arthritis Archives - Center for Holistic Medicine

Many things are built to last, but unfortunately, your bones and joints are not. As we age, we begin to lose the calcium in our bones, causing them to become more brittle. And over time, the cartilage between our joints slowly wears away, resulting in bones rubbing against bone, which can cause swelling and pain in our joints.

Dr. Cheryl Schwartz, DO, an internist at the Center for Holistic Medicine, says although aging is inevitable, there are some things we can do to protect our bones and joints as we get older to reduce pain.

“The best prevention would be to not do the things that cause pain or arthritis. However, when we are young and seemingly invincible, we do the things we enjoy — running track, playing sports, doing repetitive-motion jobs — and don’t worry about what will happen later,” she says. “In truth, we cannot live in bubble wrap, and we do require movement in our lives. So, it ends up that as we age, we discover new aches and pains from all those years ago and then have to deal with them. So, the best thing is to maintain ‘ideal’ weight, remain active, and treat the treatable.”

Maintaining Bone Health

Whether you are 30, 50 or 70 years old, taking steps to take care of your bones is important. Both men and women of all races can develop osteoporosis, which is a condition where bones become porous and brittle, causing you to have a stooped posture or bones that break easily. However, Caucasian and Asian women who are past menopause are more likely to develop the condition.

Here are the three most important things to do to keep your bones strong and healthy:

Eat Enough Calcium
The National Osteoporosis Foundation recommends that women under age 50 and men under age 70 should get 1,000 milligrams (mg) of calcium per day, and men and women older than that should get 1,200 mg of calcium a day. To do so, load up on dark, leafy greens like collard greens and kale, seafood such as shrimp and salmon, and dairy products like yogurt, cheese and milk (almond or soy milk works, too).

If you can’t get enough calcium in your diet, Tanya Tanzillo, DNP, a nurse practitioner and a functional medicine practitioner at the Center for Holistic Medicine, recommends taking a calcium supplement as well as a vitamin D supplement, which helps your body absorb calcium.

Do weight-bearing exercise
“Doing weight-bearing exercise helps rebuild new bone, so walking, jogging or weight-lifting are great activities for bone health,” Tanzillo says. In addition, Dr. Schwartz often gives her older patients check out a PBS TV show called “Sit and Be Fit,” which has exercises you can do at home while sitting in a chair. “It’s not as easy as it looks!” Dr. Schwartz says. And, she says, even if you can’t do much weight-bearing exercise, any little bit of exercise can help.

Get your hormone levels tested
Dr. Jerry Gore, MD, clinical director at the Center for Holistic Medicine, says one thing that may cause post-menopausal women to lose bone is an imbalance in their hormones. “If a woman is low on estrogen or testosterone, it’s difficult to maintain bone. And if her cortisol levels are too high — from stress or dietary problems — this can also break down bone. We do saliva testing to have an accurate method of seeing what these hormone levels are and then we can bring those levels back in balance using bio-identical hormones, supplements, herbs or dietary advice as needed,” he says.

Preventing Joint Pain
If you are middle-aged or older and wake up every day with new aches and pains in your body, you’re not alone. Unfortunately, feeling more joint pain is often a natural part of the aging process.

However, knowing what is causing your joint pain can help know how to treat it. The most common kind of joint pain is due to osteoarthritis, which occurs when the cartilage between the joints slowly wears away, causing bone to rub against bone, resulting in swelling, stiffness and pain.

However, sometimes, joint pain is due to rheumatoid arthritis, which is caused by an autoimmune condition where the body’s immune system starts attacking its own cells with inflammation that causes painful swelling of the joints. See a doctor for an evaluation if you start to notice persistent swelling around your joints (particularly in your fingers and toes), that is tender and warm to the touch.

Whether you have osteoporosis or rheumatoid arthritis, here are a few things that can reduce your joint pain:

Stretch every day
Dr. Richard Bisceglie, a naprapathic practitioner at the Center for Holistic Medicine, says some simple, daily stretching is one of the best ways to get the fluid moving around your joints and can help increase flexibility and improve range of motion. The Arthritis Foundation warns, however, that you shouldn’t stretch cold muscles. Instead, try to move your body and do some light cardio work before doing any slow, static stretches.
Strengthen your muscles
Another thing you can do to reduce joint pain is to strengthen the muscles surrounding the joint. “Strengthening the muscles around the painful joint helps to stabilize the joint and reduce pain,” Dr. Schwartz says. To fully stabilize the joint, Dr. Bisceglie recommends exercising both opposing muscle groups. For example, if you elbow hurts, you should work both your biceps and triceps. If your knee hurts, you should do exercises to build both your hamstrings and your quads.
Do non-weight bearing exercise
When people feel joint paint, the most common response is to avoid doing any exercise, but in fact, moving your body can help you feel better. Tanzillo recommends doing non-weight bearing activities such as gentle water aerobics, swimming, biking, or even walking in a pool. If you are going to do something with more impact, Dr. Schwartz recommends running or walking on grass, cinder trails, or a padded indoor track, which have more give than a treadmill or cement.
Get chiropractic adjustments
In addition to exercise, another good way to keep the joints moving is getting chiropractic adjustments, which can help stimulate synovial fluid to flow between the joints. “Synovial fluid is to the body what oil is to a car,” explains Dr. Mitchell Katz, a chiropractor at the Center for Holistic Medicine, who previously served as the official chiropractor for the Chicago Bears from 1991 through 2004. “Spinal decompression therapy for the lower back and neck can be very helpful as it is a passive movement, which helps to stimulate the synovial fluid and pump nutrients into the discs.”

Maintain a healthy weight
“Being overweight will stress the joints and make any cause for joint pain worse,” says Dr. Schwartz. In fact, according to the Arthritis Foundation, being just 10 pounds overweight can put an added 15 to 20 pounds of pressure on your knees. That’s why Dr. Schwartz says it’s best to try to maintain as “normal” of a weight as possible.
Eat an anti-inflammatory diet
Whether you are suffering from osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis, keeping inflammation at bay is key to reducing pain. According to Harvard Medical School, you should avoid fried foods, refined carbohydrates, and processed meat. Tanzillo also suggests avoiding dairy, gluten, and refined sugar as well. Instead, opt for lots of fruits, leafy green vegetables, tomatoes, nuts, olive oil and fish, which are high in omega-3 fatty acids.
Take supplements
There are many supplements that support joint health. Tanzillo suggests taking joint support blends, as well as turmeric and curcumin. Dr. Schwartz suggests taking glucosamine-chondroitin, boswellia serrata, or MSM (Methylsulfonylmethane) for people who have been diagnosed with osteoarthritis. And Dr. Katz says vitamins such as glucosamine sulfate and Active Again can promote flexibility.

If you wake up every morning with achy and stiff knees, hands, back, neck or other joints, you may be suffering from arthritis.

There are two main types of arthritis: osteoarthritis, which is often caused by old age, and rheumatoid arthritis, which is caused by an autoimmune disorder. But no matter which type you have, the end result is that the cartilage between your joints gets worn away, causing your bones to rub against each other, causing pain.

As the pain increases over time, people often rely on medications and daily dosages of NSAIDs (non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs) to keep the symptoms at bay.

However, long-term use of NSAIDs can additional problems, such as gastrointestinal issues, heartburn, liver and kidney problems and more. And taking brand-name arthritis medications can be costly and have their own side effects as well.

That’s why many Americans are increasingly looking for holistic approaches to lessen their arthritis symptoms and even reverse some of its effects. Here are a few holistic approaches you can try that don’t involve medication:

Warm yourself up
If you’re looking for a simple, home remedy to ease your stiff joints, find ways to warm yourself up. The Arthritis Foundation recommends starting your day with a warm shower or bath to ease morning stiffness or head to the gym and relax in a hot tub. Try applying a heating pad for up to 20 minutes (just make sure you use a cloth barrier so you don’t burn yourself), or for an even cheaper option, just put a wet washcloth in a freezer bag, heat it up in the microwave, and wrap it in a towel before applying for 15 to 20 minutes.
Apply cold
If you are experiencing more acute pain, rather than joint stiffness, you might want to try cold therapy instead. Cold packs will reduce swelling and numb nerve endings, which should help dull pain. You can buy a gel cold pack at the drugstore and put it in the freezer so it’s ready when you need it. (These usually come with straps that make it easier to wrap around your joints). Or you can make your own ice packs using frozen vegetables or ice in a plastic bag, covered by a towel to protect the skin. And just like heat, keep the pack on for no more than 20 minutes at a time.
Adjust your diet
Rheumatoid arthritis is caused by an autoimmune condition where the body’s immune system starts attacking its own cells, a process called inflammation. So one of the best ways to counteract this type of arthritis is to focus on eating anti-inflammatory foods.

“Awareness of inflammatory foods is important for people with arthritis,” says Patricia DeAngelis, a functional medicine practitioner at the Center. “What we eat can trigger arthritis symptoms.”

She recommends eating lots of fresh vegetables and limited fruits, as well as foods that provide omega 3 fats. “Eat organic as much possible,” DeAngelis says. “Use the Environmental Working Group’s Clean Fifteen and Dirty Dozen lists as a guide for choosing healthy produce.”

Some good foods to eat include:

Wild-caught fish (salmon, mackerel, cod, tuna, and sardines)
Grass-fed lamb and buffalo meat
Almonds, walnuts, and flax
Dark, leafy green vegetables
Red and blue-colored fruits and vegetables
Extra virgin olive oil and olives
Spices such as tumeric, ginger, oregano, garlic, rosemary, cayenne, cloves, and cinnamon

DeAngelis also recommends avoiding trans fats, refined sugar, high glycemic foods, food with high omega 6 oils (such as refined vegetable oils), gluten, saturated animal fats from grain-fed red meats, dairy, and high-temperature cooking.

However, everyone’s response to foods can vary slightly, so DeAngelis recommends using an elimination diet to determine which foods trigger your symptoms.

4. Try Spinal Decompression Therapy
If your arthritis is causing back pain, one good option to try is spinal decompression therapy. Spinal Decompression Therapy is a safe and comfortable treatment that involves lying down on a special table and putting your spine in its proper position. This creates more space within each individual vertebra, which decompresses the joints and alleviates the pain of spinal arthritis.

What’s more, Dr. Mitchell Katz, a chiropractor at the Center for Holistic Medicine, says several studies have shown that spinal arthritis (also known as degenerative joint disease) can actually be reversed through the use of Spinal Decompression Therapy. “If you or anyone that you know is suffering from the pain and discomfort of spinal arthritis, Spinal Decompression Therapy might be extremely helpful,” he says.

5. Try Naprapathy
Another technique for relieving compression on joints is naprapathy. Usually, muscles and soft tissues become tight from overuse, and that tension can cause compression on the joints, making the bones rub together even more. By manually manipulating the soft tissue that surrounds the joints, naprapathy helps reduce that compression and relieve pain.

Dr. Richard Bisceglie, who practices naprapathy at the Center for Holistic Medicine, says he also gives patients suggestions for stretches and exercises they can do at home to help relieve pain, too.

6. Use Lasers
Cold laser therapy and infrared light therapies are another safe, non-medical way of reducing the pain associated with arthritis. “Both are frequency-based therapies that reduce inflammation between the joints,” explains Dr. Bisceglie, who administers both treatments at the Center. Both cold lasers and infrared lasers are FDA-approved medical devices that a medical professional holds over your affected area to sends photons of light through the skin. The light helps injured cells restore their mitochondrial function, resulting in reduced inflammation and a reduction in pain.

7. Try Acupuncture
According to Chinese medicine, pain is caused by energy blockages throughout your body, and Kenji Aoki, a licensed acupuncturist at the Center for Holistic Medicine, says acupuncture is extremely effective at reducing the pain of osteoarthritis simply by opening up all of your meridians and balancing your energy.

However, However, Aoki says we must distinguish the treatment for osteoarthritis from that for rheumatoid arthritis because the root causes are different. Just recently, Aoki attended a training in Japan on a new technique used to treat rheumatoid arthritis that has shown amazing results. In this technique, Aoki inserts an extremely tiny needle (0.3 mm) in a specific acupuncture point and then the patient wears the needle in their body for one week until they return back for a follow-up visit.

“Rheumatoid arthritis is a very deep issue, and the energy imbalance isn’t easy to correct,” he says. “So this technique is a very, very delicate treatment, but it is very, very effective.”

At the Center for Holistic Medicine, we believe that a combination of holistic treatments can often provide the best results. If you come in for pain relief, we usually suggest meeting with DeAngelis first, who can use blood testing to determine the root cause of your problems. She will then make suggestions about which other pain relief treatments may be best for you.

Tag: arthritis

How to Protect Your Bones and Joints As You Age

Try these 7 holistic treatments for arthritis pain