WOMEN’S HEALTH: Feel Like You Need Your Oil Changed?

Oil Change This is surely an understatement if you do indeed suffer from any form of arthritis. If you do, you have probably wondered if it is actually possible to ‘change your oil‘. More and more natural solutions to the problem of arthritis are being employed, but, as usual, they involve addressing causes, not just handling the symptoms.

It is generally accepted that osteoarthritis, the most common form, is caused ultimately by ‘age’ and ‘wear and tear’. While that is probably true, what is also true is that giving your body some back up and help in certain areas can help you to curtail this ‘age’ factor. Osteoarthritis is caused by the deterioration of cartilage, the tissue that cushions our joints and prevents the bones from rubbing together. Here we will address natural help for this form, as the others, rheumatoid arthritis and gout, have their own particularities. There are natural approaches to handling this all-too-common condition affecting women’s health — that will put you more at cause over the situation.

The most common sense way to naturally combat osteoarthritis is to improve one’s overall health. This involves a strategy involving detoxification, dietary change, exercise and the use of helpful nutritional supplements. Let’s take a look at each of these areas from a logical standpoint and see how they could be helpful.

Detoxification is crucial to improving your health and wellness. Over a lifetime, we put thousands of different foods and, unfortunately but unavoidably in today’s toxic environment, different chemicals into the body. It makes sense that our cells get backed up at some point and their own elimination or detoxification processes get stressed or ineffective. This inhibits their ability to take in the nutrients they need to heal, and contributes to inflammation. Inflammation is the bodies’ natural response to injury — however, a condition of chronic inflammation is not good. Destructive, chronic inflammation is a situation where cells are being destroyed faster than they can be replaced, due to a condition existing where too many are perceived as enemies. Effectively detoxifying the body is very therapeutic, as cells can be restored to a healthier condition. Osteoarthritis is a condition of inflammation — therefore it makes sense that it would be helped by detoxification.

Dietary change is also crucial if you are stressing your body with what you ingest — and let’s face it — most of us are now or were for a long time. Naturopaths are aware that certain people have certain food allergies, or inabilities to fully digest certain foods, creating stress on the health of the bodies’ cells, impairing their ability to repair and restore themselves. Dairy can be a problem, some can have a problem digesting wheat, and for others ‘nightshades’ are bad. Nightshades include tomatoes, eggplant, potatoes, peppers, and nicotine. An assessment from a trained naturopath could help you determine what foods are not good for your body, in addition to your own awareness of what causes you to flare up. A diet rich in natural, whole foods devoid of what you are sensitive to will be the result. Yep — you can count on the fact that you should can the potato chips, twinkies and other processed foods.

Exercise may be the last thing you want to do, but it is vital! Activity in the injured areas will actually encourage less pain.

Nutritional Supplements can help you. There are many out there known to natural medicine, and you should find the ones that work for you. Glucosamine chondroiton MSM may help you to regenerate your cartilage and experience less pain. Curcumin, ginger and boswellia are three known natural COX-2 inhibitors. COX-2 contributes to inflammation — when it is blocked, inflammation decreases. Any of these may help!

As none of the aspects of this strategy have any negative side effects, it can’t hurt to try. A trusted and trained natural health practitioner could be of great help to you in becoming cause over the situation, if you are suffering from arthritis. Many people have improved their condition with a natural approach. With a little patience and persistence, women’s health in the later years does not have to be sabotaged by severe arthritic pain!