A $128 billion hole
Most folks are familiar with the old country saying, when you find yourself in a hole, stop digging. I think that sums it up best, when you consider the astronomical costs associated with arthritis. We're looking at a $128 billion dollar price tag, and that was calculated for just 2003. (To paint you a picture, that's the equivalent of the gross national product of Venezuela.) The government is saying we can expect that to continue to grow as we grow-both older and heavier.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention calculated the direct costs to be about $80.8 billion, which includes medical expenses, and about $47 billion in indirect costs, which includes lost wages. It was estimated that 46.1 million people received treatment for their arthritis, and 29.5 million of them lost wages as a direct result of their condition.
The government is no doubt wringing its hands. Their recommendation for lowering the costs is to have patients get involved with "self-management" programs, which are supposed to teach patients how to manage their pain and continue working. It's sounds to me like they're saying, "you're on your own, kid."
And they would have done well enough to leave us alone without introducing drugs like cortisone, aspirin, ibuprofen-and their nasty side effects. We were getting along just fine-though maybe with pinched nostrils-with our cod liver oil! In fact, as I've mentioned to you before, it's been in use for aching bones for over 200 years. What's more, studies have shown that cod liver oil can slow, and sometimes reverse, the destruction of joint cartilage. And like magic, it has been found to work overnight.
People have sworn by cod liver oil for ages, and then came the "new and improved" way to handle aching bones-which has been found to degrade joints over the long-haul if you take them for too long. It burns me up, because we're faced with enormous costs for something that people were handling naturally, effectively, and inexpensively, all along.
I don't know about you, but if I had my druthers, I'd prefer to take something that actually fixes the problem, not just give the symptoms a temporary cover-up. Here's exactly what I do for arthritis pain. I start with 2-4 teaspoons a day of Cod Liver Oil. I prefer Carlson's, because it has plenty of vitamin D - 400 units per teaspoon, and the right amount of vitamin A - around 1500 units per teaspoon. If you're already getting enough vitamin A and D, just can use your basic old fish oil, which you can think of as cod liver oil without the vitamins. Carlson's, Nordic Naturals, and Spectrum all offer high-quality products (I mostly use Carlson's or Nordic Naturals myself). You're aiming for approximately 2000-3000 grams a day total DHA and EPA, and you'll have to increase the amounts by checking the label.
Often the cod liver or fish oil is enough. Generally, though, I'll add a powerful and effective herbal anti-inflammatory from New Chapter called Zyflamend. It's a high-quality and carefully designed combination remedy that includes green tea, ginger, turmeric and several other well-understood and safe plant-based anti-inflammatories available at many drug stores or over the internet. Just go to Google and type in "Zyflamend" - then go for the lowest price.
And for extra protection, you can add glucosamine sulfate (1500 mg a day) and chondroitin sulfate (1200 mg a day). Combining these will not only help with inflammation and pain in many people-regardless of what you may have heard from your doctor or from the media-but could actually help to preserve your joints. The beautiful thing about treating your arthritis this way: Not only does it work, but the anti-inflammatory benefits of these important, well-studied remedies work throughout your whole body, helping to protect you against chronic degenerative diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, dementia and cancer. By the way, don't worry about glucosamine or chondroitin causing high blood sugar. That's bunk-simply an unfounded rumor not born out by the available research.
