Should people who have arthritis exercise?

Yes. Studies have shown that exercise helps people with arthritis in many ways. Exercise reduces joint pain and stiffness and increases flexibility, muscle strength, cardiac fitness, and endurance. It also helps with weight reduction and contributes to an improved sense of well being. Three types of exercise best suited for people with arthritis:
Range-of-motion exercises: such as dance help maintain normal joint movement and relieve stiffness. It can be done daily.
Strengthening exercises: such as weight training help keep or increase muscle strength. Strong muscles help support and protect joints affected by arthritis. It can be done every other day.
Aerobic or endurance exercises: such as bicycle riding, improve cardiovascular fitness, help control weight, and improve overall function. Some studies show that aerobic exercise can reduce inflammation in some joints. It can be done 20 to 30 minutes three times a week.
Most experts agree that if exercise causes pain that lasts for more than 1 hour, it is too strenuous. People with arthritis should work with their physical therapist or doctor to adjust their exercise program when they notice any of the following signs of strenuous exercise:
Unusual or persistent fatigue
Increased weakness
Decreased range of motion
Increased joint swelling
Continuing pain (pain that lasts more than 1 hour after exercising)

Osteoporosis

Osteoporosis is a condition of decreased bone density as a result of excessive loss of calcium in the bones. When a bone has lost calcium it will become fragile and fractures can occur. Osteoporosis is a disease that affects about 25 million older Americans, most of whom are women.

Causes:

• Loss of estrogen due to Menopause. Estrogen helps bones retain calcium and after menopause the body no longer produces as much estrogen.
• Aging and decreased muscular activity
• Being underweight
• Family history of osteoporosis
• Eating disorders such as anorexia or bulimia

Symptoms:

Bone loss occurs without symptoms. People can lose bone mass over many years but not know the problem. Osteoporosis is often referred as a silent disease. Most people may not be aware that they have osteoporosis until a fractured spine, hip or wrist occurs with a simple fall.

• Loss of height as a result of weakened spine.
• Cramps in the legs at night
• Bone pain and tenderness
• Neck pain, discomfort in the neck other than from injury or trauma
• Persistent pain in the spine or muscles of the lower back
• Abdominal pain
• Tooth loss
• Rib pain
• Broken bones
• Spinal deformities become evident like stooped posture, an outward curve at the top of the spine as a result of developing a vertebral collapse on the back.
• Fatigue
• Periodontal disease
• Brittle fingernails

Holistic medicine offers osteoporosis sufferers lasting relief from pain and inflammation.

Skilled holistic medicine doctors take the time needed to find the root causes of osteoporosis. Holistic medicine concentrates its diagnosis and a treatment plan around a "customized" approach.

With holistic medicine, health is restored to the patient rather than simply providing superficial symptomatic relief.

Cervical Arthritis

Pain in the neck - Literally! It is a type of arthritis that affects the upper spine causing pain in the neck. The cervical spine consists of seven distinct vertebral bodies that are separated by intervertebral discs. These discs support the neck while giving it flexibility. Cervical arthritis is caused when the cervical vertebrae in the neck deteriorate accompanied by the deterioration of the cartilage that provides shock absorption. These changes gradually constrict the space in the vertebra, which causes extreme neck pain. Men are more likely than women to develop this type of arthritis. However, postmenopausal women have a higher incidence of this disease.

Causes:

• Injury or repeated trauma to the neck due to work nature.
• Presence of other types of arthritis such as rheumatoid arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis .

Symptoms:

• Muscle weakness, with numbness in the neck and arms, perhaps also the hands and fingers
• Tenderness to the touch at the neck itself
• Stiffness which limits movement of the neck particularly noticeable in backing up a car
• Headaches
• Loss of Balance

Holistic medicine offers arthritis sufferers lasting relief from pain and inflammation. According to the holistic medicine approach, arthritis is a disease that results from multiple causes, many of them with less-than-obvious connections to the disease or causes not easily detectable.

Skilled holistic medicine doctors take the time needed to find the root causes of arthritis. Holistic medicine concentrates its diagnosis and a treatment plan around a "customized" approach.

With holistic medicine, health is restored to the patient rather than simply providing superficial symptomatic relief.

Holistic approach to Arthritis treatment

If you or someone you know have been suffering from inflammation of the joints with pain then read on. For, you may be suffering from Arthritis.
Arthritis is a medical condition affecting a joint or joints, causing pain, swelling and stiffness. There are more than 100 diseases classified as a type of arthritis or rheumatic disease.
The primary causes of arthritis are:
· an accumulation of toxins in the body ( from the environment, food, drugs, and other sources)
· bacterial and yeast infections ( often due to excessive use of antibiotics)
· parasites
· intestinal permeability ( undigested food proteins and toxins cross the intestinal barrier)
· physical trauma
· nerve damage
· poor stress-coping abilities and other emotional factors
It is essential to understand the factors causing arthritis in each person, because arthritis is never caused by one thing alone, and no two people have exactly the same causal factors.
Holistic Approach to Arthritis Treatment
Holistic medicine offers arthritis sufferers lasting relief from pain and inflammation. According to the holistic medicine approach, arthritis is a disease that results from multiple causes, many of them with less-than-obvious connections to the disease or causes not easily detectable.
Skilled holistic medicine doctors take the time needed to find the root causes of arthritis. Holistic medicine concentrates its diagnosis and a treatment plan around a "customized" approach.
Holistic medicine draws upon a wide range of therapies to help treat, and in some cases even prevent arthritis:
· Chinese herbal medicine
· proper diet and nutrition
· stress reduction
· detoxification
· repair of nerves and muscles ( through acupuncture, chiropractic, massage, and exercise)
With holistic medicine, health is restored to the patient, rather than simply providing superficial symptomatic relief.

Holistic approach to Chiropractic

The modern science and philosophy of chiropractic has evolved from the belief that your body is a self healing organism controlled by the nervous system. Interference, to the nervous system, by misalignment of the spinal vertebrae, called SUBLUXATIONS pinch, choke or irritate the normal nerve function leading to ill health, disease and symptoms. A doctor of Chiropractic utilizes his hands to adjust subluxations, allowing the body to express its optimal health potential.

Research has shown that Chiropractic care is effective in the treatment of back pain, neck pain, headaches, migraines, numbness or tingling in the arms or legs, painful joints, shoulders, hips, jaw problems, fatigue and stress, to name a few. Current research is demonstrating the effectiveness of chiropractic and children with conditions such as chronic ear aches, asthma, bedwetting, colic, and growing pains.

Massage therapy has been used for centuries in both Western and Eastern cultures. Many early physicians referred to touch in their documents, mentioning the uses of pressure, rhythmic movements and the application of oils. Early in the 19th century, Heinrich Ling adapted and defined the massage strokes that form the basis of the Swedish method of massage, the most common practiced today.

Massage therapy is the manipulation of the soft tissues of the body to gain a therapeutic response. The therapeutic use of massage therapy affects the circulatory (blood & Lymph), muscular, fascial, and nervous systems of the body. It is effective in controlling chronic or acute pain, reducing stress and creating a sense of relaxation and well being.

Therapeutic massage is used to help obtain relief from many specific problems, including low back pain, migraine and muscle tension headaches, whiplash, and neck and shoulder tension to name a few.

Many private insurance companies cover therapeutic massage under their extended health care plans. Consult your plan and experience therapeutic massage.

Our bodies are designed to work at an optimal functioning state. Yet to accomplish this, your body requires minerals, vitamins and enzymes.

Chiropractors take a holistic approach to health

Everyday mishaps such as a slip on a wet floor or a twinge in the back after carrying a heavy box are common and unavoidable. Chiropractors believe that the age old method of spinal adjustment based on the philosophy that body is a self healing organism, would be the best possible treatment. Even though the attitude of every individual practitioner varies, the common goal is to relieve the patient’s disease and pain.

Dr. Steven Barrett of Barrett Chiropractic Clinic, Carbondale, says that he looks at a person’s spine to see if it is functioning normally. Dr. Barrett goes on that every organ, tissue and cell is coordinated and controlled by the nervous system and hence if there is pressure or subluxation along any of the nerve roots, then the part of the body that is being controlled by that nerve will not function properly.

According to Herron, getting an appointment with chiropractor is similar to getting a general doctors appointment. She goes through the case history of the patient and carries out orthopedic tests to check the patient’s mobility level. She then adds in applied kinesiology, a diagnostic chiropractic process involving muscle testing, to help her determine the exact muscle, organ, or tissue that is being affected by the patient's spinal misalignment. After that, the patients X-ray is taken for testing. Based on that test report, she recommends the kind of treatment that she feels the patient must go through. After a therapy, a patient is normally given some adjustment, in which the chiropractor applies pressure on a particular area of the spine to align it properly, using their hands. According to Herron, different types of adjustments are there, starting from straight, osseous adjustments, which are forceful, to a low-force method, to acupuncture. "My approach is to get the patient pain-free," Herron concludes. "Ultimately, maintenance is up to the patient, but generally people feel so much better after an adjustment that they usually come back, sometimes once a month."

Barret sticks to the preventive approach to keep ones spine healthy and trouble free as he feels that irksome, continuous pain in the muscles and joints sends most people to a chiropractor. According to Dr. Brian Bird, Most people nowadays have started realizing that spinal misalignment can affect more parts of the body than one and give rise to a number of different diseases and ailments and hence have started visiting chiropractors for various reasons.

Chiropractics are not only applied individually, but are also complemented by holistic therapies. Most of the patients who have undergone chiropractics vouch for the fact that good results are yielded most often.

Chiropractic Treatment

Chiropractic is a medical profession which focuses mainly on the treatment and prevention of disorders of the musculoskeletal system and their effects on the nervous system and the general health. Chiropractic comes under the complementary and alternative form of medical treatment and is normally associated with the belief that the human body is mostly self healing. In principle, it is said to be quite similar to acupuncture. The general belief on chiropractic is that most of the disorders are caused due to subluxations. Subluxations are dislocations in the spinal region. When there is a subluxation, the nerve signals from the brain are hindered. This results in health problems and ailments. Hence in chiropractic, the dislocations are corrected in order to restore the nerve signals and thus cure the health problems.

There are few colleges in parts of Australia, United States and England which offer chiropractor studies. Though the number of universities isn’t large, it is slowly on the rise. Chiropractors are medical practitioners who specialize in chiropractic, but are not licensed to prescribe medicines and drugs or to perform operations and surgeries. Normally, chiropractic is combined with other alternate or complementary medicines to yield better results as well as other general exercises to improve and increase the strength of the spinal chord and the overall potency.

Chiropractic was first originated in 1895. It was introduced by Daniel David Palmer, a grocer from Davenport, Iowa, who believed that all kinds of health problems could be cured by making corrections in the spine. Later, his son B J Palmer proposed that subluxations caused nerve compression that obstructed the flow of innate intelligence. A survey was conducted by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine and according to it, chiropractic was found to be the fourth most alternative and complementary medicine therapy.

According to the US Department of Labor’s Occupational Outlook Handbook: “Because chiropractors emphasize the importance of healthy lifestyles and do not prescribe drugs or perform surgery, chiropractic care is appealing to many health-conscious Americans. Chiropractic treatment of the back, neck, extremities, and joints has become more accepted as a result of research and changing attitudes about alternative, noninvasive health care practices”

One advantage of chiropractic is that there are no side effects associated with it. Also, patients who undergo chiropractic treatment do not require surgery and need not spend a huge amount of money on a chiropractic treatment.