far Infrared Portable Sauna to help as an Arthritis Treatment you need to be careful of the inflammation as the sauna heat may make it worse during an episode of bad swelling. Typically I would recommend a cold ice pack to bring down the swelling in a soft tissue injury but since the damage is in the joints cartilage, heat may help as it will expand the fluid passages in your joints. But if you try the heat during a bad case of inflammation and it seems to make it worse, then stop and try a cold treatment. The Far Infrared Sauna is probably most beneficial if used when there's little or no inflammation so that it doesn't make the inflammation worse. The Far Infrared Portable sauna should be able to help repair the damaged joint tissues and increase your flexibility and reduce the affects of Arthritis in the joint by annealing the polymers that make up your bodies tissues.

Since physical therapy is so highly recommended I would suggest that you use the Far Infrared Portable Sauna as a quick warm up of your muscles as it only takes 5 minutes to come up to temperature. Just turn your sauna on and sit in it for 10 minutes to warm yourself up prior to physical therapy. Then when your exercises are done get back in and cook for 20 minutes then turn off the Far Infrared Portable Sauna and just relax in it for 15 minutes while your body slowly cools down. Then don't take a cold shower, but a warm shower would be fine. Cooling down to room temperature slowly is very important because during the cool down is when the polymer molecules are reforming, and a slow gradual cool down lets them do it without defects.

Hot packs are not an effective means of putting heat into a joint, they are slow and the heat doesn't penetrate well as the heat is only transmitted via conduction. Heat by conduction alone creates a heat gradient in the tissue, which means un-even heating as the heat isn't the same at all levels of the tissue. The heat that does manage to penetrate is so low that it's not effective and if you got the heat source hot enough to be affective then the outside heat may damage the skin. It just isn't a good way to get heat where you want it.

But a Far Infrared Portable Sauna is affordable, easy to use and most importantly the infrared rays emitted by the sauna will penetrate your body and be absorbed evenly within the joint tissues at a mild temperature that won't damage your tissues. Also, you'll be helping treat the other tissues of your body that a normal heat pad wouldn't touch. Don't forget your bodies a complete system, if you suffer from Arthritis in one area of your body then other areas are susceptible. At the very least the Arthritis pain you're currently dealing with is producing toxins that aren't helping your body. Relaxing in a Far Infrared Portable Sauna is a method to help combat the additional stresses placed on the body to help prevent Arthritis spreading to other joints.

In conclusion remember that a Far Infrared Portable Sauna is an emerging method for applying heat therapy for people who suffer from Arthritis. Heat therapy has been recommended by Doctors for years now there's an effective way to get the heat to the tissues that need it.

Arthritis Causing Food - White Flour

White flour is used to make white bread, pasta, noodles, cakes, biscuits, doughnuts, pies and many other foods. White flour is one of the foods in our diet which result in many chronic diseases including arthritis. We must make a concerted effort to avoid food made from white flour. White flour is made from whole grains. What starts out as a natural whole food, whole grains, become something that is poisonous to our body through processing. Many of us are familiar or have some idea about the white flour making process.

First of all, the bran which is the outer shell of the grain is removed. The outer shell contains most of the fibre content in the grain and is then either thrown away or sold at a health food shops as fibre supplement. This means that white flour has little or no fibres. Subsequently, the germ, a small part congregated at one end of the grain and which contains all the nutrients is removed because it sticks to the processing machine. The remaining part of the grain called endosperm is ground into a fine powder.

This powder, at this stage is brownish in colour is then bleached with chemicals just like you bleach your clothes. This residual chemical bleach remains in the flour and will enter your body as toxins. Flour mills use different chemical bleaches, all of which are pretty bad. Here are a few of them, chlorine, chloride, oxide of nitrogen, nitrosyl and benzoyl peroxide mixed with various chemicals of the salt family. All of these bleaches are extremely harmful to the body. Chloride oxide, when combined with proteins left in the flour, produces alloxan which is a poison and has been known to produce diabetes in laboratory animals. Chlorine oxide also destroys the vital wheat germ oil.

The flour is now white and containing no fibres and vitamins and minerals. To give it some desirable effect for commercial purposes since no one would by such a product, some artificial coal-tar derived vitamins and minerals are added and the flour is then labelled as "enriched". These artificial nutrients are of very low qualities and unnatural compared to those in the removed germ. Besides, in the process of making flour white, half of the valuable unsaturated fatty acids are lost in the milling process. As a result, the flour in the white bread and some other foods contains only poor quality proteins and fattening starch and lots of harmful chemicals.

White flour is therefore dangerous to eat and no wonder why many scientists belief that it is one of the main culprits of many serious diseases.

Foods made from white flour should be avoided in order to cure arthritis. Chemicals in white flour will become toxins in the body and encourage the body to produce more free radicals which attack the cartilage in the joint causing pain and inflammation. The toxins also cause blockages of blood vessels in and out of the joints and therefore lessen the amount of the nutrients going to the joint cartilage. A combination of chemicals and the lack of nutrients in white flour is therefore detrimental to our general health and contributory to the severity of arthritis. White bread should be replaced by others such as brown rise, potatoes in your diet.

Foods made from white flour include bread, pastas, noodles, pancakes, cakes, biscuits etc.

One thing to note is that whilst brown bread is better than white bread and is often recommended by your doctor, you should only eat it in moderation as they contain yeast which some scientists say is not good for your overall health and can even shorten your life expectancy. I have given up eating bread of any kind altogether and feel much more healthy. If you normally eat a lot of bread, on giving it up you will feel a remarkable improvement healthwise as well as arthritis-wise. Avoiding bread is one of the many things I did with my diet which resulted in a successful cure of my arthritis.

The best substitutions for bread are rice, especially brown rice and potatoes.

Is Meat Bad for Rheumatoid Arthritis?

Meat and Rheumatoid Arthritis

I am a previous sufferer of Rheumatoid Arthritis so I know how horrible the disease can be and how difficult life becomes during those terrible years. I explain in my natural cure for rheumatoid arthritis book how to go about eliminating the underlying cause of the disease by taking out of your diet the foods that are most offensive to the digestive system and overall inflammation in the body. One of the worst offenders is meat.

Most people love meat and consider it the main part of every meal. They also believe it is essential to the diet to be healthy and strong, providing beneficial protein, iron, energy and nutrients. The truth is, meat is not essential to human wellbeing whatsoever and any positive benefits it offers can be easily obtained from plant sources, without all the negative side effects that meat holds.

There are many downsides to meat from the point of view of an RA sufferer:

• Meat, including fish, is very high in fat as a percentage of calories.

• Animal meat contains no dietary fiber. Our healthy bacteria need to eat plant fiber, whilst unwanted pathogens thrive on animal waste. In addition, fiber is key for steady, regular stools that are easy to pass. I've found that it makes no sense to have a substantial part of my meal that contains no dietary fiber when I've found fiber such a key component to getting well.

• Carbohydrates are easier to digest than meat, thus relieving workload off a stomach that is currently under stress.

• Proteins are acid-forming since they are composed entirely of amino acids. (More on amino acids below). The most acidifying for the body are the sulfur-containing amino acids which break down to sulfuric acid. These sulfur-containing amino acids are most abundant in animal products like meat, chicken, fish and eggs. In fact, meat contains 4 times the amount of the highly acidifying sulfur-containing amino acids than any vegetable-based protein. You might remember from chemistry in school that to neutralize an acid you need a base. The body neutralizes the acids from these animal products using the most effective base that it has - calcium. The calcium gets withdrawn from the bones and is used to offset these acids. Through this process the bones are weakened, resulting in osteoarthritis and osteoporosis.

There are also several valid arguments put forward by others, which are non-specific to RA, but worth knowing also for your overall health and wellbeing:

• Animal proteins (including all animal products like milk, cheese and all dairy products) are linked to other chronic diseases, including the top 3 killers of Heart Disease, Cancer and Diabetes. (By the way, the fourth biggest killer in the US behind these is prescription medicine, and that is taking the medicine as prescribed!) By eliminating all animal-based foods from his diet for 4 days my Dad was able to reduce his blood pressure from 160/110 to 127/78. This kind of express improvement is unheard of in Western medicine, yet entirely predictable and repeatable when you understand the effects of foods on the body. Why eat something that contributes to other diseases when you're already dealing with a damn tough condition already? • Animal proteins develop fat cells on the body, by creating store houses for the over acidity that the body is trying to cope with. The fat you eat is fat you keep.

• Animal foods are high in cholesterol. Nobody wants that in their bloodstream. There is zero cholesterol in plant-based foods.

• Animal products contain uric acid, the excess of which is behind arthritic conditions like gout. There is an incredible testimonial in my book Natural Cure for Rheumatoid Arthritis book about a man with gout who followed the program and eliminated all pain in 1 week.

• Not eating animal foods is the single biggest thing that can be done to help the environment (a whole book called 'Diet for the New America' is all about this. It's got to do with the amount of land and resources required to produce animal food vs. the tiny fraction required to produce the equivalent calories via plant-based foods). If everyone only ate plant-based foods our world would be an extraordinarily different place.

• A plant-based diet is non-violent, upholding the Commandment of 'thou shall not kill'.

• Meat tastes bad. Seriously! Try eating it without ketchup, without mustard, without salt or any seasoning whatsoever. Just a plain bit of animal muscle without seasoning. Good luck.

It's worth noting that I have no pre-existing prejudice towards eating meat. I grew up on a farm where steak was on my plate at least once a day. In fact, I was very reluctant to stop eating meat and I only did so once I reviewed the truth about meat and observed the benefits that a meat-free diet had on my body.

Everyone is concerned about getting another source of protein. Westerners seem to have a love affair with protein that borders on obsession. The truth is, protein is just a combination of building blocks called 'Amino Acids' which combine together in various permutations to create various forms of proteins. Think of this in exactly the same way that all words in the English language are put together from various combinations of letters of the alphabet. There are 20 different amino acids that are the building blocks for protein. Plants (and some bacteria) can manufacture all of these amino acids and therefore make 'complete' proteins. However, humans can only manufacture 12 of the amino acids without food, so we require the other 8 in our diet. These 8 amino acids are called 'essential' amino acids, referring to 'essential to our diet'. Plants contain these 8 essential amino acids in abundance.

Obviously, feel free to keep eating meat if you want, I'm not your Mother. I can't tell you what to do, but the evidence is strong towards omitting it and I'd be omitting it soon. Does now sound like a good time? I don't expect you will cure yourself of Rheumatoid Arthritis if you keep meat in your diet. Nor, for that matter, dairy products...but that's another story (or Ezine Article!).

Arthritis Treatment: Focus On Muscular Stiffness, Joint Swelling, And Cartilage Repair

Effective arthritis treatment reduces inflammation in arthritic joints and creates an atmosphere for the body to repair its own cartilage deterioration. The best way to reduce inflammation is to lengthen all the muscles that attach to or surround the arthritic joint. Cartilage regeneration is also possible if excessive muscular tension is removed from the arthritic joint. Joints typically affected by arthritis are: knee, neck, shoulder, low back, hip, spine, hand or thumb, foot or toe. Regardless of the joint, the best way to treat arthritis is Active Isolated Stretching (AIS) therapy.

Arthritis therapy must address muscular inflexibility, because it is always a principle factor in arthritis pain. Joints are surrounded by muscles. Tightness in muscles cause joint inflammation and cartilage deterioration: two conditions that cause pain in arthritis sufferers. Joint inflammation causes swelling, which induces pain by pressing on the nerves. Furthermore, muscle strains on the arthritic joint cause a wearing down of cartilage. Cartilage is the shock absorber between joints. Both osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis are affected by joint inflammation and cartilage degeneration. Both rheumatoid arthritis sufferers and osteoarthritis sufferers must resolve muscular stiffness as part of their treatment plan. Optimal muscle lengthening is high value treatment for all types of arthritis.

Dr. Arthur Grayzel, former medical director of the Arthritis foundation is quoted in the book Keys to Understanding Arthritis, by Elizabeth Vierck. Dr. Grayzel states that "as people age, muscles lose their elasticity, leading to a reduced range of motion (page 11)." Limited range of motion causes cartilage deterioration. As the area of joint movement decreases, the joint begins to burrow a hole in the cartilage because it constantly treads in the same small area. Active Isolated Stretching therapy increases the range of motion in arthritic joints. As unnecessary muscular tension is taken off the joint, the joint will move in a greater surface area throughout the joint. Ceasing the process of cartilage degeneration.

Leon Sokoloff, M.D. examined cartilage regeneration. His findings are discussed in the book Healing Joint Pain Naturally by Ellen Hodgson Brown. Dr. Sokoloff states that "new cartilage could grow on bones but the real problem is the stress on the joint that keeps intervening and preventing this process (page 22)." If Dr. Sokoloff had studied Active Isolated Stretching, he would have discovered the critical link that helps arthritis sufferers naturally repair their cartilage. The stress on the joint that prevents new cartilage to grow on bones is excessive muscular tension.

In AIS treatment: circulation is refreshed into the problem area; stagnant waste products move out of the arthritic joint; fresh oxygen and nutrition move into the arthritic joint. The condition of cells surrounding the arthritic joint are improved, all of which facilitates cartilage regeneration.

The endorsement of stretching for arthritis pain is nothing new. But Active Isolated Stretching is an optimized form of stretching that is fifteen times more effective than older modalities. Conventional stretching, pnf stretching, yoga, and Thai massage have been incompetent in lengthening muscles. Optimal stretching cannot occur if the stretch hold is done for more than two seconds. Stretches done in repetition are better than one long stretch. The target muscle cannot stretch if the muscle is contracting, so stretch position must be reexamined. And target muscles cannot fully open if the lateral muscle fibers are not addressed. These points are only addressed in Active Isolated Stretching. Active Isolated Stretching reduces joint inflammation and facilitates cartilage regeneration by getting to the source of the problem.