August 11, 2012

  • Arthritis

    The book I read to research this post was Arthritis for Dummies by Sarah Brewer et al which is an excellent book which I bought from kindle. You might be interested in a couple of related posts in fibromyalgia and osteoporosis at http://daveroberts69.wordpress.com

    There are quite a lot of different forms of arthritis the most common being osteoarthritis and rheumatic arthritis. Some quite obscure diseases like lyme disease which was only discovered in 1977 also exist. Believe it or not dinosaurs 200 million years ago sometimes suffered with arthritis. Cartilage cracking with age, the joints becoming swollen with a little too much liquid and the bones in the joints becoming worn is the form arthritis normally takes. If you suffer with arthritis at the very least the supplements you should be taking are glucosamine, a multi vitamin tablet and omega 3. Glucosamine in particular is a wonder supplement and helps  slow aging of the joint and also a fair percentage said it helped alleviate the pain. Aspirin and ibuprofen will help alleviate inflammation of the joint in addition to killing pain. If you have pain in the joints for more than 2 weeks you should see a doctor and get it diagnosed. A lot of patients turn to alternative therapies in particular acupuncture, homeopathy, massage, aromatherapy and the alexander technique. If you use massage, sports massage and swedish massage are recommended although any gentle type of massage will do. If you try aromatherapy try lavendar which has a normalising effect and treats most things. In extreme cases surgery is used and this can mean replacing the joint with an artificial one or draining some fluid from the joint or even grafting cartilage from one place to another. In some cases in Britain you can have an operation abroad and the NHS pays for it. Another alternative is having the operation done in the private sector and again the NHS pays for it.

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