What is arthritis?
Arthritis is defined as the degeneration of one or more joints, resulting in pain, swelling, stiffness and reduced range of motion. Arthritis is a chronic, systemic inflammatory disorder that primarily affects the joints.
What are the symptoms?
Arthritis has a number of symptoms, which may include the following:
- Joint pain and tenderness
- Numbness or tingling in the hands
- Pain or inflammation in the feet
- Stiffness of the joints
- Swelling, redness and warmth of the area around the joint
How they treat it
At the moment, conventional medicine does not have a permanent cure for arthritis. Most providers treat the conditions with a combination of medication, physical and occupational therapy and in some cases surgery.
The medications commonly prescribed are NSAIDs, which includes aspirin, Motrin and Advil, and in some cases, immunosuppressant drugs.
NSAIDs have powerful side effects and can sometimes lead to gastrointestinal (stomach) issues, including bleeding and ulcers.
Immunosuppressant drugs can weaken the immune system, which puts patients at risk for a host of other illnesses, including cancer. Furthermore, these drugs can cause issues with the body’s own defenses.
How we treat it
At the Regenerative Healing Center, we go beyond the standard of care and offer treatment options for arthritis. Rather than simply prescribing medication, we take an integrative approach by fully evaluating our patients to determine underlying causes and contributing factors.
The treatment options we offer include prolotherapy, platelet-rich plasma (PRP) and other therapies, designed to repair the joint, rather than the conventional approach of suppressing symptoms.
Our program may sometimes include specialized diets, supplements, the use of low-dose naltrexone (LDN), and more to help control patient’s symptoms and decrease swelling. These therapies have enabled us to successfully treat patients for whom conventional therapies did not work, as well as those who did not want to risk the side effects associated with long-term steroid or immunosuppressant therapy.