Joint Arthritis

I know I will suffer from osteoarthritis in my old age.  How do I know it?  Because all of the elders in my family suffer from it.  My mother, who lives with me, definitely has joint arthritis, especially in the hands.  My uncle has it on the knees, I've even began to feel it mostly on the joints in my fingers.

I remember growing up and looking at my grandmother's hands.  They were very swollen looking and deformed, and she would always complain from pain.  My mom is now the same age as my grandmother would have been when I had those memories, but she's not nearly as bad as I remember grandma.

What is arthritis?  From what I understand it's mainly inflammation of the joints.  It could be hereditary or caused by injury or overuse.  And the bad news is it has no cure.  You just have to learn to live with it.  Or so I'm told.

So potentially we can have arthritis on any joint in our bodies.  From our toes to our neck.  My goal in my aging gracefully process would be to find out how to keep mobility without pain well into my golden years.

What works for arthritis depends on who you ask.  For many years my mom took glucosamine sulfate and it really helped, until it didn't.  NSAIDS (non-steroidal anti inflamatory drugs) like Advil and tylenol can also help because of the inflamation, but they do have side effects.  I've noticed with my mom that when she takes ibuprofen she also immediately gets edema (storing extra fluid in the lower extremities).  I've also tried MSM, burdock, and gotu kola, with mixed results.

Since it is inflamatory, perhaps a diet where you reduce the intake of foods that cause inflamation would be beneficial, but it seems to me that those vary per person.

I'm lucky that so far I've only experienced joint arthritis in two fingers of my right hands. I'm in the process of trying to notice why some mornings it seems to be worse than others.  Maybe what I ate the night before?  whether or not I exercised?  If I come up with any answers I'll be sure to post them.