Arthritis is so incredibly painful and debilitating that most sufferers reach for the strongest pain-relieving anti-inflammatory drugs the moment their doctors offer them.
But these drugs are extremely harmful, as these drugs increase blood sugar and cholesterol, decrease bone density and muscle tissue, delay wound healing, suppress your immune system, put you in danger of infections, and so forth.
But a new study just appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine reveals a healthy alternative with no side effects.
Best of all, this healthy alternative is more effective at treating arthritis pain and stiffness than drugs.
The researchers recruited their 156 subjects from the U.S. military health system. All of them were arthritis patients, and they had an average age of 56 years.
The patients were split into two evenly sized groups, one of which received physical therapy and the other received glucocorticoid joint injections.
Before and after the treatment program, the researchers obtained their scores on the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Arthritis Index (WOMAC). This is a standard test used in many of these studies. Higher scores signify worse pain, more disability, and more stiffness than lower scores do, with scores ranging from zero to 240.
Before the program, the two groups scored approximately the same, 108.8 in the glucocorticoid group, and 107.1 in the physical therapy group.
After one year, the glucocorticoid group scored 55.8, whereas the physical therapy group scored 37, showing a clear benefit of physical therapy over the injections.
In addition to WOMAC, the researchers also measured their subjects’ performance on three other tests before and after the program. All three of these tests yielded the same result as WOMAC: physical therapy was more effective than glucocorticoids in limiting pain, stiffness, and disability.