Does joint pain ever get better?

That happened to me in my 30s. No It never gets better. Vitamin d3 does help a lot though.

It seems as if all arthritis drugs have potential awful side effects - especially liver damage. Any advice about joint pain killers that won't kill you?

Good shoes/shock absorbent insoles are cheap and will make a difference.

Did your friend use to jog ?

Turmeric....the actual root or dried version, not some nasty useless pill with yellow powder in it.

Must be eaten in food.

I took tumeric in capsule form for tennis elbow and it worked like a charm, R5.

Ceylon cinnamon. I couldn't even lift my arm in the over my head-within days of taking it my arm was a good 85% better.

Physical therapy can help. I'm only a fraction as active as I was a few years ago prior to my accident, but PT and moderate exercise specifically for my foot, leg and shoulder problems has given me enough improvement that I'm back to being able to do most necessary things, even on bad flare-up days.

No luck with supplements so far but alternating ice and heat plus an occasional TENS unit session is also helpful.

Ginger Root 550 mg. Walmart sells it under the Spring Valley label. It works like a charm and is super cheap. The only problem is that it flies off the shelf, so I alway scoop it up whenever I see it and grab two bottles if they are there.

OP: Tell your friend to buy this Ginger Root and take two tablets once a day.

I have fairly severe arthritis and the only thing that has truly made a difference is Bone Broth Collagen powder. For the past six months or so I've been having a pumpkin smoothie every morning with bone broth collagen powder (part of a gut healing regime). In the beginning, I was making it twice a day but now I'm having just one smoothie per day for breakfast. It took a week or two to really feel the effects but I noticed the difference very quickly. My arthritis and joint pain is so much better now, like a 70-80% improvement. It's changed my life. I have prescriptions for various meds for chronic pain, including oxycodone, but the daily bone broth powder smoothie is really the only thing that has made a significant difference. I swear by it.

For the first few months I made gut healing Pumpkin Spice smoothies (1 cup unsweetened almond milk, 1 scoop bone broth collagen powder (vanilla flavor), 3 large spoonfuls of pumpkin puree (canned; puree of 100% pure pumpkin - not pumpkin pie filling - usually found in the baking aisle), pumpkin spice (a mix of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, and clove), a small handful of raw spinach (sounds horrible but you can't really taste it and it gives it a pleasing freshness), and a dash of raw, local honey or agave nectar (raw, local honey is best because it benefits digestion and helps boost the immune system).

For the past couple of months I've been making Chocolate Banana smoothies (1 cup hot chocolate, 1 scoop bone broth collagen powder (vanilla flavor), 3 large spoonfuls of pumpkin puree, and 1 banana). I got a little tired of the Pumkin Spice flavor after a few months, so have switched to this one.

You can make any kind of smoothie you like but I recommend adding pumpkin puree to whatever smoothie you make. Mixed with other ingredients, you can't really taste it but it gives a smoothie a nice milkshake-y texture and it's very good for you. Pumpkin is really good for digestion and healing the gut, getting important vitamins and nutrients, and it has a lot of other health benefits. The bone broth collagen powder is good for joint pain, healing the gut, and it will improve your skin, hair, and nails.

Does he have psoriasis? Apparently, it also causes arthritis at an early age. I'm early-stage myself (early 40s, psoriasis) & debating whether I should start taking meds to slow its progression. Now, it's not "pain" (yet) as much as "dull achy stiffness", but I don't *ever* want it to get as bad as my grandmother had it. And while it hasn't been officially diagnosed yet, my family history and fact that I have plaque psoriasis makes it pretty easy to connect the dots behind my mild-yet-definitely-noticeable joint pain (esp. elbows & knees, which also happen to be where I have visible scaly skin).

it is caused by chronic inflammation. tumeric, ginger cinnamon are anti-inflammatories. your friend should change his diet to avoid sugar, dairy, gluten and take omega 3, polyphenols ie blueberry, pomagrante, acai. dr perricone sells it. i recommend dr perricones books.

Losing weight can help with arthritic knees.

I realize that this is not easy, particular if the arthritis is bad enough to prevent you from doing weight bearing exercise. But it usually does help.

Ginger capsule for the win!

OP your friend needs to buy a pair of knee compression sleeves. They definitely help in the early stages. But eventually he'll have to switch to full knee braces unless he has replacement surgery. The sleeves can hold off the full braces for a few years if he's lucky.

What about chondroitin? I've heard of that before.

There are honestly some great suggestions here, OP. I'd like to add that turmeric works better when used with black pepper.

Why Ceylon cinnamon only? Does Indonesian/Korintje cinnamon not work equally well?

Eventually, OP.

R12 has good advice. Anti-inflammatory diet can help a lot. And if a person is overweight, that doesn’t help. Sadly, the three people I know with it are obese. And one is a diet soda addict. I can’t help wondering if the diet soda doesn’t aggravate things.

Arthritis has a lot of causes. You should see a good rheumatologist to make sure you don’t have inflammatory arthritis as was mentioned by a previous poster. Psoriatic arthritis is one example, there are many others. If you have wear and tear arthritis aka osteoarthritis or from an injury in the past, see a good orthopedic surgeon. Steroid injections help and can be done a few times a year.

All the herbal remedies and drug therapies in the world will not rebuild the lost cartilage in someone's knees. It may dull the pain (for a while), but as the knees continue to deteriorate the pain will eventually get worse. You can either live with it using some sort of bracing, or have surgery. There are no other alternatives in the long term.

R22 You are assuming the pain is due to lost cartilage. Sometimes, it is due to inflammation.

AIP diet

Turmeric capsules/in food

Being at and maintaining a healthy weight

No alcohol

Eliminate wheat from your diet. Main cause of many health problems, particularly inflammation.

My knees used to hurt all day , every day for five years until I saw a video on youtube that showed three exercises for the knee that I started doing everyday. After only one week I started to notice an improvement. I do these exercises every day it's made a dramatic difference to my knees.

If I listened to all of your specific "don't eat" instructions, I'd be living on seltzer water.

R18, while botanically related they are different species and the Ceylon cinnamon is considered the ‘true’ cinnamon and has lower levels of the chemical Coumarin which gives the cinnamon flavor and can be harmful to the liver in large quantities.

I don’t know exactly why but all of the advice I’ve read about using cinnamon as a health supplement specifies the Ceylon variety. It may be that it’s the type that was used in studies and thus is the one proven to have some effect.

Thanks, Tony.

With rheumatoid & psoriatic arthritis, does joint replacement work if it gets bad enough to merit it? Or is it kind of like trying to cut away a herpes lesion, where it just manifests itself at the cut line, instead?

THAT would really suck... the joint itself becoming ok, but the inflammation then moving out from ONE joint to engulf the TWO attachment points for the new joint instead. I've gotten the impression that PsA and RA are kind of like a localized version of fibromyalgia (symptom-wise)... centered on specific joints (as opposed to, "the whole body"), but really more of a local inflammation that affects everything in the area from skin down to muscle to bone marrow.

I know in my case, the elbow, knee, and finger aching seems to feel like it's at least as much in the surrounding tissue as the actual joint itself.

Do you have a link to that youtube video, r26?

My mother was told to avoid "nightshade" vegetables and it seemed to help. Nightshades are things like potatoes, tomatoes and peppers.

Sometimes you just need to use the joint more.

Anyone have advice on sciatica pain? I usually run 30 min 3x/week, and now I'm in so much pain I can barely move. I'm a overpronator (corrected with running shoes), which may have contributed. I'm 35, and if I can't run I'll probably gain back lots of weight. :-(

STOP RUNNING NOW.

See a sports doctor. Get 3 opinions before undergoing surgery.

I've had knee arthritis since childhood, I'm down to bone on bone in both knees now...so I've pretty much done the lot. (to be honest once the damage is way beyond repair you actually stop registering the pain). Best advice...keep moving, whatever you can do, just do it. Pool walking and cycling work best for me combined with physio excercises for strengthening the knee muscles. Acupuncture and cortisone injections for acute pain. Compression sleeves for cold weather. Proper orthotics and good shoes to keep you walking correctly. Anti inflamatories to keep the pain down and stop further damage. Weight loss is great if you can manage it. A hot bath before bed. For some reason a down quilt is great for me, I can really feel the difference in the mornings. Using a roller on my lower back and legs keeps the muscular stiffness at bay. The occasional massage is a big help as well. I've tried a lot of suppliments and they don't seem to do much for me, but every body is different.

So just keep moving and try everything. If it doesn't work, that's OK, just move on to the next thing and find the combinations that work for you.

[quote]Using a roller on my lower back and legs keeps the muscular stiffness at bay.

Show us your roller, please.

[quote]Eliminate wheat from your diet. Main cause of many health problems, particularly inflammation.

A classic case of internet advice often being dodgy advice. For a vast majority of the population, wheat causes zero problems. Only a great way to do yourself out of a lot of pleasure in life. No more crusty bagettes? Fuck off!

Virgin olive oil — a talblespoon every day wil help with the inflammation. A basel and garlic-infused one is delicious.

Prednisone will get rid of the pain but with taking prednisone is a long list of awful side effects. Bad for the bones & skin. Can lead to diabetes, heart problems - the list is frightening.

Prednisone makes me crazy. I took it once. It made it make sense to kill other drivers on the road. I hope I never need it again.

If I give up wheat, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, sugar, dairy, coffee, tea, and meat (chicken and fish, mainly), there'll be little left I like to eat.

R37 - This is a back roller.

psoriatic arthritis permanently damages joints if left untreated. you better get yourself to a doctor and get on biologic agent to slow the progression.

Both of my shoulders are messed up with bursitis or something, would bone broth powder help?

My 17 year old dog has arthritis really badly (as do I). I put her on CBD oil and it really seems to help. I want to start taking it myself but am transitioning jobs and am afraid that I might have to take a drug test and don't want the CBD to show up as positive for the Ganga. I know that the THC is supposed to be removed and thus would show as positive but don't trust some of the manufacturers as the industry is highly unregulated.

I've heard about eliminating tomatoes and other vegetables in the nightshade family like peppers, potatoes, and eggplant to reduce inflammation.

Is that backed up by any research?

R45 I know my dad was advised to eliminate them for gout, so I suppose it could also affect arthritis

Why don't you stop eating them for two weeks, r45, and get back to us with your results.

I'm not R26, but I think this might be the video he referenced. It's been posted on other threads before and is very useful.

Good site to look up herbs and botanicals, etc.

Ignore posters like R12, armchair doctors who know nothing about actual medicine. The fact is, unfortunately, that your friend's pain could be caused by any number of factors, and even a thorough examination might not actually reveal what the underlying issue is. And certainly no one on a board like this can diagnose and cure your friend, although its true that anecdotal experience can sometimes help, in the hit-and-miss way that an off-the -cuff recommendation may really work.

To directly answer your question, yes, joint pain can get better. But it takes either knowing exactly what the problem is, luck, or, quite often, time. I've had numerous patents who had back pain or joint pain that simply went away after a while.

Fish oil seems to help me.

turmeric

you fucking need a biologic medicine like Humira!!!!!!!

Thanks, r48.

R47, I have tried giving up the veggies in the nightshade family, and I'm not sure if it made a difference. Maybe if I did the same activities every day (like they might in a research study) it would be more obvious.