ReeHart – Blogging from the Heart

Posts Tagged ‘arthritis’

Being overweight is a common factor in most gout patients. A big reason for the connection between the two is diet. High purine foods are a major contributing factor to gout. Many of these same high purine foods are not healthy and aid in weight gain.

Risky foods such as bacon and hamburgers should not be part of your diet. However, if you wish to continue eating them, it would be advisable to only eat them occasionally. These foods not only have a big purine content, they also are loaded with fats that make it harder to lose extra weight.

Drinking multiple sodas a day increases your risk of gout by 50%. The empty calories also add to your weight problem, further increasing your risk of gout by putting more stress on your kidneys. Not to mention, high sugar content has been linked with increased risk of cancer.

Diet sodas are not a good option if you drink regular soda. Diet pops can have a negative effect on losing weight. These seemingly helpful drinks make you hungrier and some health professionals actually think diet sodas are worse than drinking regular pop. Not to mention the chemicals used in diet drinks have been found in studies to increase your risk of cancer. Just don’t drink pop. Water is a much better alternative.

Drinking coffee can have useful benefits when trying to eliminate future gout symptoms. Even though coffee can dehydrate you, studies show that drinking four cups a day can reduce uric acid levels almost in half. Decaf works also in case caffeine use is a concern.

Big changes in one step is usually not beneficial. Moderation is the key. By taking smaller steps you will be less likely to quit and will be more likely to have healthy longevity results.

By doing just a few things a little at a time, you will help improve kidney function, reduce the stress load on your renal system, which will have the added benefit of reducing your risk of cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure, and stroke. The benefits far outweigh the risks.

Eating a healthy diet will not only help you in losing extra weight, but can help you get rid of gout. Many of the foods we take for granted such as most fruits, can actually help you beat the symptoms and causes of this painful arithritic disease.

Pain causes the type of uncomfortableness that does not allow you to indulge in any activity comfortably or to focus on your everyday activities. If someone is hurting from arthritis pain, tendonitis pain, a headache, back pain or any type of pain, they will want to find relief as fast as they possibly can so that they can once again get back to their normal activities. If you have been fortunate enough not to have any type of pain, and then you develop some sort of pain, you realize how fortunate you have been, because some pains can completely restrict you from certain types of activities.

Do Pain Relief Creams Work?

Yes and no, depending on the kind of pain you have, but in the largest part, pain relief creams will offer effective and quick relief. There are all kinds of pain relief creams that will work on the specific pain that you are suffering from, and the most common pains are the: back and joint pain, headache, muscle ache and of course arthritis pain.

Pain relief creams work on initial stages mostly when your pain is not chronic. The best part about cream pain relievers are that they target the region of the pain when compared to drugs that have to be distributed into your whole system, but the cream pain reliever must be rubbed into the skin completely to be totally effective and work the quickest.

Different Types Of Pain Relief Creams

Some of the most sought after pain relief creams are the natural types, which are powerful enough to provide you relief and does not have any side effects. If you are suffering from any type of serious health issues, make sure you check with your doctor, but you can purchase most pain relief creams over the counter because they don’t contain any antibiotics.

There are no side effects from pain relief creams but you may encounter skin rashes, especially if you have sensitive type skin; the rashes should disappear normally without any further medication required but if they remain, contact your doctor immediately. Try not to apply more pain relief cream then shown on the tube of the cream as some are strong enough to produce a superficial burn of the upper layer of the skin where applied; using more cream will not get rid of the pain quicker but can create more damage.

Some Other Helpful Ideas

There are some pain relief creams that can have a very strong odor and can leave stains on your clothes and bed linens, so try to avoid this by getting a non-oily pain relief cream, so you can have your pain relieved and you don’t have a mess you have to clean up.

Gout is uniquely known in the medical world as one of the most regularly recorded medical disease throughout history. It is frequently related to hereditary abnormality in the ability of a person’s body to excrete uric acid.

No one thinks much about purines in their food, the items that are high in purines are often amongst the most flavourful foods. Shellfish, red meats and game meats are all high in purines. Only when you have an agonizing attack of gout or even worse kidney stones do you start to even consider the purines in your food.

Not everyone with increased levels of uric acid in their blood stream will develop gout, but if you find your blood contains eleveated levels then it is a good reason to start taking precautions to reduce it. At it’s worst increased uric acid can lead to kidney stones and even kidney failure, as well as gout.

Gout attacks are partly caused by your body trying to protect itself, it sees the uric acid crystals as an invader and white blood cells are sent out to put a safety envelope around the crystals. This is when the pain starts.

The inflammation of the joint is hastened by the occurrence of crystallized uric acid deposits in the person’s joints. These crystallized uric acids may be found in joint or synovial fluid and joint or synovial lining. Intense inflammation develops when white blood cells envelops the uric acid crystals as a defense mechanism. This action causes the release chemicals that results in inflammation. The person will experience severe pain, redness and heat in the area afflicted.

Elevated uric acid in your blood doesn’t automatically equal gout attacks, in fact Dr’s have not been able to link the two unequivocably, it is howver definitely a warning point. If you have pains in your toe joints, inflamation and swelling and then a blood test finds elevated uric acid then it is safe to say that you probably have gout.

Rheumatoid arthritis is a well-known, so far incurable and very annoying disease. While it is not lethal, the fact that it attacks not only joints, but also some internal organs makes it much more dangerous than any other form or arthritis. What is even worse, this arthritis always affect both sides of the body. While normally people may suffer from pain in only a single joint at the time, rheumatoid arthritis cause inflammation in the same joints in the both sides of the body simultaneously. For example, if this arthritis attacks knees, it will cause the inflammation at the both knees at the same time. As the result, most areas of life that are related with movement or physical activities are seriously affected by the disease.

Many people think that because rheumatoid arthritis can’t be cured, there is nothing they can do about it. As the result, they accept all the suffering – even though there is a lot one can do to improve the quality of life and slow down the progress of the disease. For one, they can count on the doctor’s help – they won’t give them a cure, but there are already some medications that will reduce the symptoms. Besides, there are several things they can do to make their life easier.

First of all, you must do exercise regularly. Everything that makes joints and muscles stronger is a good thing. While the strength training is sometimes too much to handle, but some cardiovascular training such swimming or jogging will keep the joints and muscles in good shape. Ask your doctor as to what exercises you should do. Generally, you should avoid any heavy lifting and learn how to do exercises properly – the point is to make your joints move, not to overbear them.

Pain is certainly the worst condition related with rheumatoid arthritis. While sometimes taking prescription pills to quell the pain is the only way to get rid of it, usually the best solution is to use heat or cold to reduce pain. The exact effectiveness of heat or cold may be different depending on the individual predispositions, so you have to check what works best. Hot showers can generally bring much needed relief to muscles and soreness, while ice packs work best to reduce pain in the inflamed areas.

As for the diet, a recent research report published in the Journal of Rheumatology points that Omega-3 fatty acids (as well as other fish oil acids) have strong effects on rheumatoid arthritis, reducing the pain and having some mild anti-inflammatory effect. Adding Omega Daily, a food supplement containing Omega-3 acids, might be a good idea indeed, though adding a decent amount of tuna, herring or salmon to your diet may have a similarly good result.