What Helps Rheumatoid Arthritis Pain

Tnf Alpha Inhibitors And Dmards Plus Natural Supplements

The use of TNF-blocking medications for rheumatoid arthritis is common. Inflixamab is a common drug used for this purpose, which you may have heard of, Remicade.® Adalimumab is another, it goes by Humira.® These drugs are game changers for some people, so Im not going to knock them. They are right for some folks, and not right for others based upon your individual sensitivity to side effects, prior medical history, genetics and length of time with disease.

Be Active And Exercise

There is no doubt that exercise remains one of the surest ways to quiet arthritis. Physicalactivities are suitable for increasing flexibility and strength, helping to boost energy and relieveyou of any pains you may be having. According to the Center for Arthritis & Osteoporosis,adults who are only battling arthritis need to partake in mild-intensity aerobic exercises for aminimum of 150mins and two strength-focused pieces of training weekly.

Where To Buy Lab Grade Products

There are a lot of extremely inferior products on the market. Still worse, many of the cheap herbal supplements found in Amazon.com and on the shelves of local drugstores are not inspected by third party regulators with FDA oversight. The majority are selling weakly concentrated ingredients, and there is growing concern that many products are testing in the danger zone for toxic chemicals and fillers.

Below are two companies that weve tested and found to produce lab grade turmeric and boswellia serrata. Their cost is higher due to the quality of ingredients and their strict self-imposed testing standards. Still, the cost is small compared to prices of pharmaceuticals.

You May Like: What Not To Eat With Gouty Arthritis

Finding The Right Massage Therapist

Try these strategies to get the best massage treatment for you:

Ask for referrals. Talk to your medical team, physical therapist, or others with rheumatoid arthritis to get a recommendation for a massage therapist.

Check with professional associations. The American Massage Therapy Association and the Associated Bodywork Massage Professionals can provide names in your area, as well as their qualifications and credentials. The National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage & Bodywork can tell if a massage therapist is certified.

Look for experience with RA. You want a massage therapist who understands the rheumatoid arthritis disease process, Millar noted.

Be up front about your goals. Discuss what you hope to achieve with the therapist so you can work together as a team.

RELATED: Can Mindfulness Meditation Ease Arthritis Pain?

Is Cbd Oil Safe

The second most common question people have when it comes to CBD oil for pain management or its anti-inflammatory properties is whether or not it is safe to use for arthritis symptoms.

Patients are always concerned with additional potential and side effects . According to some top health experts and agencies, the answer is yes. It is safe to use.

For instance, Medscape shares that while cannabinoid medicine is still in its early stages, unlike marijuana and THC, the risks associated with CBD are extremely low, with not a single case report of CBD overdose in the literature. The National Institute on Drug Abuse agrees and states that CBD appears to be a safe drug with no addictive effects.

In the future, it is likely that the Food and Drug Administration will also begin to regulate CBD products, providing an additional safety net, as this agency indicates that increasing public interest in this substance increases the importance of establishing regulatory procedures.

Also Check: Does Arthritis Have Flare Ups

Turmeric And Black Pepper

Turmeric with black pepperFrom reading further into Rheumatoid Arthritis supplements / diets etc I came across some evidence that turmeric especially when added with black pepper can be helpful for Rheumatoid Arthritis sufferers. The combination of the ingredients seems to have some anti-inflammatory properties.

How factual this is, in real terms I dont know. From my own perspective, I keep buying them. I am happy to keep buying them as I believe they are helping. Whether this is a placebo effect, who knows?

Again, I do not go overboard and take turmeric pills throughout the day. I generally take them with my evening meal and that seems to work for me.

Some simple advice read the label of the product your taking. I know that seems obvious, however I know from experience you can easily miss things. I picked up a new prescription from a pharmacy and took the pills given to me for several days before realising the pill bottle did not have my name on it but someone elses. I found out I was taking leukaemia medication for days, no wonder it made me feel crap. Thankfully there was no ongoing issue as a result.

I know this is a bit of an extreme example and not necessarily about supplements, but these things can happen.

Top 5 Ways To Help Alleviate Your Rheumatoid Arthritis Pain

Living with rheumatoid arthritis doesnt have to limit your mobility or keep you from work and social activities. With effective treatment and daily at-home care, you can maintain your quality of life, and its possible your disease could even go into remission.

Over 1.5 million Americans live with rheumatoid arthritis , an autoimmune disease that causes inflammation in the synovium that lines and protects your joints. While it can lead to painful swelling and stiffness, you can reduce your risk of flare-ups and protect your joints from permanent damage by taking a few key steps.

Here at Houston Pain Specialists in Houston, Texas, Hui Kang, MD leads our team of pain management experts who offer customized treatment for rheumatoid arthritis. As with many conditions, prevention is a critical part of pain management. Here is our list of the top five steps you can take to reduce your pain at home:

Read Also: How To Cure Arthritis Naturally At Home

What Types Of Lifestyle Changes Can Help With Rheumatoid Arthritis

Having a lifelong illness like rheumatoid arthritis may make you feel like you dont have much control over your quality of life. While there are aspects of RA that you cant control, there are things you can do to help you feel the best that you can.

Such lifestyle changes include:

Rest

When your joints are inflamed, the risk of injury to your joints and nearby soft tissue structures is high. This is why you need to rest your inflamed joints. But its still important for you to exercise. Maintaining a good range of motion in your joints and good fitness overall are important in coping with RA.

Exercise

Pain and stiffness can slow you down. Some people with rheumatoid arthritis become inactive. But inactivity can lead to a loss of joint motion and loss of muscle strength. These, in turn, decrease joint stability and increase pain and fatigue.

Regular exercise can help prevent and reverse these effects. You might want to start by seeing a physical or occupational therapist for advice about how to exercise safely. Beneficial workouts include:

• Range-of-motion exercises to preserve and restore joint motion.
• Exercises to increase strength.
• Exercises to increase endurance .

Best Foods For Rheumatoid Arthritis

Making healthy food choices can help reduce inflammation from rheumatoid arthritis.

Diet wont cure rheumatoid arthritis , but the right food choices can help by controlling the inflammation that wreaks havoc in the body, delivering nutrients your body needs and helping you maintain a healthy weight. Thats important because excess weight adds to pressure on achy joints and can make certain RA meds less effective. Whats more, body fat produces proteins called cytokines that promote inflammation.

Studies show that a Mediterranean diet, with lots of fruits and vegetables, whole grains and healthy fats is a good choice for people with RA. Heres a look at some foods you should be eating.

Fatty fish. Salmon, tuna, sardines, herring and other cold-water fish are rich in omega -3 fatty acids, which may help control inflammation. Your body needs a healthy balance of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. Researchers have found that a greater ratio of omega-6s to omega-3s is associated with an increase in chronic inflammatory diseases like RA. So its important to reduce omega-6s which may provoke inflammation and are found in meats, certain oils and in fried and processed foods that contain those oils and increase omega-3s.

For more information about healthy eating for arthritis, click here.

You can also view past webinars about good nutrition for arthritis, here.

Rheumatoid Arthritis Related Articles

Also Check: Is Cold Good For Arthritis

Nutrition And Dietary Supplements

For anyone with a chronic illness, eating a healthy diet high in antioxidant-rich foods, fruits and vegetables, is essential. Eating a poor diet may increase inflammation in the body.

Also, people with RA are at higher risk of developing heart disease and diabetes. A healthy diet and regular exercise can lower that risk.

Although diet cannot cure RA, studies show that people with RA report less pain, stiffness, and fatigue when they switched from a typical Western diet to a Mediterranean diet that is high in fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, seeds, fish, and olive oil, and low in red meat. Other studies link a vegan diet, with lots of uncooked berries, fruits, vegetables, nuts, roots, seeds, and sprouts with reduced RA symptoms. Vegan diets contain no animal products and get protein from vegetable sources.

Some people think food allergies play a part in the inflammation common in RA, and say their symptoms get worse after they eat certain foods. Although researchers are not sure if food allergies are to blame, you may want to try an elimination diet, which removes certain foods from your diet and then adds them back, one by one. You will need to keep track of your symptoms in a food diary. Usually it’s best to try an elimination diet under the supervision of your doctor or a registered dietitian.

These general nutritional tips can help you eat a healthy diet:

These supplements may help relieve inflammation and pain:

Medication For Rheumatoid Arthritis

Some of the medications you may take include:

• pain relievers , such as paracetamol, for temporary pain relief
• non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications , such as ibuprofen, to control inflammation and provide pain relief
• corticosteroids, such as prednisolone, to quickly control or reduce inflammation
• disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs , such as methotrexate, to control your overactive immune system
• biological and biosimilar medicines , such as infliximab these are biological disease-modifying drugs that work to control your immune system, but in a much more targeted way.

Depending on your particular symptoms, and how much pain and inflammation you have, you may take one medication or a combination of different medications.

You May Like: What Can You Give Cats For Arthritis Pain

Cbd Oil For Depression

Several studies have also linked CBD to a reduction of symptoms associated with depression. This is extremely important because as the Arthritis Foundation says that the depression rates of those diagnosed with certain types of arthritis can be between two- and ten-times greater than the rates of the general population.

What Is The Difference

Rheumatoid arthritis vs. osteoarthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis are both common causes of pain and stiffness in joints. But they have different causes. In osteoarthritis, inflammation and injury break down your cartilage over time. In rheumatoid arthritis, your immune system attacks the lining of your joints.

Rheumatoid arthritis vs. gout

Rheumatoid arthritis and gout are both painful types of arthritis. Gout symptoms include intense pain, redness, stiffness, swelling and warmth in your big toe or other joints. In gout, uric acid crystals cause inflammation. In rheumatoid arthritis, its your immune system that causes joint damage.

You May Like: What Causes Inflammation With Arthritis

Rheumatoid Arthritis And Painful Skin Conditions

Rheumatoid arthritis is a common chronic pain disorder that affects approximately 1% of the world population.¹² Symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis consist of a wide range of skin manifestations including rheumatoid nodules, vascular lesions, and neutrophilic dermatoses. In general, people with RA experience skin becoming atrophic as well as easily bruised. In addition, longitudinal ridging and clubbing of the nails are also characteristic signs of RA, however, they are nonspecific.

Rheumatoid nodules are firm areas of swelling most commonly located near joints, and the most common characteristic of RA appear in around 25% ofcases.¹³ They are most commonly found in areas of mechanical stress, such as the borders of the forearm, olecranon, sacrum, and fingers.

In rheumatoid arthritis, excessive proinflammatory cytokines induce cartilage degradation and thereby joint damage. The synovium, which produces the lubrication fluid for the joint, inflames causing swelling in the joint, which can produce severe pain.¹

Another painful RA cutaneous manifestation is rheumatoid vasculitis, which can be identified by palpable purpura, infarction of the digits, nodules, ulcerations, or necrosis. A more serious thrombotic condition known as livedo racemosa is associated with formation of clots within medium-sized arterioles in patients with RA, resulting in a broken net-like pattern on the skin.¹

Make Sleep A Priority

Getting 7 to 8 hours of sleep is even more important during a flare. Not scoring enough shut-eye can trigger inflammation and the release of stress hormones, and it can make dealing with pain harder. While your aching joints may make it tough to nod off, having good habits can help. For a better nightâs rest, stay away from alcohol, caffeine, and large meals before bedtime. Try to go to bed and wake up around the same time each day.

You May Like: Can Rheumatoid Arthritis Cause Hives

Individual Food Items In Diet And Their Relevance To Ra

In an average diet comprising of breakfast, lunch, and dinner, there are several food items which are rich source of some phytochemicals and their efficacy in eradication of diseases has been known and is included under traditional medicines on which 80% of the world population relies . Food items such as dietary fibers, cooking oil, polyphenols, bioactive compounds from several herbs and beverages like tea are among the cheapest sources of medication however, their bioavailability has always been a matter of concern.

Recommended Reading: How Early Should I Start Taking Prenatal Vitamins

What Other Risk Factors May Increase Your Likelihood Of Experiencing Ra

* Gender: Women are much more likely to suffer from this autoimmune disorder.* Weight: Overweight individuals are more prone to developing RA.* Smoking: If you smoke, you are more likely to develop RA, and if you develop it, your symptoms may be more pronounced than those who do not smoke.* Age: RA is more likely to hit you in middle age * Environment: Certain environmental exposures have been found to elevate your risk of RA, including exposure to asbestos and silica.

Don’t Miss: How To Relieve Pain From Psoriatic Arthritis

Who Is At Risk For Arthritis

Some risk factors for arthritis that cant be avoided or changed include:

• Age. The older you are, the more likely you are to have arthritis.

• Gender. Women are more likely to have arthritis than men.

• Heredity. Some types of arthritis are linked to certain genes.

Risk factors that may be avoided or changed include:

• Weight. Being overweight or obese can damage your knee joints. This can make them more likely to develop osteoarthritis.

• Injury. A joint that has been damaged by an injury is more likely to develop arthritis at some point.

• Infection. Reactive arthritis can affect joints after an infection.

• Your job. Work that involves repeated bending or squatting can lead to knee arthritis.

Balance Activity With Rest

Exercise is a critical part of RA treatment. Low-impact activities like walking, swimming, yoga, and pilates can significantly reduce your pain and stiffness. Additionally, spending time outdoors is a remarkable mood lifter and can help you feel better about life in general.

However, you have to balance your physical activity with sufficient rest. Taking breaks throughout the day and following a relaxing bedtime routine that helps you sleep through the night can help you stay rested. This reduces the risk of triggering an inflammation flare-up in your affected joints.

You May Like: What Medication Helps Rheumatoid Arthritis

Dietary Fibers And Whole Grains

Most of the staple food consumed all over the world are comprised of dietary fibers and whole grains. A definitive explanation for dietary fibers can be put as remnants of food not digested in small intestine, which then moves to large intestine and gets fermented by the microflora and induces several health promoting effects . Insoluble fibers such as cellulose and lignin are found in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains and soluble fibers include pectin, guar gum, and mucilage . Earlier studies have found an inverse relationship between intake of dietary fiber and inflammatory biomarkers such as plasma fibrinogen, hs-CRP, TNF-, IL-6 levels which are indicators of RA . However, contradictory reports were published as well by Hu and the group .

When germ, endosperm, and bran are present in same proportions as in intact grains, they are regarded as whole grains. Whole wheat, whole rice, oats, corn, rye, barley, millets, sorghum, canary seed, fonio, and wild rice are generally included in the category of common whole grains . Whole grains provide rich amounts of antioxidants, phytic acid, vitamin E and selenium, and these components are known to be involved in anti-inflammatory processes .

Are There Guidelines About The Use Of Cbd For Chronic Arthritis Pain

Until recently, little guidance has been available for people with arthritis pain who were interested in CBD treatment. Depending on availability and interest, patients and their doctors had to decide on their own whether CBD was a reasonable option in each specific case. To a large degree thats still true, but some guidelines have been published. Heres one set of guidelines for people pursuing treatment with CBD that I find quite reasonable :

Dos:

• If considering a CBD product, choose one that has been independently tested for purity, potency, and safety for example, look for one that has received a Good Manufacturing Practices certification.
• CBD should be one part of an overall pain management plan that includes nonmedication options and psychological support.
• Choose an oral treatment and start with a low dose taken in the evening.
• Establish initial goals of treatment within a realistic period of time for example, a reduction in knee pain that allows you to walk around the block within two weeks of starting treatment later, if improved, the goals can be adjusted.
• Tell your doctor about your planned and current CBD treatment monitor your pain and adjust medications with your medical providers, rather than with nonmedical practitioners .

Donts:

Don’t Miss: What Is The Best Thing To Do For Arthritis