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Arthritis Articles
Margie Garrison
"The Arthritis Lady"
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How to Beat Arthritis Without Resorting to Drugs or Surgery
If you suffer from arthritis, you undoubtedly have been to a doctor who has prescribed any number of medications, and/or have taken over-the-counter anti-inflammatories (like Aleve) to get rid of your pain.
You also most likely have experienced limited relief as a result of these medications.
You're also probably concerned about the possible side effects of arthritis drugs, both prescription and over-the-counter (such side effects include cardiovascular problems, gastrointestinal distress and ulcers).
But that's the least of your problems if your arthritis is severe. In this case, your doctor may have suggested surgery. Perhaps a joint replacement, hip replacement, or knee surgery.
Ouch!
Obviously, you would prefer to avoid such drastic measures - otherwise you wouldn't have found this article on alternatives to surgery or drugs to alleviate the misery of arthritis pain.
The Symptoms of Arthritis
Besides the obvious warning signs of arthritis - including stiff, hard-to-move joints - there are several others you must know about.
They include:
- Chronic Fatigue - you always feel tired regardless of how much sleep you get
- Your hands and feet are always cold due to poor circulation
- You have Low levels of hemoglobin (the oxygen-carrying power of the blood)
- You have high blood sedimentation rate
The latter two symptoms can only be verified by your doctor, so if your achy joints are accompanied by chronic fatigue, that's a warning signal for you to get an official diagnosis (if you haven't already done so).
When you see your doctor, make sure you tell him or her that you're knowledgeable about arthritis and you're willing to take an active roll in your treatment. This is because you want your doctor to know that you know that just taking drugs isn't going to get to the root of your arthritis.
Actually, there is no one thing you can do to get rid of arthritis. But there are several holistic strategies, when applied synergistically that do wonders for eliminating arthritis from your life.
Essentially, there are five things you need to address in order to get permanent relief from arthritis.
They are:
- Detoxification
- A Proper Diet
- Exercise
- Relaxation
- Vitamin/ Mineral Supplementation
What is Arthritis?
The word arthritis comes from the Greek word "arthron," which means joint inflammatory disease. However, it is not only joints that are affected, but connective tissue throughout your body.
In some cases, muscles and the soft tissues of certain organs can also be stricken.
Like many diseases, arthritis is a catchall name that is given to a host of other ailments. All have common symptoms of aches and pains in the joints and connective tissue throughout the body.
While how arthritis inflammation starts is poorly understood, there are several causes that are generally accepted.
They include:
- Injury
- Infection
- Autoimmune diseases (the body produces antibodies against itself)
- Calcium deficiency
- Vitamin D deficiency
Inflammation itself causes further joint and tissue damage, making normal movement difficult. The symptoms and some of the signs of arthritis can be classified under one of the most five common kinds.
The most common form is called degenerative, or osteoarthritis. The cause of the disease is associated with malabsorbtion of calcium and vitamin D.
Although it is more common in older people, young people - even children -are not immune to it.
The most serious forms of arthritis are rheumatoid arthritis and a disease closely related to rheumatoid arthritis, but affecting the organs, systemic lupus erythematosus.
These two forms of arthritis can be debilitating. Conventional treatments require damaging drugs like cortisone.
Another form of arthritis is gout, which is a purely nutritional disease. It affects genetically predisposed individuals who produce excessive amounts of uric acid. Crystals of the sodium salt of this uric acid deposit themselves in the joints and in tissue in the kidneys.
The simplest way to prevent gout attacks is to limit foods that contain purine, such as:
- Sardines
- Bouillon
- Meat extracts
- Organ meats
- Anchovies
- Asparagus
- Spinach
- Artichokes
- Peas
- Beans
- Alcohol
Another type of arthritis is ankylosing spondylitis. While rare, it affects men more than women. Symptoms not only include muscle stiffness, but joints of the spine.
When all of the joints of the spine are affected, a humpback might result. Typical treatments include aspirin and cortisone.
According to John R.J. Sorneson, in "The Journal of International Academy of Metabology, Volume 1, No. 2, page 7, (published in 1978), ankylosing spondylitis and other arthritis diseases have been cured by a special chelate copper preparation.
This and other forms of arthritis also respond quite well to nutritional therapy. But before you change your diet, you should clean out your system.
To Beat Arthritis, Start by Detoxifying Your Body
There are a few simple lifestyle changes you can make that will help you get over arthritis without resorting to drugs or surgery. Perhaps the most important is diet.
But before you change your diet, you should rid your body of accumulated toxins. The best way is to do a complete fast under medical supervision. This fast can last up to 10 days (a great place to undertake such a fast is at the Pawling Health Manor in New York).
If you're unwilling to undertake a complete fast, or don't have the time or money to do so under medical supervision (do NOT attempt a long fast on your own!), you can do a modified version of a fast for 5 to 10 days.
There are many versions of this detoxification strategy. Basically, they involve taking a mixture of pure spring water, lemon juice and honey or maple syrup.
To learn more, do a search on "honey lemon water detoxification," or (much better) get my groundbreaking book on getting rid of arthritis naturally, entitled "I Cured My Arthritis You Can Too."
It's important to note that you'll most likely have intermittent periods of feeling great that are followed by intermittent periods of feeling lousy when you go through a detoxification program.
Keep in mind that this is part of the detoxification process and is quite normal.
The Following Week After the Fast, or Juice Fast
The week following the fast or juice fast, eat only fresh fruits and vegetables. Most of this should be raw, but lightly steamed vegetables are okay (try to eat 3/4 of your fruits and vegetables raw). You should also add some vitamins (more on that shortly).
The following week, add small amounts of lean protein, like fish, poultry, eggs, and nuts.
Stay away from beef until you have a chance to see whether beef brings back an onset of your arthritis. For many people, beef causes arthritis.
Other proteins can also cause arthritis. For example, pasteurized dairy products are often responsible.
What you have to do is test different proteins to see. Keep a food diary and record how you feel after a meal. Pay close attention and notice any adverse symptoms.
Another common food to beware of is flour. This means many types of bread will be off limits. Again, you'll have to play detective to find out.
In short, you want to subsist on a diet of fresh fruits and vegetables and eat these raw or steamed (raw is best). You'll also want complement this diet with clean protein sources that don't cause your arthritis to flare up.
To illustrate the power a proper diet plays in getting rid of arthritis, consider this experiment done at the University of California at Berkeley, conducted by Dr. Francis Pottinger.
Dr. Pottinger fed one group of cats cooked meat and cooked milk. The result? The cats developed arthritis and died. The more the meat and milk were cooked, the quicker they developed arthritis.
Another control group of cats was fed raw food only. The result? None of them developed arthritis.
Then this group was fed cooked meat and milk. The result - they developed arthritis.
What to Do if You Cheat on Your Diet and Cause a Flare-up of Arthritis
If you're like most people, you'll catch yourself cheating from time to time and suffer for it. Or, you may suffer some aches and pains even though you follow your diet and take your supplements.
If this happens, don't despair. In the latter case, most likely you're still detoxifying and the pains you feel are part of the cleansing process.
In the former case, all you have to do is return to your proper diet and your symptoms will subside relatively quickly.
Also - especially if you're a social person - you will find little support for your diet amongst your friends. You can expect them to chide you and try to convince you to eat something you shouldn't, especially at first. If you give in, you will suffer pain.
Remember, it will be your pain, not theirs. Also be mindful that it's your body, not theirs. You're responsible for your health and the way you feel, not them.
Besides, if they're true friends, they'll stay true friends regardless of what you eat.
The Kinds of Foods to Avoid
So, just what is it that you shouldn't eat? Essentially, anything that contains sugar, or can easily be converted to sugar, should be avoided. This includes candy, cake, pastries and anything with white flour.
Generally, it will be best to avoid processed food. Make everything from scratch, as you'll get a lot more vitamins and minerals this way.
However, if you do eat processed food, make sure it doesn't contain corn syrup, fructose and other sugars that will sabotage your health - and quite likely cause a flare-up of arthritis symptoms.
For example, have you ever looked at the ingredients of a typical bar of chocolate? Here's a partial list of one brand (which shall remain nameless) that's commonly available at supermarkets:
- Chocolate
- White Sugar
- Corn Syrup
- Milk Powder
- Condensed Milk
- Cream Powder
- Invert Sugar
- Pectin
- Cocoa Butter
- Dextrose
- Cocoa
- Corn Starch
- Dried Egg Whites
- Salt
- Benzoate of Soda
- Lecithin
- Citric Acid
- Sodium Citrate
- Invertase
- Convetit
- Bicarbonate of Soda
- Vanilla
- Gelatin
- Emulsified Hydrogenated Shortening
- Frozen Egg Whites
- Commercial Imitation Vanilla Extract
This commercial imitation vanilla extract was created out of the following ingredients:
- Vanilla Coumarine
- Glycerin
- White Sugar Alcohol
- Water
- Carmel to Color
Sounds tasty, huh?
If you start looking at cans of prepared food, you'll discover that the list of ingredients is so long they can barely be listed on the can (that's why the print is so tiny). You'll also notice that the fonts are practically microscopic and often printed in a color that is very hard to read (it's hard to believe that this isn't done on purpose so you don't bother reading through it).
Many of these weird ingredients are designed to increase the shelf life of the product. While they may make the food last longer and cost less than fresh food, these preservatives have an adverse effect on your health that is cumulative.
The bottom line to consider: If the food you buy is perishable (fresh) and has a short shelf life, eating it will help you live longer and be healthier
If, on the other hand, the food has long shelf life due to additives and preservatives, it will cause you to have a shorter, less healthy - and often disease-ridden - life.
In other words, if it can spoil, eat it. If it can't spoil, don't eat it.
Exercise to Keep Arthritis Away
While diet and vitamin supplementation are important to curing yourself of arthritis, they alone will not do the job. You need to move around on a regular basis.
If you're like most Americans, you probably don't get enough exercise. Chances are you're overweight as well. I guarantee that if you eat a sensible diet and exercise, you'll not only be well on your way to getting your arthritis under control, you'll also lose weight, plus you'll look and feel better.
Exercise works by increasing the amount of oxygen circulating throughout your body. It does this by increasing circulation.
There are lots of ways to get exercise without joining an expensive health club or gym.
You can:
- Jog
- Jump on a Trampoline
- Ride a Bike
- Go Hiking
- Lift Weights
- Swimming
- Walking
This is obviously only a partial list. Its potential length is only limited by your imagination.
Bottom line: It is critical that you start a regular exercise program if you're to get permanent relief from arthritis.
And now, another word of warning:
Just as a good diet alone will not get rid of your arthritis, neither will exercise alone. Your diet must be primarily comprised of fresh fruits and vegetables and lean meats.
You must avoid fast and processed foods at all costs. You must also avoid toxic substances.
These include:
- Coffee
- Tea
- Sweets
- Soda
To Get Rid of Arthritis, You Must Reprogram Your Inner Self and Learn to Relax
It's important to pay attention how you react to things.
When things go wrong, how do you react? Do you get mad and swear, or seethe under your breath? Or do you roll with the event with a sense of calm?
Whenever you react negatively to an event, you reinforce the idea that things should be different than they actually are. This sets up a pattern of expectancy, which is based on preconceived notions that may not be in line with reality.
Worse, it wears you out physiologically and physiologically. It drains you energy and weakens your immune system. This in turn makes you susceptible to a variety of health problems, including arthritis.
So, if you're honest with yourself and realize you have not been taking events realistically, you’ll be aware of the need to do so.
Fortunately, there are some very simple (but not necessarily easy) things you can do to reprogram your inner self.
They include:
- Learning how to relax your body
- Finding quiet time daily, with no interruptions and do not let stressful thoughts interfere
- Taking short vacations, drives in the country, etc.
- Talking to people who will listen (to let off steam - this has been shown to reduce health problems and lower blood pressure)
- Getting involved in a hobby or sport to release stress
- Stretching often
- Taking hot baths
- Not letting minor irritations bother you
Arthritis and Food - The good, the bad and the ugly...
Since diseases are caused by our eating habits, our way of life and the air we breathe, we can make changes to restore our immune system.
Our immune system will heal us when we feed it properly. Your health, good or bad is in your hands.
Please remember, you are the master of your own body. You, and only you, can control what you put into your body.
For the Optimum in health it is important we do not eat "foodless foods". Most people are well fed and still are MALNOURISHED.
Here is a list of what you should and should not eat. Since everyone is different you will have to see exactly what it is you are eating that is causing you problems with your health.
The things that you should give up, FOR YOUR OWN GOOD are:
Coffee: More than one cup is not good for you.
More than 4 cups of coffee a day, the rate of heart attacks increases to 50%.
No sodas or anything that says diet, sugar free, decaffeinated or "Lite".
You can have herbal teas, and green teas. If you absolutely have to have a sweetener, use a sugar substitute that can be found in a health food store. Beware... Some sugar substitutes have been known to cause cancers.
Please stop eating all white flour.
You should not eat flour of any kind. Please give it up for at least 3 weeks and see how you feel. If you then want to add it back into your diet, add it back slowly to see how it makes you feel.
No more sugar of any kind. You can have a small amount of real honey that is unprocessed and raw. If it is not unprocessed, do not buy it. The best source is a health food store or a local beekeeper. Look for them in the yellow pages.
No cheese, yogurt, milk or cottage cheese. You CAN have real butter and real cream.
Oleo/Margarine is the world's worst food.
WHAT YOU CAN HAVE...
Meat: At least 70 grams of meat protein a day. Chicken, fish, pork, turkey, seafood, tuna, salmon etc.
Eggs: They really are a perfect food. After all they have all it takes to make a chicken!!
Vegetables: You will need to test ones like tomatoes and potatoes, they can have a bad effect on some people. The green and orange vegetables are marvelous.
Try to introduce a new vegetable from the market every time you go. Try vegetables from other countries.
Onions and garlic and all seasonings are fine. Do not use salt. You can get salt-free seasonings at any market.
Fruits: They are touchy, you will need to test which ones your body can tolerate fruits that are mostly sugar. They can have a bad effect on some people.
Some good fruits are grapefruits, kiwis and berries but not strawberries. You can have them fresh or frozen. Just read the label and make sure there is no sugar or additives added.
Do not eat: bananas, peaches, oranges, pineapple, pears, and melons of any kind. Or any fruits that is sweet. At least not until your health is better.
Water: Drink the equivalent of half your body weight in ounces of water. If you weigh 150 pounds drink 75 ounces of water, etc. The best way is to put the total water for the day in one container and be sure it is gone by at least 3 hours before bed. Don't want to be up all night, do we?
Best of Health,
Margie "The Arthritis Lady"
Arthritis & Strong Bones
Do your have arthritis? Or think you might? Over 90 MILLION people in the United States have arthritis. That is one person in 3 people are suffering every day, 24 hours a day. As I was for 43 years. It has now been 27 years of being without arthritis.
The reason for this is that your cells are crying for vitamins and vitamins.
As Linus Pauling, 2 time winner of the Nobel Peace Prize said... "Every ailment, every systems and every disease can be traced to vitamin and mineral deficiency."
Practically everyone knows how important calcium is to bone health, but there's another mineral that is equally critical, albeit in lesser amounts -- potassium. In fact, I've heard about a number of research studies recently focused on the connection between potassium and bone health, so word is getting out. The most recent study, from the University of Basel, Switzerland, showed that a group of postmenopausal women with low bone density had, on average, a 1% increase in density after a year of taking a particular potassium supplement.
BALANCING THE EQUATION
Susan E. Brown, PhD, director of the Osteoporosis Education Project in Syracuse, New York said that "without question potassium is one of the most important bone nutrients." Exactly how potassium relates to bone health turned out to be fairly complicated.
You must also have the proper calcium at the same time in order for them to work in your body.
Potassium is important in helping the body achieve a proper pH balance. In fact, when out of balance, you can die -- really fast -- so our bodies make this process a high priority. How does it work? As part of its normal metabolic processing, the body creates acids, which exit our systems via the lungs and kidneys.
To buffer the harshness of these acids and protect delicate kidney tissue, the body neutralizes them with diet-derived alkali (base) compounds derived from fruits and vegetables. These are stored in our blood, other fluids, in muscle tissue and above all in bones. Our skeleton, in fact, is our largest storehouse of alkali mineral reserves. Just in case we run short, we keep extra alkali stores in our bones.
The severe lack of fruits and vegetables in the modern American diet creates an acidic environment in many. To neutralize excess acid, we need alkali compounds, which the body obtains first from easily available blood reserves, then from muscles, leading to muscle loss, and then by reaching into the bones. When and if that happens, we're left with bone breakdown and mineral loss -- in other words, weakened bones.
NATURAL POTASSIUM CITRATE SOURCES
Now, back to potassium. The particular form of potassium that serves to buffer the acids is potassium citrate, generally found in fruits, vegetables and legumes. People who regularly consume enough potassium citrate through a diet rich in those foods assure their body sufficient alkaline compounds to avoid any need to call on emergency supplies for homeostasis.
As Dr. Brown notes, "If you eat enough potassium-containing foods, which should not be a problem, you have the proper pH balance." However, people today load their diet with meat, poultry, dairy and grains, which are metabolized as acids, creating a greater need for offsetting alkalids. If the body can't find these in foods, it turns to body tissue, including bones.
Though the US "Adequate Intake" (AI) potassium recommendation for adults is 4,700 mg per day, average consumption by adults in this country is around 2,200 mg for women and 3,200 mg for men.
Our lack of dietary potassium consumption looks to be a health crisis in the making, putting our bodies at risk for "consuming themselves," says Dr. Brown. In addition, potassium serves many other essential functions in the body. It contributes to nerve impulse transmission, muscle contraction and heart function, and also helps protect against stroke, kidney stones and high blood pressure.
GETTING IT RIGHT
Getting the right amount is trickier, however, than just swallowing a potassium citrate supplement each day. Though we know too little potassium is a problem, too much can also be an issue. For example, a heart problem can arise if the kidney is weak and the potassium load is too great for the weakened kidneys to eliminate excesses. In fact, by law potassium supplements do not exceed 99 mg units to discourage people from taking too much. Because excess potassium can accumulate in the blood in the face of kidney weakness, potassium supplements should only be taken with care under proper supervision.
That is why you want your supplements to have the proper balance of potassium and calcium in liquid form.
The 1% increase in bone density achieved by the women in the Swiss study is considered significant, especially because it affected the hips and spine -- two areas especially vulnerable to fracture. Though the study used potassium citrate supplements, it is possible, as Dr. Brown points out, to get what you need from dietary sources.
You can achieve the AI of 4,700 mg per day by including 13 one-half cup servings of fruits, vegetables and legumes in your daily food intake.
Admittedly, 13 sounds like a lot, but a large salad, for example, is four to six servings, a large apple is two. Those, plus a banana (440 mg, about one-and-a-half fruit servings) for an afternoon snack, and a baked potato at dinner along with a green vegetable and other vegetables, bring you easily to the goal of 4,700 mg.
Once again, I want to emphasize that if you decide to take potassium citrate supplements anyway, it is important to do so under the direction of a health-care professional who is well-versed in potassium needs and balance, such as a naturopathic physician or nutritionist. Potassium levels can be monitored by a simple blood test to be sure that you are getting neither too little, nor too much.
Systemic Inflammation
By Pamela Heyen
Chronic inflammation inflicts devastating effects, especially as we grow older. Systemic inflammation is a common culprit contributing too many degenerative diseases such as arthritis. It can also manifest into atherosclerosis, heart valve dysfunction, congestive heart failure, Alzheimer's and even cancer.
Since I addressed inflammation in a previous article, I would like to concentrate on one of these degenerative diseases that inflammation contributes to, arthritis.
The word arthritis means "Inflammation of the joint". There are two very distinct types of arthritis, osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. Both are painful and are the leading cause of disability in people over the age of 64.
Conventional medicine offer temporary relief from the symptoms which may result in side effects such as ulcers and gastrointestinal bleeding. Some arthritis medication can actually worsen the condition by speeding up joint destruction.
What is the difference between osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis?
Osteoarthritis is a gradual decay which usually affects the knees, hips, spinal and hand joints. This degeneration causes pain, swelling, deformation and reduced range of motion. The erosion of the cartilage and erosion of bone results in a loss of shock absorption and the underlying bone begins to thicken and bone spurs are formed. As it worsens there is significant pain and disability. The use of pain killers and anti-inflammatory drugs over time may result in undesirable long-term effects.
Rheumatoid arthritis is considered an autoimmune disease where the immune system attacks body tissues as if they were foreign invaders. There is erosion of cartilage and of bone, as well as chronic inflammation and thickening of the membrane that surrounds the affected joints. Rheumatoid arthritis is considered to be directly related to chronic inflammatory syndrome. The swelled joints may feel warm to the touch and look red. There is also a general feeling of sickness, fatigue, weight loss and fever. The conventional treatment for rheumatoid arthritis is relatively safe but the medication itself suppresses not only the symptoms but a much needed enzyme that our bodies need to fight acute infectious diseases which can result in a serious infections.
The conventional treatments for both of these degenerative diseases involve blocking of the inflammatory pathways that are causing the cartilage destruction. There are however, natural therapies that work along these same pathways and without the dangerous side effects.
Modifying the diet can help block common inflammatory pathways. Foods with a high glycemic index should be avoided:
- Fatty Red Meat
- Organ Meats (liver, kidney, etc.)
- Egg Yolks
- Pasta
- Juices
- Rice
- White Bread
A simple change in the diet in addition to suggested supplementation may have a significant beneficial impact on arthritis sufferers.
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