Rheumatoid Arthritis – Symptom relief and resources

If you don’t already know, a person who has chronic arthritis faces a lot of life altering changes. Therefore it is important to learn how to: accept the limitations, better coping strategies, and adjusting life to the chronic pain.

Taking 4 simple actions may help a person to better deal with the challenges arthritis brings as well as maintaining a positive attitude. These 4 actions include educate, motivate, participate, and medicate.

Glamma-linolenic acid (GLA) is great supplement to treat arthritis. The fatty acids in the GLA is an evening primrose oil and in one study of 56 rheumatoid arthritis patients, those taking GLA everyday for a period of 6 months showed signs of less joint pain and stiffness as well as a better grip and strength. Always check the labels of oils to see the amount of GLA in them; usually the dose is 1,800 mg daily. In order to get it, one would need eight 1000 mg capsules of borage oil with each containing 240 mg of GLA. Like the fish oil, GLA can also thin your blood and react to other drugs, so it is very important to consult your doctor before taking this treatment.

According to a new Belgian study, glucosamine and chondroitin help lower the pain as well as improving the functions of the knees in Osteoarthritis (OA) and are very safe. John Klippel, M.D. who is the medical director of the Arthritis Foundation, says glucosamine is so great because it lowers cartilage loss and slows the progression of OA. In one study, glucosamine showed to reduce arthritis knee pain and disability 20% to 25% in patients taking 1,500 milligrams of glucosamine on a daily bases for 3 years. Although, glucosamine and chondroitin are typically used together, Klippel says that there is no proof that they work better together than alone.

Research has indicated that heat therapy is best to treat rheumatoid arthritis. Heat therapy is a good way to lower and sooth arthritis pain as well as preventing stiffness. In addition, heat therapy will not only help you relax, it will also let you loosen the joints and can be very useful before working out or if you are trying to fall asleep.

When we walk there is a mechanical loading of the knee joints which causes Osteoarthritis (OA) to slowly progress. Customized footwear and orthotics have been developed to reduce the symptoms of OA. However, before Shakoor et al, it had not been systematically studied how wearing or not wearing footwear will effect dynamic knee loading. Shakoor et al taken patients with OA and examined them while they walked barefoot and compared their results with patients wearing normal footwear.

New finding have linked arthritis to not only poor diet or obesity, but instead to the general state of the immune system. A protein in the immune system that causes malfunctions in patients who have arthritis or other inflammatory diseases have been found by researchers. It is believed by doctors that they may clog this protein to limit the need for steroids.

Compare to previous generations, it has been observed by the researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center that there are more cases of arthritis involved with obese baby boomers. As the population ages so does the number of people with arthritis.