Dealing with Arthritis in Back: Natural Ways to Fight Pain

Back pain can make life miserable. It is something you are constantly aware of, and it affects all aspects of your life and movement. Whether you are sitting still, lying down or moving, back pain is a constant source of discomfort. If the cause of your back pain is a type of arthritis, it is likely that your back pain is chronic or at least reoccurring, and something that you need to learn to cope with. There are things you can do at home to help ease and prevent your back pain from taking over your life.

Arthritis in Back: What Causes the Pain?

Arthritis can wreak havoc with your joints, bones and muscles, and your back is no exception. The most common place in the back for pain, stiffness and swelling to happen is the lower back as it bears more of the weight of the body. [1] You may also experience rashes and tingling in your back. [2] Pain can be worse in the morning and lessen during the day as the person moves around the lubricant in the joints. [3] Arthritis can lead to bone spurs that cause irritation to the nerves, leading to pain, weakness or numbness. [3]

Natural Remedies for Arthritis in Back

Perhaps you would rather treat your arthritis naturally to keep your reliance on medication to a minimum. Maybe the drugs are not giving you the relief you want and need. Here are some things you can do at home to reduce and prevent arthritic back pain from dominating your life.

Heat Packs and Cool Packs

Research has shown that applying heat to your back can reduce pain levels more than the use of anti-inflammatory drugs. [1] A hot bath is a great way to do this for your whole body. You can also use ice packs to numb the pain if that is more effective, but be careful not to do this for too long or too often because it can increase stiffness in your joints. [1]

Work on your Posture

Making sure your spine is in proper alignment is a great way to make sure you are not putting any more pressure on your joints that you need to. Sit up straight and keep your shoulders back to maintain good posture whether you are working or relaxing. [2]

Exercises for Arthritis in Back

Exercises that help get your back moving will be beneficial. It is also helpful to strengthen the back so that it is better equipped to support your body. If you are in a lot of pain you may want to start out with some very gentle exercises, and could try something like yoga or Pilates. [4]

Walking

Walking is a great way to help you back by working out your whole body and getting you moving. Make sure you have shoes that give you the support you need and try to walk somewhere where the ground is a little softer than the pavement, such as in a park. [2]

Vaccine for Rheumatoid Arthritis in Back Pain A Step Closer to Reality

Rheumatoid arthritis is a frustrating condition, especially for older victims, because contrary to conventional wisdom, it doesn’t just affect the joints. In total, there are more than 450,000 just in Australia who are living with the condition. (5) Unfortunately, in more severe cases, it can affect the person’s heart, lungs, eyes—even blood vessels. It becomes an extremely uncomfortable condition. However, there may be hope on the horizon. A new vaccine approach to treating Rheumatoid Arthritis in back has been developed by researchers at the University of Queensland. And so far, the results have been promising.

Over the past several years, university researchers have tested their vaccine on laboratory mice and subsequently, a few human volunteers

In-phase one of the clinical trial, (6) they have found the vaccine to be both effective and safe for the general public. In this Phase One, after seeing the effect on the mice, they took patient blood samples and added in an experimental anti-inflammatory along with a foreign peptide. They injected this combination of material into the arthritis in back pain patient. They were more than pleased with the results—the first time that there was no sign of the vaccine being rejected by the human body.

According to one of the researchers, Professor Ranjeny Thomas, their vaccine takes a unique path to dealing with arthritis in back pain: (7) It targets the underlying cause for the condition. Prior attempts at developing a vaccine ran into a problem with the patients’ immunity systems. These systems, when introduced to the vaccines, produced CCP antibodies to fight what the body considered a foreign entity. This caused inflammation for the patient. The new vaccine has been successful at teaching the immunity system to ignore the vaccine, thus allowing it to do its healing unimpeded.

During this Phase 1 research, those leading the experiments prepared a personalized immunotherapy for each of their lab participants. They extracted “dendric cells” from their blood samples (a specific kind of immunity cell). The foreign peptide is then introduced into these dendritic cells, and these cells then re-injected into the patient. The team quickly noted that the inflammation that they had noted with prior treatments was significantly reduced.

Rheumatoid Arthritis is an autoimmune disorder and the most common form of autoimmune arthritis. (8) It occurs as the patient’s immunity system mistakenly begins attacking its own body tissue. While somewhat similar to osteoarthritis, unlike that disease’s wear-and-tear damage, rheumatoid arthritis in back primarily affects linings of the sufferer’s joints. This, in turn, causes a painful swelling that creates bone erosion, joint deformity, and eventually affects major body organs.

One of the challenges of dealing with the condition is that it’s often not detected early enough for treatments to have the maximum benefit. RA is difficult to detect since is frequently begins with subtle symptoms, like minor morning stiffness in the joints. A physician normally diagnoses RA through a physical exam and noting symptoms such as pain, swelling and warmth in the joints. There are also blood tests that assist them with the diagnosis. (9) Hampering the whole process of diagnosis is that researchers don’t know exactly what causes RA.

Currently Professor Thomas and her team are working on the creation of a ready-made vaccine for direct injection into rheumatoid arthritis in back sufferers. That’s because Professor Thomas admits that there would be challenges with reproducing the above technique with the average patient.

The whole process of withdrawing blood sample, introducing the treatment into the blood and re-injecting it would still be too expensive for the average patient, and the several treatments needed are quite time-consuming. However, she says, the success of the experimental vaccine is laying the groundwork for something that would be more practical in the future for arthritis in back sufferers and their treatment providers: a one-time shot. The team is currently partnering with Dendright Pty Ltd to develop this more convenient delivery technology. (Johnson & Johnson is also collaborating with the team) (8)

Helping the millions of patients worldwide who suffer with Rheumatoid arthritis in back has been an ongoing challenge for thousands of researchers over the past 50 years. There are current treatments available. As recently as 2012, the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) (9) issued guidelines for physicians across the globe in handling arthritis in back patients. Some of the recommendations included more aggressive pharmacological treatments during the early stages of the disease; tailoring drug therapy for each sufferer’s specific case; and getting vaccinated for bacterial infections such as pneumonia, influenza and Hepatitis B.

However, even though there are these treatment guidelines in place, according to Professor Thomas, they focus on two purposes that aren’t nearly as helpful: alleviating symptoms and slowing the progression of the disease (Like most chronic diseases, rheumatoid arthritis gets worse over time). The vaccine, on the other hand, intends to stop the disease entirely. The university’s research is being eyed by arthritis researchers, not just in their native Australia, but around the world. (7)

In addition, the professor notes that their research, while intended to aid arthritis sufferers, will have side benefits for patients with other chronic conditions.

Researchers for many other diseases, such as Type 1 diabetes, have run into similar challenges as those researching arthritis treatments. Namely, a vaccine triggers the patient’s body to fight off the vaccine, considering it a hostile foreign entity. Thomas notes that their unique delivery system for the vaccine might easily be adapted to vaccines for other diseases—including diabetes.

Arthritis in back is the breakdown of a joint in the body and occurs equally in men and women. The base of the Arthritis in back is one of the most common sites where it occurs. The symptoms of this condition come in the form of stiffness, decreased ability to move or bend the toe, and pain in the joint. Over time you may notice the Arthritis in back pain becoming permanently swollen or deformed as the bone grows abnormally.

There are many different treatment options for arthritis in back once it has been diagnosed. Physical therapy, involving certain stretches and exercises, is often useful to reduce pain levels. There are also drug treatments available to treat both symptoms and to prevent the condition from progressing further.

Those interested in reading more about this research and the experimental treatment can find information in the journal, Science Translational Medicine as well as the journal Immunity.

 

References:

1. http://www.arthritis.org/about-arthritis/where-it-hurts/back-pain/causes/back-arthritis.php
2. http://www.healthline.com/health-slideshow/arthritis-back-pain-exercises#2
3. http://www.spine-health.com/conditions/arthritis/osteoarthritis-symptoms
4. http://www.spine-health.com/wellness/exercise/back-strengthening-exercises
5. http://www.arthritisresearchuk.org/arthritis-information/drugs/adalimumab.aspx
6. http://www.nras.org.uk/patients-in-focus-awards-2014-gold-winner–370
7. http://arthursplace.co.uk/
8. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24898111
9. http://www.arthritisresearchuk.org/arthritis-information/drugs/hydroxychloroquine.aspx
10. https://www.uq.edu.au/news/article/2015/06/early-clinical-trial-success-new-rheumatoid-arthritis-treatment