Pain, pain, go away. Natural alternatives to arthritis treatments

By Jonathan Evans Herbal Information Specialist /Business Representative for the Herbarium Special to PRIME Editors Note: According to information available on the Center for Disease Control Web site (www.cdc.gov) 28.3 million women (and 18.1 million men) report doctor-diagnosed arthritis. According to statistics cited on the Web site Your Future Health (www.yourfuturehealth.com), the annual cost to the U. S, economy of treating arthritis is $15 billion. Arthritis. If you're of a certain age, you know all too well about this condition's painful, life-limiting effects. In this month's column I answer a readers e-mail question about treating this condition naturally. Dear Jonathan, I have arthritis and don't like the side effects of the prescriptions I have used. Are there any herbs that would be good for arthritis? Wendy, Holyoke Dear Wendy, You did not mention the type of arthritis you have, or the medications you have tried, so I am guessing you have used NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Fortunately, Mother Nature has a wide variety of herbs for the condition. Natural Cox-2 inhibitors One of the simplest is Turmeric (Curcuma longa) but not the stuff you buy in a jar or canister at the grocery store. We use a guaranteed potency extract of turmeric with 95 percent curcumin content. When Vioxx was taken off the market and Celebrex was allowed to stay with big warnings, Turmeric did the trick for dozens of our customers. Interestingly, the turmeric not only works as a COX-2 inhibitor, it also helps with digestion and lowers cholesterol! Ginger (Zingiber officinale) is another excellent COX-2 inhibitor. Other anti-inflammatories used include Bromelain, an enzyme from pineapple, Boswellia serrata, from the Ayurvedic tradition, White Willow (Salix alba) and Meadowsweet, both of which contain salicin from which aspirin was eventually synthesized. Rosemary and Hops contain compounds that help reduce inflammation. The herbal preparation Zyflamend, from the company New Chapter, contains many of the aforementioned herbs in a super critical extract and has been the subject of numerous scientific studies. Tried and true preparations One of our best items is also one of our oldest. Dr. Clayton s Arth Herbs contains many traditional arthritis herbs such as yucca, hydrangea, devil s claw chaparral wormwood wild lettuce and alfalfa. We have used Arth-Herbs for thirty years. My late father suffered with arthritis all his life and tried every remedy under the sun, with limited success. He was in such pain, he would take 30 aspirin a day and it barely touched the pain, How his stomach withstood that kind of beating I cannot imagine. Kathy introduced him to the Arth Herbs and he finally got relief. He was also very prone to gout attacks. Kathy made up arthritis & gout tea. He never had another attack and he used that daily for the rest of his life. Liquid tonics For people who cannot take tablets or capsules, there are liquid combinations available. The Herbarium's Joint Tonic which contains devils claw, yucca, California poppy, black cohosh dandelion and licorice and Buried Treasure's Joint-Ease are very popular and effective. Buried Treasure's formula incorporates Glucosamine, Chondroitin, and MSM along with several anti- inflammatory herbs. This formula is especially good for dogs. I have a letter from one woman who used this liquid in place of the glucosamine her Veterinarian gave her. She said it worked fast, and was about one-third the cost of her dog's prescription. The dog is doing very well. NOTE: In this answer and previous columns, I have referred to some of the herbs and supplements as anti- inflammatories. Some people thought they could not use them because of they were told to avoid anti-inflammatories. Let me clarify. Anti-inflammatories are a category of pharmaceuticals, a noun as it were. NSAIDs are a type of drug. When I speak or write about anti-inflammatory herbs, I am referring to them as an adjective, describing their action. It is what they do, not what they are. Also, MSM (methylsulfonyl- methane)is a natural biological sulfur. According to Dr. Michael Murray sulfur is an important nutrient for joint tissue where it functions in the stabilization of the connective tissue matrix of cartilage, tendons and ligaments. It is found in many joint formulas along with glucosamine. MSM is safe, with no known toxicity reported even in very high doses. It is not Sulfa, which many people are allergic to. I hope this clarifies things. Another note: Researchers believe the curcuminoids are the main compound in turmeric that exhibits the COX-2 inhibition. They are right to a point. This is why we use an extract of turmeric. The extract contains all the compounds found in the plant, so you are getting the whole plant. In many previous cases, scientists have tried to isolate the one main ingredient in Valerian, Saw Palmetto, St. John's Wort and several other plants, but to no avail. They found the ingredient, but the end product did not work as expected. Mother Nature does not give up all her secrets to science. You may be able to identify the components, but how they interact is still a mystery. It is like water. We know it is comprised of hydrogen and oxygen but we can't make it. Mother Nature sometimes has a funny sense of humor! Jonathan Please send your questions on botanical remedies to Natures Rx : Jonathan Evans via e-mail at info@theherbarium.com, or by regular mail at The Herbarium, 264 Exchange Street, Chicopee, MA 01013.