Have you tried many medications, nondrug therapies and lifestyle habits to treat your arthritis pain? Are you putting off joint surgery for as long as possible? You may consider a treatment that blocks the pain signals being sent from your central nervous system to painful joints.

1. Arthritis

• Description: The cause depends on the type of arthritis. Osteoarthritis is caused by the wear and tear of the joint over time or because of overuse. Rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and scleroderma are caused by the body’s immune system attacking the body’s own tissues. Gout is caused by the buildup of crystals in the joints. Some forms of arthritis can be linked to genes. People with genetic marker HLA-B27 have a higher risk of ankylosing spondylitis. For some other forms of arthritis, the cause is not known.
• Symptoms: Pain in 1 or more joints that doesn’t go away, or comes back, Warmth and redness in 1 or more joints, Swelling in 1 or more joints, Stiffness in 1 or more joints, Trouble moving 1 or more joints in a normal way
• Triggers: An infection, like a cold or the flu, Growths on the ends of your bones called bone spurs, Repetitive movements Stress, Weight gain, Cold weather, Changes in barometric pressure (pressure in the atmosphere linked to weather changes)

2. Sciatica

• Description: Sciatica refers to pain that travels along the path of the sciatic nerve. The sciatic nerve travels from the buttocks and down each leg.
• Symptoms: Sciatica pain can be almost anywhere along the nerve pathway. It’s especially likely to follow a path from the low back to the buttock and the back of a thigh and calf.
• Causes: Sciatica occurs when the nerve roots to the sciatic nerve become pinched. The cause is usually a herniated disk in the spine or an overgrowth of bone, sometimes called bone spurs, on the spinal bones. More rarely, a tumor can put pressure on the nerve.

3. Cervical

• Description: Neck pain can be caused by many things — but it is most often related to getting older. Like the rest of the body, the disks and joints in the neck (cervical spine) slowly degenerate as we age. Cervical spondylosis, commonly called arthritis of the neck, is the medical term for these age-related, wear-and-tear changes that occur over time.
• Symptoms:Headaches, Grinding or popping noise or sensation when you turn your neck, In some cases, cervical spondylosis results in a narrowing of the space needed for the spinal cord or nerve roots. If this occurs, your symptoms may include numbness and weakness in the arms, hands, and fingers, Trouble walking, loss of balance, or weakness in the hands or legs, Muscle spasms in the neck and shoulders
• Causes: Cervical spondylosis arises from degenerative changes that occur in the spine as we age. These changes are normal and they occur in everyone. In fact, nearly half of all people middle-aged and older have worn disks that do not cause painful symptoms..

4. Vertigo

• Description: Vertigo is a sensation of motion or spinning that is often described as dizziness. Vertigo is not the same as being lightheaded. People with vertigo feel as though they are actually spinning or moving, or that the world is spinning around them.
• Symptoms: Problem focusing the eyes Dizziness, Hearing loss in one or both ears, Loss of balance (may cause falls), Ringing in the ears, Nausea and vomiting, leading to loss of body fluids
• Causes: There are two types of vertigo, peripheral and central vertigo –
  1. Peripheral vertigo is due to a problem in the part of the inner ear that controls balance.
  2. Central vertigo is due to a problem in the brain, usually in the brain stem or the back part of the brain (cerebellum).