August 6th, 2010 -- Posted in Current Health Matters |
So far we have looked at the two main types of arthritis, Rheumatoid and Osteo, reviewed the usual therapies, outlined the “Renegadopathy™” approach, and given some specifics, using those principles, for treating Rheumatoid arthritis.
Let’s finish up this series by looking at some specifics for how to treat Osteoarthritis.
Even though Osteoarthritis is a “wear and tear” dis-ease, and hence one would think that treatment should be directed simply at less wear and tear, or toward a more mechanical solution such as joint replacement, the body is still a complete organism. Let’s approach it that way.
Again, put the Physical, Mental, Emotional and Spritiual aspects in a pyramid in ascending order.
Physical.
Cartilage in joints has a poor blood supply and depend on pressure changes produced by joint movement for getting nutrients in and out. Consequently, joint health depends on a combination of movement and high nutrient density in the blood, especially minerals.
- Food. Eat highly nutrient dense foods: Vegetables, fruits (who’s surprised?), and nuts (high in minerals). This needs to start early in life and continue, especially if you do a repetitive, wear and tear activity.
- Nutrients. Obviously begin with a good multivitamin. Also, add calcium in a highly absorbable form. Calcium hydroxyapatite has been shown to actually replace calcium into bone. Other calcium forms may slow bone loss of calcium but won’t restore calcium levels in bone. The bony irregularities that define “degenerative disease” known as osteoarthritis result from the body trying to get enough calcium in places where it needs to be by taking it from bone, the storehouse. It then can’t get it back in properly so puts it in places, like around joints, causing the wear and tear. With calcium, to stay balanced, take an extra multimineral supplement as well.
- Herbs. Again, with a good herbal and/or some muscle testing, find the herbs that you can enjoy using that will also build and restore cartilage. Being complete plants, herbs are loaded with minerals.
- Oils. These are potent healers, adding nutrients and healing agents directly to the area needing help when applied to the skin since they are absorbed quickly. Some can also be taken orally for systemic effect. Examples for osteoarthritis include Douglas or white fir, spruce, pine, cypress, peppermint, marjoram, rosemary, basil and others.
- Homeopathy. Again, a specialty approach but the right remedy for you can be very helpful.
- Energy. Magnet therapy, resonant sound wave energy and light energy would all be useful.
- Exercise. You MUST have strong muscles around joints to support them and take some of the pressure off the cartilage. Start with gentle and, as tolerated, progress to more aggressive strengthening exercises. If necessary, begin in the water where gravity is not an issue. Do multiple repetitions with low weights. Find a good personal trainer to help.
- Detoxify. Clean out the junk. Homeopathic remedies, massage therapy, good water, sauna/sweating, exercise, and things like spirulina and cilantro all help.
- Again I would encourage you to do the MAR (Metabolic Assessment Regimen) to get a handle on where your body really is in terms of health status.
Mental.
Since you are trying to rebuild a tissue that is hard to rebuild, this is crucial. Visualize cartilage rebuilding, nutrients entering the cartilage you have and see new cartilage being laid down. See the calcium going back into your bones where it is supposed to be and the bones remodeling and reshaping to their proper shapes. See the muscles getting stronger and stronger.
Emotion.
Again, go deep. What is wearing you down? What burdens are too heavy for you to carry? What issues are preventing you from moving easily through life? Be honest, get naked with yourself. No excuses. Then let it all go and relax.
Spiritual.
Again, meditate, pray, BE still, listen to Father and get the answers you need for what the root causes are and what you need to do to become truly yourself.
That ends our discussion on arthritis. I trust it has been educational, helpful and has begun to open your mind to possibilities for not only healing of the body but, more importantly, of the emotion and spirit as well.
For more of the Renegade Doc and his wild ideas, visit me at my website at http://www.jonmoreshead.com. Contact information is listed there. You can schedule time for personal consultation if you like and discuss whatever issues for which you need help. On the sidebar here is a free e-book reviewing how I got to where I am – please feel free to read and enjoy that.
Go in Health!
Dr Jon
Renegade Doc
August 2nd, 2010 -- Posted in Current Health Matters |
We are all either really bored learning about what arthritis is and looks like OR we can’t wait to find out what to do about it!
Either way, here we are back again to continue on with our series on Arthritis, both Rheumatoid and Osteo.
I am going to suggest a different approach.
Now don’t get me wrong. There are ways to treat arthritis that work OK, some that work well and some that work really well. Most if not all find means or remedies to deal with the inflammation.
But as my friend Chuck points out in a recent comment almost everyone has their special botanical to use or water to drink or potion to take or oil to apply or agent to avoid or something that is the “magic bullet”.
Besides that, most are looking for changes to occur by treating the physical body. Most of the available remedies are directed primarily toward that goal.
I however would like you to open your mind, step back and let’s take a big picture approach, the approach I have just coined as “Renegadopathy.”
There are some basic principles in this approach that lay the groundwork or roadmap for treatment of arthritis or any dis-ease for that matter.
These principles include:
- Our human existence is a combination of spiritual, mental, emotional and physical aspects at least, to say nothing about social, cultural, etc.
- These aspects, while talked about separately, really comprise one whole and complete being and we do better to think “wholey” ( and “holy”).
- Everything is vibrational energy, first and foremost. The mass of our bodies is energy “dampened” vibrationally. [m=E/c²]
- Any treatment, to be truly effective, should be directed toward increasing the resonant frequency/energy of the whole system.
- EVERYTHING that is expressed at the physical is FIRST expressed at the emotional/spiritual level.
- Your body therefore is not the object upon which the treatment or solution should be directed but the “monitor” of a “program” that is running in the background (to use a computer analogy).
- “Reading”, “monitoring” the body will direct to the program that needs to be “debugged” which in turn will express in a changed body.
- There are NO incurable dis-eases, only incurable people.
(In other words, how much you are willing to change the deep spiritual/emotional program will determine how much expression of wellness you will see).
- Therefore it is all about choice.
- Killing anything (“anti-xxxxx”) never solves anything.
- The body is designed to run on raw materials directly obtained from Mother Earth.
- Dis-ease is a disruption in the emotional/spiritual biofield reflected in a deficiency of raw materials.
- Deficiency can result from inadequate supply or blockade by toxic energies either emotional or chemical.
- The true healing agent is deep, real, unconditional Love – for yourself, and for others and for Father who makes it all possible. This is the Purest and Highest form of Energy.
- Healing is meant to be “simple, childlike and naked” (see my previous posts).
- True health is an alignment with your larger purpose, your “Higher Self” which is intended to be a blessing to yourself and to others and is designed to be in intimate relationship with Father.
OK, there are some things to chew on and to ponder!
I think we will stop there and let some of that sink in.
Next time we will get practical, using this list to help direct some things that will begin to make a change in arthritis, of whatever type (and other dis-eases, too).
Go in Health!
Dr Jon
July 30th, 2010 -- Posted in Current Health Matters |
In the last couple of posts we have talked about the two main types of inflamed joints (“arthritis” – using that word means you are speaking Latin!):
I promised the “good stuff” in terms of treatment but first let’s spend time on this post laying out the therapy you would typically get from your medical doctor or rheumatologist so you will be up to speed and so the alternative therapies will make more sense.
As we begin, let’s realize that inflammation, for whatever reason, is the body’s means of healing. When there is a trauma, sprained ankle for example, or an immune response to a foreign agent, the body responds by sending in the “troops”.
Blood vessels dilate, bringing in a larger volume of blood. In that blood are white blood cells and chemicals specially designed to begin to heal whatever is causing the abnormality. The result of this activity visible to the eye on the outside is redness, increased heat, swelling, and pain.
Each of these is due to the increased volume of blood and the reactions occurring.
There is just one problem with this: pain feels uncomfortable.
Enter the allopath, the medical doctor.
Now “allopathy” means “against disease.” That is, whatever symptoms are seen in the body, do something to fight or minimize those symptoms.
An allopath does just that and today’s medical doctor is trained as an allopath.
This is opposed to other approaches such as naturopathy where the physician uses natural methods, or homeopathy where the physician uses remedies that will actually cause the same symptoms, or chiropractic/osteopathy that uses the body energy field to stimulate healing.
In each of these approaches one actually works with the symptoms and the body’s natural processes to restore final balance at some deeper level instead of just knocking back symptoms so one feels better.
And then there is “Renegadopathy,” the approach of Dr Jon, the Renegade Doc, who puts together all the various approaches and then some, but that will come later……..
So what does your allopathic, medical doctor do for arthritis?
For both types of arthritis they start with the use of an antiinflammatory (against inflammation) agent. This can be as simple as aspirin, a bit more complicated like Naprosyn, or a steroid such as cortisone, depending on the response or lack thereof.
Naprosyn type drugs cause small tears in the stomach lining allowing microscopically small pieces of less than completely digested food get into the blood stream. This sets up an immune system response or allergy which causes the body to generate – you guessed it – more inflammation!
It can also cause bleeding from the stomach, not a great idea for health.
Steroids are the stress chemical, your body’s answer to survive when under stress. It causes blood sugar, breathing rate and blood pressure to increase and digestion, urination and bowel function to decrease. These are all great things to happen when one needs to fight to survive, but when trying to heal? Over time steroids cause thinning of skin, easy bleeding and weak bones. Makes one wonder, doesn’t it?
With osteoarthritis, the next step is to do an “oil change.” Hyaluronic acid, a component of the lubricating fluid of joints, is injected in a series of three doses over a three week period.
If that doesn’t work then the next step is to eventually do a joint replacement, a major surgery with significant issues. In fairness, at times this can do a great job of helping people get functional again.
For rheumatoid arthritis, if the anti-inflammatories don’t do the job then the allopath goes to toxic metals like gold or platinum in an attempt to kill the inflammation producing cells.
Or maybe they will go directly to methotrexate, a drug used to fight cancer. Again, the idea is to kill the cells that are producing the inflammation.
There seems to be something out of line with using a drug that kills any and every cell in an attempt to shut down cells that are trying to heal you and cause a “side effect” of pain, especially when you don’t look at underlying causes of the pain producer in the first place.
Next time we will begin to look at the other approaches – I really promise!
Go in health,
Dr Jon
July 29th, 2010 -- Posted in Current Health Matters |
Last time we discussed Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). As you remember, it is a metabolic, systemic problem, a so-called “autoimmune” problem.
This time let’s talk about the “other arthritis”, the “wear and tear” or degenerative type called Osteoarthritis (OA).
First, realize that the joints in our bodies are high-end, finely tuned, precisely “machined” and complex arrangements. I avoid calling them “machines” because they are so much more than that. (They also have means to sense space and direction – intelligence!)
The actual joint is really the space between ends of bones. (Interesting, isn’t it, that we move on space!)
This space is contained by a joint capsule, a balloon, that holds the fluid and spacers (cartilage) that cushion and lubricate the joint. It is maintained by a complex system of interwoven fibers that provide its structural integrity. Crossing the joint is a system of muscles and tendons that provide for movement.
At the end of each bone, in the joint, is a layer of cartilage and between and around the cartilage at the ends of the bones is the synovial fluid, the lubrication, the “oil” that allows it to move without restriction and without frictional heat.
Some joints, the knees for example, have extra and special spacers and ligaments, to help support even more. (Each of these spacers in the knee is called a “meniscus” and the extra ligaments are “cruciate” ligaments.)
In this arrangement, understand that the tolerances of the gaps between the cartilage ends are very precise. Any alteration of the gap away from the original “blueprint” will cause stress in the form of increased or decreased pressure in either specific points or across the broad area.
Joints that have to bear the weight of the body are at risk of being “pushed together” because of gravity. If one does a movement that applies force to a joint in a particular way and does so repetitively there is a huge chance of breakdown occurring in the muscles and ligaments and consequently the gaps between the joints.
When the gap changes the fluid cannot always maintain the pressure so damage begins to occur to the cartilage.
Trauma to the joint can also upset the precise balance of tolerances and also then damage to the cartilage will occur.
Once damage begins to occur, further wear and tear will increase and accelerate the damage.
This then is what we call “Osteoarthritis.”
Because weight bearing is a huge component, the joints affected in this way tend to be neck, low back, hips and knees. Because the dis-ease occurs where there is damage, it is local and often one-sided or more on one side of the body than the other. It can even be on one side of a joint and not on the other.
So you see there are two major kinds of inflamed joints (“arthritis”). The metabolic, immune system type and the wear-and-tear type, different in how and where it affects your body.
Incidentally, there are other things that can cause arthritis. For example, gout, the deposit of uric acid crystals in tissue, can also be deposited in joint fluid. These crystals can act like knives and can be very damaging to cartilage. Psoriasis, primarily a skin condition, can also cause damage to joint cartilage.
The interesting thing is that by the time the damage is done, from whatever method, the end result is the same: joint breakdown, bone rubbing on bone, with lots of pain and dysfunction.
Next time we will talk about how to deal with these dis-eases we call “arthritis”.
Go in health,
Dr Jon
July 28th, 2010 -- Posted in Current Health Matters |
Arthritis is not a benign or infrequent problem.
In my job I see people every day who deal with the pain and hardship brought on by this problem in one of its forms. Loss of joint movement, loss of inability to hold down a job or enjoy simple pleasures of life are just some of the ways it affects us.
But let’s start at the beginning.
“Arthritis” is Latin for “inflammation of a joint” which is a very general statement. Therefore, anything that causes a joint to get swollen, red, hot and painful has just generated an “arthritis.” This could happen with trauma, broken bones that affect a joint or some metabolic problem that has an effect on a joint. So just to say you have “arthritis” isn’t really telling you very much. It’s much like saying “I’m ‘sick’.”
Next, with that background, let’s clarify that there are two main types commonly talked about and experienced:
- Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) and
- Osteoarthritis (OA).
Rheumatoid is metabolically the more serious and harder to treat. It is an autoimmune disease, meaning that the body actually starts to eat itself up from the inside out. In the military it would be called “friendly fire.”
Some piece of tissue in one’s body all of a sudden is considered “enemy” and the immune system is turned against it with all of its amazing ways to kill and destroy.
In rheumatoid arthritis the tissue declared to be the enemy is the synovial membrane. This is the lining around joints that makes the slick, mucoid, almost oily substance that lubricates joints and keeps them moving freely and easily. This membrane becomes inflamed in response to the white cells that come in to fight it. This in turn causes swelling, redness, heat and pain – the cardinal signs of inflammation.
Normally those symptoms mean that the body is healing and protecting from invaders, but in this case those symptoms cause more and more destruction of the cartilage and fibers that make and maintain the joint. In turn it becomes less and less functional. Over the long haul, untreated, the joint locks up, looks swollen and knobby, and the bones even can rub on each other and wear each other down.
Interestingly, the joints most affected are the small joints of the hands and other non weight-bearing joints. It, being a system disorder, affects both sides of the body symmetrically. It usually affects women more than men. It can also strike at any age, one variety actually being called “Juvenile RA” when it strikes very young persons (children).
Bottom line: this dis-ease is an ongoing process that is painful and debilitating.
Another interesting point about RA is that because it is a metabolic and immune system problem, other parts of the body can also become involved. In fact, there is no body part which is exempt. Consequently, a full-blown, out-of-control case could be life threatening if some major organs such as heart or lungs were also to become affected.
Next time we will talk about how osteoarthritis is different.
Go in health,
Dr Jon
