Ellen Hodgson Brown - Healing Joint Pain Naturally: Safe and Effective Ways to Treat Arthritis, Fibromyalgia, and Other Joint Diseases

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NOTICE TO THE READER

This book is not intended to take the place of medical advice from a trained medical professional. Readers are advised to consult a physician or other qualified health professional regarding treatment of their medical problems. Neither the publisher nor the author takes any responsibility for any possible consequences from any treatment, action, or application of medicine, herb, or preparation to any person reading or following the information in this book.

~ONE~

Arthritis: The Disease, the Drugs, and Why Avoid Them

Physicians of the utmost fame
Were called at once; but when they came
They answered, as they took their fees,
There is no cure for this disease.

HILAIRE BELLOC (18701953)

Arthritis disables more people than any other chronic disorder and tops the list of diseases for which older people seek medical treatment. In 1998, the number of afflicted in the United States hit a staggering 43 million15 percent of the populationup from 35 million in 1985, in part because the population in general is growing older. The market for analgesic painkillers is even more staggering, amounting to about $10 billion annually.

Sales of Searles arthritis drug Celebrex rivaled the blockbuster Viagra when it hit the market in early 1999. But the success of this super aspirin seems to reflect the widespread desperation of arthritis victims more than the viability of the treatment. Celebrex (discussed later in this chapter) is no more effective than older, cheaper options in reversing joint dysfunction. Its claim to fame is that it suppresses pain with fewer daunting side effects than the older drugs. Conventional medicine still has no safe and proven protocol for reversing arthritis.

DEFINING THE DISEASE

The word arthritis is derived from the Greek arthron for joint and -itis for inflammation. It thus means inflammation of the joint. Inflammation causes swelling, which causes pain by pressing on the nerves. Joint dysfunction that does not involve inflammation is technically called arthrosis, meaning simply joint disease.

The most common form of arthritis is osteoarthritis, a chronic degenerative disease that is epidemic among the elderly. It afflicts about 21 million people in the United States. According to the Arthritis Foundation, the second leading arthritis-related condition is fibromyalgia, a form of muscular rheumatism that involves joint pain and is believed to afflict 3 to 6 million people. The third most frequent arthritic condition is rheumatoid arthritis, the most intractable and painful form of the disease. It afflicts 2.5 million people. Fourth is gout, a gene-linked condition in which excess uric acid accumulates and forms crystals that irritate the joints. Other common forms of arthritis include bursitis, a painful inflammation of the bursae (the fluid-filled sacs that cushion the bones, tendons, and ligaments where they move against each other); and ankylosing spondylitis, an inflammation of the spine and hip joints. Many other conditions also involve an element of inflammatory arthritis, including systemic lupus erythematosus or SLE, a chronic inflammatory disease that strikes connective tissue throughout the body.

THE MECHANICS OF THE DISEASE

Different forms of arthritis have unique features that are discussed in later chapters. All, however, involve a breakdown of joint cartilage faster than the body can repair it. The joint is where the bones meet and are cushioned so they can move without irritating each other. The joint is protected by a capsule consisting of tough fibrous tissue. It covers the synovial membrane, which surrounds the joint and provides a lubricating fluid. Joints are covered with a smooth layer of cartilage that allows for easy sliding and absorbs shock. Arthritis strikes this cartilage, causing it to become swollen, flake, and crack.

When this occurs the body tries to protect itself by layering down extra calcium at the ends of the bone, forming bony spurs inside the joint. These are the bony knobs called Heberdens nodes visible at the ends of the fingers of some arthritis victims. If the node breaks off, it can form a joint mouse that moves in the joint space. A joint mouse that has gotten caught between the moving bones can cause serious pain. Friction between the bones also causes heat to build, but the narrowing of the synovial membrane makes blood flow insufficient to carry the heat away. When the joint isnt moving, the synovial membrane gets stiff, leading to gelling that makes it even more difficult to move.

THE PHARMACEUTICAL APPROACH: NSAIDs

The conventional approach to the treatment of arthritis is to suppress joint pain with drugs. Aspirin and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) relieve pain by blocking the inflammatory process, but this approach comes with a price. A 1998 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association estimated that more than 100,000 deaths now occur annually from legal drugs prescribed and used correctly. That makes pharmaceutical side effects the fourth leading cause of death in the United States, following only heart disease, cancer, and stroke.

People who take an occasional aspirin for a headache arent at great risk. The problems come for people who take the drugs daily in relatively high doses over a period of years. Fourteen million arthritics now fall in that category. NSAIDs were developed specifically to treat rheumatoid arthritis, a crippling form of the disease for which side effect risks may be justified; but NSAIDs are now also frequently prescribed for osteoarthritis, a much larger market with a correspondingly greater potential for drug casualties.

ASPIRIN

Aspirin, the grandfather of anti-inflammatories, has long been the most popular treatment for arthritis. Americans collectively pop more than 80 million aspirin tablets daily. Critics question whether the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would allow this drug on the over-the-counter market if it were introduced today because of its potentially serious side effects; but it has been around in pill form since 1899 (longer than the FDA itself) and was grandfathered in without testing.

How aspirin works wasnt discovered until more than seventy years after it appeared on the market. The mechanism involves natural substances called prostaglandins, which are released when cells are injured or stimulated. One type, called PGE2, alerts the body to disturbances in normal function by increasing the awareness of pain. Other prostaglandins contribute to the heat and swelling of inflammation and promote the coagulation of blood. Aspirin interferes with the bodys biosynthesis of these prostaglandins, thereby suppressing inflammation and the awareness of pain.

The problem is that prostaglandins perform normal body functions that are suppressed along with the inflammatory process. Some prostaglandins help to regulate the flow of blood through the kidneys and the filtration and excretion of sodium and toxins. When aspirin inhibits these functions, the result can be fluid retention and the buildup of nitrogenous wastes in the blood.

NON-ASPIRIN NSAIDs

Non-aspirin NSAIDs include ibuprofen (Motrin, Advil), indomethacin (Indocin), naproxen (Naprosyn, Aleve), and piroxicam (Feldene), among other popular options. The non-aspirin NSAIDs were originally thought to have an advantage over aspirin in that they were better tolerated and produced less gastrointestinal distress. But the FDA eventually proclaimed that the safety of one NSAID could not be clearly distinguished from another.