Tag: Temporary Solution

The Difference Between Arthritis and Rheumatism

The Difference Between Arthritis and Rheumatism
Leong Y.H..M.D

‘Rheumatism’ is a traditional and non-specific term used in the East and West to refer to a variety of conditions affecting the bones, joints, skin, heart, kidneys, lungs. This term is rapidly falling out of favour in the West today because modern medical science has discovered that most of these conditions have different aetiologies (causes) requiring very different treatments.
You can say that it’s a word mainly used in Chinese (& traditional) societies; it’s also used by a minority of Westerners into homeopathic and alternative medicine. The only common characteristics among these conditions are: 1) they cause long-term chronic pain, and 2) they are very difficult to treat.
‘Arthritis’ is a broad term refers to inflammation of the joints, but doesn’t say anything about the cause. Includes conditions like osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, infective arthritis, gouty arthritis, etc.
Generally, I’d divide arthritis into 2 big groups:
1) Osteoarthritis (OA)
This is primarily a ‘wear and tear’ condition affecting older people. Arises from overuse (e.g. marathon runners), previous injuries (football players), overweight, heredity. A lot of older Asian women get OA of the knees while the Americans and Europeans get it in the hips. The pain is more mechanical than inflammatory. So you get pain in the later part of the day after a lot of walking and climbing stairs.
Because it’s mainly a mechanical problem, treatment with painkillers is only a temporary solution. Long-term lifestyle changes are more important – reduce weight, mobility and muscle-strengthening exercises, reduce all kinds of weight-bearing activities (walking, jumping, running, carrying heavy objects). In severe cases, surgery may be warranted.

2) Inflammatory (‘Rheumatic’) Arthritis
This group comprises the various types of arthritis which are mainly inflammatory , not mechanical, in nature. They usually result from an auto-immune condition, which causes the body’s immune system to go haywire and attack the joints and other parts of the body. E.g. rheumatoid arthritis (RA), SLE (skin, kidneys, joints, brain), psoriasis (skin, joints), ankylosing spondylitis (back, heart), gout (joints, skin, kidneys), rheumatic heart disease/fever (joints, heart, skin). All these conditions require different forms of treatment.
I’ll talk a bit about RA, the commonest condition in this group. Unlike OA, RA can occur at any age and is usually hereditary (we now have a test for the RA factor in the blood). Pain is usually in the early morning, worse when it’s cold, and gets better with activity and use. That means an RA sufferer suffers from morning stiffness and pain, but gets better in the afternoon when it’s warmer and when he has moved around a bit.
Treatment, unlike OA, is mainly through drugs – painkillers, anti-inflammatory drugs like steroids, cytotoxic drugs like sulfasalazine and MTX. In Asia, treatment is mainly through accupuncture, medicated plasters and ointments. With the vast arsenals of drugs and non-drugs alternative treatments available today, RA can be controlled very well and the sufferer can actually lead a very active life. Many OA sufferers on the other hand may eventually require surgery since we don’t have very effective drugs for OA. About the Author
Dr Leong Y.H is a western trained medical doctor with a keen interest in Oriental medical treatment. He contribute articles to http://www.quick-pain-relief.com and http://www.chinese-culture.net. You may distribute this article as long as mention is made of the author and the website.

Learn about arthritis and how it can affect you

Learn about arthritis and how it can affect you
Dr Leong Y.H

‘Rheumatism’ is a traditional and non-specific term used in the East and West to refer to a variety of conditions affecting the bones, joints, skin, heart, kidneys, lungs. This term is rapidly falling out of favour in the West today because modern medical science has discovered that most of these conditions have different aetiologies (causes) requiring very different treatments.
You can say that it’s a word mainly used in Chinese (& traditional) societies; it’s also used by a minority of Westerners into homeopathic and alternative medicine. The only common characteristics among these conditions are: 1) they cause long-term chronic pain, and 2) they are very difficult to treat.
‘Arthritis’ is a broad term refers to inflammation of the joints, but doesn’t say anything about the cause. Includes conditions like osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, infective arthritis, gouty arthritis, etc.
Generally, I’d divide arthritis into 2 big groups:
1) Osteoarthritis (OA)
This is primarily a ‘wear and tear’ condition affecting older people. Arises from overuse (e.g. marathon runners), previous injuries (football players), overweight, heredity.
A lot of older Asian women get OA of the knees while the Americans and Europeans get it in the hips. The pain is more mechanical than inflammatory. So you get pain in the later part of the day after a lot of walking and climbing stairs.
Because it’s mainly a mechanical problem, treatment with painkillers is only a temporary solution. Long-term lifestyle changes are more important – reduce weight, mobility and muscle-strengthening exercises, reduce all kinds of weight-bearing activities (walking, jumping, running, carrying heavy objects). In severe cases, surgery may be warranted.

2) Inflammatory (‘Rheumatic’) Arthritis
This group comprises the various types of arthritis which are mainly inflammatory , not mechanical, in nature. They usually result from an auto-immune condition, which causes the body’s immune system to go haywire and attack the joints and other parts of the body. E.g. rheumatoid arthritis (RA), SLE (skin, kidneys, joints, brain), psoriasis (skin, joints), ankylosing spondylitis (back, heart), gout (joints, skin, kidneys), rheumatic heart disease/fever (joints, heart, skin). All these conditions require different forms of treatment.
I’ll talk a bit about RA, the commonest condition in this group. Unlike OA, RA can occur at any age and is usually hereditary (we now have a test for the RA factor in the blood). Pain is usually in the early morning, worse when it’s cold, and gets better with activity and use. That means an RA sufferer suffers from morning stiffness and pain, but gets better in the afternoon when it’s warmer and when he has moved around a bit.
Treatment, unlike OA, is mainly through drugs – painkillers, anti-inflammatory drugs like steroids, cytotoxic drugs like sulfasalazine and MTX.
In Asia, treatment is mainly through accupuncture, medicated plasters and ointments. With the vast arsenals of drugs and non-drugs alternative treatments available today, RA can be controlled very well and the sufferer can actually lead a very active life. Many OA sufferers on the other hand may eventually require surgery since we don’t have very effective drugs for OA. About the Author
Dr Leong is a Western trained doctor with a keen interest in Chinese medical treatment. He contributes articles to http://www.quick-pain-relief.com. This article may be republished provided acknowledgement is made of the author and the original website.

Understanding IBS Relief

IBS is no other than Irritable Bowel Syndrome, oftentimes associated with discomforts of stomach from gas pain, bloating and troubled bowel movements. Although it is a very common digestive problem, it caused enormous disturbances to millions of people without discriminating age and race.

IBS relief comes in different packs if the problem is ruled out at once. The major issue about IBS is the wide misdiagnosis because of overlapping familiar symptoms clouding the other disorders of the stomach. Usually it is considered symptom of another disease such as Crohns Disease, which is linked to long term episodes of IBS.

What are the main causes of IBS? It takes place in the colon, one of the heavily trafficked parts of the human intestine during food digestion. After food consumption is processed in the stomach, the culmination of activity ends in the large intestine after nutrients are absorbed from small intestine. The colon stores the remains of waste food particles with the joint activity and effort of the mechanical stimulus of the nerves, hormones, and other chemical elements. The process of muscular contractions to expel contents of the colon happen several times in the day, the result is bowel movement.

For normal individuals, agitation in the stomach leaves no disturbing effect. For people with IBS, the colon over reacts to even the mildest stimulation, which leads to debilitating discomfort.

IBS relief must be focused on long-term result by shifting to good diet out of determining food allergens and eliminating them all the way. If relief is only for the sake of temporary solution, it will just recur with constant carelessness. Remember that the biggest activity of the body is the complete facilitation of food intake until fully absorbed internally. Like a gasoline, it is what pushes the functioning to accelerate everything the brain instructs it to do. IBS relief must be given with care or it might result to wrong medication if misdiagnosed. It covers broader symptoms the doctors are finding hard to determine without laboratory tests.

Natural Health Learning To Listen To What Your Body

Natural Health Learning To Listen To What Your Body Tells You

When you’re learning about something new, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of relevant information available. This informative article should help you focus on the central points.

When a poet and king once sang, ” Our bodies are beautifully and wonderfully made oh God “, he knew what he was saying. One of the wonderful things that our bodies could determine is healing itself. We need intervention from time to time but the body, when treated right has the ability to correct itself. Often, all it takes is to listen to what the body is telling us.

Sure there is nothing much we subjection do when our body is already shouting for the next comfort room or the stomach is rumbling for the next larder. Often times though, when there is pain, uniform a headache, the normal course of action is to reach out for a bottle of painkiller to mask the pain so we can field.

Listening to what our body is telling us would deter a lot of illnesses from getting worse. When there is a headache, there is large wrong done to generate the pain. Taking painkillers is a good but temporary solution, the next step though and more permanent is to know what caused the pain. Not being potent to identify that will make us grab the painkiller in another six to eight hours. Every ingestion of a tablet or a capsule puts our liver and our colon in bind. Chemical residues that were components to its manufacture will stay in the liver and overtime will clog the colon that will dispatch other more serious illnesses. Learning to listen to the messages that our body tells us is that important.

There are many at variance things that our body is trying to tell us. Being sleepy, feeling sluggish, increasing weight or weight loss, body temperature, mood swings, blood pressure, and pulse rate are among the few that could equate observed and could be measured with certainty. When that happens the body is telling us that standout is not happening fresh. Taking energy drinks, resting, relaxing, taking antacids are few of the things that are normally done but all these have temporary effects. When the feeling of sluggishness for example persists, no amount of motion drink could restore the body to functioning normally. Uncut the palliative measures taken are temporary solutions that do not cure the illnesses. It only masks the effects and masking the effects could be terribly dangerous.

What cures the disorder is the identification of the cause of the pain or discomfort and if it is not a medical emergency, the avoidance of repeating the same thing to happen again. It is a conscious effort to sit back, think a while, and deciding on matters that will work paramount for the body and those that will not. Taking temporary measures and dependence on it will make matters worse.

When we learn to listen to what the body is telling us, our dependence on costly interventions and help from health care professionals will be scant aside from lessening the introduction of chemicals to our system.
I hope that reading the above information was both enjoyable and educational for you. Your learning process should be ongoing–the more you understand about any subject, the more you will be able to share with others.