Glucosamine with Chondroitin is an excellent supplement for joint health. Its function is to draw fluid into the joint and lubricate it. Please check with your doctor if you are currently on any medications before taking it.

Glucosamine, chondroitin sulfate, and MSM (methylsulfonylmethane) occur naturally in the body. The glucosamine used in supplements is typically derived from the shells of crabs although a corn source is also available.

Glucosamine is available in a variety of chemical forms, such as glucosamine hydrochloride and glucosamine sulfate. These vary in terms of the amount of actual glucosamine available for use in the body from an equal weight of each form (See ConsumerTipâ„¢ for Glucosamine for more information).

Chondroitin sulfate is generally derived from cow cartilage, but porcine (pig) and even chicken cartilage has been used and algae are another potential source. MSM is synthetically produced. Read the rest of this entry »

Looking to make a change and lose some weight? I have reviewed the top diet on the internet and you can go and read over 200 comments people have made about why this diet has worked well for them, as well as some of the problems.

Tags: arthritis, cancer, chemical forms, inflammation, interstitial cystitis, joint disease, muscle spasm, osteoarthritis, pain, rheumatoid arthritis, treatment of degenerative joint disease

If you have been diagnosed with arthritis, you may be looking for an arthritis remedy. If your arthritis is not a suitable case for surgery right now, if you are hoping to avoid surgery or if you are waiting, you may benefit from various natural remedies that have been successful for other people.

The word arthritis means inflammation of the joints. There are two types of arthritis:

Osteoarthritis – caused by degeneration of the cartilage in the joints. Cartilage cushions the bones and allows joints to move smoothly. When it is worn away, the body tries to compensate for it by laying down extra bone. But this does not have the same properties as cartilage and the result is stiffness and pain. Osteoarthritis usually affects older people although it can develop in a younger person, especially where joints have been damaged by injury. Knees, hips and shoulders are the most commonly affected joints.

Rheumatoid arthritis – this is a very different condition, an auto immune inflammation of the joints. It is caused by a deficiency in the endocrine system and appears to have an inherited genetic component. For most people it comes and goes, often flaring up at times of stress or when the body is weakened by sickness. It may begin at any age. It generally starts by affecting the joints of the fingers and toes, often resulting in distortion which can be permanent.

Arthritis Natural And Home Remedies

There are reports that arthritis can be helped by a number of natural and home remedies.

Raw potato extract is a traditional remedy that has been used for centuries. Wash a medium size potato but do not peel. Be sure it has no green patches. Cut it into thin slices. Lay the slices in a bowl, cover with water and cover the bowl. Leave overnight. Drink the water in the morning.

Copper is believed to strengthen the muscular system, helping to maintain flexibility. You can either take a copper supplement, wear a copper bracelet or drink water that has been standing in copper overnight. However it is important not to have too much copper in the system relative to other minerals, or other problems could develop. So do not take copper to excess.

Calcium supplements can also help some cases of arthritis. If you prefer not to take supplements you can take calcium in dietary form. Black sesame seeds (unhulled) are a good source. You will need to buy them from a health food store because most sesame seeds sold in supermarkets are hulled and are not a good source of calcium. You can grind them and add a little sesame oil to make tahini, or soak them for a couple of hours and sprinkle on bread or cereals.

Glucosamine sulphate is a supplement that can help reduce inflammation and pain in some cases. It is particularly good for less severe arthritis in the knee, and may help to prevent it worsening.

Garlic and turmeric both have anti inflammatory properties and can be included in your diet in generous quantities.

A mono diet of bananas, which are rich in potassium and vitamin B6, can be helpful in treating a flare up of rheumatoid arthritis. Eat only bananas for up to 3 days. Bananas should be ripe, i.e. starting to show brown spots on the skin.

Some foods appear to make arthritis worse and should be avoided. Trigger foods will be different for different people. You may have to cut them all out of your diet for at least 4 days and then reintroduce them one by one to feel the effects. This is a list of common trigger foods:

- sugar
- caffeine
- red meat
- dairy products
- citrus fruits
- corn
- wheat
- salt
- artificial sweeteners and other food additives

Generally it is good to keep the joints moving as much as possible to main flexibility. Mild osteoarthritis especially can be helped by regular practice of gentle forms of yoga and pilates. Be careful not to force your joints beyond a comfortable stretch.

Be sure to see your doctor if you believe you have arthritis and discuss with him or her any natural arthritis remedy that you are considering.

Tags: anti inflammatory, arthritis, dairy products, Food additives, health-food store, home remedies, inflammation, little sesame oil, Natural Arthritis Remedy Solutions, natural remedies, osteoarthritis, pain, rheumatoid arthritis, surgery

Pain is a feeling that all of us would want to avoid, but often end up experiencing. Be it in the form of a headache, period pain, muscle ache or joint inflammation, an ache never leaves our side for too long a time.

The method that most of us follow to get rid of a pain is to pop an over-the-counter (OTC) painkiller into our mouth. While OTC medicines are effective in treating pain, they are also associated with a number of side effects, especially if used regularly or on a long-term basis.

Though many of us are unaware of this fact, there are a number of natural pain killers that can help relieve aches, without presenting the danger of side effects. In the following lines, we have listed some of the most effective natural remedies for pain, including the herbal ones.

Natural Pain Killers

Boswellia
Boswellia is the name of an Indian herb that has been found to be effective in treating the pain occurring from rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Boswellic acids, the active constituents in boswellia, are responsible for bringing relief from the ache. This particular herb is available in the form of supplements as well as topically-applied creams. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: ache, aches, arthritis, back pain, chemicals, Crohn's disease, Dietary Supplement, Environmental Protection Agency, fibromyalgia, fish oil, gastritis, gout, headache, headaches, inflammation, inflammatory chemicals, lower back pain, migraine, migraine headaches, muscle cramps, muscle injuries, natural remedies, oil, pain, pains, peptic ulcers, rheumatoid arthritis, sinusitis, South Africa

The Daily Mail in England has this very interesting story that seems to give hope to the millions of people worldwide that suffer from Alzheimers disease.

Doctors are calling for a clinical trial of an experimental drug treatment that it is claimed can reverse the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease “in minutes”.

U.S. researchers say the treatment allowed an 82-year- old sufferer to recognize his wife for the first time in years.

In the UK, specialists believe the claims should be properly tested as only a few patients have been treated so far.
The treatment involves injecting a drug called Enbrel – which is normally used to treat arthritis – into the spine at the neck. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Alzheimer's, Alzheimer's disease, Alzheimer's Research Trust, Alzheimer's Society, ankylosing spondylitis, arthritis, California, chief executive, cough, diabetes, director, Edward Tobinick, Enbrel, experimental therapy, fever, head of research, immune disease, inflammation, Institute for Neurological Research, Institute of Neurological Research, juvenile idiopathic arthritis, Los Angeles, Marvin Miller, necrosis, nurse, professor, psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, Rebecca Wood, rheumatoid arthritis, Serious infections, Susanne Sorensen, TB, tuberculosis, tumor, tumour, United Kingdom, United States, University of California Los Angeles

Osteoporosis is a condition in which the bones become brittle and weak, is responsible for about 70% of the hip fractures in Canada, leading to considerable disability. Healthy lifestyle choices begun at an early age combined with proper screening, early detection, and appropriate treatment can offset bone loss and prevent or delay serious complications.

Throughout our lives our bodies go through a process of breaking down old bone material and replacing it with new bone. In our early years, we make more bone than we lose until we reach our lifetime maximum bone mass. For a woman that can happen in her teen years. For men, it’s a little later. At that point, the process reaches a balance and the amount of bone made is about the same as the amount of bone lost. As we age, we begin to lose bone faster than we make it.

One in four Canadian women and one in eight men over the age of 50 will lose so much of their bone mass that their bones will become fragile and break easily. In severe cases, a simple hug can be enough to break a bone. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: anti inflammatory drugs, bone density, bone loss, Canada, celiac disease, cluttering, crohn s disease, Crohn's disease, dual energy x-ray absorptiometry, healthy lifestyle, hip fracture, Hormone replacement therapy, HRT, hyperthyroidism, Hypogonadism, lifestyle choices, Osteopenia, osteoporosis, Osteoporosis Society, Osteoporosis Society of Canada, osteoporosis treatment, pain, Primary hyperparathyroidism, rheumatoid arthritis, testosterone, testosterone replacement therapy, ultrasound, Vitamin D, x-ray

Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease, which means the body’s own immune system attacks itself. In addition to the joints, Rheumatoid arthritis can also affect the skin, blood vessels, heart, and lungs.

Rheumatoid arthritis can occur at any age, from toddlers to seniors, but usually appears between the ages of 25 and 50, It occurs three times more often in women than in men. The joints most affected are in the wrist, fingers, knees, ankles, and feet.

When the immune system attacks healthy joints, it causes inflammation of the joint lining. Inflammation of this lining can be very painful, making it difficult to walk or do regular activities such as cooking. If the disease is not treated and controlled, it can lead to permanent damage, such as joint deformity and disability.

The Rheumatoid arthritis disease can start slowly with fatigue or a sudden attack of flu-like symptoms. There may be a slight fever. Joints may feel warm to the touch and look red or swollen, They may be stiff and become painful as time passes, Pain is usually worse in the morning, when the body has been inactive for a while. Other symptoms may include loss of appetite, swollen glands, burning eyes, and difficulty breathing. If you have any of these symptoms, it is important to see a doctor. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: acetaminophen, arthritis, autoimmune disease, deformity, fatigue, fever, inflammation, lifelong treatment, nsaids, Oral, pain, physical therapist, physical therapy, rheumatoid arthritis, surgery, treatment of rheumatoid arthritis

I thought that over the next few days I would put up some posts about arthritis. My wife has settled with arthritis for years and not a lot has helped. There are of course a lot of pills on the market notably Vioxx and Celebrex (which my wife did take) the problems with these drugs is that the Cox-2 inhibitors have been linked to heart problems.

Arthritis

Arthritis is a general name for over 100 conditions and diseases that affect the joints of the bones. Many people with arthritis do not have any symptoms in the early stages, Later, there may be joint pain, swelling, and stiffness. The muscles surrounding the joint may be sore, too. Some common forms of arthritis are osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, tendinitis, and gout.

While not all of the causes of arthritis are known, several factors that may contribute to a person’s risk of developing the condition have been identified, including: Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: arthritis, arthritis pain, bone ends, cartilage, Cox, fibromyalgia, gout, hips, inflammation, joint pain, joints, knees, muscles, osteoarthritis, pain, rheumatoid arthritis, sports injuries, tendinitis

My wife has been taking high dosages of aspirin tow or three times a day for the last few months as she had some clots show up on her legs and the doctor, after having me give her injections to thin her blood, gave her this prescrition for a generic type of aspirin derivative that she is taking. As always I scoured the internet to find more information on taking aspirin and I have copied the following info from both Wikipedia and the FDA in case you have a simeilar interest. The wiki info is an outline on aspirin itself and the FDA info is a bunch of questions and answers about aspirin.

Aspirin or acetylsalicylic acid (acetosal) is a drug in the family of salicylates, often used as an analgesic (against minor pains and aches), antipyretic (against fever), and anti-inflammatory. It has also an anticoagulant (”blood-thinning”) effect and is used in long-term low-doses to prevent heart attacks.

Low-dose long-term aspirin irreversibly blocks the formation of thromboxane A2 in platelets, producing an inhibitory effect on platelet aggregation, and this blood-thinning property makes it useful for reducing the incidence of heart attacks. Aspirin produced for this purpose often comes in 75 or 81 mg dispersible tablets and is sometimes called “Junior aspirin”. High doses of aspirin are also given immediately after an acute heart attack. These doses may also inhibit the synthesis of prothrombin and may therefore produce a second and different anticoagulant effect.

Several hundred fatal overdoses of aspirin occur annually, but the vast majority of its uses are beneficial. Its primary undesirable side effects, especially in stronger doses, are gastrointestinal distress (including ulcers and stomach bleeding) and tinnitus. Another side effect, due to its anticoagulant properties, is increased bleeding in menstruating women. Because there appears to be a connection between aspirin and Reye’s syndrome, aspirin is no longer used to control flu-like symptoms in minors.[1]

Aspirin was the first discovered member of the class of drugs known as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), not all of which are salicylates, though they all have similar effects and a similar action mechanism.
Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: A. Consumers, A. Patients, acetyl group, aches, allergy, angina pectoris, angioplasty, arthritis, Arthur Eichengr, Arthur Eichengrun, aspirin, aspirin products, Asthma, Bayer, body systems, British Columbia, bypass, Cerebral Ischemia, Charles Frederic Gerhardt, chemical, chemical structure, chemist, chest pain, chills, coronary artery disease, Cox, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Derek W. Gilroy, diarrhea, Egypt, fda, fever, first discovered member, Friedrich Bayer & Co., Gerhardt, Germany, Glasgow, headaches, hearing loss, heart attack, heart attacks, Henri Leroux, Heyden Company, high blood pressure, Hoffmann, hydroxyl functional groups, ibuprofen, ISIS, John Robert Vane, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, ketoprofen, kidney disease, London, Michigan, myocardial infarctions, osteoarthritis, pain, pains, pharmaceuticals industry, pharmacist, physician, pleurisy, Raffaele Piria, research assistant, researcher, Reye's syndrome, rheumatism, rheumatoid arthritis, Royal College of Surgeons in London, selective inhibitors, spondylarthropathies, stroke, Stroke Prevention, strokes, Sumeria, systemic lupus erythematosus, thrombus, tinnitus, transient ischemic attack, treatment of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, United Kingdom, United States, University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, unstable angina, Walter Sneader

The Chinese have known about the medicinal benefits of green tea since ancient times, using it to treat everything from headaches to depression. I was so impressed when I started researching the benefits of Green tea that I started a Chinese Green Tea website.

In fact Chinese Green tea has been researched and linked to help all of the following conditions.

* rheumatoid arthritis
* high cholesterol levels
* cariovascular disease
* infection
* impaired immune function
* Cognition
* Stopping certain neurodegenerative illnesses such as Alzheimers
* Treating Arthritis
* Treating MS
Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: allergy, arthritis, Asia, beriberi, cancer, cardiovascular disease, cariovascular disease, chemical, CVD, depression, Eisai, energy source, esophageal cancer, fatigue, food, headaches, heart disease, high blood pressure, HIV, hyperthyroidism, indigestion, insomnia, Japan, kidney disease, light processing, National Cancer Institute, nervous disorder, nutraceuticals, rheumatoid arthritis, skin cancer, skin disorders, Switzerland, Tea Increases, Tea Work, the American Journal, the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, tumor, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, University of Geneva in Switzerland, University of Purdue, Zen priest