Imagine for a moment that your home is on fire and your local fire department arrives to “save the day” by cutting the power to your fire alarm. While the hyperbole of this anecdote flies in the face of everything we find to be logical when it comes to fire safety, the analogy is far from exaggerated in relation to how medicine has historically addressed chronic pain.

Much of the reason for our stunted understanding is that our approach is grounded in the idea that the pain itself is the problem, which leads us to ignore the fact that pain is just an internal alarm informing us that something has gone awry.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) pain is like that blaring alarm in response to our imaginary fire, and we must learn to put the fire out by discovering its true causes.

Have you considered all the possible factors, including genetic, dietary or digestive issues, or infections and inflammatory factors that may play a role in RA? When you better understand the factors contributing to your pain, you may change the way you experience it. Here’s a look at a few ways people living with RA might use naturopathic medicine to help ease pain.

Learn the 4 ways here on EveryDayHealth.com