What's the Best Way to Get Rid of Gout and Get Gout Pain Relief

Joints soreness, redness and severe pain at the base of the big toe are symptoms which probably indicate that you are suffering from gout. The excruciating pain which comes from the big toe may make you wake up at night. These sharp pains are possible signs of one the most severe forms of arthritis. Gout attacks can cause burning sensation and intense pain in the big toe. This sort of illness may affect anyone at any age and make you feel helpless in search for gout pain relief.

Finding gout pain relief to alleviate and ease the pain is probably the first requirement when suffering from a gout attack. Severe gout attacks can cause severe pain and intense burning sensation leaving the affected parts inflamed, raw and hot which couldn't even bear the slightest of touch. The good news is that, you can find remedy to gout pain and reduce its painful symptoms, and prevent it from occurring again. But first of all, let's get to know what is gout? What are the types of gout? What causes gout?

What is gout?

Gout is often referred to as the most painful type of arthritis. The high deposit of uric acid in the blood is what results in gout. It can be an extremely painful situation and affects your joints. Gout takes place when your body tends to produce too much of uric acid and cannot dispose the exact quantities. Uric acid is the waste product of the purines. It is processed by the digestive system of the human body. Generally, the uric acid flows in the blood stream and departs through kidneys.

What causes gout?

Remember when your body produces high level of uric acid, you are more vulnerable to suffer from hyperuricemia. Urate crystals gathered around the tendon areas causes intense pain and swelling during any gout attack. When uric deposits reach to its extreme, the joints around the affected area become inflamed and swollen.

The inflammation taking place is the reaction of your body failing to fight off the disturbance caused due to excess of uric acid. With the production of too much of white blood cells, the swollen and inflamed joints experience a burning sensation.

What are the different gout types?

Recurrent Gout

This is the sort of gout which offers sufferers a few years or months of possible respite from the pain and the symptoms. The joints can go back to its normal function without any problem. The lapses can even last up to many years. But, when the gout attacks take place again, it can appear more dangerous than the earlier attacks. And the second time when it appears, it can spread to the other neighboring joints.

Hyperuricemia

This sort of gout points out to a high level of uric acid in the body. There are 2 sorts of hyperuricemia- secondary and primary hyperuricemia. The primary hyperuricemia is a type of inherited dysfunction in kidneys which disables its capability to excrete the correct amount of uric acid that leads to the accumulation of the uric acid in your blood stream. On the other hand, secondary hyperruricemia is caused due to certain treatments and medications. Eating few particular food groups can even trigger this disease.

Acute Gouts

The acute gout is usually characterized by the swelling of the joints due to the high amount of the uric acid crystals. An intense pain and inflammation may take place and continue for several days. Acute gout attacks can bring on a throbbing and excruciating pain. And the burning sensation can even spread out throughout the affected areas. Big toes are the major victims of this sort of gout. However, it can even extend to the other areas.

Chronic Gouts

This is one of the most dangerous kinds of gout types. This causes permanent damage to the joints and the kidneys. It may affect tendons, and build lumps in knees, ears, hands and in the other body parts. Puss may appear from your skin. In such a condition, gout pain relief should be administered quite immediately, if you are suffering from this sort of gout.

Gout Cures & Remedies

For quick gout pain relief, immediate medication is required. There are various types of medications available in the market. Doctors usually prescribe medications depending on the state of your health. Generally, medications are prescribed to cure the acute and painful gout attacks and to restrain it from getting back again.

Treatments are recommended to lessen chances of the gout complications, like a sudden increase in the urate crystal deposits which causes lumps to develop under your skin. Treating gout pain with proper medications is a useful way of getting rid of this painful disease. However, to cure gout a proper lifestyle change is necessitated which starts with the regular diet.

Drinking 2 to 4 liters of water in a day will help in flushing out toxins from your system and avoid gout attacks. Avoid alcohol and fast foods which includes a high fat content. You should even eat less of fish, poultry and meat, especially when you are trying hard to free yourself from the painful gout attacks to ensure gain gout pain relief.

Many people feel that alternative and natural treatments to seek gout pain relief are the safest and the best options to put an end to this painful condition. For instance, coffee is considered a possible remedy as it helps to reduce the level of uric level. However, there is a lack of evidence, so non-coffee drinkers might not be encouraged to begin with the habit. But you never know few clues can lead to new discoveries to treat gout in future.

Cherries and Vitamin C have been discovered to minimize the uric acid levels in the human body. Even deep breathing exercises and meditation are few other alternative gout treatments which can help you to manage the gout attacks.

Paying attention to your diet is the most crucial thing to ensure the removal of the uric acid build up stored in your body and thus get a proper gout pain relief. Be sure to take Vitamin C supplements, grapes, avocados, strawberries, cherries and blueberries. Also, limit the total protein intake as well.

Chiropractic Care and Temporomandibular Disorder - Why Do the Head and Neck Hurt?

Temporomandibular joint (TMJ), otherwise known as the jaw joint is associated with the upper cervical vertebrae. The muscles that move the jaw are largely innervated by the fifth cranial nerve, referred to as trigeminal nerve. Trigeminal nerve is one of the most complex and powerful nerves in the human body. It is completely responsible for your jaw and tooth functions. It provides sensation to your jaws, face tongue, sinus, palate, eyes, teeth, and lips.

The nerve accounts for approximately 40% of the brain's processing. The brain uses 40% of its energy trying to figure out what the trigeminal nerve is sending to and from it. It is also associated to the facial, hypoglossal, and vagus nerves. These nerves are responsible for sensation and function of almost all other muscles of the head, neck, and throat. Many branches of these nerves pass through the jaw joint wherein if one of them is strained, the rest of the nerves may get affected as well.

The jaw joint is one of the most complicated joints in your body, with a complex arrangement of muscles and ligaments allowing various types of movements. Any problem that stops the muscles, ligaments, discs and bones from working normally together can cause temporomandibular disorder, a disorder that is painful to the jaw joint. Having this condition, a person may experience incorrect bites, jaw clicking, grinding and notching of the teeth, not to mention severe headache and acute neck pain.

An incorrect bite may mean a lot of stress and pressure being placed on your jaw. Sometimes in severe cases, a person with TMD can barely open his or her mouth widely, or will feel clicking, cracking or a "pop" upon opening. Often, patients report the onset of the jaw joint disorder occurring with some sort of unusual stress, such as final exams, or work-related issues.

In most cases, people rely on chiropractic care because it has been proven to be more effective than taking medications, not to mention it helps patients by using approach that is gentler, cheaper, and safer than what traditional care can provide. Surgery can also be an option for treating TMD. However, it is expensive and it takes time away from work and other activities during recovery, and it can be dangerous as well.

If you have TMD, chiropractic manipulation may be recommended with the aid of massage, ice/heat therapy, and some specific exercises. In most cases, your chiropractor's first goal is to eliminate the symptoms, particularly pain. Along with the treatment, your chiropractor may recommend specific exercises such as stretching and strengthening exercises. Stretching exercises helps to relax tight muscles, while strengthening exercises helps to tighten loose muscles.

Chiropractic care works well with disorders which are mechanical in nature thus it is very effective with TMD. This is the most preferable than any other options. Problems are more closely examined and eliminated by focusing on the underlying cause itself.

Arthritis Pain? Stop Eating Junk Food And Get Relief From Pain Naturally

After years of aggravating joint pain I finally found relief from my arthritis pain, naturally, and you can do it too. I got rid of my arthritis symptoms and arthritis pain forever by making one simple change in my lifestyle. I stopped eating all junk food.

Osteoarthritis is a chronic disease of the joint cartilage and bone. It's often thought to result from continuous "wear and tear" on a joint. There are other causes of arthritis such as congenital arthritis with congenital defects, trauma and metabolic disorders. And osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis. When people refer to arthritis they usually mean osteoarthritis not rheumatoid arthritis, which can be detected by blood tests. Osteoarthritis cannot be diagnosed using blood tests. Arthritis is usually found in the joints of the fingers, feet, knees, hips, and spine.

The ability to make repairs to the cartilage becomes very limited as cartilage cells age. Damaged joints cause pain and arthritis sufferers are constantly looking for ways to relieve this pain. Our joints are uniquely designed to provide flexibility, support, stability, and protection.

Genetic factors are thought to be involved in about fifty percent of osteoarthritis cases in the hands and hips and a somewhat lower percentage of cases for the knee. An inflammatory response causes cytokines to gather in injured areas and cause inflammation and damage to body tissue and cells. It's known to play a role in a systemic form of arthritis - rheumatoid arthritis and other muscle and joint issues associated with autoimmune diseases. Genetic researchers report a higher incidence of osteoarthritis between parents and children and between siblings rather than between husbands and wives.

For part of a dietary approach try avoiding seven of the eight most allergic foods - wheat, which is the most allergenic of all, corn, eggs, milk, peanuts, fish and shellfish. If you really want to get rid of your arthritis pain forever it may take a big change in your diet and an ongoing commitment to it. So the first step in managing your arthritis is to change your diet. I think all health professionals would agree with this.

Try massaging your fingers or other affected joints with virgin coconut oil once or twice a day to help loosen them up and maintain flexibility. Nutrition experts say it takes a combination of supplements, not just one supplement to help relieve arthritis pain, build cartilage, etc. but studies done on antioxidant vitamins question their value as supplements. It's clearly better to consume these antioxidants in living plant foods because they may also need to work together with other nutrients present in the foods to work properly - called synergistic action.

One good natural treatment method involves avoiding all inflammatory foods. And dried Montmorency tart cherries and cherries and their juice seem to be helpful as a natural treatment for arthritis pain for many people.

Gluten may be just one of the culprits in arthritic diseases including fibromyalgia. So avoid wheat, barley, rye, spelt, triticale, kamut and oats (although it's not a gluten grain it gets contaminated with wheat during the milling process at the where it is usually milled). Many arthritis sufferers who've changed their diets significantly have noticed major or total improvement in their overall health.

Exercise all your non-affected and affected joints every day, to keep them flexible. Even if you don't think you can exercise, you can do some movements no matter how small so just keep moving as much as possible. Don't lie down when you can sit and don't sit when you can stand. Keep your feet moving. Use the Chinese Taiji health balls, the kind with the chimes, to strengthen the finger joints. To use them hold the two balls in on hand, move them in a clockwise circle with your fingers to rotate them, then try moving them counterclockwise and do this off and on throughout the day and at bedtime. If you do have pain and swelling in your fingers, you can try squeezing some Thera-putty, which is made for this purpose. It's available at your local health equipment supplier.

Try wearing pair of stretch gloves at night to help reduce the pain and swelling in your fingers if you have arthritic hands. A doctor I know said he has found sleeping in a sleeping bag on his bed has really helped him. If weight is an issue, try to using exercises that will help you with arthritis and in losing weight such as walking, even if just around the block a few times. And did I mention to make sure to keep moving?

Please be aware that the use of pain relievers like NSAIDs or COX-2 inhibitors do not halt the progress of osteoarthritis and may even hasten its onset. Only you know which arthritis treatment options are best for you. As for conventional treatment of arthritis - if you do choose to take drugs or arthritis medicines, be very careful, read the labels thoroughly and talk to your pharmacist about side effects and adverse reactions. Make sure you know the name of your medications and if they'll react with any other medications you're taking. Always know the name and dosage measurement of your drugs in case of an emergency situation.

So begin your treatment program with a diet change, exercise and weight loss plan to see the best results and pain relief fast. Your treatment plan should include an anti-inflammatory, anti-arthritis diet, lots of movement, exercise, and a positive mental outlook. Arthritis pain relief of your arthritis symptoms is the ultimate goal. Understanding arthritis and conventional and natural arthritis treatments and applying what will work for you is a good way to get there.

You Can Do Something With Ordinary Sore Body Joints

We have all experienced it: those aches and pains after a workout, or just when we have been sitting for an extended period of time. As we get older they seem to hit harder and last longer. Sometimes the soreness seems to be so deep it is coming right from the bone or joint. According to research at the Johns Hopkins Medical School, even joints damaged by arthritis causes negligible frictional resistance. So where do they come from, and is there anything to do to relieve the pain?

When we get soreness in our joints, the real cause of stiffness and pain is in the muscles and connective tissues that move the joints. If we don't use those joints regularly, we lose the range of motion that the joint originally had. Similar to the difficulty in opening and closing a rusty door that hasn't been used, using joints that do not remain flexible will cause pain in the muscles supporting the joint and discouraging us from using them further. If we don't always keeping the joint loose and flexible it will cause the surrounding muscle tissue to become short and tight.

We can attribute a few causes of this muscle tightening and contracting. When the joints are inactive and as we age, ligaments and tendons become less elastic. The tendons are the most difficult to stretch, as they are densely packed fibers. Then there is a layer of fibrous tissue surrounding the groups of muscles, blood vessels and nerves, called the fasciae. They, like ligaments and tendons, are made of collagen. Even though they are the easiest to flex, if the fasciae is not kept limber and flexible it will shorten and cause pressure on the nerve pathways.

Many aches and pains will be caused by nerve impulses traveling along these pressured pathways. Incidentally, the fasciae connect muscles to other muscles, whereas ligaments join one bone to another bone, and tendons join muscle to bone. But they are what we try to target when we try to keep the joints from getting stiff and sore.

This can be described as what we normally call "wear and tear" of the joints. Although most of us pass it off as simply getting older, there is no reason to simply attribute it to old age and give up. There is quite a lot we can do to maintain the joints through proper diet and exercise. There are other means of exercise that will be less taxing on the joints instead of running or jogging. Try swimming as part of your aerobic training, or perhaps cycling.

We obviously did not get into some of the other joint problems that people have. These may be from injuries, rheumatoid arthritis, which is an auto-immune disorder, or osteoarthritis, which involves degeneration of cartilage in the joint. But these conditions require medical attention and do not come under the realm of what we are covering here: the typical stiffening of the joint do to inactivity and lack of exercise. We can reverse the aging process by recognizing what the real issue is and that we can do something about it.

Osteoarthritis of the Hip - The Most Common Type of Hip Arthritis

Who is Most Affected?

The hip joint is one of the most common locations for osteoarthritis, generally affecting people over the age of 50. Arthritis of the hip is more common in overweight people, with studies showing them to have five times more chance of developing the condition due to the extra stress placed on their hips. There may also be a genetic predisposition, where the joints become damaged simply because a person has inherited a body that wears in an unlucky manner. In addition to injury or repetitive stress, poor bone alignment or the way you walk could also be another factor.

Causes of Osteoarthritis of the Hip

Osteoarthritis of the hip starts when a small amount of the cartilage cushioning the bones of the hip begins to erode, creating some local inflammation and eventually causing the bones of the joint to grind or rub together. A major cause is traumatic injury to the hip and fractures to the bone around the joint. The trauma may be sudden and severe, such as a sporting trauma, but is more commonly associated with overuse of the joint for occupational or sporting purposes. In most individuals the indications do not appear until middle age, but the disease process starts much earlier, with the condition accelerating following trauma to the hip joint.

What are the Most Common Symptoms?

Hip pain is the most universal symptom of hip arthritis but it is possible to go for months and even years with the only symptom being loss of flexibility in the joint. The main symptoms of hip arthritis are pain, crackling, stiffness and inflammation of the affected joint. The rubbing together of the bones will sometimes cause patients to feel or hear their hip creak when walking. The level of pain varies and is described as mild, dull and aching or deep and throbbing. Usually it begins as a minor ache, which can disappear with rest, progressing to sharp pains when the joint is moved, ending in continuous pain. During the early stages the joints are often stiff at the beginning of the day, tending to improve with movement. However, as the condition worsens, a permanent loss of range of motion occurs.

Where is the Pain Felt?

Pain is frequently experienced in the groin and because of this can sometimes be misdiagnosed as a hernia or strain in the groin. It is also possible to feel pain radiating down the front or inner thigh, in the buttocks or knee and sometimes up to the back. There can be pain when pivoting or rotating the hip inward, bending, doing foot care and when getting in or out of a chair or car. Due to the overlapping nerve supply between the hip and knee, it is possible that knee pain may be the only symptom of arthritis of the hip.

Treatment for Osteoarthritis of the Hip

Many doctors today believe that weight loss is probably one of the most important treatments. Normally the first lines of treatment for mild osteoarthritis of the hip are pain relievers. Exercising is very important as it helps to keep the hip joint limber but must be ongoing to be effective on a long term basis. Too much or too little activity can make the condition worse and a full range of motion is encouraged to reduce stiffness. Because of its non weight bearing nature, swimming is highly beneficial and water exercises are particularly suited for improving the hip's range of motion and promoting strength and flexibility in the muscles surrounding it. Hip replacement surgery is sometimes suggested, and although in many cases it is usually an extremely successful operation, a new joint has a limited life span and is usually a final resort.

Using Water to Relieve Joint Pain

Joint Pain, and How Water Can Help

Your body is an amazing creation. From a circulatory standpoint, your body is a river of water, always moving, flowing, and cleansing and refreshing the organs and tissues and cells. And your bones and joints.

Now we tend to think of bones and joints as though they were hard, inanimate things. But that's not true. They are living and growing parts of your body, just as much as any other part of your body.

Most of us have joint pain from time to time. It may be something simple, like a minor pain in the knee, or something as excruciating as a pulled muscle in the back. Sometimes we know what caused it (maybe a little too much strenuous exercise when we weren't quite used to it) but often we have no idea what caused the pain that we're suffering from.

What we don't realize is that poisons (or toxins, if you will) can accumulate in joints and joint tissues, and cause pain and inflammation. When we're having unexplained joint pain, it's important to make sure the body can get rid of that poison. Water can do that for you. Make use of it. This isn't to say that such toxins are the only cause of your pain. If you're having prolonged, unexpected joint or bone pain, have your health provider check it out. But often the answer is found in the tap in your kitchen sink.

TMJ Disorder - Symptoms and Causes

Temporomandibular joint disorder or TMJ disorder for short is defined as the inflammation of the temporomandibular joint. This is the area just in front of the ears, better known as the jaw. It can be acute or chronic. The disorder was previously known as Costen's Syndrome.

Temporomandibular Joint

To understand the disorder, you should have a good understanding about the temporomandibular joint. It is the ball-and-socket that connects your upper and lower jaws. This is the joint that you use every day for chewing, yawning, talking, and biting. Any problem in the joint will affect all these functions.

Common Symptoms of Temporomandibular Joint Disorder

The most common symptom of this disorder is headache. It is seen in almost 80% of patients. Almost 40% of patients also exhibit facial pain. The pain is increased when trying to open and close the mouth. Other predisposing factors include air conditioning and cold weather. This will cause contraction of the facial muscles, thereby increasing the pain.

Another common symptom of TMJ disorder is ear pain. It is seen in almost 50% of patients. The pain is commonly in front of the ear. Occasionally, it also occurs below the ear. The ear pain may or may not be associated with infection in the ear. When you visit your doctor with an ear infection, the doctor may also check the temporomandibular joint. This is done for the proper diagnosis of the condition.

Another common symptom associated with the disorder is a popping or grinding sound when moving the jaw. This is called crepitus. The patient may also exhibit increased pain along with crepitus. Dizziness is also seen in some patients with this disorder. It occurs in almost 40% of patients.

Some 33% of patients also report fullness of the ear. Ear fullness and pain is usually seen in patients with problems of the Eustachian tube, which regulates the pressure inside the middle ear. It becomes especially troublesome for patients when flying in commercial airplanes.

Some patients also complain about ringing in the ear. This problem is known as tinnitus, and is seen in 33% of patients.

Causes of Temporomandibular Joint Disorder

This disorder is mainly caused by excessive wear and tear of the joint. One of the main reasons for this wear and tear is teeth grinding in the night. Improper alignment and other problems with the teeth can also result in this disorder. Other predisposing factors include any previous fractures and stress. If you have the habit of holding the telephone between the shoulder and the head, it may also lead to TMJ disorder