Arthritis: The Disease, the Drugs, and Why Avoid Them

Healing Joint Pain Naturally: Safe and Effective Ways to Treat Arthritis, Fibromyalgia, and Other Joint Diseases
by Ellen Hodgson Brown

For the more than 43 million sufferers of arthritis and similar afflictions, a safe, effective, natural method for reversing such diseases without drugs or potentially harmful side effects.

When veteran health writer Ellen Hodgson Brown found herself suffering from an arthritic hip so painful that sleep was almost impossible, she did not surrender to painkillers or replacement surgery. Instead, she undertook extensive investigation into natural remedies and schools of alternative medicine and devised an eclectic home protocol of fasting and nutritional healing. The result: the arthritis disappeared completely, leaving her feeling better than she had in years.

In Healing Joint Pain Naturally, Brown shares what she's learned in her journey to renewed wellness, in the process proving that the course of arthritis can be reversed. She first investigates the causes of joint disease, examining the roles of stress, poor nutrition, and energy blockage. She then covers the therapeutic possibilities of altered diet and detoxification; supplementation therapies of natural substances that offer safer pain relief without long-term side effects and that promote healing; and regulation therapies, ranging from exercise, massage, and chiropractic to chelation, homeopathy, and acupuncture. Her belief throughout is that healing is a natural process that can be promoted more by respecting the wisdom of the body than by waging war. Inspiring, wide-ranging, eclectic, Healing Joint Pain Naturally brings a message of hope and bodily renewal to millions who have resigned themselves to a life of pain.

Chapter 1

Physicians of the utmost fame
Were called at once; but when they came
They answered, as they took their fees,
"There is no cure for this disease."

- Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953)

Arthritis disables more people than any other chronic disorder and tops the list of diseases for which older people seek medical treatment. In 1998, the number of afflicted in the United States hit a staggering 43 million - 15 percent of the population - up from 35 million in 1985, in part because the population in general is growing older. The market for analgesic painkillers is even more staggering, amounting to about $10 billion annually.

Sales of Searle's arthritis drug Celebrex rivaled the blockbuster Viagra when it hit the market in early 1999. But the success of this "super aspirin" seems to reflect the widespread desperation of arthritis victims more than the viability of the treatment. Celebrex (discussed later in this chapter) is no more effective than older, cheaper options in reversing joint dysfunction. Its claim to fame is that it suppresses pain with fewer daunting side effects than the older drugs. Conventional medicine still has no safe and proven protocol for reversing arthritis.

Defining the Disease

The word arthritis is derived from the Greek arthron for joint and -itis for inflammation. It thus means inflammation of the joint. Inflammation causes swelling, which causes pain by pressing on the nerves. Joint dysfunction that does not involve inflammation is technically called "arthrosis," meaning simply joint disease.

The most common form of arthritis is osteoarthritis, a chronic degenerative disease that is epidemic among the elderly. It afflicts about 21 million people in the United States. According to the Arthritis Foundation, the second leading arthritis-related condition is fibromyalgia, a form of muscular rheumatism that involves joint pain and is believed to afflict 3 to 6 million people. The third most frequent arthritic condition is rheumatoid arthritis, the most intractable and painful form of the disease. It afflicts 2.5 million people. Fourth is gout, a gene-linked condition in which excess uric acid accumulates and forms crystals that irritate the joints. Other common forms of arthritis include bursitis, a painful inflammation of the bursae (the fluid-filled sacs that cushion the bones, tendons, and ligaments where they move against each other); and ankylosing spondylitis, an inflammation of the spine and hip joints. Many other conditions also involve an element of inflammatory arthritis, including systemic lupus erythematosus or SLE, a chronic inflammatory disease that strikes connective tissue throughout the body.

The Mechanics of the Disease

Different forms of arthritis have unique features that are discussed in later chapters. All, however, involve a breakdown of joint cartilage faster than the body can repair it. The joint is where the bones meet and are cushioned so they can move without irritating each other. The joint is protected by a capsule consisting of tough fibrous tissue. It covers the synovial membrane, which surrounds the joint and provides a lubricating fluid. Joints are covered with a smooth layer of cartilage that allows for easy sliding and absorbs shock. Arthritis strikes this cartilage, causing it to become swollen, flake, and crack.

When this occurs the body tries to protect itself by layering down extra calcium at the ends of the bone, forming bony spurs inside the joint. These are the bony knobs called Heberden's nodes visible at the ends of the fingers of some arthritis victims. If the node breaks off, it can form a "joint mouse" that moves in the joint space. A joint mouse that has gotten caught between the moving bones can cause serious pain. Friction between the bones also causes heat to build, but the narrowing of the synovial membrane makes blood flow insufficient to carry the heat away. When the joint isn't moving, the synovial membrane gets stiff, leading to "gelling" that makes it even more difficult to move.

The Pharmaceutical Approach: NSAIDs

The conventional approach to the treatment of arthritis is to suppress joint pain with drugs. Aspirin and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) relieve pain by blocking the inflammatory process, but this approach comes with a price. A 1998 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association estimated that more than 100,000 deaths now occur annually from legal drugs prescribed and used correctly. That makes pharmaceutical side effects the fourth leading cause of death in the United States, following only heart disease, cancer, and stroke. And ulcers and gastrointestinal bleeding caused by NSAIDs are the most common serious adverse reactions of any drugs on the American market. This side effect has become so common and well known that the complex has its own name: "NSAID gastropathy." A recent Stanford study attributed 107,000 hospitalizations and 16,500 deaths yearly to NSAIDs. Taking them increases your likelihood of being hospitalized for gastrointestinal afflictions by a factor of more than six.

People who take an occasional aspirin for a headache aren't at great risk. The problems come for people who take the drugs daily in relatively high doses over a period of years. Fourteen million arthritics now fall in that category. NSAIDs were developed specifically to treat rheumatoid arthritis, a crippling form of the disease for which side effect risks may be justified; but NSAIDs are now also frequently prescribed for osteoarthritis, a much larger market with a correspondingly greater potential for drug casualties.

Copyright © 2001 by Ellen Hodgson Brown.

About the Author

Ellen Hodgson Brown is a health writer who specializes in alternative medicine. Her books include The Alternative Pharmacy (with Dr. Lynne Walker) and The Key to Ultimate Health.