Articles > Health Tips > Living with Arthritis

Arthritis can be helped immensely through diet and lifestyle changes. many people find that they can completely eradicate all their symptoms by following the right regime for them. This page should give you some good basic guidelines.

Introduction

Osteo-arthritis is often called degenerative arthritis because it is commonly associated with growing older. It tends to appear as swollen, stiff or sore joints when people are in their late 40s or older. Much of the current research associates this type of arthritis with micronutrient deficiency in the diet. This means that over the course of your life you have had somewhat less than the ideal amount of vitamins, minerals and nutrients in your diet, so that the body has not has sufficient components to ensure that repairs are carried out to the maximum possible - so your joints are effected. Because it is linked to diet, many people now recommend a broad spectrum multivitamin and mineral supplement, which should at least keep the condition from worsening. Also, movement is essential - so make sure that you keep up several different forms of exercise and ensure that these work the joints most effected.

Rheumatoid arthritis is an auto immune condition. What happens is that there is a natural build up of toxins in the joints - this is normal and the body usually flushes out the toxins with no problems. But, in the case of rheumatoid arthritis, the body over-reacts to these toxins and starts to attack the joints - this is why its called an auto-immune problem, because your own immune system is responsible for the pain and swelling.

A great deal of success has been achieved in rheumatoid arthritis by detoxifying your system. If you are on any sort of drugs, please contact your doctor before you try any detoxification diet.

Perhaps the simplest way to detoxify is simply to modify what you eat. Increase your intake of fibre with bran based cereals and green leafy vegetables, decrease your intake of red meat and meat fats, drink several glasses of filtered water a day. This with cleanse your whole system and allow your immune system to recuperate. Remember, that usually a few days after a drastic change of diet, you may have symptoms that show the detoxification is working - like headaches, acne and bad breath, but this will pass.

There are plenty of other detox diets. What you choose will be influenced by your general state of health and whether you are on any medications. If you normally have a good balanced diet, and are fit except for the arthritis, you may like to try one of these. Do remember that fasting and detox dieting will reduce your energy levels. I therefore always suggest trying them over a weekend, or when you are on holiday (or at least during a time of reduced stress and calm in your daily life).

My favourite weekend fast is to select my four fruits that are in season and get loads of them. Conduct the fruit fast over two days, each day you will eat ONLY two of your selected types of fruit. You can eat as much of the two fruits as you need, but you may only have the fruit and water. On the second day, you eat only the other two fruits you selected and drink only water.

Once your system is cleansed then you would be well advised to take a regular supplement such as glucosamine sulfate and chondroitin sulfate and a good multi vitamin and multimineral - many people recommend a single thing like betacarotene or calcium, but I always advise taking supplements in a balanced way. Also a herbal supplement that strengthens your immune system could be helpful for RA

Pain is another major issue in the treatment of arthritis of all kinds and there are a vast number of different remedies available. There is not a single one that works for everyone, but that doesn’t mean that they are no good - after all there is no single drug that a doctor can prescribe either. We are different and so our bodies will respond differently to herbs and medicines. I would caution you against spending vast sums of money, as there are plenty of less expensive things to try first.

There is a wide range of herbal remedies that have been used for years some examples are alfalfa, celery seed, comfrey, devils’ claw, feverfew, and yucca. Also several complementary therapies have been found to be helpful in fighting the pain and the swelling, these include acupuncture, magnetherapy, massage, reflexology, reiki. More details follow:-

Osteo-arthritis

Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis and tends to be more common in older people. For this reason most western health care practitioners consider it to be “normal wear and tear” and prescribe drugs for pain or for swelling, and say there is nothing else they can do.

Stiffness and pain in the joints can be a symptom of food intolerance and an over stressed bodily system, so I always recommend that you consider a detox diet of 2-8 days duration before even considering herbal, allopathic (drug) or supplements as solutions. I have heard countless stories of people who have made their way through every such product and nothing seems to work, so I strongly recommend starting at the simple end first.

The whole purpose of a detoxification diet is to give your body a rest and a cleanse from the inside. Because one of the things that leads to bodily dysfunction is stress, I recommend that you do your detox plan during the warmer months and at a time when you can avoid as much daily stress as possible.

If you would like the support of a book that gives you guidance on diet, recipes, and suggestions for exercises and relaxation try Leslie Kenyon’s “10 Steps to a Younger You”. If you can’t be bothered with all that, I have a fact sheet outlining the simplest and easiest way to detox.

If after trying the detox you find that your stiffness and joint pain is reduced then there is a strong likelihood that you have a sensitivity to some food. The usual ones for causing this type of problem are gluten (wheat) and dairy products. You can either experiment yourself by cutting out both types of food completely for a couple of weeks then reintroducing things from those groups slowly item by item. This takes a while, but in the end you know exactly what you should be avoiding.

If, on the other hand, you find little change in your joints after the detoxification, we can then look at other possibilities:-

Foods to enjoy:

all vegetables (unless you have a sensitivity to potatoes, tomatoes, peppers or aubergines)

all fruit (some people may find that it is advisable to avoid citrus fruits, but most people are not adversely effected by them)

sunflower seeds & oil

all nuts (again some people may have a sensitivity, but if you don’t they are very valuable)

wholemeal bread (remember to buy organic bread because pesticides gather in the kernel of the wheat)

Super foods - i.e. DO add these to your diet on a daily basis:

Ginger

Apples

Garlic

Foods to limit:

High fat dairy produce

Fatty red meats

Alcohol - however red wine is excellent for your system and two - three glasses of red wine is said to add 5 years to your life expectancy, so if you are going to drink I would suggest developing a taste for red wine. Also it is better to drink a little bit regularly rather than be a teetotaller - so don’t cut drink out just down to 1-2 a day (3 is OK in red wine!)

Foods to avoid:

Coffee

Supplements:

Vitamin C
Vitamin E
Vitamin D

Herbal solutions:

The following herbs have been used traditionally around the world for arthritis and have been verified as having anti-inflammatory properties in recent studies:-

Angelica
Black Willow
Chamomile
Chaparral
Devil’s Claw (Harpagophytum procumbens)
Echinacea protects the joints and is anti-inflammatory
Fenugreek is mildly anti inflammatory
Gentian strong anti-inflammatory
Ginger
Licorice is anti-inflammatory and anti-arthritic, it is also great for the digestion, the liver and recent studies show implications for fighting cancers.

Meadowsweet
White Poplar
Wild Yam

Arthritic and rheumatic conditions can be helped by cleansing the blood stream, which restores better balance and functioning to you system as a whole. Herbs recommended for this are:

Black Cohosh
Bogbean
Celery seed
Devil’s Claw
Guaiacum
Sarsaparilla

Another way to cleanse the system is to improve circulation generally. This should increase the blood flow to muscles and joints and can be done without straining the heart by using herbs that stimulate the peripheral circulation:

Cayenne
Ginger
Prickly Ash
Rosemary

Herbal pain relief can be had using the following herbs:

Guaiacum
Jamaican Dogwood
St. John’s Wort
Valerian

An holistic approach to tackling arthritis would be to make up your own tea as follows:

Bogbean 2 parts
Black Cohosh 1 part
Celery Seed 1 part
Meadowsweet 1 part
Yarrow 1 part

Lifestyle changes:

Exercise is one of your best answers to arthritis. Regular, gentle exercise. Swimming is one of the best to try if you have pain in your joints as the water takes the weight of your limbs while you give your muscles and joints a gentle work out. Do indulge yourself in the sauna or hot tub as heat can be very soothing. Walking, bike riding, yoga, tai chi, chi kung, golf, and many others are also good.

As stress can negatively effect any condition, I would recommend making time in your day (everyday!) to relax deeply. Of course meditation is one of the best methods for this, but taking a short nap, gazing out at the sea, daydreaming, light gardening (I mean dead heading, not digging) are other alternatives that work just as well. Just promise yourself that at least half am hour a day will be for you to just slow down and step out of your busy routine.

Rheumatoid arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis tends to begin in the hands, and to effect mostly women with a genetic tendency for the condition. Symptoms can flare up and disappear. There is not full agreement on its cause, however researchers agree that it does have an auto-immune link. Many believe that the condition is brought on by a virus or bacterium, or some environmental factor.

According to recent studies of the people suffering from RA, up to a third of patients for one researcher, have found a distinct sensitivity to a particular food, however the trigger foods appear to be different for everyone. If you suspect that you might have a food sensitivity, then the simplest (but by no means a quick) way to discover it is to cut you intake down to the simplest of foods, then slowly add things one at a time every few days. You can use the guidance for a detox diet - but do remember that some of those studied found that rice was their trigger food. A quicker method is to go for allergy testing.

With any auto-immune linked illness, stress is a very high factor in the intensity of the symptoms, so it is especially important that you find ways of relaxing - I would recommend that you find several activities that give you satisfaction and stress relief and make them an important part of your life. Also a good level of general health is essential, so a balanced diet and multi vitamin and mineral supplements are important.