The most important issue in managing arthritis is preventing the pain associated with this disease and using herbal medicine for joint pain rather than adding tons of chemicals to the body and potentially complicating your health even more.  In addition to medication, either over the counter or prescription drugs, there are a variety of home remedies you can try to ease the pain.  Cabbage leaves may be used to alleviate symptoms.

Take an outer leaf or two from the cabbage and blanch them and apply either at a warm or cool temperature to the inflamed joints.  Wrap with a gauze or elastic bandage to keep in place.  This home remedy has been used for centuries to ease inflammations.
 During painful flare-ups of your arthritis, try this herbal tea for joint pain relief.  Mix equal parts devil’s claw, black cohosh, passion flower and ginger and use 1 teaspoon of this mixture per cup of boiling water.   Steep for 20 minutes, strain and have 1 cup 2 to 3 times daily.  Another pain soother for arthritis sufferers is a clover blossom tea.  Use 1 teaspoon crushed red clover blossoms and 1 teaspoon dried alfalfa leaves to 1 cup boiling water.  Steep for 5 minutes and strain.
 If you prefer to use a salve, use a warming wintergreen, rosemary or lavender salve.  For each 1/2 teaspoon of salve, add 3 to 4 drops arnica oil.  Apply this mixture to inflamed joints 3 to 4 times a day.   One word of caution, however, is that arnica oil is for external use only.  Do not use on broken skin.

Spending more time in the sunshine will enhance your vitamin D level and therefore should improve your joint health as a supplement.  A low level of vitamin D is associated with a higher risk of osteoarthritis.  A bracelet made of willow root was a folk remedy used by Native Americans to ease the discomfort of arthritis.  It is thought that the willow root’s salicylic acid may be absorbed slowly through the skin acting as a natural analgesic.  All of these methods are drug free and natural and worth experimenting with for arthritis relief.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 21st, 2007 at 12:14 pm and is filed under Home Remedies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.