What Causes Arthritis

The Chinese medicine explanation on what causes arthritis is: the weakening kidney yang, blood stasis and phlegm. A weakened body is susceptible to penetration of wind, damp and cold which get embedded in the joints, and aggravate the condition.

Once the phlegm is lodged in the joints it's very difficult to eliminate. It's the sticky nature of the phlegm that makes it one of the toughest elements to get rid of.

There is no differentiation between osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis and the etiology of this Painful Obstruction Syndrome, as it is called, is seen as an invasion of environmental pathogens such as cold, wind and damp. The application of kidney strengthening herbs also strengthen the bones.

The symptoms are characteristic of the pathogen that is predominant, although more than one pathogen can be lodged in the body. Once the wind, cold or damp penetrate the body (they can also be internally generated), they become firmly embedded in the muscles and joints, where they obstruct the flow of energy. That inability of the energies to move freely, causes pain.

“Where there is movement there is no pain” says the old Chinese adage.

When the wind is the dominating factor, the characteristic symptom is the pain that moves from one part of the body to another and the pain worsens in windy weather. This type of arthritis is very graphically called “Wandering Pain”.

The most severe pain is felt by the patients when the predominating factor is the cold because of its contracting nature. The pain is fixed in one location, worse with cold, better with application of heat.

With the damp as the dominating factor, there is a heaviness in the body, swelling, with pain worsening in the damp environment.

Heat brings inflammation, and the pain is worse with heat and better with cooling. This hot type of arthritis is usually a result of unresolved wind, damp or cold pathogens, which in time transformed into heat. One of the symptoms include the swollen inflamed joints, sometimes red and hot to touch.

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