Do I Really Need these Joint Pain Treatments?

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Do patients receiving joint pain treatments really need them? Unless pain is something you enjoy, then yes you do. Joint pain strikes all age groups; young children and teens injure their joints, or perhaps they are unfortunate enough to have juvenile arthritis. Young adults, from late teens to mid-forties, stress and injure joints with weekend athletics or repetitive stress at work. In your mid-forties, normal wear and tear on your joints can bring on the onset of osteoarthritis. Everyone is subject to joint pain, and no one likes it when it happens.

Young Children, Teens, and Young Adults

This age group is the least likely to suffer from some form of arthritis, but they are far more likely to injure themselves – playing organized sports, riding skateboards, bicycles, or motorcycles, or participating in athletics as part of a pick-up game of volleyball at the beach, basketball at a park court, or in tennis. Injuries range from mild strains and sprains to the muscles surrounding the joint to actually tearing the ligaments or tendons or breaking a bone or joint itself. These injuries are all treatable and curable, although unpleasant to endure. The injuries are transient, but they leave behind the potential for early onset osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis is treatable but not curable; the disease is painful, and debilitating, sometimes to the point of actual disability. If you suffer from an injury to a joint, you will need joint pain treatments.

Middle-Age Adults

If you are fortunate enough to make it to your middle years without injuring your joints, you’ll find that time, and life, have taken care of this. Normal wear and tear on a joint can bring on osteoarthritis, starting as early as your mid-forties. Osteoarthritis appears to be a natural part of aging, unless you do something to prevent it, or at least slow it down. Osteoarthritis becomes debilitating and disabling as you move into your golden years. You need to prevent this if at all possible, or mitigate the severity if you can’t stop it.

Joint Pain Treatments

Joint pain treatments are both allopathic and alternative. In the allopathic world, treatments range from over-the-counter (OTC) topical agents, as well as OTC oral medications. The OTC topicals are not a problem; they are effective, relatively inexpensive, and other than smelling bad, they work. The OTC orals, on the other hand, come with a whole host of nasty side effects, ranging from upset stomachs all the way to cardiovascular disease and death. They carry, in fact, the same side effects as the prescription drugs in the same class; the prescription ones get all the press because the negative side effects show up more quickly with the stronger drugs. The OTC ones will do the same damage – it just takes longer.

The alternative world also has topical agents; arnica oil has been around for centuries, and is a very effective topical for sore or sprained muscles. Capsaicin cream is also very effective as a topical agent; capsaicin, the active component in chile peppers, desensitizes the C-receptors in your skin. C-receptors are pain-prone nerve receptors in your skin, and capsaicin can neutralize them for several weeks.

See Also:

Consumer Health Digest Joint Pain Center

Natural Anti-inflammatories

Ginger, holy basil and turmeric are all known anti-inflammatory agents. Ginger and turmeric are used in both Chinese and Ayurvedic medicines to reduce inflammation. While all three are effective anti-inflammatory agents, turmeric may be the best, due to the curcumin contained in the spice. Turmeric is used as a base for curry spice, and the curcumin gives it its punch.

Aquamin

Aquamin is derived from red seaweed; the supplement is rich in calcium and magnesium, and may help reduce inflammation in the joints, and build bone as well. In clinical trials, aquamin reduced joint pain by twenty percent, and the patients undergoing the trial had less stiffness in the joints also.

SAMe, Omega-3 Fish Oils, and MSM

These three supplements are effective anti-inflammatories and pain reducing agents. SAMe is a naturally occurring amino acid; it reduces inflammation, and may stimulate natural brain endorphins such as serotonin or dopamine. SAMe is sensitive to light, so be sure to purchase it in blister packs. SAMe is also known to interact with certain medications, especially MAO-inhibiting anti-depressants, so be sure to discuss it with your practitioner before taking.

Omega-3s are essential fatty acids; they occur naturally in cold-water fish such as tuna or salmon. They are known anti-inflammatory agents; when taken orally, they break down into prostaglandins – natural inflammation reducers. Using a fish oil supplement can reduce your dependency on NSAID pain relievers; forty percent of arthritis sufferers were able to reduce their intake of NSAIDS by a third. Patients with neck and back pain were able to completely stop taking NSAIDs after about ten weeks on Omega 3 supplements. Because Omega 3 supplements are derived from fish, you need to pay attention to the mercury and PCB contamination levels of the source. Nordic Naturals provides a pure fish oil with no contaminants at all.

MSM is a sulfur compound, usually derived from shellfish. If you have shellfish allergies, check the source of the MSM compound before you take it. MSM may prevent joint and cartilage degeneration, and it reduces pain in osteoarthritis sufferers. In a three-month trial, osteoarthritis patients had twenty-five percent less pain and thirty percent better physical functionality in the affected knees. Research has indicated MSM may work best when combined with glucosamine sulfate. That’s sulfate, not hydrochloride. Most readily available glucosamine in the US is in the hydrochloride form, which has been found to be ineffective. In Europe, glucosamine sulfate is the commonly available form, and it has been found, in multiple European studies, to be effective in treating joint pain problems.

Conclusion

If you go through life fortunate enough not to injure a bone, joint, muscle, tendon, or ligament, and you eat well, exercise properly and handle stress well, you may not need these treatments, or not as early as the vast majority of us do. However, if you’re like the vast majority, you will need these treatments for joint pain at some point in your life, and most likely sooner than later. You can use these treatments as preventatives, to keep your joints limber, fluid, and healthy for a long, long time.

References:

  • CDC: “QuickStats: Percentage of Adults Reporting Joint Pain or Stiffness – National Health Interview Survey, United States, 2006.”
  • Collyott, C.L. Orthopaedic Nursing, 2008; vol 27: pp 246-252.
  • Palmer T. The Journal of the American Board of Family Practice, 2004; vol 17: pp S32-S42.
Churchill Otieno
Churchill Otieno, holds a degree in Communications and Public Relations. He is an accomplished independent researcher, experienced, professional writer based in Chicago, IL past Mombasa, Kenya. He is an author and publisher for Consumer Health Digest - Joint Pain Center category since 2013. He has an additional credentials in health and lifestyle fitness. He has been writing articles on health for more than two years with interest on bone, joint health, arthritis, osteoarthritis etc. He is also a contributor to healthcentral.com and many other popular websites. His mission is to educate, empower and advocate people whose lives have changed due to arthritis joint pain. He also strive to support the families and caregivers as they learn how to advocate and care for the afflicted person.