Arthritits

Cold season is coming and many of the pain of athritis will return. Arthritis is the inflamation of joints. There are many forms of arthritis. It can be osteoarthritis, gouty arthritis, infectious arthritis or rheumatoid arthrtis. Not all joint pain however is from arthritis. There are pain or swelling from the cartilage, tendons, from the muscle near the joint or from the bone itself. Differentiating these will need a physician. The common medicine for arthritis is for the relief of pain and swelling. These medicine have side effects like gut bleeding, allergy, or some renal or heart effects. Medicine intake especially long term intake has to be careful.
Swollen or painful joints need rest but they have to be bent occasionaly in order to prevent frozen joint. External heat can help as well as massage arround the swollen joint. Massage has to be gentle. It will help improve circulation thus removing offending chemicals as well as bringing fresh blood into the area. Internal heat can be also generated by wraping the swollen joint with several layers of towel. It has to be loose to enable good blood circulation into the site. This has helped me and my patients relieve the pain. Another modality of treatment is acupuncture. I have been doing it and it works most especially in removing pain.

Keeping Healthy

Everybody want healthy body and mind. It will all start with our mind. It has full control of our body. Stress will greatly affect our body. It comes form the mind. We should balance our physical and mental activities. If we are engrossed with a mental activity stand up and stretch or walk every half our. This will give a little relief with our mental activity but be sure you should have something to remind you where you stop temporarily. This is also true with our physical activities. There should short rests in between. To much physical activity is a stress in our physical body. Exercise for fitness is not to strain your body too much. Half an hour every other day is enough. Endurance training is for athletes and not for ordinary people like you and me.