Arthritis

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Arthritis

Another common form of the disease is rheumatoid arthritis, which affects about two million Americans. Rheumatoid arthritis may strike in a person’s twenties, attacking the lining of the joints and causing pain and severe inflammation.

If you suspect that you have arthritis, see a doctor. But the natural remedies below—in conjunction with medical care and used with your doctor’s approval—may also help relieve the pain of arthritis, according to some health professionals.

See Your Medical Doctor When... Your joints are stiff in the morning but loosen up later in the day. Your stiffness lasts for more than six weeks. You have severe joint pain that doesn’t respond to heat, ice packs or aspirin. Your joint is hot, red, swollen and very painful. You experience stiffness after an injury to the joint. Your joints remain swollen even after you take aspirin or ibuprofen. You have chills or fever as well as swollen joints. You have already been diagnosed with arthritis but notice a new or different type of swelling in your joints.

Acupressure

Stiff, achy joints can be relieved with daily acupressure treatments, says Michael Reed Gach, Ph.D., author of arthritis Relief at Your Fingertips and Acupressure’s Potent Points and director of the Acupressure Institute in Berkeley, California. To soothe discomfort in the neck and lessen the general irritability that arthritis pain can cause, use your thumbs to press both GB 20 points, situated below the base of the skull, two inches out from the middle of your neck. (To help locate these points, refer to the illustration on page 565.) Press for one minute, suggests Dr. Gach.

“This is not a quick fix,” he says. “Work on these points regularly, several times each day, in combination with other therapies. The GB 20 point is a good overall pain-relieving point and is one of the 12 anti-inflammatory points.”

Aromatherapy

When arthritis acts up, a blend of aromatic oils massaged into sore joints will help, according to Judith Jackson, a Greenwich, Connecticut, aromatherapist and author of Scentual Touch: A Personal Guide to Aromatherapy. Jackson’s arthritis “recipe”calls for six drops each of rosemary and chamomile essential oils added to four ounces of a carrier oil such as almond, avocado, soybean or sesame. (Carrier oils are available in most health food stores.) For extra relief, she advises that you add ten drops each of rosemary and chamomile to a warm bath and soak for ten minutes.

For information on preparing and administering essential oils, including cautions about their use, see page 19. For information on purchasing essential oils, refer to the resource list on page 633.

Ayurveda

“Arthritis takes many different forms,” says David Frawley, O.M.D., director of the American Institute of Vedic Studies in Santa Fe, New Mexico. “In Ayurveda, we’re concerned with underlying energetic imbalances. Is the condition affected by heat or cold, dampness or dryness? An obese person with swollen joints, for instance, will be treated quite differently than a thin person with dry skin and brittle bones.”

Although long-term treatments differ, Dr. Frawley says the following remedies can soothe the pain of periodic attacks for most people. To nourish tissue, loosen stiff joints and relieve pain, he suggests rubbing warmed sesame oil (available in most health food stores) onto affected areas once or twice a day, then taking a hot shower about 20 to 60 minutes afterward to heat the oil and drive it into the pores. Also, add hot or spicy herbs such as cayenne, cinnamon and dried ginger to foods, he says.

For rheumatoid arthritis, Vasant Lad, B.A.M.S., M.A.Sc., director of the Ayurvedic Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico, recommends taking 1¼4 teaspoon of yogaraj guggulu three times daily, with a little warm water. This ancient herbal preparation is available by mail order (refer to the resource list on page 634). You can also add one tablespoon of castor oil to a cup of ginger tea and drink it before going to bed, he says. ginger tea is available in tea bag form in most health food stores.

Flower Remedy/Essence Therapy

“In people with arthritis, the whole system becomes slightly acidic, which many alternative practitioners believe is the result of hidden, unexpressed anger,” says Eve Campanelli, Ph.D., a holistic family practitioner in Beverly Hills, California. “A combination of the remedies Holly and Vine can help even out this type of personality.”

Flower remedies are available in some health food stores and through mail order (refer to the resource list on page 635). For information on preparing and administering flower remedies, see page 37.

Food Therapy

Many studies have shown that a vegetarian diet is very beneficial in helping to lessen or even eliminate arthritis pain, says Neal Barnard, M.D., president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine in Washington, D.C., and author of Food for Life and other books on the healing aspects of food. “We don’t know exactly why, but when we take patients off animal food sources, in many cases their arthritis will go into complete remission. This applies particularly to dairy as well as to meats.”

Homeopathy

Rhus toxicodendron will help relieve painful joints accompanied by stiffness in the neck and in the small of the back that is worse in cold weather and better on warm, dry days and after exercise, says Cynthia Mervis Watson, M.D., a family practice physician specializing in homeopathic and herbal therapies in Santa Monica, California. She suggests taking a 30C dose once a day or a 12C dose twice daily. A similar dosage of Bryonia will help if you have stiff and painful joints that are hot and swollen and feel worse with motion, adds Dr. Watson. And she says that a 30C dose of Cimicifuga is a good remedy if you have an uneasy, restless feeling and achy muscles that are worse with cold and in the morning. Dr. Watson recommends taking any of these remedies in the indicated dosage until you begin to feel better.

Rhus toxicodendron, Bryonia and Cimicifuga can be purchased in many health food stores. To purchase homeopathic remedies by mail, refer to the resource list on page 637.

Hydrotherapy

After you’ve seen a doctor for an initial diagnosis, hydrotherapy treatments are very helpful in managing chronic conditions such as osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis, says John Abruzzo, M.D., professor of medicine and director of the Rheumatology and Osteoporosis Center at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia. “Generally speaking, osteoarthritis patients get better results with moist, warm treatments, such as moist heat packs, than with dry applications, such as electric heating pads,” says Dr. Abruzzo. Using a warm compress for 10 to 20 minutes every four hours helps relieve stiffness and dull, penetrating pain, according to Dr. Abruzzo. Wading, swimming or exercising in a pool heated to 85°F can also be very effective. But remember, the affected part of the body should be immersed in the water.

To treat sharper, more intense pain, Dr. Abruzzo suggests a cold, wet compress or an ice pack wrapped in a plastic bag and placed over a towel on the skin. He says to use the cold treatment for 10 to 20 minutes every four hours. “Never use cold treatments for more than 20 minutes at a time, because they can damage the skin,” he says. And if pain lessens after using cold treatments for a day or two, switch to hot compresses, he adds.

Imagery

Picture your joint pain, giving it a size, shape and color. Reach out and touch it. Is it rough or smooth? Now transform this object into liquid and let it flow down your leg and out the bottom of your foot. Watch it trickling out of your room, out of your house and into the nearest creek or river and then floating out to the ocean until it disappears in the crashing waves, says Dennis Gersten, M.D., a San Diego psychiatrist and publisher of Atlantis, a bi-monthly imagery newsletter. “I’ve seen that imagery work wonders,” Dr. Gersten says. He suggests using it for 10 to 20 minutes twice a day.

Juice Therapy

Black cherry juice is good for arthritis, says Eve Campanelli, Ph.D., a holistic family practitioner in Beverly Hills, California. She estimates that around 85 percent of her patients with arthritis get at least partial relief from drinking two glasses of this juice twice a day (each glass contains four ounces of juice diluted with four ounces of water). “Fresh is always best, but even black cherry juice from concentrate seems to benefit arthritis,” she says. She adds that you can discontinue this treatment once the pain clears up.

“People with rheumatoid arthritis should include in their daily diets juices high in the anti-inflammatory nutrients,” says Cherie Calbom, M.S., a certified nutritionist in Kirkland, Washington, and co-author of Juicing for Life. She says that these nutrients include beta-carotene (found in parsley, broccoli and spinach) and copper (found in carrots, apples and ginger). Calbom has also seen rheumatoid arthritis improve with a glass or two a day of pineapple juice. “It’s the only known source of the enzyme bromelain, which has strong anti-inflammatory properties,” she says.

Calbom also cautions that certain juices may cause adverse reactions in people with osteoarthritis. “Avoid citrus fruits, and be careful with vegetables from the nightshade family, including potatoes, tomatoes, peppers and eggplant,” says Calbom. “Citrus seems to promote swelling, and nightshades contain psyllium alkaloids, which cause problems for some people.”

For more information about juicing techniques, see page 93.

Massage

If you have osteoarthritis, gentle massage can help ease the pain, says Elliot Greene, past president of the American Massage Therapy Association. Start by putting a little vegetable oil or massage oil on your fingertips, so they glide more easily over your skin. Then work slowly around the affected joint, making small, gentle circles with your fingertips. It’s best to avoid massage directly on the joint; stay just above and below it with your fingertips. Work on the area around the joint for three to five minutes each day.

Gentle massage may also help reduce swelling in rheumatoid arthritis, says Greene. He suggests using the effleurage stroke (page 570) to work the muscle and tissue around the joint with your fingertips. Make sure you use oil or cream on your fingers to make the massage more gentle. Greene says to work the area for five to ten minutes a day.

Reflexology

Although arthritis affects specific joints, you may get relief by working reflexology points for a number of organs, say Kevin and Barbara Kunz, reflexology researchers in Sante Fe, New Mexico, and authors of Hand and Foot Reflexology. They recommend using the golf ball technique (page 588) that corresponds to the brain, liver and kidney points on your hands. They also say to work these points on your hands: solar plexus, uterus/prostate, ovary/testicle, pancreas and adrenal, pituitary and thyroid gland.

To help you locate these points, consult the hand reflex chart on page 582. For instructions on how to work the points, see “Your Reflexology Session” on page 110.

Relaxation and Meditation

Practicing stretch-based relaxation for 20 minutes twice a day can help manage the pain, says Charles Carlson, Ph.D., professor of psychology at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. See page 602 for a stretch-based relaxation sequence.

A daily ten-minute session of thermal biofeedback may also be helpful, says Steven Fahrion, Ph.D., director of research at the Life Sciences Institute of Mind-Body Health in Topeka, Kansas. For more on thermal biofeedback, see page 121.

Vitamin and Mineral Therapy

For osteoarthritis, David Edelberg, M.D., an internist and medical director of the American Holistic Center/Chicago, suggests using the food sensitivity diet (see “Food Sensitivity: How to Discover the ‘Healthy’ Foods That Can Cause Disease” on page 52) to eliminate any foods that might have a role in causing the problem. He also says that people with osteoarthritis may want to use the following supplemental regimen to help relieve pain: 500 milligrams of glucosamine sulfate three times a day (Dr. Edelberg says to be patient, because this supplement takes about a month to work); 400 international units of vitamin E twice a day; 200 micrograms of selenium twice a day; and 1,000 milligrams of vitamin C twice a day. Glucosamine sulfate is available in most health food stores.

For rheumatoid arthritis, Dr. Edelberg also suggests the food sensitivity diet. And he says a person with rheumatoid arthritis may want to try the following combination of supplements: 250 milligrams of zinc picolinate twice a day; 1 milligram of copper twice a day; 200 micrograms of selenium twice a day; two to three capsules of bromelain (a digestive enzyme) three times a day, between meals; and one borage oil capsule twice a day. Bromelain and borage oil capsules are available in most health food stores.

Yoga

If arthritis affects your hands and fingers, a series of six exercises done once a day can help loosen things up, says yoga teacher Rosalind Widdowson in her book The Joy of Yoga. The exercises, called curling, contracting, fanning, fish, deer and peacock’s tail, are shown on page 625.

See also Gout; Joint Pain