Integrative Medicine: A Holistic Approach to Supporting Arthritis

Over ten million people in the UK are living with the pain and stiffness of arthritis – that’s at least one in six people.

This blog will explore how Integrative Medicine can support optimal joint health.

What is Arthritis?

The word arthritis refers to more than a hundred different conditions. They are all characterised by joint pain and stiffness, along with loss of mobility.

Common forms of arthritis include:

• This is the most prevalent type of arthritis. It usually develops due to wear and tear. Over time, the protective cartilage cushioning your joints becomes degraded. This causes pain, stiffness, and swelling, particularly after periods of activity. It frequently affects the hips and knees.
• Rheumatoid arthritis occurs when your immune system mistakenly attacks your joints, mistaking them for invaders. It’s therefore a type of auto-immune disease. It often involves the fingers and toes but can affect multiple joints simultaneously. It may come and go but it’s usually worse in the mornings or after you’ve been inactive. Over time it can lead to joints becoming deformed.
• Gout is a type of arthritis characterised by sudden, severe attacks of pain, redness and swelling. It’s due to uric acid crystallisation in the joints and frequently affects the big toe.
• Reactive arthritis follows an infection, while ankylosing spondylitis affects the spine. Polymyalgia rheumatica is also caused by dysregulation of the immune system. Finally, psoriatic arthritis typically occurs in people suffering from the skin condition psoriasis.

Although arthritis is often thought of in connection with older people, it can affect young people and even children, especially those forms of arthritis involving the immune system.

How is Arthritis Treated?

Traditional medicine prescribes painkillers and anti-inflammatories to mask pain. You might be given immune-suppressing drugs such as steroids to dampen down the immune system. However, the ongoing damage to the joint persists, and eventually, many people opt for surgery like hip and knee replacements.

When the immune system is involved in joint damage, Biologics or Disease-Modifying Antirheumatic Drugs (DMARDS) may be prescribed. However, these do come with side-effects.

Integrative Medicine doesn’t just consider your joints; it looks at you holistically as a unique person and seeks to discover the reasons behind your joint issues. This approach addresses the immune dysfunction which is driving your condition.

Natural Approaches to Supporting Arthritis

• Nutritional Support for Healthy Joints

Adopting an anti-inflammatory diet provides phytochemicals, which your body uses to maintain healthy joints. This means including plenty of colourful fresh plant foods, especially berries and leafy greens while avoiding sugar and processed foods. You may benefit by increasing your intake of omega 3, found in oily fish and some nuts and seeds, because this essential fatty acid helps to manage inflammation (1).

Meanwhile, certain herbs and nutrients have been found to be useful in managing the inflammation and pain of arthritis, as well as supporting repair. These include vitamin C (2), ginger (3), devil’s claw (4), and curcumin (5).

A nutritional assessment or blood test can help detect any nutrients you may be lacking.

• Prioritising Gut Health

In the case of auto-immune forms of arthritis, it’s important to understand the reasons why your immune system has lost its ability to distinguish between friend and foe. This usually has its origins in the gut. Therefore, a thorough evaluation of your gut health, including assessing your microbiome, the unique collection of bacteria residing in your gut, will be useful. Analysing the DNA in a sample of your stool can reveal the types of organisms living in your gut.

Your gut bacteria play a crucial role in managing inflammation, so if they’re out of balance, inflammation can persist even when it’s no longer needed. A diet high in natural plant fibres encourages your microbiome to thrive.

• Microimmunotherapy (MIT)

This therapy is a game changer for immune-related conditions, including arthritis. A natural therapy derived from plant proteins, it works to nudge your immune system back towards its healthy blueprint. If the immune system is overactive, MIT can calm it down. On the other hand, if it is underactive, the therapy can stimulate it to do its job more effectively.

Reactivated chronic viruses that may be causing problems within the immune system can be addressed using the MIT virus-specific remedies. The clinic has seen some incredible results with the most resistant types of arthritis using a combination of nutrition and microimmunotherapy.

• The Mind/Body Medicine Approach

The mind-body connection plays a key role in chronic pain, as emotional stress and negative thoughts can amplify physical symptoms. Healing often involves therapies like mindfulness, gratitude, journaling, talking therapy, and relaxation techniques. These help address both the mental and physical aspects of pain. A form of talking therapy known as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is specifically mentioned in the NICE guidelines for managing chronic pain.

• Physiokey – Stimulating Healing

The Physiokey device emits electro-magnetic impulses, which are almost identical to human nerve signals. These signals trigger the release of powerful pain-relieving substances into the bloodstream. Additionally, it regulates the parasympathetic nervous system, responsible for the rest and repair process, as well as supporting the immune and endocrine systems. This results in accelerated healing. Physiokey can be used in conjunction with other therapies and conventional medicine.

Debra Graham frequently sees clients who are suffering from arthritis and many other types of chronic pain.

The difference between Physiokey and pain medication which block pain signals and need to be taken on an ongoing basis, is that Physiokey takes the body through the healing cycle to completion. This means that once your treatment is finished, it is unlikely that you will need further treatment for the same problem. Most chronic problems require as few as five to eight sessions..

An Integrated Approach for Optimum Joint Health

By combining the most appropriate natural therapies for you personally, you will benefit from a comprehensive approach to naturally support your joints. Together we will create a tailored plan to support your journey back to a more active, fulfilling life.

Click here to find out more.

References

1. Omega-3 supplements show promise in battling osteoarthritis (news-medical.net)
2. Vitamin C Plasma Levels Associated with Inflammatory Biomarkers, CRP and RDW: Results from the NHANES 2003–2006 Surveys (mdpi.com)
3. Effects of a ginger extract on knee pain in patients with osteoarthritis - PubMed (nih.gov)
4. The Efficacy of Harpagophytum procumbens (Teltonal) in Patients with Knee Osteoarthritis: A Randomized Active-Controlled Clinical Trial - PMC (nih.gov)
5. Safety and efficacy of curcumin versus diclofenac in knee osteoarthritis: a randomized open-label parallel-arm study | Trials | Full Text (biomedcentral.com)