Hi, thank you for providing the brief history. Rheumatoid arthritis is understood in this way. Pain moving from joint to joint at various times is Rheumatoid arthritis. Moving pain is rheumatoid. Pain happening in the joint is arthritis. So it is called Rheumatoid arthritis. In this condition, there is inflammation of the joint so the word - arthir-its . Medicines are guided for controlling the inflammation. It only helps to control the inflammation and the symptomatic relief is of due importance. Also, the body is a self medicine which heals on its own, so in mean time the control of the symptoms is only performed by medicine. Also, physical therapy is advised in 99% of cases of RA, as physical therapy will provide the use of Therapeutic ultrasound therapy for reducing inflammation and TENS therapy to reduce the pain, both are non invasive techniques and research supports the success rate of it. Also, post which exercises are of due importance to provide the additional strength in the muscles which have got weak due to the arthritis. Also, understanding that the pain moves from one joint to another so the over all body conditioning is important to maintain the muscles property. Breathing exercises are needed is in case pain reaches the rib cage and provides difficulty in breathing. In my personal experience I take a combination of - medication, meditation, yoga, breathing exercises, body conditioning etc to help improve my patients, and we are able to achieve 99% success on patients. I wish your mother a good health in the future. Regards Jay Indravadan Patel