You Can Have Arthritis Yet Be Pain Free

Grant Cooper, M.D., co-director of the Princeton Spine & Joint Center in Princeton, NJ, has written several journal articles and books about arthritis and pain. In his years of treating patients with osteoarthritis (OA), he's made an interesting observation: patients with terrible-looking x-rays (bone-on-bone) may have no pain at all, while others reporting excruciating pain may have x-rays showing relatively little joint deterioration. What makes for the difference? According to Cooper, even with joint deterioration you don't need to be in pain. His keys for preventing and reversing arthritic pain are gentle exercise, including strengthening and stretching your muscles appropriately, learning how to perform daily tasks so that you're not over-stressing your joints, and an anti-inflammatory lifestyle, including good diet and anti-inflammatory supplements. A few sessions with a good physical therapist can be worth their weight in gold to learn specific exercises and new, less stressful ways to use your body. As for the information and supplements you need to create an anti-inflammatory lifestyle, look no farther than Beyond Health. See my article on Inflammation and consider one of our Wellness Kits including Bone Mineral Formula. If you're already suffering from arthritic pain, call our office at 1-800-250-3063 for information on our Joint Support Formula, MSM and other supplements that can help. If you already have pain and inflammation from arthritis, consider Beyond Health’s Cell Repair Formula (used with bowel tolerance levels of our vitamin C), additional Fish Oil, our Joint Support Formula and our MSM. Obesity raises your risk of OA in two ways: it puts stress on your joints and fat cells produce inflammatory chemicals. A study in Arthritis Rheumatism found that when overweight women lost only 5 kg (about 11 pounds), they reduced their risk for knee OA by 50 percent. My book Never Be Fat Again can help you shed those excess pounds. Another contributor to OA is systemic acidity. Test your morning urine with pH paper, available through Beyond Health. For more information on pH see my articles on pH in the Article Archives on the website. Although heart disease and cancer get more press, arthritis continues to be our most common cause of disability. A recent CDC report found that more than 20 percent of the US population age 18 and above had been diagnosed with one of the various types of arthritis, OA being the most common. Over half of these had symptoms that limited them in daily living. Other reports have estimated that 70-80 percent of those over the age of 50 have OA. So whatever age you are, get started now to prevent or reverse this potentially debilitating disease! Cooper, G. Your arthritis may not go away, but your arthritis pain can. HealthCentral.com. Posted April 24, 2009. Cooper, G.  Top three arthritis myths.  HealthCentral.com. Posted July 7, 2008. Chang YJ. Prevalence of doctor-diagnosed arthritis and arthritis-attributable activity limitation – US 2007-2009. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, October 8, 2010;59(39):1261-1265. Felson D. An update on the epidemiology of knee and hip osteoarthritis with a view to prevention. Arthritis Rheumatism. 1998;41:1343--55. Keifer, D. Natural Help for arthritis sufferers. Life Extension. October 2003. Accessed from lef.org Feb. 27, 2012.