Contributing factors are thought to include food allergies, leaky gut syndrome, hereditary factors and microbes. The typical onset is at the age of 20-40. The clinical picture varies from mild chronic joint inflammation with occasional flare-ups to painfully deformed joints. The disease is often accompanied by low-grade fever, weight loss and a general feeling of sickness and soreness. The varying balance between these forces probably accounts for the variation in disease activity as it flares up and subsides.
Inflammation is a living tissue response to mechanical, chemical and immunological challenge.
They play a crucial role in arthritis by causing resorption of bone, stimulating the secretion of collagenase and inhibiting the formation of proteoglycans. A placebo-controlled trial by Feldman et al. Interestingly enough, the leaf of the common nettle plant has recently been shown to lower TNF-a levels. Nettle leaf is an herb that has a long tradition of use as an adjuvant remedy in the treatment of arthritis in Germany. Nettle is thought to work by preventing degradation of the natural inhibitor of NF-kb in the body.