Arthritis

Frequent joint pain in children could be diagnosed as Juvenile Arthritis or Juvenile Rheumatoid arthritis's. It should be checked upon by a Rheumatologist as these maladies can lead to very serious joint problems as well as problems with other parts of the body if left unattended.

Stem cell transplantation for articular cartilage repair

From Wikipedia,

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are pluripotent cells found in multiple human adult tissues including bone marrow, synovial tissues, and adipose tissues. Since they are derived from the mesoderm, they have been shown to differentiate into bone, cartilage, muscle, and adipose tissue. MSCs from embryonic sources have shown promise scientifically while creating significant controversy. As a result, many researchers have focused on adult stem cells, or stem cells isolated from adult humans that can be transplanted into damaged tissue.

Because of their multi-potent capabilities, mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) lineages have been used successfully in animal models to regenerate articular cartilage and in human models to regenerate bone. Recent research demonstrates that articular cartilage may be able to be repaired via percutaneous introduction of mesenchymal stem cells (MSC's

Current ResearchResearch into MSC's has exploded in recent years. As an example, a PubMed search for the year 1999 reveals about 90 papers published under the MESH heading of "Mesenchymal Stem Cells", the same search ran for the year 2007 reveals more than 4,000 entries. The most commonly used source of MSC's is bone marrow aspirate. Most of the adult bone marrow consists of blood cells in various stages of differentiation. These marrow components can be divided into plasma, red blood cells, platelets, and nucleated cells. The adult stem cell fraction is present in the nucleated cells of the marrow. Most of these cells are CD34+ heme progenitors (destined to differentiate into blood components), while very few are actually MSC's capable of differentiating into bone, cartilage, or muscle. As a result, that leaves the very small number of MSC's in the marrow as cells capable of differentiating into tissues of interest to joint preservation. Of note, this may be one of the reasons that commercially available centrifuge systems that concentrate marrow nucleated cells have not shown as much promise in animal research for cartilage repair as have approaches where MSC's are expanded in culture to greater numbers.

Another team used a similar technique for cell extraction and ex vivo expansion but cells were embedded within a collagen gel before being surgically re-implanted. They reported a case study in which a full-thickness defect in the articular cartilage of a human knee was successfully repaired.

(Source wikipedia)

There have been many studies that show a connection between eating nightshade vegetables and rheumatoid arthritis.

Arthritis is not curable at this stage. However, there are things that can help such as dietary changes. You might also want to try some herbal remedies or homeopathic remedies for natural pain relief. The major considerations are diet and lifestyle

non phamcological treatment is:

1. dietary changes
2. rest
3. exercise
4. heat and cold
5. splits
6. homeopathic remedies
7. herbal remedies

pharmacological treatment is:

1. non steroidal anti inflammatory drugs
2. low dose corticosteroids
3. disease modifying anti rheumatic drugs
4. immune suppression

There is no quick and simple way to treat arthritis using alternative methods, because it's a complicated problem. To simplify it, there are two things that need to be done.

1) Measures to reduce pain and inflammation. This is probably what you'll read the most about if you do searches online for alternative treatments. This is going to involve anti-inflammatory suppleents like fish oil, curcumin, and quercitin to name some very common one. There are many anti-inflammatory supplements, just listing them all would take some work. These by themself are not the cure for arthritis, but it makes sense to include them.

Also, if you can take a natural anti-inflammatory instead of aspirin or a NSAID, then stay away from the drugs.

2) In addition to just taking an anti-inflammatory you want to to do some work investigating the cause of arthritis.

Unfortunately this takes some work.

Major considerations are diet and lifestyle. Toxicty (some people have huge improvements after going through detoxification programs), and any kind of stress on the body. Also gastro-intestinal issues are a big link. What happens is people have something called "leaky gut" where large food particles and microbes that are not supposed to pass through the gut lining do. This causes inflammation through the entire body, and effects some people in the joints. So often people with arthritis need to start taking supplements and working to improve health in other areas and not just do things for the joint.

The joints in where you feel the symptom of a problem, but the cause runs much deeper.

A highly recommend book is "Alternative Medicine Definitive Guide to Arthritis," which can be bought pretty cheaply off Amazon, or BarnesandNoble.

Alternatively try to borrow it from your local library.If they do not have it they may get it in for you.

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Knees can become injured as a result of trauma, osteoarthritis's or rheumatoid arthritis to name but a couple of reasons.

Symptoms of OA vary. Most individuals remain essentially free of symptoms until the cartilage ceases to function properly. After that they may include, Pain, Swelling, and stiffness in the affected joint or joints.

To diagnose arthritis your doctor will first assess your situation by checking the affected joints for outward signs of inflammation heat etc. then if he deems it necessary may order tests such as X-ray and blood tests joint fluid tests to exclude the possibility of other types of arthritis.

The management of this condition depends on the joints affected and the physique of the patient. And includes, Exercise, Education, Medication, Joint protection, and Healthy weight maintenance