Gemmotherapy-complementary treatment in juvenile rheumatoid arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic disease that damagesandeventually destroys the joints of the body. Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA) is not a single disease, but a group of diseases with symptoms and signs developed in children younger than 16 years. There are three major forms: pauciarticular disease, poliarticular disease, and systemic disease. The aim of treatment is to stop or slow down the progress of inflammation, improving function, and preventing joint damage. The most usefull drugs are: 1) nonsteroidal anti-inflammatorydrugs (NSAIDs) reduce inflammation, swelling, and pain, 2) disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs), in children Methotrexat is the most used drug, it interferes in the immune processes that cause inflammation and JRA. 3) Biologic response modifiers are a newer, specialized type of immunosuppressive drugs, carefully designed to block the actions of natural substances that are part of the immune response, such as tumor necrosis factor. A variety of complementary approaches can be very effective in relieving pain and improving the outcome of the disease. One of these complementary therapy is gemmoterapy, a scientific use of a special glycerin extracts from plant buds. In our study,19 pacients with diagnosed JRA (15 with pauciarticular disease and 4 with poliarticular form) was treated with specific antirheumatic drugs associating gemmotherapy. It has been used three types of bud extracts (Ribes nigrum, Buxus sempervirens, Vitis vinifera) with proved antirheumatic effects, during a period of 3 months. In all the pacients we observed a clinical amelioration, permitting a slight reduction of the dose of the NSAIDs and the DMARDs.