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When bones ache

     'I suffer from rheumatism' is a commonly heard complaint, especially from the elderly though not only. Rheumatism is understood as symptoms of painful joints or muscles, rigidity, oversensitivity to weather changes, cold, humidity etc.
     Rheumatism, as it is commonly understood, is a very wide concept. It may mean that a patient is suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, arthral or spinal stress syndrome, osteoarthritis or osteoporosis. Each of these diseases has an utterly different cause, i.e. aetiology, and a completely different mechanism of emergence, i.e. pathogenesis. Basically, only rheumatoid arthritis could be considered rheumatism as the other ailments are rather of orthopaedic than rheumatic nature.

How is rheumatism treated?
     Rheumatoid arthritis is a disease affecting the whole body, especially connective tissues of joints which are a place of the initial lesions causing bilateral pain and rigidity. These are usually the joints of hands or feet and the effects are symmetric, i.e. both hands or feet are affected.
     Let the doctor decide about medicines - which herbs can be used? Willow bark, or actually salicylates present in it (a sort of herbal aspirin), produce good results. It is advisable to combine willow bark with an extract from linden (Tilia) flowers. Both the herbs have anti-phlogisitc effects and they soothe the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis. They are present in Grypobon.
     In the course of rheumatoid arthritis internal articular cartilage gets damaged. That is why it is advisable to use Artrobon which regenerates the cartilage as it contains glucosamine and the root of grapple plant, called Devil's Claw, which is a very good anti-phlogistic remedy. Good results in treating rheumatoid diseases are also achieved with the use of royal jelly, so Bonimel containing royal jelly is worth recommending.
     Artrobon has good effects in treating joint degeneration, but it must be taken into consideration that neither can be a substitute for rehabilitation. Manual therapy, which is performed at the Phytotherapy Centre in Żywiec, Bielsko-Biała and Rychwałd, treats spinal pains successfully.
     It should be clearly pointed out that rheumatism has various causes and symptoms and thus each must be treated in a different way.