Arthritis and Anxiety

I found on the Huffpost Healthy Living blog an interesting article that discusses links between Arthritis and Anxiety and I have re-published it below for your convenience.

Arthritis And Anxiety Closely Linked, Study Shows

One in three adults who have arthritis also have anxiety or depression, according to researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

And anxiety is nearly twice as common as depression among people who suffer from arthritis, which is the leading cause of disability in the United States.

“What we ultimately took away is that we’ve usually thought of arthritis as a condition that can have such profound disabling consequences,” said study author Dr. Louise Murphy of the CDC’s arthritis program. “But what came out here is how profound the emotional consequences are. This is a call to action.”

In the new study, published Monday in the journal Arthritis Care and Research, Murphy and her co-investigators looked at more than 1,700 adults, age 45 and older, who had been diagnosed with arthritis or other rheumatic conditions; these conditions included osteoarthritis, the most common joint disorder. The study participants were given questionnaires to determine their emotional well-being.

More than one-third said they had at least one of two mental health conditions: anxiety and depression. Anxiety was far more common than depression among the study participants, however. This, according to researchers, was unexpected.

“The proportion of people with anxiety was almost twice as high as [the amount with] depression,” Murphy said. “That was a surprise because both in the clinical world and among arthritis researchers, there’s so much more attention paid to depression.”

Prior research had established a link between chronic pain and depression, although groups like the National Institute of Mental Health caution that the exact, underlying links are not yet fully understood.

The relationship between anxiety, depression and chronic pain is “complex,” the authors of the new study agreed, writing that each acts both independently and synergistically as a risk factor for the others.

“When people start living with [arthritis] and the potential limitations it imposes, that can cause distress,” Murphy said. The CDC estimates that 21 million of the 50 million adults in the United States currently living with arthritis have some limitation in their activity, including physical or work-related ones, and, in many cases, both.

People with many arthritis may be very hesitant to exercise or simply get out and do things, which can contribute to a general sense of anxiety as well as feelings of depression, Murphy said.

“It makes perfect sense,” said Dr. Eric Gall, interim director of the University of Arizona’s Arthritis Center.

“These people have chronic pain, and that breeds depression,” Gall said. “They’re frightened about the disease, they’re frightened about being crippled and not being able to do things. They have problems with their marriages and jobs and so forth.” Many clinicians and researchers might have focused on the link between arthritis and depression rather than on anxiety, in part, because they often think of anxiety as simply accompanying depression, he said.

Regardless of whether they have depression, anxiety or both, many arthritis sufferers might not be getting help.

More than half of the respondents with anxiety, depression or both had not sought help in the past year, according to the new study. The authors cautioned that the numbers might be underestimated in the current research because they used a conservative definition of depression.

“Health care providers can make an important difference by screening all people with arthritis for anxiety and depression,” Murphy said. “We need to be addressing arthritis on a broader basis.”

Natural Treatment of Arthritis

I found a good article on the Mercola.com website which explains what is arthritis and what are the natural treatments of arthritis that you should consider  I have copied it below for your convenience.

Important Details You Need to Know About Arthritis

Posted By Dr. Mercola | January 31 2009 | 137,830 views

Dr. Mercola’s Comments:

Arthritis is a very common health problem that sends over 20 million people to their physician’s office each year. It’s important to realize that “arthritis” is divided into two primary types: osteoarthritis, also known as degenerative joint disease (DJD); the wear-and-tear form of arthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis.

These two types are completely different, even though they have some similarities.

They both affect the joints and can be connected with joint stiffness, pain, inflammation and swelling.

However, their underlying causes are distinctly different.

What’s the Difference Between Osteoarthritis and Rheumatoid Arthritis? 

Osteoarthritis usually occurs in older individuals, but can also be caused by repetitive stress or acute trauma.

Rheumatoid arthritis, on the other hand, can affect you at any age, including children. Fortunately, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA) is relatively rare.

Understanding the differences between the two types of arthritis will help you distinguish which one you have.

Osteoarthritis – Degenerative joint disease usually affects the distal joints, or the joints at the end of your fingers and toes, not the middle ones. Additionally, it’s not symmetrical, so typically you may have it on just one joint, or on one hand or foot and not the other.

Rheumatoid arthritis – RA, on the other hand, is an autoimmune disease that causes your body to break itself down. Therefore, it tends to be bilateral and symmetrical, meaning it’s the same on both sides of your body. If you only have a specific joint affected on one side of your body it is far less likely to be RA.It also affects your middle joints, and is associated with joint deformities, especially your hands and fingers. It can be very crippling, and people do die from rheumatoid arthritis, so it’s not something to be treated lightly.

Treatments that Work for Both Types of Arthritis

Some of the treatment methods available are similar for both, as both involve joint pain, swelling and inflammation. Hence the typical anti-inflammatory approaches such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs) and analgesics, like Tylenol, can be used for either.

However, while these can relieve pain – and there’s a lot to be said for pain relief – it’s very important to understand that the regular, chronic use of these types of medications are associated with significant, and very serious, side effects such as kidney and/or liver damage. In the U.S. overuse of analgesics such as these are very common sources of kidney failure.

NSAIDs also kill some 30,000 people every year due to bleeding ulcers, and the oral drugs have been linked to a host of problems, including heart failure — Vioxx and Celebrex being prime examples of these very real dangers. This is not to say that they are not useful agents in some cases, however you need to use them very cautiously.

This is also why it’s so vital that you seek out the underlying cause of your problem and treat it “at the root,” so you do not need to pursue these types of medications.

With respect to treatments, there are some commonalities even when using natural approaches.

Omega-3 fats – One of the primary treatment methods you’ll want to include for either of these conditions is a high quality source of animal-based omega-3 fats such as krill oil. Omega-3s are an essential component that your body needs to reduce inflammation.

Nutritional typing – Your unique biochemistry and genetics influence the ratio of fat, protein and carbohydrates your body needs to thrive, so eating for your nutritional type will ensure that you get the optimal macronutrient ratio out of your diet.

Safe symptomatic approaches for pain — There are some symptomatic approaches you can use for both conditions.

One of them would be glucosamine, which is especially beneficial for osteoarthritis. However, understand that although useful, this is also little more than a band-aid and will not treat the underlying cause. But it’s certainly safer than using NSAIDs and other dangerous medications.

Another treatment I’ve found to be particularly useful is the Indian herb boswellia. It is used very effectively to treat joint inflammation, but again, it’s not treating the cause, only the symptom.

Acupuncture is also a safe and typically effective treatment method for pain.

For even more all-natural alternatives for NSAIDs, please see this previous article.

Special Considerations for Treating Rheumatoid Arthritis 

The methods I mention above can all be used to reduce pain and inflammation, but rheumatoid arthritis with its crippling and deformities is far more severe, and is generally treated with very aggressive medications.

In fact, the drugs used for rheumatoid arthritis are some of the most dangerous drugs used in medicine. High doses of prednisone are common, as well as immunosuppressants and anti-cancer agents to treat the severe pain and swelling.

In my clinic, we use a modified  protocol that was initially developed by Dr. Thomas Brown, which is based on treating mycoplasma infection with antibiotics. I had a fair amount of success with his protocol when I was using it. However, over the years I found that including the use of dietary modification has dramatically improved the response rate. We also include NST (Neurostructural Integration Technique) in our protocol, which has been found to be very effective in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and scleroderma.

One new addition to the protocol is low dose Naltrexone which I would encourage anyone with RA to try. It is inexpensive and non toxic, and I have a number of physician reports documenting incredible efficacy in getting people off of all their dangerous arthritis meds.  Please understand though that this is for RA, not for osteoarthritis.

Additionally, nearly all autoimmune diseases have two primary considerations that need to be addressed.

Vitamin D deficiency – Almost universally, autoimmune diseases have an underlying vitamin D deficiency. The further you go from the equator, the higher the incidence of RA becomes in the population. The remedy, of course, is to make sure your vitamin D levels are optimized. It’s virtual malpractice and negligence if you have an autoimmune disease, such as rheumatoid arthritis, and your vitamin D levels are not getting checked regularly by your physician. For more information on vitamin D and how to optimize your levels, please see this link.

Emotional trauma — The second factor, which is also almost universally present in most all autoimmune diseases, is some kind of predisposing traumatic emotional insult that typically occurs before the age of five or six.

And unless that specific insult is addressed in some type of effective treatment modality, then the underlying emotional trigger will not be removed, allowing the destructive process to proceed. Therefore, it’s very important to have an effective tool to address these underlying emotional traumas. In my practice, the most common form of treatment used is a form of psychological acupressure called the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT).

When you combine these — especially in the hands of a skilled clinician — with some of the safer modalities to treat and alleviate the pains and symptoms you can make great progress even with this debilitating condition.

Related Links:

  Your Comprehensive Guide to Treating and Overcoming Rheumatoid Arthritis

  New Improvement to Rheumatoid Arthritis Protocol

  How to Beat Arthritis Naturally With Acupuncture, Turmeric

Conclusions

You will find plenty of useful information on Arthritis and Natural Treatment of Arthritis in the Conquer Arthritis Now book

I noticed an interesting article on the Obesity Arthritis connection recently published on the AOL Healthy Living website and I have copied below for your information

Addressing the Obesity Arthritis Connection

Judith J. Wurtman, PhD

Image via Wikipedia

For the past several weeks I have been going to the physical therapy clinic in a large teaching hospital in Boston. A partially-slipped disc made learning how to “engage my core” and overcome bad posture in front of the computer screen an imperative.

While waiting in the crowded waiting room, I noticed that the majority of patients were obese. My physical therapist confirmed this. She told me that many had knee or hip replacements, or were suffering from orthopedic ailments either brought on or exacerbated by their weight. “It’s a terrible problem,” she said, “They can’t exercise without pain before the operation, but if they don’t lose weight, their new knee or hip will wear out and they may develop other orthopedic problems.”

My physical therapist’s thoughts were echoed in a recent article in the June 15 edition of JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) on the prevalence of obesity among adults with arthritis.

This article found an amazing and alarming incidence of obesity among adults with arthritis. The prevalence of obesity was 54 percent higher among individuals with arthritis compared to adults without arthritis. People with arthritis suffer from joint pain and limited mobility. Obesity, as this report points out, can increase the pain because extra weight places mechanical stress on the joints and may even indirectly increase the degeneration of cartilage.

When both obesity and the pain of arthritis limit physical activity, then weight loss becomes difficult. Many people with arthritis have difficulty walking, ascending or descending inclines, and climbing steps. Many arthritis sufferers are unable to utilize much of the equipment in a gym and even walking, recommended in all weight-loss programs, is not an option.

As the article mentions, too little has been done to help the obese arthritic patient lose weight. Even a small amount of weight loss will relieve stress on the joints and bones, but patients are not getting the personal and community-based weight loss help they need to accomplish this necessary goal.

The obese with arthritis, even more than the typical obese population, needs an enormous amount of nutritional, emotional and social support. There must be a weight-loss program tailored to fit their particular needs. Chronic pain, sleepless nights due to discomfort, lack of social interactions because mobility is so limited, the absence of much pleasure and distraction except eating, are all factors that must be considered. Just telling people to eat more vegetables and fewer cookies is not sufficient.

Are there hospital or community-based programs specifically for people with arthritis? According to the JAMA article, there are not enough, since the prevalence of obesity among people with arthritis is rising rapidly. And opportunities to exercise to strengthen muscles and burn off calories are probably even more limited. Exercising in water, according to my physical therapist, is effective for people with weight and physical limitations (she told me about a patient who needed a knee replacement who lost over 250 pounds walking in water). Still, as she acknowledged, very few of her patients had access to a pool and even if one were available, their handicaps made it almost impossible to enter and exit the water.

One of the problems with reading a report such as the one published in JAMA is that it is too easy to overlook the fact it addresses individuals and not statistics. The obese woman who had to be helped into a wheelchair because she could not walk to the physical therapy room, the very overweight man whose daughter had to support his weight so he could walk across the hall, the colleague who told me that she feels she has to starve herself to lose weight because she can’t exercise off the calories: These individual — and so many more — deserve an effective way to lose excess weight, decrease their pain and improve the quality of their lives.

Year ago when it was discovered that exercise was important in maintaining cardiac health after bypass surgery, cardiac rehabilitation units developed specific exercise programs for the recovering patient. Now we take for granted the physical activity component of the post-operative regimen, but it had to be researched, tested and taught to health care providers who then monitored their patients.

Specific programs for the obese arthritic patient also need to be developed. Physical therapy is not sufficient since its intent is not to produce weight loss but rather to increase mobility and protection of orthopedically-stressed areas. Let us hope that articles such as the one in JAMA will be a catalyst to developing weight-loss and exercise programs for this underserved population.

Follow Judith J. Wurtman, PhD on Twitter: www.twitter.com/stopmed_wt_gain

Conclusions

If you want to know more about natural remedies for Arthritis you will find plenty of useful information in the Conquer Arthritis Now book

I read an interesting article in the HSI – Daily Health electronic magazine published by Agora Health about the successful application of MicroDoctor, already presented in a previous article, to relieve long term arthritis pain.

A User of MicroDoctor

It is the story of Dr. Petra Dance, a 53-year-old Harley Street psychologist, who up until 3 years ago had been a keen skier, squash player and hiker.

But, when she began experiencing pains in her foot, they got so bad that even walking to the local shops and driving became an ordeal.

In August 2009, she was diagnosed with arthritis of the main toe joint, and had surgery to rectify the problem. But the pain didn’t improve, even with the strongest painkillers…

‘I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life in this state, so I took matters into my own hands’, she explains.

After doing her own research and through professional recommendations, she discovered that the English National Ballet, several Premiership football clubs and even Olympic athletes were all using a device called MicroDoctor to accelerate the healing of joint and muscle injuries.

She decided to try this device and in her words ‘I noticed a difference from the very first time I tried it. And now, I’m off the painkillers.’

After using it for a while Dr. Petra Dance recently reported

“I am now able to slip on normal shoes and go out walking again. Being able to take the dogs out for walks again is priceless. Last week I went walking for four hours, that is the longest in over two years. The increased flexibility in my foot has also enabled me to drive again. The MicroDoctor has given me back my life…”

What is MicroDoctor?

It is a unique little hand-held, battery-operated device, about the size of a Walkman. You simply attach small pads to the affected area of your body, and sit back for a harmless treatment of up to 30 minutes.

As thousands of lucky people are discovering, the results from using MicroDoctor can be nothing short of astonishing. Using one of four different, pre-programmed therapies, you can specifically target:

• Arthritic pain and swollen joints: MicroDoctor is one of the greatest scientific weapons against arthritis at your disposal. To tackle arthritis in the hands, feet, ankles, knees and hips, It works first to reduce the swelling, wiping out the pain, and then by enhancing the tissue healing process.

• Tendon and ligament conditions: If you suffer a longstanding condition, such as tennis and golfer’s elbow, Achilles tendon problems, joint sprains and strains, MicroDoctor provides lasting relief and, in some cases, cures the problem completely.

• Muscle sprains and injuries: MicroDoctor is the saviour of thousands of back and neck pain sufferers. It can also speed up the healing process of sports injuries, and substantially ease tired and cramped muscles after exercising.

• Skin conditions: Recent studies have uncovered yet another amazing use for MicroDoctor – curing ulcers, scarring, bruising, psoriasis and improving the general condition of your skin.

• Plus a host of other ailments: Doctors are still discovering new applications for MicroDoctor by the day! It’s recently been proved to help sufferers of asthma and carpal tunnel syndrome.

Even the most ardent sceptics are not denying the amazing results that this device delivers to sufferers of all kinds of painful ailments.

And the great thing is, while it is used extensively in hospitals throughout Europe, YOU can use it anywhere… while watching television at home, at the desk at work, even in the golf clubrooms after you’ve played a round.

Micro-current therapy is nothing new; clinical and scientific research has been conducted since the 1970s. But the high cost, complexity and cumbersome nature of early equipment meant treatment was not readily available to the average pain sufferer.

Thanks to Micromed Technology Systems Ltd that’s all changed. In designing MicroDoctor a small hand held unit you can use anywhere, Micromed Technology Systems Ltd has made a revolutionary pain treatment available to all sufferers… for a very affordable price. It attacks almost any kind of pain and can speed up the healing process dramatically… without having to resort to potentially harmful drugs.

MicroDoctor’s Effective Results

Thousands of users continue to be astounded at MicroDoctor’s fast, effective results.

Lance Bird is a clinical researcher in osteo and rheumatoid arthritis. And for good reason… he’s been a sufferer of chronic arthritis since the age of 25.

He knows more than many people that painful and swollen joints stop you from enjoying every day activities like a round of golf, a stroll on a Sunday with the family or playing a game of football with the kids.

“At 45 I discovered MicroDoctor. It changed my life,” he says. Lance has found the safe and painless treatment really does significantly reduce the symptoms associated with his condition. “MicroDoctor may not cure your arthritis, but I believe that using it will help to make living with this condition more bearable, and to me that’s important so I can carry on with living a better life.”

You can buy the MicroDoctor cheap from Amazon UK from the link below:

==> The MicroDoctor Micro Current Therapy