An arthritis sufferer confesses

I have been suffering from rheumatoid arthritis for as long as I can remember. It’s a crippling and, at times, depressing condition that I wouldn’t wish on anybody. Sometimes I wonder if there was any action that I could or could not have taken earlier in my life that would have affected my condition, something I might have done that aggravated a genetic precondition I have, or something I could have done that would have stopped me from developing the condition at all.nnBut the fact is, I, like so many other people in the country, and indeed, the world, suffer from it on a daily basis. I have heard of many different treatments over the years, all supposed to be some kind of miracle cure. If I had tried everything that had been suggested to me, I wouldn’t be writing this now- I’d still be busy trying to finish the list! The times when I have got past my natural scepticism and given things a try have been relatively few and far between. I remember one particular incident when I was convinced by a close female friend of mine to try yoga. Now I’m not the kind to go out hugging trees and I generally don’t buy into any of this new age stuff, but I agreed to go along all the same. I felt a little out of place amongst people who seemed to have been doing it a long time, but I gave it a go. I have to say, I think if I had tried it a few years ago I think it could have been of tremendous benefit to me, but I found it painful and difficult, and suffice to say I did not go again. nnThe reason I gave this article the title ‘An arthritis sufferer confesses’ is because what I needed to confess is this: I lost all my faith in alternative medicine. None of the treatments I had tried before had had a positive effect, so I assumed that none would. Someone recently pointed out to me that practices such as osteopathy were until relatively recently thought of as ‘alternative’, but are now widely accepted, and indeed many GPs now refer their patients to practitioners. So before you dismiss all alternative therapies out of hand, be sure you are not throwing out the baby with the bath water.nnThe thing that recently restored my faith is this: magnotherapy. This is exactly the sort of thing that i would have normally dismissed, but I was bought a magnetic bracelet as a gift, and since I thought it looked smart I decided that there was no harm in wearing it. Within a few hours I felt an improvement, within a few days markedly so. Now I wouldn’t even think of taking it off. Of course, you might not believe me, just as I wouldn’t have believed you, but you’ve got nothing to lose. nnA little research I’ve been doing on the subject would suggest that the type of bracelet you buy is important. There is a big difference between the more advanced designs with the latest supermagnetic materials that are now available and a copper bracelet with a weak magnet in the ends from the market. A clinical trial commissioned by the Arthritis Research Campaign on the magnetic bracelets developed by Nigel Broderick was published in the British Medical Journal in 2004, and remains the only successful trial of a magnotherapy device in the world. nMore information is available on his site, which I’ve posted the link to below.