Alternatives Medication for Arthritis

yellowsprings

yellowsprings

Inactive
Thanks for a great link to a wealth of information!

I have no experience with boswellia or tumeric. After researching them for a few minutes it does look intriguing. Adding these to my herbal cache sounds like a good idea.
 
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summerthyme

Administrator
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We've found turmeric- plain old, grocery store powder that I put in capsules- to work very well for minor arthritis pain and inflammation. Well, not precisely "grocery store" stuff... I buy it in bulk from Atlantic Spice, because it smells and seems much fresher than anything I can get locally. But I haven't tried the much more potent standardized stuff. I'd be at least a LITTLE cautious with that, because it's a COXX 2 inhibitor, which is exactly what Celebrex and Vioxx are. Since no one has done any major studies with the super-tumeric, we have no way of knowing if it shares the same heart toxicity problems with those drugs. I'll say that I believe it's very unlikely- but it's certainly possible that it's actually the inihbition of Coxx 2 that has the effect on the heart and other problems those drugs caused.

I figure the plain turmeric powder has a milder effect, and is likely safer.

If you aren't taking glucosamine and chondroitin, please do! They aren't painkillers, per se, but actually help the body rebuild cartilage in the damaged joints. Definitely not a fast cure (and probably not a "cure" at all, depending on how bad of joint damage you have) but taking it has prevented my husband from needing hip replacement surgery. His orthopedic surgeon told him almost 9 years ago that he'd need the hip replaced "within 5 years". I started him on the glucosamin and chondroitin, using horse products because they weren't marketing it for people yet at all. Within 6 months he no longer limped and was sleeping through the night, and although he'll have occasional flare-ups, they're rare and not deblitating.

Ginger is also a potent anti inflammatory and seems to have some pretty decent painkilling effects as well.

What sort of trouble is the Voltaren causing? If it's stomach irritation, consider taking licorice root powder. I keep capsules in our medicine cabinet and anyone who takes aspirin or NSAID's for more than occasional use (if we badly sprain a back or ankle, for example), takes the licorice right along with it. I've seen it heal severe gastritis where there was actually some internal bleeding, within a week. After weeks and weeks of "doctoring" with both OTC and Rx antacid and acid control drugs that didn't help at all!

Summerthyme
 
I

Ice

Inactive
Turmeric ( Curcumin )

Summerthyme

Sorry don't get me wrong since I really don't know much on this subject but I just happened to fall on this web site that discuss some of the findings on
Turmeric and COX-2

http://www.newhope.com/nutritionsciencenews/NSN_backs/Aug_00/cox2.cfm

Curcumin is one of the pungent active ingredients of turmeric (Curcuma longa), the deep-yellow powder found in virtually every curry dish made in the world. Besides being a culinary delight, several clinical trials have found curcumin to be a notable anti-inflammatory and analgesic compound.9 Moreover, recent in vitro studies have explored whether curcumin, a chemopreventive agent, inhibits the expression and activity of COX-2 in several different gastrointestinal cell lines: colon, esophagus and small intestine.10

In one study, Fan Zhang, Ph.D., and colleagues from the Cornell University campus in New York City, exposed gastrointestinal (GI) cells to two known tumor promoters, either bile acids (BA) or phorbol esters (PMA). The team found COX-2 to be induced in several of the cell lines, accompanied by a 10-fold increase in the synthesis of inflammatory-causing prostaglandin E2.10 However, dose-dependent treatment of the cells with curcumin suppressed both BA- and PMA-mediated induction of COX-2 protein, genetic COX-2 expression (as measured by mRNA), and the synthesis of prostaglandin E2. Most impressive, however, was the discovery that curcumin directly inhibited the enzymatic activity of COX-2.

Although the Zhang study did not examine the action of curcumin on cells mediating chronic joint inflammation, it does offer a provocative suggestion that curcumin may modulate chronic inflammatory GI events such as Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.

An additional study presented at the 1999 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) conference also examined the pain-relieving properties of curcumin. Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, and the Veterans Administration Medical Center, San Diego, investigated whether curcumin could suppress COX-2 expression in human colon cancer cells.11 After exposing such cells to curcumin, the researchers found the compound not only inhibited cell growth but also reduced the expression of COX-2 mRNA in a time- and dose-dependent manner.11 Therefore, curcumin would appear to be a safe, natural COX-2 inhibitor in humans, given its safety profiles and demonstrated anti-inflammatory activity.



ICE
 
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summerthyme

Administrator
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Ice- yes, I've read this and other studies. What concerns me - "worries" is too strong a term, I think- is that we *Don't Know* how cucurmin ALONE works. *Turmeric* has a long proven safety record... but once we begin isolating individual "active ingredients" from herbs, we *may* be playing with fire.

Given that every synthetic Cox-2 inhibitoron the market has now shown to be a cardiac toxin (and Vioxx did a lot worse than just cause heart problems in several people I know), I'd be *very* careful using the highly concentrated cucurmin products unless or until they have HUMAN studies proving their safety.

This doesn't mean- I hope I was clear in my previous post- that I think turmeric or other curcurmin containing spices and herbs should be avoided. I think it's very possible that even IF curcurmin has the potential to be somewhat toxic (as MANY of the components of herbs we use daily do), the other parts of the whole herb may well be effective at preventing those dangerous effects.

What I'm questioning is whether it's possible that *the inhibition of Cox-2* in humans actually has an unplanned- and unknown- adverse effect on the heart or other parts of the system.

Summerthyme (who knows of no one who ever OD'd on willowbark tea, but many who have developed stomach bleeding from salicylic acid)
 
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