Naturopaths' Suggestions for Osteoarthritis (OA)

Osteoarthritis and treatments such as glucosamine and other supplements have been in the health news quite a lot recently.

Firstly glucosamine was heralded as a wonder supplement for osteoarthritis but further trials have disputed this. This page will inform you of treatment that a Naturopath may prescribe for osteoarthritis, alternatively you can go straight to the clinically proven natural medicines for osteoarthritis.

Glucosamine Sulphate

1500mg of this supplement daily has shown tremendous benefit in treating symptoms of pain and stiffness in osteoarthritis. Even though we produce glucosamine in our bodies, it has been shown to be beneficial with supplementation. The way this supplement works is by helping the body in production of new cartilage. I highly recommend this product but dont get it confused with the glucosamine hydrochloride, the hydrochlride type has shown to be less effective.

Magnetic and Copper Jewellery

As strange as this may sound, I highly recommend these products but I don't actually know in detail how they work. All I know is, that the patients that have used these products have reported a decline in severity of symptoms and some have even reported the disappearnce of symptoms. Now normally I like to know a lot about a product but if something works as well as this and is not toxic and has no adverse effects, then stick with what works.

Magnesium Phosphate

As I have mentioned before with other disorders, this supplement is a great musculoskeletal relaxant and helps with sore tight muscles which in turn eases the pressure from our joints.

Exercise and Fitness

I know you don't want to hear this but exercise DOES improve pain and stiffness in Osteoarthritis. I always recommend that if a patient is even slightly overweight, then an effective fitness program needs to be implemented. It doesn't necessarily mean you have to run or go tothe gym, it just means you have to get more active and get your blood moving! Extra weight puts extra pressure on our muscles and bones, so if we are lighter and our muscles are stronger, then surely our body can cope better with supporting our joints. I have found that even the slightest weight loss can make a huge impact on symptoms.

A simple exercise regime may only need to consist of:

- 30 minutes of power walking every day

- weight bearing exercises

Food and nutrition play a big part in the management of osteoarthritis. A percentage of patients have noticed an improvement in pain when they eliminated certain foods from their diet. These foods vary from person to person so if you think there may be a problem food, there is an easy way to find out.

Simply do the elimination diet:

- Keep a diary of your symptoms for the next 6 weeks - eliminate the offending food for at least one month.

- slowly re-introduce the food for one week.

If the symptoms improve within the 4 weeks of elimination and then get worse again after re-introduction, then you may assume that the particular food you were testing, could be an irritant or you may be intolerant. You would then obviously, remove this food from your daily diet. If your symtoms don't change, then try a different food for elimination.

Examples of some known food triggers for OA are tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant and peppers.

Keep your bowels moving, by eating more fibre. Fibre can include wholegrains, fruit and vegetables and pulses. The less time faecal matter sits in your bowel, the less chance you have of your intestines reabsorbing toxins.

Go to clinically proven natural medicine for osteoarthritis

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