Why does our body attack inflammation?
Inflammation normally occurs when viruses and microbes enter your body, creating colds, flu, and more serious diseases. Surrounding tissues become inflamed. Your immune system recognizes this as a sign of invaders, and it defends the body by attacking the inflammation with a shower of free radicals (oxygen cells, each missing one electron). When the inflammation is gone, then the body quits sending the free radicals.
In the case of an injured joint, this body response is inappropriate and actually adds to the damage. A chain reaction – an auto-immune response – can set in as your body ends up attacking itself. The result is additional damage to the joints because the free radical attack breaks down the joint’s protective tissues.
When the inflammatory response feeds on itself, and acts like a forest fire leaping from tree to tree, raging out of control, it is called rheumatoid arthritis. It is a form of arthritis in which the body’s immune system attacks joints, causing hot, painful swelling and deformity.
This extreme form of the autoimmune response is hard to break.
- If you have rheumatoid arthritis, what preceded it? Did it follow a severe infection? That may be how your “out-of-control-forest-fire” originated.
- Attempt to solve the problem by tracing the source to allergies or exposure to daily toxins. Your first step is to find out if there is an inflammation source that can be alleviated. Then try the recommended healing steps.
OA is a form of arthritis involving the deterioration of the cartilage that cushions the ends of bones within joints. It is also called degenerative arthritis, or degenerative joint disease. If you injure a joint such as the knee, and you feel pain, you have “inflammation of the joint.” Normally that is curable. Your body repairs most injuries quite well.
What turns a temporary injury into a chronic problem? The fact is our bones are separated at the joints by cartilage. Collagen, an important connective tissue, is there to absorb shock and hold things together.
Cartilage and collagen can become injured. In the worst case, you wear the cartilage away so bone rubs on bone. That is very painful.
This pain of bone rubbing against bone due to lack of protective tissue is called osteoarthritis. It’s what most people have when they say they have arthritis.
Keeping cartilage healthy
Keeping cartilage healthy poses a special problem because it receives no blood supply. It can’t receive nourishment like other cells because bone movement would rupture the blood vessels.
Cartilage has its own fluid, called synovial fluid. Healthy synovial fluid requires regular body movement to squeeze waste out followed by release to allow nutrients in. Inactivity – acting like a couch potato- keeps nutrients from getting in!
Pain reduction techniques
If you are hurting from arthritis, your priority has to be pain relief. But you can’t stop there if you want healthy joints.
A traditional Chinese medicine treatment where very thin needles are inserted into the skin at particular body points to produce energy flow.
Otherwise known as essential oils therapy, aromatherapy uses a plant’s aroma-producing oils (essential oils) to treat disease.
Collagen type II for healthy cartilage
Researchers at the Harvard Medical School found that subjects receiving collagen type II experienced significant improvement in joint swelling, tenderness and discomfort.
Cool your pain
For an overworked joint, apply ice in a plastic bag for 15 minutes, remove for 15 minutes and then reapply. Repeat the process over a two hour period while sitting down in the evening. It is a form of contrast that can revive a sluggish circulation.
Hypnosis: Hypnosis is a state of focused concentration where a person becomes less aware of his or her surroundings. Some people learn to manage pain through concentrating in this special way.
Exercise for pain relief
Daily stretching Every day move every joint in every direction they will go. Stretching is the first step towards healing cartilage by allowing the synovial fluid to be nourished. Do this every day, without fail, to begin the healing process.
Range-of-motion exercise Range-of-motion exercise (e.g. dancing, stretching, yoga, tai chi) helps maintain normal joint movement and relieve stiffness. This type of exercise maintains or increases flexibility.
Strength training (e.g. weight lifting) Strength training helps keep or increase muscle strength. Strong muscles help support and protect joints.
Walking Stroll leisurely a half hour a day. Studies on arthritic patients show that exercise reduces symptoms and pain, so why not prevent the problem in the first place. Always avoid joint pain. ‘No pain, no gain’ refers to muscle soreness, not joint pain.”
Warning: One needs to be very careful when exercising, as when your joints are inflamed, exercises like running can cause permanent joint damage due to the excessive amount of inflammation present. A simple key to follow: if you have pain two hours after exercise, that specific type of exercise was likely too aggressive for your joints in their current state of inflammation
“Common over-the-counter nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) pose too many health dangers such as liver toxicity if taken long term” according to Dr. Hans Kugler, Ph.D. “I’m very glad to see that this awareness is taking place…Alternative medicine is a rich resource of natural painkillers & anti-inflammatories.” (Journal of Longevity, Vol. 4, No. 10)
If you currently smoke, quit. Smoking restricts blood circulation, thus making cartilage healing more difficult.
Keeping your weight down will help you avoid arthritis or decrease pain if you already suffer from arthritis. The less weight your bones carry, the less stress they endure. Exercise is a key component to keeping your weight manageable.
Yoga uses exercises and meditation to help you improve flexibility and breathing, reduce stress, and maintain health.
Spirituality basically means a belief in a higher consciousness. According to Wikipedia, “It can refer to an ultimate reality or transcendent dimension of the world; an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of his or her being, or the “deepest values and meanings by which people live.” Spiritual practices, including meditation, prayer and contemplation, are intended to develop an individual’s inner life; such practices often lead to an experience of connectedness with a larger reality: a more comprehensive self; other individuals or the human community; nature or the cosmos; and/or the divine realm.
Spirituality is often experienced as a source of inspiration or orientation in life. It can encompass belief in immaterial realities and/or experiences of the immanent or transcendent nature of the world.”
A high level of spirituality appears to be associated with better health among those individuals afflicted with rheumatoid arthritis and could also help them cope with their illness more effectively. Spirituality may be a type of psychological resource that allows individuals to adjust better to living with a chronic illness.
In general, people with a high level of spirituality rated themselves as healthier and less disabled than their less spiritual peers, and also reported having more positive thoughts.
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