What is Arthritis?

• Arthritis usually affects the joints, destroying the connecting--and lubricating--parts of the joint. Your bones should move smoothly and painlessly about your joints. With arthritis, joints lose that ability and friction and pain occurs.
  Arthritis affects more women than men, and juvenile arthritis affects more than 300,000 in the United States alone. Arthritis, as opposed to simple aches and stiffness, can lead to serious complications and disabilities.
  
  

State of Care

• For the most part, arthritis has no cure. However, therapies, medicines and surgeries can abate most symptoms in many cases. Not all of those who suffer with arthritis find complete relief. As a result, some seek alternative solutions such as herbal creams.
  
  

Herbal Creams for Arthritis

• Since they are not regulated, providers of herbal creams have not submitted their products for analysis to determine their content or effectiveness. As a result, you need to be aware that each cream will vary from the next. Each will make various claims, often times differing from one another.
  
  

History of Herbal Medicine

• The use of herbs to treat illness predates civilization. Cherokee Indians, for example, knew of the palliative benefits from the inner bark of the willow tree. Not every medicine comes from a man-made source--many of today's modern medicines have roots in the natural medicines of the past.
  
  

Effectiveness

• Since your pain is in your joints, and your skin is very effective at keeping even the smallest microbes out of your body, the active ingredients in herbs can get to your joints but almost always the transfer is slow and not very efficient.
  That's not to say that you can't get relief from creams. First, consider that when you apply the cream you're massaging the painful joint. You'll see some relief usually just from loosening the muscles strained by the damaged joint. Second, some effect can occur on the skin, such as a warming sensation. You may find the sensation distracting enough to lessen the effect of your pain.
  However, no scientific (double-blind) study supports that any topical herbal cream will lessen the pain of arthritis or cure it.
  
  

What to Do

• If you have chronic joint pain and have not been diagnosed, see your health professional. Joint pain is not always arthritis and may be a symptom of a different problem. Work with your health professional to address your problem.