John Arts Abundant Living www.johnarts.co.nz

Last month we identified the main types of joints and discussed osteoarthritis, the most common degenerative joint disease.

Today we look at rheumatoid arthritis and gout, which are two common but very different joint diseases. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) belongs to a large group of autoimmune diseases that affect joints.

With RA the immune system thinks that joint tissue is foreign and starts an inflammatory attack on joint tissue, starting with the synovial membrane. This becomes a magnet for a cocktail of immune system generated inflammatory chemicals that migrate into the joint cavity, causing swelling and thickening. The end result is swollen, inflamed, painful and eventually deformed joints. The medical response is various anti-inflammatory and immune suppressing medications in order to restrict over-production of inflammatory compounds.

To make things worse, these inflammatory chemicals release a barrage of free radicals which damage tissues, causing more inflammation. This is really a vicious cycle and the only nutritional way to improve the confused immune system is to target both inflammation and free radicals by adding a wide range of anti-inflammatory and antioxidant compounds. These include Omega 3, grape seed OPCs, acai extract, resveratrol, turmeric and several others including n-acetylcysteine and alpha lipoic acid, which recycle antioxidants.

Gout is a different type of arthritis and is caused by an accumulation of uric acid as crystals in synovial membrane of joints, often in the big toe. The presence of uric acid crystals then triggers an inflammatory response. While the uric acid crystals are painless, the heat, swelling, redness and pain are caused by the inflammatory response. The common medical treatments involve drugs that block uric acid production and various anti-inflammatory medications.

The nutritional medicine approach to gout includes adding foods and supplements that help the body produce less uric acid and help combat the inflammatory cascade that is the real cause of the pain. People with gout often have other problems, including blood sugar problems and often cardiovascular risk factors, which is why I prefer a much broader approach to gout. This includes specific gout remedies such as tart cherry to broad spectrum antioxidant and anti-inflammatory nutrients. This is normally very effective and can in most cases be safely taken with gout medication. Give me a call if you need help. To join my weekly newsletter go to www.johnarts.co.nz and visit www.abundant.co.nz

John Arts is the founder of Abundant Health. To contact John phone (local) 578 9051 or 0800 423 559.