INFLAMMATORY ARTHRITIS TREATMENT

Outcomes in inflammatory arthritis have greatly improved with use of the modern disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs).

They are potentially toxic and should not be relied on without nutritional, herbal and energy medicine support.

The inflammatory process in general

You will have experienced inflammation many times. Acne, insect bites and sprained joints all involve inflammation.An inflamed body part is often swollen, painful, hot and red.

One type of inflammatory arthritis is gout. People who have this are painfully aware of these features. An attack of acute gout is so painful that a person sometimes cannot even stand the bedclothes touching the part.

The inflammation process is an essential part of fighting germs which manage to get past our first line of defense and invade our body. It is also involved in the healing of injuries.

In these circumstances, it is mostly short lived and should mostly be left alone and not treated.

You can rest or splint the inflamed part. Bacteria can be attacked with antibiotic.

The inflammation itself can also be treated, and this is very useful in some circumstances, but this needs careful consideration by your doctor.

Inflammation is always uncomfortable. It can be valuable or damaging.


Inflammation in your knee joint.

The knee is often swollen, painful and a little warmer when it has inflammatory arthritis.

The swelling is above the knee cap.It may be caused by excess synovial fluid in the joint cavity, or by the swollen inflamed joint tissues themselves.

knee swelling

Swelling on the inside of the knee, lower down, is not due to knee arthritis usually. It is more likely to be caused by trouble in the Lumbar spine. This is produced by changes in the nerve supply to little blood vessels, rather than inflammation produced by the immune system.

Just to complicate matters, this same process can cause fluid in your knee joint, but it is usually a very small effusion in this case.



An example of anti inflammatory treatment is the use of cortisone injection into an infected knee joint, at the same time as giving intravenous antibiotics. This reduces the damage to the joint caused by the germs, but mediated by the inflammation.




Inflammation is mediated by your immune system.

There are many diseases which are largely disturbances of the immune system and manifest as inflammation which is not obviously useful and is at very least distinctly inconvenient.

Rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn’s disease are two examples, involving joints and intestine respectively. The swelling and pain in these conditions appears to serve no useful purpose.

Benefits and limitations of modern drug treatment

A large part of the treatment usually advised will be aimed at reducing the inflammation. This is a link to a very good site by a specialist in the field of inflammatory arthritis. As a result of modern drug based treatment inflammatory arthritis should no longer cripple people.



As always, however, it is best to also work out what is causing the problem and deal with that as well.



The following analogy will show the deficiency of relying exclusively on the first mentioned approach.

You’re driving along in your car and a red light on the dashboard flashes. It’s the oil light. What do you do? You would probably stop at the next gas station.

Would you... buy a small spray can of paint, and carefully spray over the red light, then happily drive off down the highway?

I’m sure you wouldn’t. You would at least top up the oil, and as soon as possible find out if you are leaking and from where.

That is exactly what is being done, however, when the only treatment is aimed at reducing inflammation and not seeking the cause.

When anti inflammatory treatment is often not needed

Degenerative arthritis (osteoarthritis) of the knee can have episodes of joint inflammation too, following injury usually.

Simple analgesics, temporary rest, muscle stretching and strengthening exercises will often suffice here.

Dealing with possible causes of your inflammatory arthritis


footer for inflammatory arthritis page