Arthritis is generally considered as a disease related with the joints whereas it can also be of muscular origin called muscular arthritis. Arthritis is a painful and immobilizing disease and can occur in males and females of all ages, particularly adults. It is not true that arthritis can occur in elderly persons only.



Modern medical science has been searching for the cause of arthritis since long but have not been able to find exact cause of arthritis. There are many different views about it but three hypotheses about the cause are frequently talked about. These are:

- Genetic or hereditary factors

- Immune system abnormalities or autoimmune disease

- A persistent or triggering infection. Like the previous two, this cause is also a supposition. With so much of advancement in medical science, this infection if it does exist, remains unknown.

Let us look at the cause from another angle. I shall try to explain it with an example but what you would here after is not wholesome analysis of the cause. It is just the outline.

Take a fresh tree leaf and bend it. You would notice that it could be bent effortlessly and without damaging the structure of the leaf. Try it a dozen times but the leaf will not be damaged simple due to its inherent flexibility given to it by natural moisture present in it. Mechanical stresses developed in the structure of the leaf due to bending action will not be enough to break it. Now take a dry leaf, bent it and notice the damage. It would break in to pieces because it has no flexibility due to dryness and has lost the capability of enduring the stress developed due to bending. Nearly same thing can happen to our body structure. Even though the body contains nearly 70% moisture, why then some people have very dry skin? Such persons feel very uncomfortable if they do not use moisturizer. Do they have much less water content in their body? Are they dehydrated? No, perhaps not. This indicates that balance of moisture can get disturbed in certain areas of the body. If this phenomenon can be comprehended, listing out the symptoms of arthritis should not be difficult.

- Stiffness of joints. Obvious result of dryness.

- Pain in joints on least motion due to lowered flexibility and internal friction.

- Limitation of movement due to stiffness and associated pain.

- Weakness of joints. Needless to explain.

- Cracking sounds felt on moving the joints

The symptoms do not end up here. As result of imbalance of moisture in the affected parts, changes in blood circulation and chemical balance occur. One example of such chemical imbalance is gout. The joints might become hot, red, swollen and very painful. As the phenomenon of dryness advances, other body parts like mouth, tongue, skin, blood vessels and muscles etc. may also be affected. After certain age the body naturally starts drying up. A person at the age of 60 years cannot have the flexibility which he/she had at the age of 20 or 30 years. As the constitution starts drying up, different complaints start appearing. Arthritis is one of such complaints. That is why it is called an old age problem.

Now the question is why this dryness occurs at early age. Simple and plain answer to this question is, "we ask for it". Yes it is so in most of the cases. We ask for it through the type of food that we take and our life style. Have you ever noticed the effects of food on human body apart from counting the calories and so called "food value"? The kind of food that creates dryness in the body is responsible for large number of problems not arthritis alone.

There could be other causes of arthritis but this I suppose is the main and common cause.

Treatment

If you have followed what I have written above, you should be able to determine whether arthritis is treatable or not and what sort of treatment you need. The first thing is to balance your food and quit all that stuff that is responsible for dryness. My observation is that effects of dryness are more pronounced during cold weather. So keep your body warm. Next step is the correct medication that should help achieving natural balance by eliminating the existing up sets. This can be done through homeopathy but in case you are not inclined to benefit from this wonderful healing system, you may give a try to herbal system or the one that appeals you more. In any case, no matter which healing system you choose, you will have to modify your diet, if you wish to see the cure. The choice is yours.