Dysfunction and pain can erode your quality of life and the inflammation that can drive the remodelling of your body is a major driver of chronic disease and cancer.
I use programs by putting you back into balance to support the following medically diagnosed conditions:
- Ankylosing spondylitis.
- Fibromyalgia.
- Gout.
- Osteoarthritis.
- Rheumatoid arthritis.
- Osteoporosis.
- Joint disease – hip, knee, ankle, shoulder, elbow, hands.
- Myopathy – muscle wasting.
- Rhabdomyolysis.
- Muscle cramp, pain, tension and weakness.
- Back pain.
- Neck and shoulder pain.
Arthritis and pain
The bone you have in your body is replenished over time. It is not the same bone that you developed when you were young. Osteoarthritis is a degenerative joint disease. Most commonly affected are the last joints of the finger, the base of the thumb, the hip, knee, big toe and spine. The usual symptoms are deep aching pains localised to the joints involved, stiffness after rest, joint swelling and tenderness, a grating sound when the joint is moved and in later stage bone deformities.
Pain is usually present with movement of the joint and then relieved by rest.
The pain arises in the joint capsule, ligament, tendons, and muscle and in the bone surrounding the damaged cartilage.
If it affects the spinal vertebra “subluxations” may occur producing pressure on the nerves that can cause a stabbing pain along the leg or arm, depending on the nerve affected.
If a reduction of blood flow to the area occurs, burning nerve pain may be felt.
Remedial massage improves blood flow in joints and reduces pain.
Causes of Osteoarthritis
Causes of Osteoarthritis can be:
- Initiated by excessive sheer pressure applied to the joint – manual labour, sport, accidents, weight gain or weight loss with malnutrition that resulted in poor physical restructuring during healing.
- Osteoporosis. It can destabilise joints and cause inflammation. This damages cartilage. Cartilage provides a smooth surface, to help the movement of joints. It acts like a “shock-absorber”.
- Cartilage is also damaged from infection and from poor nutritional status of bones and surrounding structures.
- Displaced calcium can accumulate in the joint causing damage.
- Excessive tissue levels of Copper from Liver and Gallbladder problems can degrade vitamin C needed to make collagen OR deficiency in copper can lead to the accumulation of iron in joints inflaming tissue.
- High inflammatory load from allergies (food and other) activate enzymes that degrade structures.
- pH imbalance in the body impairs digestion and nutrient absorption – producing mineral imbalance.
- Calcium displacement in bones by the toxic metal Lead causes degeneration of bone destabilising the joint.
- Deficiency of sulphur from either poor protein digestion or from toxic metals such as Cadmium, Mercury or Lead, reduce your sulphur stores. Sulphur is needed to make Chondroitin Sulphate for cartilage.
- Loss of proteoglycans (a protein sugar) responsible for cartilage resilience or bounce results in a stiffer material that is more easily damaged by “wear and tear”.
So arthritis is not simply old age – it is an imbalance. A Nutritional Medicine Program can be used to improve symptoms dramatically but as you can see lots of possible causes need to be addressed holistically to make a long term difference. As a naturopath and remedial masseur I can help you to reduce pain and improve joint mobility.