To get the arthritis pain relief you're seeking it's helpful to understand how arthritis works. Sometimes arthritis occurs in the wrist, elbows, shoulders, and jaw but you generally don't find it there. In osteoarthritis, any one or more affected joints experience a progressive loss of cartilage, which is the slippery material that cushions the ends of bones.

It's important to learn plenty of facts about joints and arthritis to help you understand how to treat arthritis better. Collagen is the main protein found in all connective tissues in the body, including the muscles, ligaments, and tendons. Damaged joints cause pain and sufferers are constantly looking for ways to relieve the pain.

Researchers report a higher incidence of osteoarthritis between parents and children or between siblings than between husbands and wives. Injuries sometimes can be the start in the arthritic disease process; osteoarthritis can develop years later even after a single traumatic injury to a joint or near a joint. Possible causes of arthritis include lesser known: bleeding disorders, like hemophilia that causes bleeding to occur in the joint; disorders such as avascular necrosis, that block the blood supply closest to the joint; and conditions like hemochromatosis, which causes iron build-up in the joints.

Many arthritis sufferers have changed their diets, like I did, and noticed significant or total improvement. An acidic diet, that is any foods that are not alive, is considered to be inflammatory to the joints. One natural treatment method involves avoiding all inflammatory foods. I learned to eat and enjoy all living foods. Living foods are foods that are alive, like fruits, veggies, nuts and seeds. There are plenty of raw food cookbooks out there with great recipes, too.

If you're not already doing so, make a big effort to change your diet. Many have told me that going off dairy products and gluten-containing foods relieved their arthritis pain entirely.

Make smoothies with fruit only using a base of two bananas, adding a cup of frozen or fresh blueberries and mango chunks or substitute any other fruit and add an energy boost of two tablespoons of coconut oil; add one or two leaves of kale for another highly nutritional boost -- no one will ever know.

Studies done on antioxidant vitamins question the value of these supplements; it's clearly better to consume these antioxidants in living foods because they may also need to work with other nutrients present in the foods to work properly. Keep in mind, if you take a joint supplement it should help do three things -- build cartilage, relieve everyday joint pain, and enhance your flexibility and movement.

Some people swear by morning drinks of raw apple cider vinegar and honey for arthritis pain relief. If your osteoarthritis is affecting your load-bearing joints, keeping your weight within a normal range is important.

Even the lightest exercise can go a long way to maintaining your joint mobility and overall health. At bedtime try putting on a pair of stretch gloves to help reduce the pain and swelling in your fingers for those who have arthritic hands. To be on the safe side always seek your doctor's advice before starting or changing your exercise program. Stretching and warming up the joints should always be the first step in your exercise routine to make your joints more flexible.

For arthritic fingers, a good exercise is to put your finger tips together and press hard and release, then repeat several times. Even if you don't think you can exercise, you can do some movements. Use Taiji health balls, with the chimes, to strengthen the finger joints: hold two balls, move in a clockwise circle with your fingers to rotate them, then try counterclockwise and do throughout the day.

If you're going to go the conventional treatment route and take medications, ask your pharmacist for drug inserts so you can read up on the drugs and understand any side effects or adverse reactions, before taking them. If you're planning to take any of the non-prescription NSAIDS for arthritis, make sure you understand what bad effects they can have on the stomach, liver and/or kidneys and discuss this with your doctor. Once you become more informed about arthritis you'll be able to plan an arthritis treatment program, natural or conventional or a combination of both.

More and more doctors are investigating the benefits of alternative therapies and most don't object to patients trying them. One should not only search for relief of arthritis pain but work on preventing it. Knowing more about arthritis and how it works will ultimately help contribute to your relief of arthritis pain. Changing the diet to a diet of mostly living foods is the fastest way to get rid of arthritis pain - I did it, you can too.