Alternative Treatments and Strategies for Rheumatoid Arthritis Report

This report examines the alternative treatments for Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), focusing on a case study of Mrs. Martin. It explores various approaches including dietary supplements like fish oil, turmeric, and frankincense, along with mind-body therapies such as biofeedback, meditation, Tai Chi, and yoga. The report also considers conventional treatments like DMARDs. It identifies factors contributing to Mrs. Martin's powerlessness, such as lack of education and support, and suggests strategies to help families cope with RA, including positive attitudes, support systems, and heat/cold therapies. The conclusion emphasizes the potential of alternative treatments to alleviate RA symptoms. The report references several research articles to support its findings.

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Running Head: RHEUMATOID
Rheumatoid
Name
Institution

RHEUMATOID 2
Introduction
Self-care is a term used to refer to a powerful and active decision driven by motivation to
indulge in activities that are necessary to maintain or gain an optimal level of overall body
health. Overall body health does not just mean physical health but both emotional state,
sociological state in addition to spiritual components of a person’s wellbeing. It generally means
involving oneself in healthy lifestyle choices and stress management. From this definition, it is
quite clear that Mrs. Martin is engaging her in self-care practices. As depicted from the case
study, Mrs. Martin resolved to do exercise; these exercises did help Mrs. Martin to maintain an
optimal psychological state. She furthermore participates in social activities such as going to the
opera according to (Dargham et al. 2018).
Alternative Treatment of Rheumatoid Disease
Rheumatoid is a type of disease that is characterized by inflammation responsible for
affecting the supporting structures of the body especially the joints, ligaments or tendons.
Rheumatoid arthritis can cause an individual to lose the ability to walk. A number of alternative
treatments have been put across that can be used to treat rheumatoid patients. These treatments
include;
As denoted by Jung (2018), dietary supplements for Rheumatoid Arthritis. According to
this treatment, it is said that a number of supplements may interact with the medication taken by
the patient for instance the use of frankincense that has properties responsible for boosting the
immune system. It has been suggested because rheumatoid disease is an autoimmune disease.
Thus, the supplementary reduces inflammation. Additionally, the use of fish oil and turmeric as

RHEUMATOID 3
supplement in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis has been suggested (Oma, 2018). Fish oil has
high content of omega 3 fatty acids responsible for decreasing inflammation in the body. The
high content of curcumin in turmeric further helps protect inflammation from the joints.
Academic database on treatment of rheumatoid
Zhang, Cao, Ying, Du Chen, Wang & Shen (2018), assert that the use of mind-body
therapies for rheumatoid arthritis. This is another alternative treatment for this disease. This
technique involves the application of biofeedback technology. A machine is used to determine
how an individual reacts to stress by calculating his heartbeat and temperature of the body. The
use of this technique is intended to help an individual to manage his/her stress thus helps in
reducing pain. Additionally the use of meditation, Tai chi and yoga tend to teach an individual to
be in a position to relax their body and mind. In this case, yoga is used to help a person relieve
body pain. The use of these alternative treatments can be done parallel to alternative medicine
treatment.
Alternatively, the use of DMARDs for instance the use of methotrexate and another
newly developed biological DMARDS, which contain anti- TNF therapies, have proven to be
helpful in the treatment of RA. This kind of therapy can be used for particular patient who do not
react with it.
Factors Contributing to Mrs. Martin’s Powerlessness
From the case study of Mrs. Martin, a number of factors have been identified to be the
cause of her powerlessness that contributed to her inability to manage her rheumatoid disease.