Naturopathy therapy for osteoarthritis

When movements become a burden in osteoarthritis: Chinese therapy takes into account the individuality of the patient

17/01/2012

What begins with weather sensitivity, morning joint stiffness, cracking and crunching in the joints, takes in many osteoarthritis patients a bad disease course. Tormenting pain in the hands, shoulders, knees or feet increasingly burden everyday life - in the end, often only helps an artificial prosthesis. Although conventional medicines help relieve the symptoms and slow down the progression of the disease, they often cause serious side effects. Many sufferers therefore see in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) a useful alternative to conventional medicine. She gets to the root of the causes of painful joints and creates the treatment plan based on the patient's personal history of suffering.

„No osteoarthritis patient is like the other. Therefore, there is no universal arthritis therapy“, explains Dr. Christian Schmincke, TCM expert and head of the clinic at the Steigerwald. Therefore, at the beginning of each treatment according to the standards of Chinese medicine is a comprehensive history. In conversation TCM experts explore the exact course of the disease and are also interested in past illnesses into childhood. Because from the point of view of the Chinese medicine earlier and not healed infections represent possible triggers for an immunological maldevelopment. „Unprocessed potential for infection sometimes causes retroactive inflammatory or painful malfunction in other places“, knows Dr. Schmincke. Based on pulse and tongue diagnostics, TCM experts also detect the finest body signals. The assessment of the shape, color and coating of the tongue, for example, gives important indications of a possible cold stress, which occurs in many people affected. Therapeutically arise with appropriate diagnosis warming treatment phases. In some cases, however, the painful joint disease is also based on meridian blockages, which can be additionally treated with external procedures such as acupuncture, cupping, moxibustion or Qi Gong.

A central role in all musculo-skeletal disorders is the Chinese herbal therapy, which is based on an individual combination of herbs and minerals. When boiled, patients take them in small sips throughout the day. „There are certain plant constituents which have a strong blocking effect and which have a specific effect on specific body regions such as the shoulder, neck or back“, reports Schmincke. Depending on the reaction and constitution, therapists continuously adapt the formula to the recovery process. Optimally coordinated with each other, these measures of Chinese medicine contribute to significantly reducing the daily conventional medical dose, including side effects, and to noticeably improve the quality of life of many osteoarthritis patients. (Pm)

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