Rheumatoid arthritis and all related types of inflammatory arthritis, including psoriatic and reactive, are very complicated diseases to unlock, but there are a few areas that can be tremendously helpful to look into. Even today there is no established cure for these diseases, and the medicines that are prescribed are not only dangerous, but act in a way that is a mystery to those prescribing them. So, it's no wonder that many sufferers look to alternative therapies to supplement or replace the established remedies.
There very well might be no cure as yet, but there are many cases of total remission, and to give yourself the best possible chance of being one of those happy people, here are five suggestions of areas to cover in your search for your personal solution...
1. Meditation
I put this first, because it might actually be the key to all the rest. Arthritis is a very depressing illness anyway, but there are theories that the toxins produced by the disease process actually create a state of depression as they circulate in the body.
Obviously a state of depression is not the best starting point for a successful campaign against arthritis, and meditation is one of the very best ways to beat depression and release a few natural endorphins to counteract those toxins and black moods. So, daily meditation might very well be the best way to keep your spirits up and your enthusiasm keen for the detective work ahead of you in your path back to health.
2. Diet and supplements
This is an area that's densely populated with old wives' tales and the charlatan who peddle them. However, that doesn't mean that there aren't some really useful truths out there about the effects of diet and supplementation on the path and severity of arthritis.
Whether you can actually cure arthritis just with diet and a few supplements is debatable, but many claim to have done just that. What is undeniable though is that it is one of the very important pieces of the puzzle, which can make the journey far easier, and which can of course improve other areas of health too, which can't be bad!
One thing is for sure - everybody's requirements for diet will be different, and if you come across any diet plan that says otherwise, run away! So, where to start in figuring out what's good for you and what's not?
There are two areas that can really help in speeding up the process of finding out what's likely to calm arthritis symptoms and what's likely to inflame them, and they are Ayurveda and the blood type diet theory. Ayurveda is an ancient science that groups body types and foods into three types; vata, pitta and kapha, whereas the blood type theory puts forward suggestions about what might be useful depending on your blood group.
Both these areas of investigation can provide very useful clues, and when faced with having to find your food sensitivities with complicated elimination diets and their endless time-consuming possibilities, they can narrow the search considerably.
One last area worth looking at in the realm of diet is fasting, which is a fantastic way to clear out toxins and/or prepare the way for an elimination diet. These fasts can be juice or water, and several days in duration. Intermittent fasting for a day or two a week can also be used to keep the body toxin and inflammation-free in the long term.
3. Exercise
Of course, when in a flare up of arthritis symptoms, some exercise, such as weight training and aerobic activity is not only uncomfortable, or indeed impossible, but can be counterproductive, as it can trigger further flares. It is also very difficult to build up muscles wasted by lack of use and the toxins flooding them from adjacent inflamed joints while the process is still active. Far better to wait until the inflammation has subsided before tackling any serious bouts of such exercise, but as soon as it does, by all means take to the gym or that bicycle and get toned up again!
However, there are exercises that can be beneficial at any point that you feel you can do them, even during a flare, if it's not too uncomfortable. They are the range of motion exercises so important to each affected joint to minimise damage and mobility problems. Yoga is a wonderful way to stay supple too, and is well worth looking at.
Perhaps the very best exercise for arthritics is a gentle, very enjoyable form of movement and stretching called Somatic Movement Education. It is designed to unlock knots in the body and free up energies in the muscles, tendons and joints, and has a very profound effect on the whole nervous system, thus not only bringing relief to the affected areas, but also flooding the system with healing and balancing wellbeing to ease the recovery process.
4. Minimise drugs
In an ideal world, we would get rid of arthritis with natural means, as listed above, and never have to resort to the dangerous drugs that are prescribed to keep the symptoms under control. However, in reality, sometimes it is necessary to hold some of the symptoms in check just to make life tolerable.
If you do use the popular drugs, whether the simple aspirin, or all the way through to steroids and DMARDs, take the attitude of using the minimum necessary for the shortest possible time while you find your own way out of the disease. Educate yourself about these drugs and weigh the positives against the negatives so you can use them with your eyes open!
5. Antibiotics
Finally, and possibly the most important, is the fact that, as many believe, arthritis is not simply a disease where the autoimmune system goes mad and attacks the joints, but that it is a bacterial allergy to mycoplasmas, or forms of bacteria deeply embedded in the tissues and very hard to detect and destroy.
I cannot vouch for this one way or the other, but the pioneer of the reportedly very safe antibiotic treatment used to bring remission to many thousands, Thomas McPherson Brown, MD., has written a book called 'The Road Back', which is a very informed and moving account of his life's work in this field.
I strongly recommend that you investigate The Road Back Foundation's website and read all you can about this incredible breakthrough.
Good luck!
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