Osteoarthritis - Can You Fight It?

You Can Fight Osteoarthritis

If you think you may have osteoarthritis, the best thing you can do for yourself is to take a pro-active role in your health. You should see your primary care physician as soon as possible. He or she can use x-rays to monitor how far along your osteoarthritis has progressed, and possibly recommend prescription medication.

You and your doctor can work together to make a plan that is right for you and your osteoarthritis. Not only will this plan help you slow down the progression of your osteoarthritis, but it will also teach you how to manage your pain and live an active and normal life. Your plan will include weight control, medication, exercise, joint protection, and possibly occupational or physical therapy.

Osteoarthritis is regarded as the most common type of arthritis. As you may have guessed, Osteoarthritis can be caused by many number of things. Overweight individuals are at the highest risk category for osteoarthritis, since carrying the excess weight can cause joint cartilage to break down. Previous joint injuries can also leave you prone to osteoarthritis. If you have suffered an injury to a joint, or if you do workouts which are high impact, you should monitor the health of your joints.

Although most individuals with osteoarthritis are hesitant or prefer not to exercise, your doctor will likely encourage you to exercise. Exercise will help your joints from becoming stiff and it will also help strengthen your muscles. When you first start exercising, you may experience pain. This will usually decrease with time, but you may find that over the counter medications help to relieve the pain. You may also want to apply compresses to your joints. Here’s a simple rule: If you suffer with inflammation, you will want to apply a cold compress. If you have tight or sore muscles, a heat compress will work best.

You may also want to add a dietary supplement to your daily regime. An example is a dietary supplement such as glucosamine, which is believed to relieve pain and slow down the degenerative process of arthritis. Always let your doctor know if you are adding a dietary supplement to your osteoarthritis health plan.

Hanif Khaki is the acclaimed and highly regarded author of numerous health related articles and the founder of the popular arthritis resource site http://www.arthritispaincure.com

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Lymphatic Massage - The Benefits

Lymphatic massage or lymph drainage massage is a technique used to help increase lymph flow. Increased lymph flow removes harmful substances from the tissues and increases immune function.

Lymphatic massage can be useful in cases of edema, sports injury or for people experiencing a sluggish immune system or those suffering from a lack of energy.

What is the Lymphatic System?

The lymphatic system plays a crucial role in your body’s ability heal from injury and ward off disease. It is essential to the body's drainage system for cleansing and filtering out toxins and bacteria.

Problems With The Lymphatic System

Aches, pains, soreness and flu like symptoms could all be caused by congested lymph pathways.

The Benefits of Lymphatic Massage

Lymphatic massage can help to unblock the lymph system by manually cleansing the lymph system in a clockwise fashion.

Performing lymphatic massage correctly can stimulate the opening of the initial lymphatic and increase the volume of lymph flow by as much as 20 times.

Because lymph cleanses nearly every cell in your body the negative effects of chronic lymph blockages include but are not limited to:

• Frequent cold and flu infections

• Joint pain

• Headache and migraine

• Menstrual cramps

• Arthritis

• Loss of appetite

• Fatigue

• Mood irregularities

• Depression

• Acne

• Cellulite

What is Lymphatic Massage?

The use of massage as a healing therapy dates back centuries. Lymphatic massage was developed in the 1930s and is a delicate form of massage that stimulates the body’s lymphatic system.

The lymphatic system has no central pump and depends on muscle contraction through deep breathing, exercise and manual manipulation to move fluid.

Lymphatic massage utilizes a very light pressure combined with soft pumping movements in the direction of the lymph nodes. Immune system function can be significantly increased, improving metabolism and helping the body to eliminate waste and toxins.

A strong immune system makes you feel balanced, happy and whole.

As with most massage, it is vital to drink lots of water after a lymphatic massage to flush away toxins that have been released.

Lymphatic Massage – What can it be used for?

Lymphatic massage has been used for years to enhance the quality of the skin.

• Lymphatic massage aids the increase of lymph flow. When the lymph is flowing as it should, cells are bathed in fresh fluid making the skin look fresh and alive.

Lymphatic massage is also useful for people with sports injuries.

• When applied after neuromuscular massage, lymphatic massage helps to clear the tissue of debris and reduce the minor edema that can occur after deep tissue massage.

• Repeated lymphatic massage whilst healing from a sports injury can help to enhance the tissue regeneration process by keeping the tissue as healthy as possible.

It is thought that lymphatic massage can also help the scarring process by enhancing circulation and immunity.

• Increased lymph flow around the scar stimulates damaged lymph vessels to heal.

• Increased lymph flow draws away toxins improving the health of the tissues.

Another common use of lymph drainage massage is in breast cancer cases.

• Women who have had axillary lymph nodes removed sometimes develop edema in their arm. As long as there is only minor swelling, then a massage therapist with a good knowledge of contraindication and some specific techniques can do a great amount of good.

Lymphatic Massage – Is it Safe?

For the most part lymphatic massage is safe. However as with all massage therapies there are some contra indications. For lymphatic massage specifically, these include acute inflammation, malignant tumors, thrombosis and major heart problems.

To get the best results from a lymphatic massage, seek out a suitably trained and qualified therapist.

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What Exactly is Fibromyalgia?

Fibromyalgia is a relatively new diagnosis (recognized in the 1980s). Common widespread aches and pains, along with other symptoms makes this disease difficult for physicians to diagnose but it can be controlled through exercise, rest and diet.

Fibromyalgia is a condition where several signs and symptoms exist at once primarily associated with widespread aches and pains, stiffness and fatigue. Common everyday activities, such as peeling potatoes, washing dishes, or lifting a gallon container are painful or difficult at best. In addition, your physician may have a difficult time diagnosing Fibromyalgia.

Because Fibromyalgia is a syndrome of many different combined symptoms, it has been difficult to find a specific cause. Some theories suggest that nerve cells in the spinal cord and brain may cause oversensitivity due to changes in chemicals that regulate pain. The imbalance in brain chemicals may cause mood swings and sleep disorders as well, making tissues more sensitive and painful.

Hormones are also a possible cause. Hormonal imbalances, such as cortisol and growth hormone may cause fatigue, memory loss, concentration difficulty, mood swings, low pain tolerance and other symptoms.

Symptoms of Fibromyalgia include headaches, constipation or diarrhoea, memory and concentration problems, numbness or tingling "pins and needles" sensation, anxiety, or depression. Symptoms are flue-like and can last from days to months.

Fibromyalgia is a long-lasting, chronic, condition with no cure; however, you can gain control with exercise and medications for sleep disorders. So when do you call the doctor? If you have the following symptoms for more than 6 weeks, notify your health professional.

Pain and muscle tenderness on both sides of the body, above and below the waist. Disturbed sleep (restless, frequently waking, feeling tired when waking). Joint and muscle stiffness that does not improve as you move around. Depression or mood swings

Physicians find it difficult to diagnose Fibromyalgia. There are no specific tests; therefore, when symptoms exist, having ruled out other laboratory test results, physicians use your medical history and physical exam to diagnose Fibromyalgia.

To date there is no prevention or cure. Treating symptoms may reduce the amount of time of the flare up. Medications to relieve sleeping disorders and muscle and joint pain are available through your physician. However, home treatment is the most effective part of managing Fibromyalgia.

A home management program might look something like this:

- Starting a regular exercise program 
- Identify sleeping problems and learn what you can do to create better sleep 
- Use heat and cold packs to relieve pain 
- Reduce stress 
- Identify what makes symptoms worse

Use your physician for guidance and instruction. Use low impact exercising every other day, increasing activity as your body allows. Most importantly, listen to your body, learn what triggers Fibromyalgia and keep your physician abreast of your condition.

What should I do if my condition gets worse? First, understand that Fibromyalgia is not a progressive disease and does not cause fatal or permanent damage. However, if worsening of any of these symptoms occurs, your physician should evaluate the possibility of other medical conditions associated with Fibromyalgia.

Michael Russell Your Independent guide to Fibromyalgia

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How To Best Treat You Tennis Elbow

The following are a combination of treatment methods that work together to heal your tennis elbow. Tennis elbow treatment should be like any other soft tissue injury treatment, and therefore will require using the following process:

· R.I.C.E.R:

o Rest:

Resting your injury is essential for your tennis elbow before you attempt to fix it with physical therapy.

o Ice:

Doctors always recommend that you keep ice on any serious muscle or tendon injury to reduce the swelling—it will help your injury heal as well as reducing inflammation.

(side note:) Another tennis elbow treatment that will help you is, if you do take pain medication: avoid aspirin, acetaminophen, and other fever reducer/antipyretic. Instead use something with an anti-inflammatory such as ibuprofen, to keep the swelling down.

o Compression:

Get a wrap for your arm and wrist. This is another way to keep the swelling down and to keep your muscles and tendons from being further abused by helping keep them compressed and in place.

o Elevation:

Whenever you can, try to elevate your injured arm—this will help keep your arm from additional pain and swelling due to too much blood in the injured place. Lifting your arm reduces the amount of blood flowing through the arm.

o Referral:

Do not try to do it all yourself, get a medical specialist to have a look at the injury and determine tennis elbow treatment for you.

When you have to receive tennis elbow treatment for any serious tennis elbow condition—which is considered a Repetitive Stress Injury, (RSI) so as soon as you begin to improve you should start, gently with a couple of resistance tennis elbow exercises. Of course, you want to start simple, and work your way up to things like dumbbells.

If you strain to re-gain strength before the tendons and muscles are ready, you can considerably undo any progress you may have made—or even make the problem worse. Once you can use dumbbells (even very light ones) we suggest that you try various exercises.

For example:

1. Holding a dumbbell in each hand, sit down.
2. Lay your forearms down your thighs.
3. Be sure that your hands are hanging over your knees.
4. Your palms should be facing upwards.
5. Begin by curling the weight upwards at the wrist and lowering slowly.

Another example:

1. Try a simple tennis elbow treatment like squeezing a ball in your hand.
2. Hold the ball firmly as possible (momentarily) before releasing.

You can find great resources and individual instructors who can help you along the way, too. There are a few very good tennis elbow treatments and exercises such as this one that could be great for your tennis elbow.

However, Let your tennis elbow treatment vary depending on how well you feel—but always remember to include a few movements or exercises for tennis elbow treatment as part of your regular schedule twice every day. Your overall strength should get better.

Don’t worry—you can still keep in shape by doing lower body cardiovascular tennis elbow treatments such as running, elliptical exercise, and hiking, etc. Of course, you want to start simple, and work your way up to things like dumbbells.

If you strain in attempt to re-gain strength before the tendons and muscles are ready, you can considerably reverse the progress you might have already made. You could even make the problem worse, causing extra damage by straining the already torn tendon.

Anne Clarke writes numerous articles for websites on gardening, parenting, recreation, education and home decor. Her background includes teaching and gardening. For more of her articles about tennis and tennis accessories, please visit Tennis Elbow.

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Knee Osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis, or degenerative joint disease, affects the elderly in parts of the body where it hurts the most. A person suffering from knee osteoarthritis will most likely equate it with cardiovascular disease because the breakdown of articular cartilage of knee joints restricts movement and the patient has to follow a set regimen affecting his lifestyle.

Knee Osteoarthritis is due to injury, congenital disorder, or obesity. The deterioration of articular cartilage, a smooth and fibrous connective tissue that acts as a protective cushion, narrows the joint space between bones. In time, the cartilage becomes grooved and fragmented and surrounding bones thicken or sprout into spurs. Sometimes, there is additional swelling in the knees caused when synovium, a membrane producing a thick fluid to nourish the cartilage, becomes inflamed and produces additional fluid known as ‘water of the knee’. Changes occur due to constant rubbing of joint bones leading to deformity of joints that is equally painful.

Knee osteoarthritis is diagnosed through physical and pathological examinations of joints on either side of knee including hip joints, checking on posture, and gait. Once knee Osteoarthritis is confirmed, a treatment is suggested depending on nature and extent of damage and on the personal physical history of patient. Women over 60 years of age are high risk factors for knee osteoarthritis as they spend major portion of their lives doing physically demanding work that has direct relationship with knee Osteoarthritis. Wearing high heeled shoes also aggravates the pain. In youngsters, knee osteoarthritis is hereditary or due to some injury.

Precautions such as weight reduction, changing work routine, postures, diet, avoiding injuries, participating in physiotherapy, and exercise are advised. Other methods of relief such as acupuncture, ointments, prescription drugs, magnetic pulse therapy, vitamin regimes, and topical pain relievers are temporary. Using prescription drugs and surgery should be a mutual decision between patient and doctor.

Osteoarthritis provides detailed information about osteoarthritis, knee osteoarthritis and more. Osteoarthritis is affiliated with Gout Diet.

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Ankylosing Spondylitis: Treatment and Symptoms

What is Ankylosing Spondylitis?

Ankylosing Spondylitis is a condition which is related to arthritis. Ankylosing Spondylitis affects approximately 1 in every 250 mainly young men so while many may have not heard about it, it is quite common.

The word Ankylosing means inflammation of the spine while Spondylitis means joint which is fixed solid and unable to bend. So, in simple terms, Ankylosing Spondylitis is a condition which involves the spine becoming inflamed and as a consequence becoming fixed and solid. What tends to happen, is that tendons or ligaments attached to the spine become swollen. When the swelling reduces, it is replaced by growths of bone. When this happens a number of times, there becomes more and more bone where there used to be tendons or ligaments until eventually the joint fuses together.

As with many conditions, different people are affected with varying degrees of this condition, with some barely noticing it while others lose their full independence. What is also interesting is that the Ankylosing Spondylitis symptoms can come and go over time.

What are the Symptoms of Ankylosing Spondylitis?

The first time people tend to notice that they have Ankylosing Spondylitis, is when the experience lower back pain and some muscle spasms. This tends to be worse during the night. This pain often spreads to the upper back, neck and buttocks. Also, in the morning, neck pain may be experienced which is relieved during the day through exercise.

Without treatment, it is possible that the symptoms could develop into fever, fatigue and a loss of appetite. There may be some weight loss as well.

As the spine starts to fuse together, you may start to find it more and more difficult and painful to move around. Also, in a number of cases as the joints start to become more and more affected, it becomes harder to breath as the ribs start to stop moving. This means that breathing is now being conducted using only the muscles of the diaphragm. On top of this, the lungs could be affected by Ankylosing Spondylitis.

Ankylosing Spondylitis in approximately 1 in 3 cases can cause inflammation in one or both eyes.

Causes of Ankylosing Spondylitis

Nobody knows exactly what causes Ankylosing Spondylitis. It is generally thought that the antigen HLA-B27. This may explain why this condition appears to run in families. This is also linked to a condition called Reites Syndrome.

Treatment of Ankylosing Spondylitis

There are no drugs in existence today which can slow or stop the condition. However, there are drugs called Non Steroidal Anti Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) which can help to control the inflammation and reduce the pain.

Also, daily exercise consisting of gentle stretching exercises or swimming can help to improve the movement of the spine and help to create a more positive posture. On top of this, hydrotherapy and physiotherapy can also help to relieve the symptoms.

Unfortunately, there are a small number of people suffering from Ankylosing Spondylitis who will require hip replacements. Thankfully, those cases are few and far between.

Interestingly, the symptoms of Ankylosing Spondylitis can be present for a period of time and then they reduce significantly.

If you want to read more about this subject from other people please visit my website Ankylosing Spondylitis Resource where you’ll find lots of useful information on the treatment and symptoms of Ankylosing Spondylitis.

http://www.ankylosingspondylitishelp.info

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Arthritis Cure

Arthritis comes in different forms such as rheumatoid, osteoarthritis or others. This condition affects many people around the globe with 1 in 100 getting affected. People within the age bracket of 30 - 50 are most likely to get this condition. Unfortunately a cure for this condition has still not been found. The current medication only provides temporary relief. Therefore an arthritis patient needs to use medication on a regular basis to get pain relief.

Arthritis involves pain, swelling and inflammation of the joints. This pain can get worse during flare-ups. The aim is of this article is to offer the reader several approaches that can help provide pain relief in the short and long term.

Short term pain relief methods will involve managing flare-ups and reducing pain. Medications are commonly used to control pain and reduce inflammation. Some examples of possible medications include aspirin, ibuprofen and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medications NSAIDs.

Moist heat and coolness are other very common short term pain relief methods often employed by arthritis patients. Your physician will inform you about whether to choose hot or cold methods to improve the position.

Moist heat can be obtained through warm baths and showers on the joints which can provide temporary pain relief. Coolness can be supplied by using ice or cold items such as vegetables wrapped in a towel and placed on the inflamed spot. This can help in cooling down the flaring effect and can provide relief for 10 - 15 minutes.

Joint immobilization is important in cases where the joints are deeply affected by arthritis and putting more pressure on the joints can be harmful. This method involves using devices to aid in moving around such as crutches or walking canes. This will help in avoiding putting much pressure on the joints.

Massage is another popular method, used for a whole range of purposes including arthritis treatment. Massaging can help increase blood flow. This can also help bring additional warmth to muscles.

Long term pain relief methods are employed when the extent of the damage caused by arthritis is very deep and management of the disease in the long term is essential.

Similar to short term relief, there are medications for long term relief as well. NSAIDs such as aspiring and ibuprofen can be used to decrease inflammation and pain in the joints.

Disease-modifying Anti-rheumatic Drugs (DMARDs) such as methotrexate and hydroxychloroquine can be used to slow down the effect of the disease and correcting abnormalities in the body caused by it.

Corticosteroids are another way to control flare-ups in the joints. They are more powerful then NSAIDs and therefore contains strong side effects if used for an extended period of time. These include weight gain, easy bruising and making the body more vulnerable to infection.

Also, in the long term it is essential to lose some weight. Simply put it, more weight will put more pressure on the joints causing more pain.

Exercise can help reduce some body weight and therefore reducing the overall pressure exerted on the inflamed joints. As mentioned earlier, exercises are vital to improving the flexibility and mobility of the joints. Patients can choose from a whole range of exercises available to them such as swimming, walking, jogging and other low impact exercises. However patients will need to establish their condition and take part in exercises that is least physically imposing.

In extreme cases where the damage caused to joints is irreparable or very deep, it is advisable to undergo a surgery. Patients with pediatric arthritis and other rheumatic diseases can undergo either a repair or replace surgery. A repair surgery will involves correcting a deformity and removing fragments in the joints. If the joints are damaged beyond repair, then the joints can be replaced with artificial joints.

It is important to see a physician before carrying out any of the methods. The physician will provide specific approaches that will be best suited to the condition of the patient. To improve the effectiveness of the medication, it is important to be constant with each method and establish a good routine. Additionally, you must contact your doctor or physician on a regular basis to keep him/her fully informed.

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