Rheumatoid Arthritis
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a highly unpleasant progressive inflammatory joint disease, predominantly affecting smaller joints - wrists, fingers, ankles, toes - in a symmetrical pattern. The disease alternates between acute, painful episodes, and chronic relapses where joint stiffness and functional restriction predominate.
Whilst RA can occasionally be crippling and cause extensive joint deformity, a lot can be done to alleviate symptoms, preserve joint function and promote quality of life and autonomy.
Osteopathy tends to take a two-track approach to RA:
- During the acute phase, manual therapy will focus on treating the joints and tissues around those affected by RA, and combining hydrotherapy and lymphatic drainage to reduce local inflammation and pain, and promote toxin elimination;
- During the more chronic phases, a combination of manual therapy, exercise, hydrotherapy and diet are used to preserve good joint function, and reduce the incidence and degree of the acute phases.
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Read more about how we use osteopathy, therapeutic massage and our approach to nutrition and diet advice.
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