Creaky, achy, painful joints. A twinge in the knee. A sharp shooting pain from the shoulder to the elbow. Is this normal?

Your pain might be from osteo-arthritis, commonly known as arthritis. Luckily, today you have a lot of options to choose from to help reduce joint pain, maybe even give you pain relief.

Creaking knees, hips, and ankles aren’t necessarily the normal aches and pains that come with age. No big deal, right?

Wrong. All too often, we make the assumption that joint pain is a normal part of aging that we just have to learn to live with. Nothing could be further from the truth, say the experts, pointing to a wealth of treatment options from exercise and supplements to medications and joint replacement surgery that can help you gain joint pain relief.

It’s a serious problem, because pain can affect every aspect of your life. “Pain is not only the experience of hurting; it affects how you handle your life, your livelihood, your interactions with family and friends,” says Raymond Gaeta, MD, who specializes in pain management.

A recent telephone survey revealed that nearly one in five people (19%) had chronic pain such as arthritis.

The problem is, we’ve been used to our body healing naturally up to now, so we continue to expect that to happen even as we get older and start experiencing aches and pains. With chronic pain, we put up with it, we try pain relievers, pills, tablets, ointments, salves and so on, but we don’t always get pain relief.

Our Bodies Heal Naturally!

You may want to think about what our bodies need to heal! One of the first things to consider in helping your body heal is your diet. Our bodies utilize what we eat, drink and inhale to repair and maintain our bodies. If we aren’t getting what we need, then this process doesn’t occur.

Take a good look at what you are eating – and be honest. Then ask yourself what you are missing. If you eat a typical American diet then most likely you aren’t getting enough vegetables and fruit in your daily diet.

The next thing you need to consider is whether or not, you’ll actually change your diet…. Because if that’s not likely to happen you may want to consider nutritional supplementation in the form of vitamins and minerals to ensure that you are giving your body what it needs to heal naturally.

Basic healing needs require vitamin A, vitamin C and zinc. These are easily found in most multivitamin-mineral supplements.

For arthritic joint problems there are a few supplements that seem to make a difference. Some of these have been heavily researched and others are anecdotal. These include MSM, glucosamine, and chondroitin.

MSM or methylsulfonylmethane, was developed by Stanley Jacob, an M.D. who believes it has many benefits. It is claimed that MSM will reduce pain associated with inflammation from osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, gout and fibromyalgia. It seems that the beneficial effects of MSM last only as long as it is taken.

Glucosamine and chondroitin are two molecules that make up the type of cartilage found within joints. Inside your joints, cartilage undergoes a constant process of breakdown and repair. However, to be properly repaired, the building blocks of cartilage must be present and available. The theory behind using the glucosamine and chondroitin joint supplements is that more of the cartilage building blocks will be available for cartilage repair.

Glucosamine is an amino sugar that the body produces and distributes in cartilage and other connective tissue. Glucosamine has been proven effective in easing arthritis pain, rehabilitating cartilage, renewing synovial fluid, and repairing joints that have been damaged from osteoarthritis.

Chondroitin sulfate is a complex carbohydrate that helps cartilage retain water and is responsible for the resiliency of cartilage.

Treatment with these joint supplements is based on the theory they may increase the rate of formation of new cartilage by providing more of the necessary building blocks, thus relieving pain.

A review of current research on joint supplements seems to show that these are effective in pain relief when the arthritic condition is in it’s early stages, although the research in later stages of joint degeneration seems biased in favor of pharmaceutical drugs that are either heavy duty narcotic pain relievers or arthritic drugs with severe side-effects.

Of course, you should see your doctor and make sure you have the right diagnosis and learn what your other treatment options are.

But in the meantime, there’s nothing wrong with improving your diet and taking multivitamin-mineral supplements to optimize your bodies’ natural healing ability and gain some pain relief.