According to traditional medicine, herbs like green tea and turmeric are effective for arthritis, due to the fact that they can help fight inflammatory problems.
Joint pain or arthritis occurs in parts of the body including joints, ligaments, tendons, muscles and cartilage.
Nearly 40 million individuals in the United States are recorded to have arthritis with 1.8 million of them suffering from Rheumatoid Arthritis.
There are more than 100 types of arthritis with several types of them being the most common namely Rheumatoid Arthritis, Osteoarthritis, Psoriatic Arthritis, Gout and Fibromyalgia.
Joint pain often occurs when you have arthritis, along with cramping, bruising, and redness as part of the symptoms.
What causes joint pain?
In most cases, the cause of polyarticular pain is arthritis. The disorders that cause arthritis may differ from each other in certain characteristics, such as:
- How many and which joints are usually involved?
- If it affects the axial skeleton, such as the spine or pelvis
- Whether the arthritis is sudden (acute) or long-standing (chronic)
Acute arthritis involving multiple joints most often occurs due to
- viral infection
- Onset of a joint disorder or a flare-up of a pre-existing chronic joint disease (such as rheumatoid arthritis or psoriatic arthritis )
- Gout or calcium pyrophosphate arthritis (previously called pseudogout)
Less common causes of acute polyarticular arthritis include Lyme disease (which can also affect a single joint), gonorrhea and streptococcal bacterial infections , reactive arthritis (arthritis that develops after an infection of the digestive tract or the urinary tract), and gout .
Chronic arthritis that affects multiple joints most often occurs due to
- Inflammatory disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis , psoriatic arthritis , or systemic lupus erythematosus (in adults)
- Osteoarthritis (in adults)
- Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (in children)
Some chronic inflammatory diseases can affect the spine as well as the joints in the limbs (called peripheral joints). Some more often affect certain parts of the spine. For example, ankylosing spondylitis most often affects the lower part of the spine (lumbar spine), while rheumatoid arthritis characteristically attacks the upper part of the spine (cervical spine), in the neck.
The most common non-joint disorders that cause joint pain are
- fibromyalgia
- Polymyalgia rheumatica
- Bursitis or tendinitis
Bursitis and tendonitis are usually the result of trauma, and usually affect a single joint. However, some diseases can cause bursitis or tendinitis in various joints.
5 Herbs that are good for joint pain
Halia
There are several types of herbs and spices that can be used as an alternative to relieve your joint pain as it has been scientifically proven.
Zingiber officinale Roscoe (Zingiberaceae) or better known as ginger is part of the rhizome of the Zingiber officinale tree.
It has been used traditionally as a plant with medicinal value for a long time and was scientifically proven in 1982, with the use of ginger being able to relieve joint pain associated with rheumatoid arthritis.
In the study, four new compositions were isolated from ginger and all of the compositions showed a potential inhibitory effect to reduce prostaglandin synthesis, which is the cause of inflammation.
Ginger also shows effects in inhibiting prostaglandins and leukotriene biosynthesis that support anti-inflammatory action.
Ginger also plays an important role against several diseases such as asthma, diabetes, stroke and constipation because it contains phytochemicals.
Aloe vera
Aloe barbadensis or aloe vera is known for its relief function for skin problems such as small wounds, insect stings, bruises, plant poisons such as ivy tree and eczema.
Compositions such as anthraquinone , anthracene , cinnamic acid and anthranilic acid derived from aloe vera act as anti-arthritis and highly effective anti-inflammatory agents.
Aloe vera is also used as a blood cleanser, diuretic, uterine tonic, laxative, fever reliever as well as antibacterial and antifungal.
Acemannan and glucomannan are two polysaccharides found in aloe vera that benefit inflammation.
These also include accelerating tissue regeneration, enhancing and stimulating immune responses and increasing white blood cells.
Black pepper
Black pepper originates from the South Indian region and has been grown in tropical countries such as Indonesia, Brazil, Malaysia, Vietnam and Sri Lanka.
Black pepper has a woody, aromatic and spicy aroma with a fiery taste.
Piperine is a bioactive compound derived from black pepper that can reduce the symptoms of arthritis in acute paw arthritis caused by carrageenan.
It also increases the secretion of gastric juice, relieves nausea, headaches and helps with digestive problems.
Turmeric
In addition, turmeric is also considered to be the most effective herb to prevent joint pain inflammation apart from reducing pain.
It is native to India and China and is grown in several countries including Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Jamaica and Peru.
It contains vilotile oil , starch grains, resins, and curcuminoids . Curcumin , the main component of curcuminoids acts as an anti-inflammatory agent and for that, it has been used in wound healing, hepatoprotection (the ability to protect the liver from damage), and neuroprotection.
Indian allepey is considered a high quality rhizome as it has the highest curcumin content as compared to other rhizomes.
In in vivo evaluation , curcuminoid showed that it can reduce acute and chronic inflammation by 75% and 68%, respectively. Daily intake of 4 mg of total curcuminoids can prevent arthritis joint inflammation.
Green tea
Green tea or known scientifically as Camellia sinensis Linn is native to mainland China, Southeast Asia and South Asia.
The active compounds in green tea are polyphenols (catechins and flavonols) , caffeine and essential oils and the largest catechin in epigallocatechin is a powerful antioxidant.
Green tea contains a lot of epigallocatechin 3-gallate (EGCG) which scientists from the University of Michigan found it can reduce inflammation and joint pain by limiting the production of certain molecules in the immune system.
All of these plants and herbs are medicines that have become a practice as multi-purpose healing agents.
The use of herbs and spices to cure joint pain has been proven with credible evidence and followed by support from other research findings.
With a variety of active compounds in plants that act as anti-inflammatory agents, we are able to cure joint pain naturally and reduce inflammation from occurring.
Other herbs may also be beneficial for joint pain, but there is too little evidence to support them for us to list.
How can joint problems be prevented?
The most effective measures to protect the joints are:
- Healthy diet: eat foods rich in calcium (to strengthen bones), protein (for muscles) and vitamins A, C and D.
- Exercise regularly.
- Avoid being overweight .
- Do not make unnecessary efforts.
- Avoid tobacco and do not abuse alcohol.
- Try to sleep at least 8 hours.
- Maintain joint health . Perform a proper warm-up before playing sports.
If there is severe joint pain, it is necessary to consult a doctor and receive treatment in time.
