What is this chronic condition that causes inflammation, swelling and distortion of the joints? Medically speaking,arthritis is a name that covers many inflammatory conditions of the joints and muscles, extremely painful symptoms that make moving, sitting and sleeping difficult, even impossible at times. Often as not, the only relief is from pain-killing drugs, steroids, etc. Sadly, these drugs lose their effect after a while and the patient is no better off.

Although millions of dollars have been spent on clinical research into arthritic conditions, we seem to be no further forward in our quest to find a cure. But all is not gloom and doom, for in the alternative field of medicine there is, at last, a strong possibility of a breakthrough. Certainly, ongoing research carried out by many experts in this field, including myself, have borne this out, often producing quite remarkable results.

Even allowing for the fact that a tendency towards arthritis, rheumatism, etc., can be inherited, incorrect diet and lifestyle are also contributory factors, lending a great deal of credence to the saying "We are what we eat and do".

In nigh on forty years as a psychologist and nutritional therapist, I have found that stress is an important factor in causing and prolonging chronic ill health. It's of the utmost importance, therefore, that we learn to recognise stress and learn how to tackle it head on. Believe it or not, most people don't know they are chronically stressed. They are not aware of the important role their emotions play in making them ill or keeping them well.

In recent years, scientific research has learned a great deal about how the mind affects the body, for good or ill. It is imperative, therefore, that we learn how to control our fears by separating the ones which are based on fact and those that are figments of our imagination. In other words, "never cross a bridge until you come to it", as the saying goes.

Believe it or not, a faulty or inadequate diet and some of the common foods we eat can also stress our body. For example, few of us realise that for the most part we are addicted to salt. Salt is a stimulant which hits the adrenal glands causing the body to go into a stress reaction. Just like sugar, salt gives us a 'high', consequently, we consume far too much of both these substances.

Because our blood is naturally 80% alkaline, we need alkaline forming foods such as fruit, vegetables, yoghurt and certain seeds to keep it that way. An all-acid meal such as egg on toast with coffee uses up calcium and other minerals in our body's attempt to restore the alkaline balance. I have always found that it is difficult to heal arthritis in an acid body, therefore, our intake should be 80% alkaline and 20% acid.

From the aforementioned basic examples, you can see how important it is to incorporate psychological and dietary management techniques when treating arthritic, rheumatism and other chronic inflammatory conditions. By so-doing, mental and physical improvement can be quite amazing in many cases.

The holistic approach (treating the whole body) is, in my view, essential if an improvement or cure for arthritis is to be achieved. Treating the symptoms will lead nowhere and the misery and suffering will continue unabated as sure as night follows day!

The advantage of 'alternative' methods of treatment is that they can be used in conjunction with 'allopathic' (conventional) regimes. Always remember, even though you may have been told by your doctor or consultant that there is nothing more that can be done for your condition, this is from a conventional, drug-orientated viewpoint. Sadly, this somewhat narrow-minded and thoughtless statement often results in a feeling of hopelessness in many patients who consult me for the first time. Please remember, there is always something that can be done and as an 'alternative' practitioner I know this is true- without a shadow of doubt!