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Joints are vulnerable to wear and tear and also to chronic inflammatory and immunological disease. There are herbal approaches that have shown they can work.

Arthritis

Can we find different approaches to conventional anti-inflammatory medicines for arthritic pain and disability? The best prospects may be from looking at underlying causes and processes that are amenable to herbal action.

Understanding arthritis

Can we find different approaches to conventional anti-inflammatory medicines for arthritic pain and disability? The best prospects may be from looking at underlying causes and processes that are amenable to herbal action.

Arthritis means ‘inflammation of the joints’ and is an umbrella term for many different conditions marked by joint pain and damage. Joints are engineering miracles but still tend to wear through life and are increasingly likely to be troublesome as the years roll by: this is not a modern problem, nor confined to humans. Optimum joint health seems to average around 50 years: longer life span is a challenge. Weight and stress are the main burdens, and keeping joints mobile is generally a good thing: swimming may be the ideal exercise. ‘Wear and tear’ is associated with the most common type of arthritis, osteoarthritis. This is however an active disease of the joints as well, associated with local inflammatory activities involving the microcirculation and even insulin resistance.

Oher types of arthritis have wider more systemic inflammatory, usually immunological causes. They include rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, Sjögren’s syndrome, polymyalgia rheumatica, lupus erythematosus, Reiter’s syndrome and psoriatic arthropathy. Not all blood or antibody tests are clear and some individual joint problems are described as ‘rheumatoid like’. All should be approached as a body-wide immunological and chronic inflammatory problems, rather than just a joint condition.

Many herbs are suitable for self-care. However if a health condition does not resolve with home remedies we recommend using the information in Herbal Reality along with your health advisors, especially herbal practitioners from the professional associations listed in our Resources page (‘If you want to find a herbalist”). When buying any herbal products, you should choose responsible manufacturers with independently assured quality standards and sustainability practices. Check the label carefully for the appropriate safety and sustainability information.

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