Arthritis & Homeopathic Remedies

Arthritis is a joint disorder featuring inflammation. A joint is an area of the body where two different bones meet. A joint functions to move the body parts connected by its bones. Actually, “arthritis” is not a single disease; it is an informal way of referring to joint pain or joint disease. There are more than 100 types of arthritis and related conditions. It can affect any joints of the body but most commonly affected joints are knees, hips and fingers etc.

About 1 out of 5 adults have some form of the condition. It can happen to anyone, but it becomes more common as you age.

TYPES OF ARTHRITIS:-

Depending on the number of joint involved, basically they are classified as Monoarthritis- involvement of single joint as in Gout and Polyarthritis- involvement of more than two or more joints as in Osteoarthritris, Rheumatoid arthritis etc.

CAUSES OF ARTHRITIS:-

With various forms of arthritis, the exact cause is unknown. But there are some precipitating factor that increases the chances of getting it. These are as follows

• Age- With increasing age, the joints also gets weak.
• Gender- Most type of arthritis are more common among women, except for gout.
• Genetic factor- Certain conditions like Rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and Ankylosing spondylitis are linked to certain genes.
• Excess weight- extra weight increases the chances of arthritis in knees to start sooner and get worse faster.
• Injuries- these causes joint damage that can bring on some type of arthritis.
• Infection- bacteria, viruses, or fungi can infect joints and trigger in flammation.

SYMPTOMS OF ARTHRITIS

Arthritis mainly causes pain around the  joints. Other symptoms include

• One or more joints that are swollen or stiff
• Joints that look red or feel warm to the touch
• Tenderness
• Trouble in moving
• Difficulty in doing everyday task

OSTEOARTHRITIS (OA)

OA is by far the most common form of arthtritis. It is strongly associated with ageing, and is a  major cause of pain and disability in older people. Upto 45% of all people develop knee OA and 25% hip OA. It is characterized by focal loss of articular cartilage with new bone proliferation and remodeling of joint contour.

Symptoms of Osteoarthritis :-

• Pain and functional restriction
• Insidious onset over months or years
• Pain worsened by movement and relieved by rest
• Only brief, less than 15 minutes of morning stiffness

On examination of joints, we can find:-

• Restricted range of movement
• Palpable coarse crepitus
• Bony swelling and deformity around joint margins
• Joint- line or periarticular tenderness
• Muscle wasting
• Synovitis mild or absent

RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS (RA)

RA is an autoimmune condition  characterized by chronic inflammation, granuloma formation and joint destruction. The earliest change is swelling and congestion of the synovial membrane and the underlying connective tissues, which become infiltrated with lymphocytes, plasma cells and macrophages.

The most common presentation is with a gradual onset of symmetrical arthralgia and synovitis of small joints of the hands, feet and wrists. Large joint involvement, systemic symptoms and extra articular features may also occur.

THE BIOLOGICAL CONFLICT OR THOUGHT PROCESS ASSOCIATED WITH ARTHRITIS:-

It is said that the best gift one can give to herself/himself is realizing the self worth. If one can believe in the self, he or she can succeed even the most cumbersome situation. But when this value is diminished or deteriorated, one started doubting on self and this was the point of where the origin of joint complaints takes birth. The biological conflict linked to the bones and joints is a severe self-devaluation conflict or loss of self-worth. These devaluation can be generalized or localized.

A generalized self devaluation conflict concerns the person as a whole. When a person   got humiliated by accusations, scoldings, derogatory remarks or when he suffer from any kind of physical, sexual or verbal abuse,then he starts degrading his own self worth. When a person experiences failure at any point of time in his life either at school, at the workplace, in sports or in a relationship, then a feeling of uselessness develops in him. He started doubting his self ability, and blame himself that he was responsible for the  things that gone wrong. When one is not able to give his best performance and that leads to the failure of the team then he started blaming himself for the same and does  not able to face the world due to shame and guilts. All this situation gives rise to a feeling of self devaluation and these things got piled up in the mind of a body which slowly and steadily started affecting the joints. As the joints are weight bearing of the body, but when the master of a body that is brain is affected by negative thoughts of self devaluation, it got reflected in physical level too.

A localized self devaluation conflict refers to a specific part of the body. For example, difficulties in climbing stairs, not being able to keep up or a poor performance in sports may be due to a history of loss in game or may be due to humiliating remarks by an instructor, not able to perform up to the standards or expectations of   coach, parent or spouse.

 HOMEOPATHIC REMEDIES FOR ARTHRITIS:-

Homeopathy  treatment for Arthritis is the best way to get cure with no possibility of side effects. Homeopathy offers a wide number of medicines for the treatment of Arthritis. Some of the well known medicines with their indications are discussed  below:-

1. Rhus tox-  It acts on fibrous tissue especially on joints, tendons, sheaths and aponeurosis. Hot, painful swelling of joints. Pain tearing in tendons, ligaments, and fasciae. Rheumatic pains that spread over the nape of neck, loins and extremities which are better by motion. Limbs are stiff and paralyzed. The cold fresh air is not tolerated, it makes the skin painful.Pain along the ulnar nerve. Sciatica worse from cold, damp weather and at night. Numbness and formication after overwork and exposure. Tenderness around knee joint. All the arthritic symptoms are worse during rest, in wet rainy weather and after rain and better from warmth, dry weather, motion, walking and by warm applications.
2. Bryonia alba– It acts on serous membrane. It produces stitching, tearing kind of pain which are  worse by motion and better by rest. Knees stiff and painful (arthritis), Joints red, swollen, hot , with stitches and tearing which are worse on least motion. Every spot is painful on pressure.
3. Causticum– Acts mainly in chronic rheumatic, arthritic and paralytic affections. It produces tearing, drawing pains in the muscular and fibrous tissues with deformity of joints. It causes paralysis of single parts. Dull, tearing pain in the hands and arms. Tearing pain in joints. Unsteadiness of the muscles of forearm and hand. Contracted tendons. Rheumatic tearing pain in the limbs which are better by warmth especially heat of bed. Burning in joints. Restless legs at night. Cracking and tension in knees(arthritis deformans).
4. Ledum pal-It produces ascending type of rheumatism. Gouty pains shoot through the foot, limb and joints but especially in small joints. Cracking in joints worse from warmth of bed. Gouty nodosities. Ball of great toe swollen. Rheumatism begins in the lower limbs and ascends. Soles painful, can hardly step on them. Pains are worse at night and from heat of bed and better from cold and putting feet in cold water.
5. Calcarea carbonica– Rheumatoid pains, after exposure to water. Sharp sticking pains as if parts were wrenched or sprained. Cold knees, cramps in calves. Weakness of extremities. Swelling of joints, especially knee. Arthritic nodosities. Tearing in muscles.
6. Symphytum– This is a plant from the borage family, and has a colloquial name ‘knit-bone’, having been used for centuries to help fracture healing. Jan Scholten taught  that the whole borage family can be used in homeopathy, when there is a sense of invasion of one’s space in the family, where one feels one’s role to be diminished and one needs to work hard to be noticed – ‘forget-me-not’. Symphytum is for fracture of bones that means strong bonding between 2 people and the bond breaks with one blow. Sudden break up. Symphytum is not for divorce because divorce is a slow process. Here it has to be a big sudden blow . FRACTURE OF RELATIONSHIP was the term used. FRACTURE means blood supply , nutrition and stability warmth.

Ailments from – Separation, Separation of Relationship single Symphytum. Fracture is all of a sudden, unexpected

The basic feeling of symphytum is that she doesn’t want to get detached with his/her family in case joint family, and due to some reason, due to a blow or injury(quarreling or disputes) there is breach or crack in this togetherness . This is the fracture in the relationship which is reflected in the symptoms of symphytum. The main theme of symphytum is a detached feeling, a break down of togetherness or unity and that too with a blow i.e. a sudden blow in the form of fights ,quarrels or disputes which breaks the integrity and togetherness of the family and relation

REFERENCES

1. Harrison’s Principles Of Internal Medicine, 19^th Edition
2. http://www.webmd.com
3. German New Medicines: Arthritis
4. Boericke’s  New Manual of  Homeopathic Materia Medica with Repertory

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