5 Home Remedies

 Only an arthritis patient can understand another arthritis patient. Arthritis is a debilitating disease about which we can hardly convince other with our physical appearance. There may be inflammation and deformities in the body, and you might have joint and back pain as well as numbness; tell others about your condition and they'll say that "I too have a similar problem; it is very common". During my childhood, I used to associate arthritis and Ayurveda as companions for the elderly. If there is an elderly in the family, there is a strong smell of Ayurveda medicine and a somewhat disfigured and weak grandparent gleaming in the Ayurveda oil applied all over the body to combat arthritis.

Wherever You read about arthritis you find that there is hardly any cure and doctors mostly prescribe painkillers. Due to the lifestyle and the pollution more and more youngsters are being diagnosed with arthritis. The arthritis pain worsens during Winter. Unlike diabetes where you have the blood result to prove your condition and in Cancer where you have the biopsy to confirm the disease, in arthritis, your condition is ascertained by a combination of blood results and symptoms. Over the last two years, after experiencing some symptoms of arthritis triggered by a fall, I understood that you can keep your arthritis in check, and probably reverse the attack, by self-experimenting with home-remedies and making certain lifestyle changes. Following are some of the cures that were successfully in reducing or eradicating the symptoms in some of the arthritis patients I talked to in the last two years:

Turmeric with Milk: Fresh raw turmeric is highly effective in combating many diseases including Cancer, Diabetes, Heart disease and Alzheimer's. Remove the skin of raw turmeric (not the dry one) and grind it to a fine paste in a mixer. Boil a cup of milk and add a teaspoonful of turmeric paste. Let the turmeric milk simmer for a while. The best time to have turmeric milk is just before going to bed. Arthritis patients say that after drinking the concoction, they find a considerable reduction in pain and numbness experienced while sleeping.

Celery Water: Add a teaspoon of celery seeds to two litres of water and boil for some time. The effect of the celery water can be experienced during the winter. A friend who used to shiver while sleeping in an Air Conditioned rooms in Summer, says after drinking celery water, the condition has reversed. She had to have ice creams to beat the heat and this winter she did not experience the severe symptoms of arthritis. You can store celery water at room temperature and drink whenever you feel thirsty. This remedy was suggested by a 40-year-old friend in Canada who says his knee pain subsided after having celery water.

Fenugreek: The Fenugreek seed is a traditional home remedy used by Women in my homeland, Kerala in India. After delivery, Women used to given a ball-shaped medicinal concoction made of finely powdered fenugreek seed and Jaggery. This mixture keeps the bones strong even is old ages. Another fenugreek treatment is done at the beginning of winter. For the supper take a handful of fenugreek seed and boiled rice, and cook. Have it without salt or any other accompaniments. Do not have any food after that in the night. Do this treatment for 5 or 7 days consecutively. In Northern India, fresh fenugreek leaves are used in different dishes to survive the winters.

Shallots: Again this remedy is suggested by a friend in my homeland. In the morning crush or finely cut one to two shallots and have it with some ground black pepper, in empty stomach.

Green Tea: This is my personal experience. Having the bitter green tea in empty stomach is a ritual for me and most of the time I skip the ritual to take sweet brewing coffee instead. But whenever I took green tea for a few days there was weight reduction, pain subsiding and overall refreshing feeling. The best combination is to have green tea with honey and lemon.