Joint Pain
If you suffer from chronic pain such as joint pain, then understandably you will probably be searching for any kind of solution that can help you to alleviate discomfort. To this end you will likely come across hundreds if not thousands of touted solutions, and each one can appear very promising.
What’s important though is that you look at all of these possible remedies and solutions from a scientific perspective and that you are logical and careful in choosing which methods you think will work and which you want to try. Unfortunately the very fact that people with chronic pain are so desperate is of course going to see some people trying to take advantage of that.
Can Herbal Remedies Help?
Case in point – some alleged ‘herbal remedies’. Unfortunately, while there are one or two herbal remedies that may help you to improve your joint pain to some degree – whether this is by increasing the lubrication of the joints, or by helping the immune system to fight the symptoms of the problem such as the pain or the deterioration of the joints.
However this can only work if the substance contains active ingredients and if those active ingredients are actually related to joint pain – and even then the difference is likely to be much less pronounced than it would be had you used for instance actual medication.
There are unfortunately all too many examples of herbal remedies that just don’t do what they claim to do, and that don’t contain any active ingredients at all. Let’s take for instance the example of homeopathic remedies. Homeopathy is a whole category of herbal remedies that work in a specific way. Homeopathy is based on the belief that a medicine should cause the symptoms it is trying to treat when consumed in high quantities. In other words, if you are treating joint pain then you should eat some kind of herb that would cause joint pain – and the idea then is that the body will fight the new substance and thus treat the original problem.
So far so good, except for the fact that this is based on nothing other than fancy. It sounds like it might work true, but the reality is that the body is already fighting to beat the joint pain, and that eating something that causes more joint pain isn’t going to achieve anything other than more complications.
Homeopaths realized this relatively early on, and that’s why they came up with a solution which was to dilute the substance so that it was 1 part active ingredient to hundreds or thousands part water/sugar/alcohol. In other words, they completely eliminated the active ingredient. The treatment wouldn’t have worked to begin with, but now it is diluted to the point that it no longer is even present in the concoction – but trusting consumers will nevertheless spend millions on the products each year.
How to Choose the Right Remedies
Chronic Pain
As mentioned, there are some natural herbs and other remedies you can add to your diet if you are so inclined. However for the most part you will be spending a lot of money on very marginal results and you would find you could get much better effects from just improving your diet by increasing your vitamins and minerals and protein intake.
Best of all is to listen to your doctor and to take their advice. Too many people are untrusting of private health care seeing it as motivated by money – but you need to realize that these herbalists are making a lot more money than most doctors. If that doesn’t sway you then look at the NHS in England – their doctors prescribe the same things and don’t get paid for any of them. Use your head and don’t look for a silver bullet.
Herbal Article by:
Chuck Rappaport is aspiring health writer who shares various minimally invasive hip replacement techniques via his blog. Recently he shared experience of his client on how minimally invasive knee replacement technique saved him undergoing complex surgeries.
