Natural Remedies For Arthritis - How to Eliminate Arthritis Pain and Stiffness

Arthritis is an inflammatory joint condition causing stiffness, swelling, and pain. There are approximately 300 joints throughout your body. Arthritis limits your activity and usually gets worse if left untreated.

By following these natural remedies for arthritis, you can greatly reduce and in many cases, eliminate arthritis pain without the damaging effects of drugs. Medications may help reduce inflammation but there are side effects such as upset stomach, gastrointestinal bleeding and kidney problems.

Connection between Diet and Arthritis

• Eating a well-balance diet is essential for arthritis sufferers. If you are serious about eliminating pain, then you must be willing to make changes. Eating more fruits and vegetables and decreasing the amount of processed foods will detoxify your body and keep it running smoothly.


• A healthier diet also aids in weight reduction. Being overweight puts undue pressure on your joints and increases the painful symptoms.


• Natural remedies for arthritis include yellow and orange fruits and vegetables. They are high in vitamin A and are essential for bone function as well as aiding your immune system in the reduction of pain. Apricots, cantaloupe, grapefruit, mangoes, oranges, carrots, and winter squash are good starters. A glass of fresh squeezed orange juice a day is a tasty way to get a good dose of vitamin A.


• Eliminating dairy, sugar, and wheat from your diet is also essential in the reduction of arthritis pain. Drink rice milk or almond milk and eat whole grains instead. Use honey as a sweetener in place of sugar.

The Result of Proper Intake of Fluid and Arthritis

• Drinking 8-10 glasses of water a day helps to release toxins and controls constipation, decreasing the amount of pain in your joints. It is also essential in weight reduction. Regular intake of fluids also aids in the proper functioning of all major body organs.


• The best way to make sure you are drinking the recommended dosage is to measure the amount you drink. Unless you do, you are only guessing.

Benefits of Exercise and Arthritis

• Regular physical activity plays an essential role in the treatment of arthritis. One of the best known exercises encompassing a wide range of benefits is Yoga. These benefits include increased strength, flexibility and energy, decreasing body aches and pains. Most importantly, Yoga promotes joint health.


• "How To" tapes and CD's for beginning yoga are readily available in bookstores and libraries. Start slow, fifteen to twenty minutes a day, and in a short period of time you will begin to feel the benefits of regular stretching and meditation. Pain and stiffness will begin to decrease, making you wonder why you had not started sooner.

Making healthy changes in your lifestyle will bring relief of arthritic symptoms and in many cases, eliminate pain and stiffness altogether. Stick to natural remedies for arthritis and stay away from prescription and non-prescription medications. Be patient and understand you did not get arthritis overnight. Relief will come with consistency, diligence and being gentle with your body. You will lose weight and eliminate toxins, feeling and looking better than you ever thought possible.

How to Get the Best Arthritis Treatment Possible

Treatment for arthritis depends a lot on the type of arthritis that the person has and the stage it is in during diagnosis.

Early detection means better treatment for arthritis.

Unfortunately, not many people opt for early detection. In fact, there is a far larger number of people who consult their health care providers only when this joint-deteriorating disease is already well past its intermediary stage and on its way to the advanced stage. In other words, people typically flock to the clinics when the pains no longer respond to over-the-counter medications and eventually become unbearable. By this time, the doctors may take a longer time to figure out if the condition is hereditary or reactive (caused by other illnesses.)

So how can a person get the best treatment for arthritis? Here are some tips.

1. Look back on the family's medical history. If there is one person in the family tree that has had or currently suffers from arthritis, then there is a possibility that this person will have one too, or have one already. A series of tests can confirm if this is true, and this will also determine as to what type of arthritis he or she may be dealing with. If the person is suffering from little or no pain because of this disease, the doctor may simply recommend a better sustaining diet and exercise to slow down the crippling effects of arthritis.

Some changes in the diet would include, increasing vitamin and mineral supplements like: cobalamin, folate, omega 3 fatty acids and Vitamins C, D3 and E. As for exercise regimens, the health care provider would most likely advise the person to go on low-impact workout that would be kinder to the joints like swimming, fencing, yoga and walking.

2. Repetitive pains in the joints, particularly on the wrists, knees, hips, shoulder and ankles should warrant immediate consultation with the health care provider. It is a degenerative disease that escalates or becomes worse as time goes by. If the person finds himself or herself suffering from aches and pains in certain areas far too frequently to be of any comfort, then that person should go to the doctor immediately.

The doctor may ask that for blood tests and a series of x-rays to confirm the presence of arthritis.

3. Seek immediate assistance in case the person feels extreme bodily aches and weakness during a mild bout of illness. For example, a person lands with an upset stomach and a few rounds of vomiting after partaking of a friend's day old casserole. Deciding that he or she can take care of this, that person spends the weekend sleeping in. He or she makes a full recovery after a week, except that he or she is stuck with creaky knees. Eventually, those knees become too inflamed that it becomes very painful to walk.

Believe it or not, this is a case of bacterial infection (mild food poisoning) that leads to reactive arthritis.

Natural Remedies for Arthritis - Making Mother Nature Work for You

Arthritis is a painful condition that involves slow degradation of the body's joints. The soft tissue between joints not only cushions the weight, but prevents the body's movements from grating on the hard tissue of bones. Some forms of arthritis can be caused by the body's immune system attacking the body's own joints, such as in rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis. Other forms can come as the result of infections, such as septic arthritis. In any case, there are natural remedies for arthritis which advocates claim can help arthritis sufferers get rid of the pain.

There is no known cure for arthritis, so if you are suffering from arthritis and a natural remedy is recommended to you, beware the quack doctor who claims that your arthritis will disappear entirely. Many natural remedies have not yet been studied in great detail, and the definition of "natural" is still debatable. Moreover, do not go into natural remedies without consulting your doctor first; some so-called natural remedies may work against your arthritis medication, or will be useless for your particular case.

Taking the Natural Path by Adding or Taking Away from the Diet

Arthritis is an old disease that has been treated in many ways by ancient doctors. For instance, arthritic or gouty patients were prescribed diets of only apples or rhubarb; they were advised to take large amounts of honey; they were required to eat fresh nutmeg; or they were told to drink gold salts. Although the last option might seem outlandish, it is still being practiced today: gold salts, however, have to be pharmaceutical grade in order to be consumed.

Fasting is another way to relieve the pain of arthritis, but this has to be coupled with drinking large amounts of water. Excessive fasting, however, can make the pain of arthritis worse, especially if other medical conditions exist that might be complicated by fasting. Some natural remedy advocates might also recommend vitamins and vitamin supplements, but these have to be taken in moderation.

Arthritis diets also depend on the kind of arthritis a patient has. Patients with gout will need to avoid high-protein and high-uric acid foods, as these can increase the buildup of uric acid crystals in joints, the main cause of this form of arthritis. This means that patients have to stay away from some mussels, meats, fish, and legumes, as the liver and kidneys can not completely process the proteins from these foods and flush them out of the body. People with gout also need to stay away from alcohol or any food or drink that can increase the liver's or kidney's metabolic load.

Massages and Needles: The Natural Way to Get Your Energy Back?

Acupuncture is an ancient method of rerouting your energy fields. According to acupuncture advocates, our bodies operate with in an energy field that should be flowing in certain directions; sickness, such as arthritis, cause this energy field to lose direction, a phenomenon that leads to extreme pain. By positioning needles on strategic points of the body, acupuncturists hope to reroute the energy field in order to relieve the pain associated with arthritis - and hopefully even cure it.

Another natural remedy for arthritis includes the use of copper or magnetic bracelets, which purportedly increase blood circulation and thus ease the pain of arthritis. Such a method, however, has not yet been proven effective, so be careful about shelling out your hard-earned money to buy expensive bracelets that are supposedly designed to relieve pain.

Giving Back the Body its Own Cells

If natural methods are the way to go, then what can be more natural than using your own body to treat itself? Although spurned by natural remedy advocates, stem cells are gaining promise as a way to treat different diseases. Stem cells are a sort of default cell mode for the body: you can find stem cells in the blood and bone marrow, and your stem cells can be programmed to develop into other body cell types.

In the future, with more scientific research, stem cells can be collected from arthritic patients, and then programmed to develop into joint tissue in the laboratory, with the help of environmental and chemical cues. These tissues can then be returned to the arthritic patients in order to replace their lost joints. Because the stem cells come directly from the patient, there is a vastly decreased risk of tissue rejection.

Today's medically accepted methods for treating arthritis include an exercise and weight loss regimen, physical and occupational therapy, and a variety of medications. There are also natural remedies for arthritis that can be used along with these methods. Whichever method you wish to avail of, talk to your physician first about how such a method can help your particular case, and what other options might be available to you.

The Agonizing, Awful and Irritating Disease of Arthritis

It literally means joint inflammation. But the word arthritis does not even begin to describe the agonizing disease that affects the lives of millions each and every year. The word arthritis defines a group of over 100 varying arthritic or rheumatic conditions, all with a variety of signs and symptoms, as well as different treatment courses.

These varying rheumatic diseases impacting the connective tissues, the muscles and the joints attack the body and in some cases can ravage the body with pain, limitations and deformities. With arthritis, the joints and surrounding tissues such as tendons and muscles become inflamed which can cause pain. You may also see redness or swelling at the joints as the body reacts and inflammation sets.

Some of the more serious forms of arthritis are autoimmune related diseases in which the body literally attacks itself because the autoimmune systems seemingly short circuits and goes a bit haywire!

Many forms of arthritis are chronic diseases impacting the lives of those they affect throughout their lifetime. Currently there is no known cure for arthritis and this is where research is currently focused. Researchers are currently focused on getting to the bottom of the root cause of arthritis and if they can truly identify the cause then we can only hope a cure is not far behind.

However, even though arthritis is a chronic disease that you must face each and every day, it does not mean that you must simply accept the pain and agony which its symptoms can bring.

Fortunately, for most diagnosed with arthritis, there are times in which the symptoms flare and are more painful while other times the symptoms are quieter and recede. These periods of quiet are the ones for which patients with arthritis long to reside and it is during these periods of quiet that most folks feel better.

Just because you suffer from arthritis it does not mean that you must give up your active lifestyle or the things that you hold dear. While it is rather probable that you will have to make lifestyle adjustments, such as built up handles on toothbrushes or pens or even your car keys, having arthritis certainly does not mean that you must hole up in your bed curled in a fetal position grieving for all the things you feel you have lost.

Yes, acknowledging the lifestyle changes to which you must adjust is important but it is equally as important to learn how to make the changes necessary and then to get on with the glorious gift of life!

Living with arthritis is definitely a challenge that can challenge even the most stoic. But you certainly can learn to make adaptations to your life as you learn to live with a diagnosis of arthritis.

When you partner with your physician to develop the most aggressive and holistic treatment plan available and one that has been designed just for you, then you have the best opportunity to effectively manage your arthritis.

After all, isn't managing your arthritis worth your attention?

Treating Psoriasis May Help Prevent Heart Attacks And Strokes

In the past, psoriasis was viewed primarily as a cosmetic issue that would not extend beyond the obvious lesions on the skin. With a better understanding of the immune responses involved in this disease, and clinical evidence indicating the frequent associations between psoriasis and other serious diseases, we now know that psoriasis is a much more serious disease affecting the whole body and quality of life.

Psoriasis

Psoriasis is a common skin disease that affects more than 6 million people in America. Psoriasis usually occurs as red, scaly, crusty patches that reveal fine silvery scales when scraped or scratched. These patches may itch, irritate, and cause discomfort.

Psoriasis is most common on the knees, elbows and scalp, but can appear anywhere on the body. In some types the nails or joints are also affected. The condition is chronic, lasting for many years, sometimes painful, disabling, especially when coupled with arthritis.

Causes Of Psoriasis

The reason psoriasis occurs is unidentified. However, it is accepted that the immune system plays an important role in the disease development. When psoriasis strikes, the over-reactive immune cells release inflammatory cytokines and cause the rapid turnover of skin cells. Under normal conditions, it takes up to 28 days for newly formed skin cells to rise to the surface of the skin and separate from healthy tissue, but in psoriasis it takes just two to six days. When the skin cells replenish themselves too quickly, they are immature and defective as part of skin barrier.

According to medical research, it is now established that psoriasis is a chronic immune-mediated hyper-proliferative inflammatory skin disease. Psoriasis is characterized by an over-production of inflammatory mediators and complicated interactions among epidermal cells and inflammatory/immune network.

Psoriasis Is Associated With Serious Medical Conditions

There is a growing awareness that psoriasis is more than 'skin deep'. Over the years, several studies have uncovered that psoriasis is linked with a number of potentially serious medical conditions including cardiovascular disease, cancer, obesity, psoriatic arthritis, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, autoimmune diseases (Crohn's disease), psychiatric diseases (such as depression and sexual dysfunction), sleep apnea, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Recently, a convincing association between psoriasis and vascular diseases has emerged. Psoriasis patients have an increased incidence of heart disease, stroke, and peripheral vascular disease. Studies also showed that patients with severe psoriasis have shorter life expectancies by an average of three to five years than those who are not affected by psoriasis.

Inflammation Is The Causal Link Between Psoriasis And Cardiovascular Diseases

The exact connection between psoriasis and cardiovascular diseases is unknown, but available evidence supports that inflammation may be the causative link between psoriasis and vascular disease.

Psoriasis and atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries, the leading cause of heart attacks, stroke, and peripheral vascular disease) share similar immune-inflammatory responses. In psoriasis, local release of inflammatory mediators causes a cascade of immune-inflammatory cell activation, continuous skin cell proliferation, and development of psoriatic plaques. In atherosclerosis, activated inflammatory cells gather at the sites of vascular injury, become part of atherosclerotic plaque, and destabilize the plaque which eventually leads to heart attack and stroke.

Psoriasis Treatments

Psoriasis treatments are aimed to suppress the over-reative immune-inflammatory responses, slow down cellular growth, and relieve associated itching and scaling.

Treating psoriasis often involves combination of different medications and interventions such as:

--Topical drug therapy (including steroids, vitamin D analogues, tar preparations, dithranol preparations and vitamin A derivatives)

--Phototherapy (also known as light therapy)

--Systemic medications (prescribed to block specific immune-inflammatory molecules or pathways in the body)

Along with drug treatments, moisturizers are often used to avoid water loss and ease the dryness associated with the disease or caused by treatments.

Apparently, there are side effects and risks linked with long term drug treatment. Common side-effects of corticosteroids include skin thinning, loss of pigment, allergic to steroids, and increased risk of infection.

Common side effects of systemic immunomodulatory therapy (impact the entire immune system) and newer biologic drugs (target individual factor or specific parts of the immune system) include increased risk of infection, flu-like symptoms, injection site reactions, and compromised immune system.

Can Treating Inflammation Benefit Both Psoriasis And Cardiovascular Disease

Due to essential role of inflammation in psoriasis and atherosclerosis, it is thought that suppressing immune-inflammatory responses may be effective treatments for both psoriasis and atherosclerosis. Various studies are performed to determine whether a treatment to reduce inflammation in psoriasis patients could be associated with a decrease in cardiovascular diseases.

Although there has no conclusive evidence, initial results suggest that treating psoriasis patients with drugs targeting inflammatory pathways can reduce vascular inflammation in psoriasis patients. Nonetheless, long-term follow-up studies are required to confirm whether reduced inflammation in psoriasis patients is associated with smaller and stable atherosclerotic plaques and decreased incidence of heart attack and stroke.

Topical Anti-inflammatory Remedies For Psoriasis Relief

To avoid systemic side effects related to long term drug treatments, natural anti-inflammatory remedies, especially topical anti-inflammatory herbal remedies, are often used as alternative treatments for psoriasis relief. Anti-inflammatory herbal extracts have been used for centuries to ease inflammatory skin conditions including psoriasis. Some results from clinical trials using herbal remedies to treat psoriasis have been promising.

Commonly used anti-inflammatory herbs for psoriasis relief include White willow, Aloe vera, Licorice, Coptis, Scute, Rhubarb, Honey suckle, and Indigo naturalis. Pharmacological studies have shown that these herbs have anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-allergic, and immuno-regulatory properties.

Topical Anti-inflammatory herbal remedies may provide following benefits for psoriasis relief:

--Ease of inflammation-related scaling and itching

--Balanced immune response against allergens, irritants, oxidative stress, and infections

--Augmented endogenous (i.e., derived internally) antioxidants, the most effective disease-fighting molecules in the body

--Nurturing environment for recovery of damaged skin cells and enhanced tissue repair

To learn and benefit from natural anti-inflammatory remedies, follow blog series "Nature's Best Anti-inflammatory Herbs" and "Natural Cures For Chronic Inflammatory Conditions".

What Is the Future of Stem Cell Treatment for Arthritis?

One of the most promising areas for arthritis treatment is the use of autologous adult mesenchymal stem cells. These are progenitor cells (cells that can differentiate into other cells) that are present within the patient.

Most descriptions of the use of mesenchymal stem cells have come from evaluations of patients with osteoarthritis. While most of these reports have been largely anecdotal, one recent presentation from our center revealed our experience with 22 patients with osteoarthritis of the knee (American College of Rheumatology meeting, November, 2010, Atlanta, Georgia).

The findings were quite encouraging. Among other joints we have evaluated include the shoulder as well as the hip. Further investigation is planned for joints such as the base of the thumb, ankle, and the base of the big toe.

What is extremely exciting is a recent report from RNL BIO, a biopharmaceutical company specializing in the use of donor adult stem cell therapeutics.

They described a patient report utilizing stem cell therapy on an orthopedic spine surgeon who suffered from autoimmune arthritis.

According to the press release, "Dr. Stanley Jones, the surgeon and patient, reports that he had a sudden onset of acute pain in his wrist in September 2009; shortly thereafter the patient experienced pain in his knees as well. Dr. Jones saw a rheumatologist who diagnosed him with autoimmune arthritis. He was placed on cortisone, a steroid hormone, to suppress immune response and alleviate pain. Unfortunately Dr. Jones suffered complications from the cortisone... His condition deteriorated and his ability to perform routine activities of daily living or his profession was impacted.

... After a workup, he received stem cell infusions in Kyoto, Japan in May 2010. Post infusion, he began to notice improvement and by the end of 5 months, he had a complete recovery and was able to resume sports as well as operating."

While the exact diagnosis regarding this patient's arthritis is unknown, the clinical presentation suggests the diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis.

The major difference between the use of autologous mesenchymal progenitorcells in treating osteoarthritis and treating other forms of arthritis is fairly significant.

In treating osteoarthritis, we use a combination of growth factors and a tissue scaffold in order to hold the stem cells in place so that they can grow new cartilage.

The situation described above with using donor autologous mesenchymal stem cells makes use of their ability as immunomodulators.

These cells have been used in autoimmune disease such as lupus.

According to the NIH, "the objective of hematopoietic stem cell therapy for lupus is to destroy the mature, long-lived, and auto-reactive immune cells and to generate a new, properly functioning immune system"....

"The patient's own stem cells have been used in a procedure known as autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. First, patients receive injections of a growth factor, which coaxes large numbers of hematopoietic progenitor cells to be released from the bone marrow into the blood stream. These cells are harvested from the blood, purified away from mature immune cells, and stored. After sufficient quantities of these cells are obtained, the patient undergoes a regimen of cytotoxic (cell-killing) drug and/or radiation therapy, which eliminates the mature immune cells. Then, the hematopoietic stem cells are returned to the patient via a blood transfusion into the circulation where they migrate to the bone marrow and begin to differentiate to become mature immune cells. The body's immune system is then restored."

( http://stemcells.nih.gov )

Essentially, this is the theory behind using autologous mesenchymal stem cells for treating other autoimmune types of arthritis such as rheumatoid disease.

Those differences aside, what is similar is that mesenchymal progenitor cells are being asked to create new tissue and correct abnormalities brought about by disease processes.

The bottom line is this: autologous mesenchymal stem cells are the future in dealing with arthritis.

Types of Arthritis - Know the Type You Are Suffering From

There are several types of arthritis. Osteoarthritis, also referred to as degenerative joint disease, is the most common type of this disease and it is characterized by progressive degradation of the joints. In some instances degradation can include articular cartilage as well as the subchondral bone that is next to the joint.

Osteoarthritis normally affects the spine, hands and the feet. It can also affect the large bearing joints such as the hips and the knees. Symptoms of this condition include pain or a burning sensation in the affected muscles and tendons. Other symptoms are inflammation, stiffness and a creaking noise when you move or touch the affected joint. You may also experience contractions in the tendons and muscle spasm.

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic and systematic disorder that also affects the joints leading to an inflammatory synovistis. It can also affect tissues and other body organs. This condition can lead to the destruction of the articular cartilage as well as ankylosis of the joints. Symptoms include inflammation, swelling and stiffness of the affected joint especially in the mornings. The joints will feel warm and you may also experience pain.

Gout is another type and is characterized by elevated levels of uric acid in the bloodstream. When you suffer from this condition, uric acid is deposited on the articular cartilage of the joints, tendons and surrounding tissues. Gout is marked by sudden, excruciating and burning painful attacks within and about the joints. Psoriatic arthritis is a type of inflammatory condition that causes joint inflammation. It can also lead to tendinitis and sausage-like swelling of the digits or dactylitis.