Joint inflammation is
painful, and when you're suffering with it you're highly motivated to find out what will stop it!
To realize that goal, there are two ingredients: symptom control and finding
the cause (or causes) so that a healing direction can be revealed.
Symptom Control: This means
two things - reducing inflammation and managing pain.
The primary herb used around the world for reducing inflammation is Boswellia.
Years of clinical research has revealed that boswellic acids reduce the formation of inflammatory
leukotrienes.
Pain management is often achieved with White Willow Bark, which is the natural
herb that contains salicin, flavonoids and other phenolic compounds that reduce inflammation significantly
along with promoting joint health.
Finding Causes: With arthritic
symptoms under control, the next step is finding causes. The following are six of the top common causes
health practitioners find:
1. Food intolerances. A food intolerance results from the
inability of the body to completely metabolize (i.e., 'break down' ) any particular food. This leaves
undigested food particles floating around where they can cause inflammation, and one of those target organs
is the joints.
Food intolerances are different than food allergies. One can be intolerant of a
food but not allergic to it, or allergic but not intolerant or both. This means that just because a blood
test for antigens shows no antigen for a particular food does not mean an intolerance does not exist.
Four of the most common food intolerances are wheat, gluten, lactose and foods
from the nightshade family (tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, peppers, etc.)
2. Toxic metals. Toxic metals are those that poison the body and
have no benefit for humans. Four of the most common ones that affect modern people are mercury, aluminum,
lead and plutonium. The sources of these contaminants are varied and depend on the metal itself. For
example, two of the most common sources of mercury contamination are from dental amalgams, which are over
50% mercury, and vaccines containing Thimerisol, a preservative containing mercury. Other, less common toxic
metals include antimony, uranium, arsenic, cadmium, barium, nickel and bismuth. Any of these can be
deposited in the joints, stimulating inflammation.
3. Synthetic Chemicals. Modern people are exposed to a growing
number of toxic chemicals in daily life. In fact it's been estimated that the average person is exposed to
well over 100,000 synthetic chemicals! This results in a massive body burden way to significant for the
liver to detoxify and eliminate on its own, and the chemical back up can result in joint inflammation.
4. Generalized acidity. The human body is meant to run on a
relatively neutral pH - not too acid, not too alkaline. When the body is consistently acid over a length of
time, the acidity can etch away the lining of joints, resulting in an inflammatory arthritis. One such
source of this acidity is toxic emotions - unresolved personal issues that are replayed but never
resolved.
5. Immune challenges. These are classic cause of joint inflammation, and can
include all manner of bacteria, yeast, fungi, viruses, parasites, even spirochetes. Any one or more of these
can cause joint inflammation.
6. Autoimmune reaction. An autoimmune reaction results when the
immune system gets confused in its functions and begins attacking its own bodily tissue - in this example,
joints. The immune system's job is to separate 'me' from 'not me' and attack and eliminate the 'not me.' In
an arthritic autoimmunity, it has mistakenly identified the joint tissue as 'not me', resulting in an attack
that produces arthritis. Many practitioners believe this confusion is set up initially by immune challenges
in which the invading organism contains DNA very similar to the body's joint tissue DNA.
Each of the above represents a cause that may be at the root of the symptom of
arthritis. Working with your practitioner to discover the cause (or causes) is a key to reducing - even
eliminating - the symptom itself, often permanently.
In this respect, it's important to remember that 'my arthritis is not your arthritis'. In other words, you may have
one or two of these causes, while the next person with the same symptom - joint inflammation - has totally
different causes.
That's why it's important if you wish to recover, not to get stuck in 'cookie
cutter' approaches, but rather: find out what's going on in your unique body.
You can learn about all twelve top causes and what to do about them in the
book, Arthritis: To Conquer It, Check for These Top Causes,
available here.
