"Safe, natural relief from joint pain and inflammation caused by exercise, old injuries, gout and arthritis"
Treatment for Arthritis at Home
Here are a few easy treatments for arthritis that you can do at home to help manage your arthritis.
Heat therapy
Applying heat to the affected joints may help to reduce pain and stiffness. Superficial heat applied by use of hot packs, infrared radiation or hydrotherapy may lessen pain and swelling and improve flexibility. Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS), usually done by a physiotherapist, is also useful for lessening pain and stiffness in arthritis.
Note: Cold therapy is only used in the 24 to 48 hours following an acute injury. Cold therapy may be applied to the skin through the use of ice packs, cold baths or vapour coolant sprays.
Exercises
Disuse of the joint because of pain may lead to wasting of the muscles around the joint. Strengthening and maintaining these muscles is very important in the management of arthritis.
People with arthritis should speak to their doctor before starting out on an exercise programme. In many cases the doctor will recommend some basic exercises such as the range of motion exercises. People with moderate to severe arthritis and those starting out on an exercise programme should do isometric exercises as these exercises generate less mechanical stress on a joint. Isometric exercises tighten muscles but don’t work joints.
Range of motion exercises
Usually, range of motion exercises can be done every day as follows:
- Exercise daily when stiffness and pain are the least.
- Take a warm shower or apply heat when pain is mild and long-standing.
- Perform gentle range-of-motion exercises in the evening to help reduce morning stiffness and in the morning to warm up.
- Modify exercises to avoid increasing joint pain. Ask a physiotherapist for guidance, if needed.
- Reduce the number of repetitions when the joint is actively inflamed.
(Information from Arthritis Foundation)
Read MoreHelpful Information about Arthritis?
Arthritis is a disease that causes pain and loss of movement of the joints. The word arthritis literally means joint inflammation (arth=joint, itis=inflammation) and refers to more than 200 different diseases. Arthritis affects the movements you rely on for everyday activities and is usually chronic affecting a sufferer on and off for a lifetime.
There are over 100 kinds of arthritis that can affect many different areas of the body. People of all ages, including children and young adults, can develop arthritis. Normally, inflammation is the way the body responds to an injury or to the presence of disease agents, such as viruses or bacteria. During this reaction, many cells of the body’s immune system rush to the injured area to wipe out the cause of the problem, clean up damaged cells and repair tissues that have been hurt.
In many forms of arthritis, the inflammation does not go away as it should. Instead, it becomes part of the problem, damaging healthy tissues of the body. This may result in more inflammation and more damage – a continuing cycle. This damage can change the bones and other tissues of the joints, sometimes affecting their shape and making movement hard and painful.
The most common forms of arthritis are Osteoarthritis, Rheumatoid Arthritis and Gout. Today the progress and severity of most forms of arthritis can be modified and the pain controlled to a greater or lesser degree. Generally, however, arthritis requires sufferers and their families to adapt some aspects of their lives to cope with their condition. The exact cause of arthritis has yet to be discovered, and there is no cure. Research is being undertaken in many countries, including South Africa, into causes and possible cures for this disease. New treatments are also being researched and developed, making arthritis less of a burden than in the past. One in seven South Africans has some form of arthritis.
For more information on Rheumatoid arthritis and gout, sign up to our article feed and receive notifications of more helpful articles such as this one. Alternatively, follow us on Twitter or Facebook.
Article Source: The Arthritis Foundation
Poor Sleep Linked to High Blood Pressure
If you sleep poorly, your chances of developing high blood pressure may increase, new research suggests.
In the study, men with the lowest level of the deeper stages of slumber, known as slow-wave sleep, had an 80% higher chance of developing high blood pressure than men with the highest level of this restorative sleep.
The link held regardless of other factors, such as obesity or how long the men slept.
“Reductions in the deepest stage of sleep is specifically associated with an increased risk of developing high blood pressure,” said Dr Susan Redline, the Peter C. Farrell Professor of Sleep Medicine at Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School.
The study, published in the journal Hypertension, reinforces other research that has linked sleep problems with a raised risk of obesity and cardiovascular problems, among other ills.
High BP and sleeping problems
Redline evaluated 784 men, average age 75, who were part of the Outcomes of Sleep Disorders in Older Men Study. In 2003-05, the men did not have high blood pressure. Ideally, blood pressure readings should be below 120/80. When they returned for a follow up in 2007-09, the investigators found that 243 men had developed high blood pressure.
The researchers divided the men into four groups, from those with the lowest amount of slow-wave sleep to the highest.
After the researchers took into account age, race, body mass index and other factors, the link between low slow-wave sleep and higher blood pressure held. Even when the researchers took into account sleep-disordered breathing and the length of overall sleep, the link held.
Slow-wave sleep decreases with age, Redline said. “Kids may have 40% slow-wave sleep [of total sleep],” she said, but healthy adults, overall, may have only about 25%.
In this study, the men averaged 11.2% of slow-wave sleep, she said. Those in the lowest of the four groups averaged only 4% or less. Other studies have shown that slow-wave sleep is lower in older men than in women.
While the study found an association between slow-wave sleep and high blood pressure, it did not prove a cause-and-effect.
The new research adds to information about the importance of sleep, said Dr. Alberto Ramos, co-director of the University of Miami Sleep Disorders Center.
Quality of sleep is important
Experts agree, he said, that not enough sleep, over time, can boost the risk of high blood pressure.
The new study, he noted, goes further by suggesting that “the quality of your sleep, specifically the amount of deep sleep, is as important in your overall health – or at least in developing high blood pressure – as the actual amount of time you sleep.”
Exactly why this is so is not known for sure, according to Redline and Ramos.
“When you go to sleep, blood pressure normally falls,” Redline said. “A lot of that fall occurs during slow-wave sleep.” When that typical drop in night-time pressure is affected by a lack of deep sleep, “it may set you up for daytime elevations,” she added.
Ramos agreed that might explain the link.
Adults can take measures to try to increase slow-wave sleep, Redline said. “Anything that wakes you up repeatedly will disrupt your slow-wave sleep,” she noted.
Getting treated for underlying disorders that can wake you up – such as sleep apnoea – could help, she said.
The take-home message, Ramos said, is to pay attention to sleep quality, not just the length of your sleeping hours. Even though the link between low deep sleep and high blood pressure held after taking weight into account, Ramos noticed those in the lowest deep-sleep groups also tended to be heavier than the others. Avoiding obesity would be a good idea, he said.
More information
To learn more about sleep, visit the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.
SOURCES: Susan Redline, M.D., Peter C. Farrell Professor of Sleep Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, Boston; Alberto Ramos, M.D., assistant professor, neurology, and co-director, Sleep Disorders Center, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine; Aug. 29, 2011, Hypertension, online
(Copyright © 2010 HealthDay. All rights reserved.)
Read More
About Us
The directors of Alternative Herbs have over 60 years combined experi-ence in health sup-plements and understand the need for safe, natural alternatives to modern medicines. Our mission is to source quality herbal sup-plements endorsed with modern clinical research. 