Birgit Rakel, M.D.
Jefferson-Myrna Brind Center of Integrative Medicine

Achy joints can be soothed with a ginger compress.

Try it: Grate some gingerroot and boil until pulpy. Drain the water from the pulp, put between layers of gauze, and place the compress on joints for three minutes (any longer could burn skin). Reapply three times daily.

Brian Berman, MD
University of Maryland School of Medicine
Excerpted from The New Medicine Interviews

Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis that we have. It affects about 21 million Americans each year. It consists of several overlapping diseases, where we have a destruction of the cartilage, and usually an erosion of the bone underneath it. And the result of that is pain; a decrease in physical function; and usually a decrease in getting around and [an increase] in disability.

There’s no cure for osteoarthritis. And so often, people are looking for ways to reduce their pain and their, improve their physical functioning. The standard care for treatment is either pharmacologic or non-pharmacologic therapies.

Deborah Schwab, RN, NP, MSN
Blue Shield of California
Excerpted from The New Medicine Outtakes

We have a program for arthritis based on the work done by Kate Lorig at Stanford that we use for our elder population, our Medicare programs. Some of it is mind-body. A lot of it is based on self-help – understanding the properties of having arthritis, understanding how behaviors like stretching and exercise can help, and understanding how to adjust your lifestyle by keeping a log of your pain… Understand that some underlying problems with arthritis are there to stay and it’s up to you to work to manage that in partnership with your physician.

Marcos Hsu, Lac
University of Maryland Center for Integrative Medicine

I recently treated a 58-year-old African American patient with Multiple Sclerosis as well as arthritis in multiple joints. She presented with symptoms such as blurred vision, jerky eye movements, and lack of coordination between 2 eyes, muscle weakness with loss of strength in her right hemisphere, involuntary contractions of her muscles, lower limb spasms, severe neuralgia as well as loss of coordination & general fatigue. An initial cycle of acupuncture therapy consisting of 15 treatments was prescribed, consisting of 2 treatment sessions per week.