What’s this chronic condition which causes inflammation, swelling and distortion of the joints? Medically speaking, arthritis is a title which covers many inflammatory conditions of the joints and muscles, extremely painful symptoms which make moving, sitting and sleeping difficult, even impossible occasionally. Often as not, the only relief is from pain-killing medications, steroids, etc..

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Sadly, these medications lose their effect after a while and the individual is not any better off. Although millions of dollars are spent on clinical research to arthritic conditions, we appear to be no further forward in our quest to discover a cure. But all isn’t gloom and doom, for in the other field of medicine there is, at last, a strong chance of a breakthrough. Certainly, ongoing research carried out by many specialists in this area, including myself, have borne this out, frequently producing very remarkable results.

Even allowing for the fact that a trend towards arthritis, rheumatism, etc., can be inherited, incorrect diet and lifestyle are also contributory factors, giving a lot of credence to the saying”We are what we eat and do”. In nigh on forty years as a psychologist and nutritional therapist, I have discovered that stress is a significant element in causing and prolonging chronic ill health. It’s of the utmost importance, therefore, that we learn to recognise stress and how to tackle it head on. Believe it or not, most individuals do not know they’re worried until they experience the physical effects such a condition can bring.

Psychosomatic illness

This is called psychosomatic illness (mind affecting body). For anybody who may scoff or don’t understand precisely how our thoughts can influence our body, a smple instance is when we get a sudden fright. In such a circumstance, our heart starts to pound and we get a feeling of butterflies in the tummy. Often, these sensations are accompanied by coming out in a cold perspiration. These symptoms are brought on by a rush of adrenalin to the machine that is our in-built, natural self-preservation response – the “fight or flight” syndrome!

Chronic stress can also give us splitting headaches, caused by the muscles at the bottom of the skull and shoulders getting tight or in a state of acute cramp – often called referred pain. Chronic stress often means chronic tension, the consequence of which is that small amounts of adrenalin are continuously being circulated around the body,to a point where it impacts our joints (the first phases of arthritis and other chronic inflammatory conditions.) That’s the reason a lot of clinical research is treating stress and its consequent health issues. A reasonable quantity of day-to -day, mild stress is healthy. Indeed, it might be argued it is fairly natural and causes minimum harm. As we know more about how the mind affects the body, an ever-increasing number pf psychologists are focusing on conducting additional research or treating arthritics or possible victims at the bases, so to speak.

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In otherwords, the stage where acute or chronic stress is causing moderate muscle or joint pain. Furthermore, research to date can also be linking chronic stress to some kinds of cancer, brought on by a depleted or malfunctioning auto-immune system. But it is not only stress that could cause an inflammatory issue. Nowadays, clinical obesity is becoming as big a killer as heart disease and cancer in the majority of the developed nations of the world. Junk food, lack of reasonable exercise, to mention but two, are probably as harmful as smoking or drinking excessive amounts of alcohol. In my experience, a holistic solution to the aforementioned health problems is one that produces satisfactory results in eight cases out of ten. It brings the body back into balance by treating the entire body, not only a portion of it. It works with and encourages the body to heal itself as nature intended, as opposed to by causing pharmaceutical drugs whose side-effects tend to be worse and more harmful than the disease itself! If you suffer from arthritis, rheumatism and other chronic inflammatory joint ailments there’s every reason for hope if you select the organic treatment route. From private, professional expertise I am totally convinced of this, without a shadow of doubt!