Arthritis is probably the most common serious condition affecting dogs (about one in four or five) and one of the most difficult to treat. Unfortunately, there is currently no known cure for arthritis – in dogs or humans! Numerous tests and clinical trials have been carried out but with no cure at present. So, beware anyone who claims to have a “Cure”.

However, there are various remedies available which can give some relief, to a greater or lesser extent .. as can be seen by the large number of products on offer. There is a problem in that many of the remedies available carry some sort of disadvantage, particularly regarding some of the anti-inflammatory drugs currently in use.

These are some of the Dangers

Look at any forum or message board on this subject and Rimadyl and Carprofen are mentioned frequently, in a negative context. Serious side effects are worryingly frequent and in some cases can be fatal.

The website of The US Food and Drug Administration states…

“Today, a new generation of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) is bringing relief to millions of dogs with joint problems or with pain after surgery.

“NSAIDs are extremely effective for controlling pain and inflammation in dogs,” says Stephen F. Sundlof, D.V.M., Ph.D., director of the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM). “These are very valuable drugs that help many pets live to a ripe old age.”

But like any drugs, NSAIDs carry a risk of side effects, or adverse reactions. Most adverse reactions are mild, but some may be serious, especially if the drugs are not used according to labeled directions. Some reactions result in permanent damage or even death.

“It’s important for pet owners to be aware of the risks and benefits of all drugs, including NSAIDs, so that they can make informed decisions about their pets’ health care,” says Sundlof. “Owners who give their dog NSAIDs need to know the side effects to watch for that indicate their pet needs medical attention.”

“The most common side effects from NSAIDs (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) include vomiting, loss of appetite, depression, lethargy, and diarrhoea. Serious side effects include gastrointestinal bleeding, ulcers, perforations, kidney damage, and liver problems.”

“The side effects of NSAIDs are very well known and very well documented,” says Michele Sharkey, D.V.M., in the CVM’s Office of New Animal Drug Evaluation. But this information is not always getting to the pet owner, she says. “If the pet owner can recognize a possible reaction, stop the medication, and get veterinary help, it could mean the difference between a good outcome and a disaster.”

There is some evidence that not all vets are aware of the potential problems with these drugs and are not able to recognize the symptoms of adverse reactions and side effects.

Treatments such as oils and creams, applied externally, which are sometimes effective with humans are much more difficult to apply to dogs, especially if the coat is thick. Various other alternatives to anti-inflammatory drugs are on the market, including drinks and “natural” ingredients.

Glucosamine is a very popular ingredient, sometimes included with chondroitin. I know many aged golfers who swear by it!

A company called Maxavita claims that its product, called Pernamax, which comes in the form of caplets or gel, is 200 times stronger than glucosamine. It includes the powdered extract of the New Zealand Green Lipped mussel.

None of these remedies are cheap and all involve a continuing cost, which over a year can be very substantial, especially if there is a need for the vet’s involvement.

Magnotherapy can be a simple and effective alternative. It has had continuing success with humans and animals and in the UK alone, over 2 million people have had relief, ranging from the mild to the “miraculous”.

In some quarters, this treatment is derided as being “all in the mind”, possibly because people cannot believe that something as simple and easy as a special magnetic collar or sleeping pad can bring such relief to animals. However, there is considerable scientific proof that the beneficial effects of this Magnetic Therapy are not just due to a placebo effect.

For more information, Click on http://www.allabout-dogs.co.uk/magnotherapy-for-animals now.

The problem with prescription medicines are the side effects. Studies have shown ginger can have the same anti-inflammatory qualities as drugs but without the side effects.

Ginger has been used since ancient times to cure a variety of problems such as arthritis, diarrhoea and heart conditions. Along with its great medicinal properties ginger is also a great kitchen spice and could easily enhance any dish!

But how could ginger help you in the fight against arthritis?

A study by Doctor Ray Altman shows that highly concentrated ginger supplements can help reduce osteoarthritis. He tested it on 250 people over a six week period. Two-thirds of the people taking the supplement reported relief from pain.

Ginger has milder effects than most drugs but because it is a safer and cheaper alternative to drugs many people prefer it.

Tests on ginger are inconclusive at the moment and more detailed tests still need to be made over longer periods to establish the benefits of ginger. Some people report relief from pain when taking ginger supplements but in other people the results are less pronounced.

However, because ginger is safe to take (in small quantities – everything in large quantities is bad for you), cheap and readily available isn’t ginger worth a try?

Ginger can be bought as concentrated supplements but you can also add fresh ginger to your everyday meals. Ginger can also be taken as a tea. Just add one teaspoon freshly grated ginger to hot water. It’s easy as that!

Note: Care need to be taken when taking ginger because some people are allergic to it. Please make sure you are not allergic to ginger before taking it.

A healthy diet and quality of life always goes hand in hand. If you are one among the millions who have joint pain or arthritis you must have already tried numerous ways of a curing arthritis.

It’s a complex link between arthritis and diet. More and more evidence is coming to light about this link. To understand the link it is important to understand what type of arthritis you suffer from. For example if you have gout which is caused by high uric acid levels you might want to consider a diet with far less alcohol and increase your intake of purine rich food will lower the blood uric acid levels.

Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA) is the most common type of childhood arthritis. It causes joint inflammation for at least six weeks in children 16 years old or younger. Doctors believe that JRA is an autoimmune disorder meaning the body’s immune system attacks its own cells and tissues. It is not known why this happens, but both heredity and environment seem to play a role. In most cases, symptoms of JRA may fade after several months or years.

A virus or bacterium may cause the development of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis in children with certain genetic profiles. These genetic profiles are detected in some children with JRA and are considered genetic markers. However, not all children with the markers develop JRA, and children without the markers can develop the condition.

Children with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis should live life as normally as possible by attending school and participating in extra-curricular and family activities. To foster a healthy transition to adulthood, adolescents with JRA should be allowed to enjoy independent activities, such as taking a part-time job and learning to drive. Provide your child with opportunities to interact with other children who also have arthritis in or near your community. Ask your rheumatologist about summer camps and other available group activities.

Treatment of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis focuses on physical activity to maintain full joint movement and strength, preventing damage and controlling pain. Continued physical activity will help prevent loss of function. Therapists may construct splints to prevent joint contractures or deformity, and work with school-based therapists to address issues at school.

Parents should be familiar with Federal Act 504, which may provide children with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis special accommodations at school. Families with children with JRA may be eligible for assistance through state agencies or services such as vocational rehabilitation. They may also benefit from information and activities available through the American Juvenile Arthritis Organization.

Few sicknesses and conditions cause more discomfort in day-to-day living than arthritis. Medical experts have expended tremendous amount of energy, time and money in finding ways to deal with this crippling condition that afflicts millions of people. While seeking competent medical attention is always the preferred way of dealing with the disease, there are simply home remedies that can be very effective in controlling the pain that strikes whenever one makes a simple movement.

Stretching exercises

If you are afflicted with the pain of arthritis, one effective maneuver you can institute right from home is simply stretches. These serve to warm the tendons and even the muscles themselves. A 15 minute stretch of the muscles surrounding the area can greatly alleviate the pain.

Be conservative with your movements

Arthritis pain can strike at any time but in most cases it strikes when there is movement to the joints. It is recommended that whenever you hear that you immediately stop any movements especially to the area in question.

Avoid using the joint in question

When arthritis pain makes life miserable and prevents you from enjoying the quality of your life, the most logical next move is to ensure that you stop using the joint that is affected. This gives the body time to release chemicals which alleviate the pain.

Massaging techniques

People suffering from arthritis have reported that simple massage movement along the joint and general muscle area where the pain is concentrated can go a long way in cooling the pain. This is because a massage boosts blood circulation to the area which in term brings with it pain-alleviating chemical compounds.

It is generally recommended that if you perform the above home remedies and the pain persists, then you will do well to consult a doctor’s advice. Arthritis can cause severe pain and even disfiguration of the joint and muscle area in question if proper treatment is not accorded.

There are millions of arthritis sufferers in the world today. Modern medical research has also made tremendous breakthroughs when it comes to controlling and managing the disease but there is also a lot that one can do on their own to make life manageable for themselves and the above are a few of the most effective

We know too well the old saying that says “Let your food be your medicine, and your medicine be your food.” These are the words of Hippocrates, also known as the father of Western medicine. Nonetheless, very few physicians today follow this sage advice, and very little are aware of it. Nutritional counseling should be part of every discussion of healing chronic diseases like painful arthritis. It’s true that you are what you eat.

Let me share with you more reasons as to why good nutrition plays a vital role in managing arthritis:

1. Research has shown that the everyday decisions you make regarding the kind and amount of food you consume have a significant impact on your health.

2. Food provides more than energy for your body to function. It also contains vital nutrients like vitamins and minerals that are vital to the health of your bones, as well as substances that can help slow down natural processes like inflammation.

3. Inflammation plays a key role in the development of many diseases, including joint problems. If you are like many people with painful arthritis, you’re probably skeptical about the impact of nutrition on the health of your joints. The fact is, many vitamins and minerals have been found to protect the body against inflammation.

Perhaps the most radical medical insight to come out of all the research on inflammation is the idea that certain foods can trigger the process. Researchers now believe that certain foods that are labeled as “pro-inflammatory” cause the body’s natural defense system to respond in much the same way it would to a wound or other injury. What happens when you are injured? When you cut yourself, white blood cells run to the site to destroy the invading bacteria and wall off the area. The liquid component of the blood causes the tissue to swell and the injured skin to look puffy and red. If the tissues are irrevocably damaged, the inflammation process produces a scar tissue that keeps foreign invaders out.

Sometimes the process continues long after it is needed. In autoimmune disorders, the body’s defense mechanisms wrongly destroy the body’s normal tissue, which often leads to other diseases. Simply put, inflammation is a process that has positive effects to the body, but it also has a downside.

The best dietary advice for painful arthritis is to eat a balanced diet that includes specific anti-inflammatory foods coupled with herbal supplements, regular exercise like yoga. Millions of people are now into Ayurvedic therapy, which is a natural and holistic approach to treatment and proven to drastically improve not only a person’s nutrition, it makes them feel better too!

Many years ago, out in rural central Texas where I lived at the time, my neighbor Gladys suffered severe rheumatoid arthritis. After failing to get relief from a series of medications, Gladys discovered her personal super-food: catfish.

The days Gladys ate catfish, specifically, the days she ate catfish caught in the creek that ran behind both of our houses, her arthritis seemed to go away. Soon she dressed in jeans, long sleeves, and her sunbonnet and carrying a fishing pole became an everyday sight around her farm, and ours. The formerly abundant catfish became much harder to catch, but Gladys enjoyed mobility and freedom from pain she had not known in years.

Although I’ve never heard of anyone else who cured arthritis with fried catfish, my neighbor’s general approach to dealing with her disease was scarcely unique. People who have rheumatoid arthritis and their doctors in their more honest moments will often tell you that some foods aggravate arthritis and other foods make it better.

The problem in treating rheumatoid arthritis with whole foods has been that one person’s “super-food” has no effect at all for someone else, or may even make arthritis worse. Since foods can’t be patented, there have been no millions in research money to research the patterns of foods that may help everyone who has rheumatoid arthritis. Moreover, the research establishment has been debunking food as a treatment for arthritis for over eighty years.

In the early 1900s, many doctors published reports on the use of food to treat rheumatic diseases. Food cures, of course, competed with sales of the new wonder drug, aspirin. In 1932, a Dr. Weatherbee analyzed 350 cases of arthritis and concluded that “Dietary treatments of all types had been tried in many cases [but]…little definite improvement dietary management alone was reported.” As steroid drugs began to appear on the market, criticism of food cures for arthritis intensified.

A comprehensive review of the medical research of its time-1940-concluded, “The incidence of food allergy among rheumatic patients is not significant.” Medical schools had actually taught doctors how to apply food cures in arthritis, but by 1954, the last medical school textbook to discuss the use of diet in the management of rheumatoid arthritis stated, “We cannot approve the emphasis laid on the factor of food allergy in cases of atrophic arthritis; it is neither common nor do we consider it important….Cases of atrophic arthritis with undoubted and repeated articular exacerbations from foods are few and far between.”

More than fifty years later, however, rheumatoid arthritis sufferers are still using the food cures that medical science once rejected.

Did you know that 25% of all dogs develop arthritis or joint problems in the course of their lifetime? Actually, I didn’t know that until I looked it up. After realizing every dog I ever owned developed these problems, I decided to read up on it. We always gave our dogs the occasional doggy aspirin and the recommended Rymidal from the vets office, but I didn’t know that there was other products out there that could have help them.

Unfortunately our oldest dog a Lab/mix is now experiencing difficulty in jumping up on the couch and even standing up from lying on the kitchen floor. He was extremely overweight at one point, but we finally managed to control that with no table scraps, but it still remains hard to keep his weight down. I used to be able to walk him almost everyday, but the walks have become less and less frequent now that his arthritis has gotten worse.

I recently started our older guy on glucosamine/chondroitin supplement. That combination helped me with my knee when I use to run the track every Sunday morning, so I decided it couldn’t hurt to try a doggy glucosamine product to help him.

He isn’t much of a pill popper so I was happy to have found a formula that was liquid. Supplements in liquid form are absorbed better, but I really just wanted something simple since my dog always has a way of eating the pill pockets while dropping the pills on the floor.

The first week I really didn’t notice any difference. I don’t want to make it sound like the poor dog is crawling around on the floor. You can just tell that his legs are achy and stiff just by watching his movements and there was no difference. I’m not really sure if I noticed anything the second week either, but by the third week there really was improvement.

We have given him the glucosamine/chondroitin formula for over 3 months now and I’m just sorry that we didn’t start it sooner. He still takes his Rymadil, but we have not seen the need for any aspirin since we started the liquid glucosamine/chondroitin mix. His gait really has improved and I’m actually considering taking him out for some leisure walks once the heat wave breaks in our area.

If you have an older dog that is going through the aches and pains of leg stiffness and joint pain you just might want to look into giving your dog this supplement. It isn’t expensive and has really made a world of difference in our dogs quality of life.

One thing that I did learn and wished I had known sooner is that by giving younger dogs a glucosamine supplement you are actually helping prevent the onset of arthritis and joint pain before it even has a chance to start. Like most people who enjoy their pets they are like our children and we do want what is best for them. I just wish I had learned of these products sooner.

Many people would associate arthritis with the onset of old age. Although old people may suffer from arthritis, it isn’t only the elderly who are affected by arthritis. Many younger people, including some in their teens suffer from some kind of arthritis. Dictionaries define arthritis as being an inflammation of the joints due to infectious, metabolic, or constitutional causes. Obviously that can include a large number of different causes of this illness.

Arthritis is an inflammation of the joints and the cartilage of the joints; furthermore it is an ongoing, degenerative disease. This is probably one of the most difficult aspects of the disease to cope with: although today may be painful, the future will possibly only be worse.

There are more than one hundred different types of arthritis. Two of the most common types are osteoarthritis, caused by the wear and tear exerted on the joints through a lifetime and rheumatoid arthritis, caused by an autoimmune response in the body. Osteoarthritis is the arthritis associated with getting older. This is the version of arthritis that most people think of when talking about arthritis. In the case of rheumatoid arthritis, the body is tricked into acting as though there were an infection in the joint. As a result there is swelling, inflammation and pain in that joint as the body endeavors to fight the phantom infection.

The most common medical treatment offered to arthritis patients are NSAID’s or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. These include aspirin, ibuprofen and naproxen. The drawback with these drugs is that they can cause irritation in the intestinal tract and some researchers believe may even make the deterioration of the joints worse.

Alternative treatments for arthritis include the use of Glucosamine Sulfate, turmeric and fish oils. Studies have suggested that glucosamine helps to build cartilage and therefore rebuild the damage done to joints both from wear and tear as well as arthritis. Turmeric, a yellow spice used in curries and prepared mustard, has anti-inflammatory qualities. One of the compounds in turmeric that is so helpful, called curcumin, can be bought in capsule form. Fish oils, particularly EPA (Eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (Docosahexaenoic acid), help to fight inflammation. In addition, as omega-3 fatty acids, they contribute to general health in the body.

Coping with arthritis is an ongoing process, given that arthritis tends to get worse over time. Obviously two priorities exist in this coping effort; to help the patient deal with the pain and to aid them in living as independently as possible. The issue of coping with pain will be part of the therapeutic process, using either pain medication and/or alternative methods. Some arthritis gets so bad that surgery is used to affect repair to the joints involved. As far as maintaining independence is concerned, successful therapy will help. If attempts to control the arthritis don’t work, then a plan to adjust to limited mobility is called for.

Any degenerative illness like arthritis is a real challenge to the health of the person suffering from it. Not only is the arthritis a painful and crippling disease in the first place; but exercise, something that is necessary for maintaining a healthy weight as well cardiovascular health, can become all but impossible. Although seeking a cure to an arthritic condition may be laudable, a far more effective strategy may be to aim at reducing the pain, healing what can be healed and planning to maintain independent living as long as possible. A cure would be wonderful, but learning to cope with arthritis in the meantime is a good idea.

Hip joint pain is a common problem. It needs to be treated immediately and with great care, as hip joint pain reduces a patient’s level of activity. There could be many causes for hip joint pain. Arthritis is one of the most common causes of hip joint pain. It can be treated with medicines, but in some cases one may require hip replacement surgery if conventional treatment fails.

Trochanteric bursitis, caused by inflammation of the bursa over the outside of the hip joint, is another common cause of hip joint pain. Tendonitis, in any of the tendons surrounding the hip joint, could also cause hip joint pain.

Apart from this, some of the other causes of hip joint pain include osteonecrosis, snapping hip syndrome, strained muscles or hip fractures, and other hip injuries. Sometimes, certain hip-related problems faced during childhood could also cause hip joint pain later in life. Take for example developmental dysplasia, in which hips are dislocated in infants. This could hamper the proper development of hip joints. During childhood it may not cause pain, but a few years later it could lead to arthritis, causing problems even in walking.

Another disease, called perthes, can permanently damage the hip joint during childhood. The treatment for hip joint pain depends on the cause of the problem. It is important to understand the cause before starting any treatment.

The treatment of hip joint pain often involves use of heating pads and ice packs. They are quite effective in reducing inflammation and providing relief from pain. In most of the hip joint pain cases, the patient is asked to rest the joint. This allows inflammation to subside. It also provides relief from acute pain. The patient may be asked to use crutches or a cane in some cases, to reduce the stress on the hip joints while walking.