Which Alternatives can you Trust? Do Any Work at all?

With arthritis as with a lot of the other ‘big illnesses’ which infect the modern world, there are a lot of competing alternative and holistic treatment options. Some may work and have thousands of years backing them up; others don’t have anything at all to say they do other than overenthusiastic advertisements. It’s important to go into all things with an open mind but it’s just as important not to assign importance or effectiveness where there is none. If it claims to be a medical treatment then it should be medically tested as one, as such a study has been done into some therapies aimed at treating different kinds of arthritis.

Rheumatoid Arthritis – There are all sorts of therapies which claim to help patients alleviate their symptoms, most of these have had little or no testing at all. Out of nine alternative therapies tested only two showed any sign of a positive effect on the illness, these were tai chi and relaxation therapy which were moderately useful but not incredibly so. Worth a try but don’t hold out too much hope, essentially.

Osteoarthritis – 14 different therapies were trialled and surprisingly 12 of them showed some usefulness in treating this condition. Two were by far the most potent however, these were tai chi and acupuncture which both showed to be very useful and as such we’d heartily recommend giving them a go!

Fibromyalgia – 17 different types of competing therapy were trialled and 13 were found to be useful. Four were seen to be fairly to very effective, these were, in order from least to most, tai chi, relaxation therapy, acupuncture and massage. Everyone loves a nice massage so why not give it a try?

Lower Back Pain – 14 therapies were trialled but only eight were shown to be remotely effective. Yoga and acupuncture (again) were shown to be considerably more potent than the others when used to alleviate symptoms, worth a try wouldn’t you say?