If you suffer from arthritis there is also the possibility that you are over-exposed to fluoride. Arthitis is a common first sign of skeletal fluorosis... and can indicate chronic fluoride posioning. Fluoride (natural OR artificial) accumulates in the soft tissues around joints as well as in bones and teeth (making the latter hard and brittle and therefore weaker and less flexible than nature intended). Chenyang, China and many places in India where natural fluorides occur in water between 4 and 9parts per million (ppm) can tell you all about this! Immediate elimination of as many sources of fluoride as possible could reduce symptoms. Drinking and cooking water needs reverse osmosis or distallation; teflon pans need dumping; don't allow gortex material touch skin; fluoride toothpaste too; stop burning a coal fire - hydrogen fluoride in smoke; avoid PFC and CFC (fluorocarbons); sodium or other fluorides in supplements and painkillers... there are more sources but these are most likely the main ones in your life - and the ones you can control most readily. Big industry fumes could take a bit longer. The public image of fluoride is of a saintly substance that assists dentition. Yet quietly big promoters like the Centre for Disease Control and the American Dental Association are changing their position from the view that we need it systemically (i.e. to ingest it) to the view that it's dental benefits are topical. This is most likely because we the public are learning of the plethora of dangers associated with it... and because they can no longer convince us that 1part per million parts water is ideal when we now know that human breast milk (even if the mother is on 1ppm in her water) reduces fluoride levels by 200-250 times - right down to 0.004ppm. Yet public health administration still seems to want you drinking, cooking and washing in 1ppm water. The folks in China and India get the most horrific problems (of which arthritic pain is often the first sign!) at between 4 and 9 ppm. And nature gives a baby 0.004ppm. The numbers involved seem big at first glance. But would never stand up to standard 'margin of safety' scrutiny if you wanted to prescribe a drug. The differences are so small and create such big effects so quickly that people often don't quite believe it. And, to give you a meaningful sense of what 1ppm is... get this! It's the same as 1 minute out of nearly two years (23 months, 4 days and some hours). For the Chinese and Indian peoples think about 4-9 minutes in those same 2 years. And then the baby... well we're talking mere thousandths of a second in 2 years. It's your choice of course... but I'd be copying nature's efforts to keep fluoride ingestion to a minimum. More info, discussion of scientific and human rights issues associated with water fluoridation plus a heap of scientific studies linking fluoride to bone and other cancers, dental and skeletal fluorosis, heart problems, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, glandular problems, early on-set of puberty, hypo and hyper activity, lower IQ levels and more... can be found on http://www.fluoridealert.org

For those of you suffering with obesity and painful arthritic conditions I urge you to read "Dr. Mercola's Total Health Plan" and " The Maker's Diet" by Dr. Jordan Rubin. I suffered so badly from arthritis that I could barely walk and the extra 50lbs I was carrying around did not help either.  Now I am 50 lbs. thinner and I have no pain at all and even stairs are no longer a problem! I followed those 2 good doctors advice and I feel like a child even though I am in my 50's. It can happen for you too! 

Besides the usual nutrition and lifestyle recommendations that we always here of, this is what I find helpful when treating people with arthritis:

1. Get a full body assessment by a CHEK Practitioner: In simple and short form, this will provide a blue print of what is short and what is long (muscles). From there, a corrective exercise program can be put together to realign the body. Most arthritis comes from "driving your car out of alignment."

2. Lab testing: An Organix Profile or an Amino Acid Profile helps to patch any kinks in the metabolic system. This will aid in reducing inflammation.

3. TCM: Acupunture is great for orthopedic issues and there are a lot of points that reduce pain, eliminate damp or cold pathogens (which can cause joint pain), as well as lots of herbs that will eliminate these pathogens as well.

4. Qi Gong: This goes along with the exercise programming. When you perform movements or exercise at slow tempos, you stimulate your slow-twitch muscles fibers. These are the ones that have a high endurance/postural threshold. This will increase joint stability.

5. Eliminate all gluten and processed grains. They hold the same amino acid sequence as the synovial fluid in your joints. When you have leaky gut, dysbiosis, etc (which most due and some think this is a major contributor to their pain), your body attaches antibody's to these antigens when you ingest food and it slips through the "cracks" in your gut. So the next time you eat these foods, your immune systme not only attacks these food antigens, but also your joints.

6. 6-8g of Cod Liver Oil per day: This is a natural antiinfammatory.