Osteoarthritis - Chronic Joint Pain

We recently reviewed some information and followed up on a couple of web sites concerned with osteoarthritis treatments and were dismayed to find that these sites, while providing good information on what causes osteoarthritis, these websites seemed to only consider conventional medical treatments for this cause of debilitating joint pain through prescriptions medicines and therapeutic exercise such as Yoga and Pilates.

We whole heartedly believe in physical therapy and exercise, however we think pain medications are not a first line resort.

Osteoarthritis is a chronic problem caused by cartilage degeneration in the joints causing pain upon movement. When cartilage breaks down, there is less cushioning for the joints and can even lead to bones rubbing against each other.

Cartilage loses it’s elasticity through age and daily use/misuse. In some cases lack of sufficient cartilage can damage the bones producing bone spurs. Cartilage, as it loses it’s elasticity, becomes “brittle” and can break off leaving “floaters” in the joint causing pain and immobility.

One thing we should be able to agree upon is that Osteoarthritis is a degenerative disease, hence it is sometimes called “Degenerative Joint Disease” or “Degenerative Arthritis”. If this is so, then rather than treat the symptoms of joint pain, while don’t we look towards treating one of the root causes of all degenerative diseases and that is lack of nutrition?

It makes no sense to live with this disease without trying to alleviate the discomfort or pain in your joints. The easiest, certainly the most cost efficient and the method with the least side effects has to be ensuring that your body is getting the nutritional needs for optimum health. For joint health I have found that pharmaceutical grade Glucosamine and adding an Omega 3 (Fish Oil) supplement has greatly alleviated my joint pain without resorting to prescription pain medications (which can have side effects) or having surgery even minimally invasive surgery.