If you are troubled by joint pain, you don't need to be told about the devastating effect in can have on your quality of life. As you age, the joint pain gets worse and you one day realize you have slowly restricted yourself from many activities you used to enjoy. Reducing activity, unfortunately, doesn't solve the problem. Pain medications have side effects and don't address the underlying physical problems. Pain medications may in fact hurry the deterioration at a faster pace, according to NewHope.com. Don't expect miracle cures, but altering your diet can help sooth aching joints and heal damaged tissues.
Sources of Pain
Unfortunately, many people with joint and skeletal pain suffer from multiple conditions and varied types of pain. Reduced activity contributes to muscular atrophy, weakness and lowered endurance. Joint pain often leads to guarding -- holding yourself or moving in awkward ways to avoid triggering sensitive joint nerves, which can cause muscular pain. Deterioration of joints and connective tissues triggers pain directly and inflammatory responses trigger secondary pain associated with swelling and inflammation.
Underlying Causes
Over one fifth of Americans have been diagnosed with arthritis, reports the Arthritis Foundation, and this number is growing as America's population ages. Osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, gout, anklyosing spondylitis, bursitis, tendinitis, lupus, fibromyalgia, myofascial pain, Reiter's syndrome and carpal tunnel syndrome are just a few of the conditions that keep those in pain chair-bound and sideline formerly active people. Each particular illness may have specific foods that assist your body's efforts to heal itself. Certain foods contribute to overall health and promote general healing.
Preserving Bone Health
Eat foods with calcium to build your bones. Calcium can be found in dairy products such as milk, cheese and yogurt and in dark green vegetables such as bok choy, spinach, kale, asparagus and broccoli, as well as tofu, navy beans, soy and fortified cereal and orange juice.
Include magnesium in your diet to help your bones absorb the dietary calcium. Magnesium-rich foods include seafood, legumes, whole grains, nuts and seeds.
Sulphur helps your bones absorb calcium, and it also aids in the repair and maintenance of cartilage, bone and connective tissues. Cooking and salad greens, oatmeal, fish, brown rice, soy products and non-acidic fresh fruit all contain sulphur.
Role of Antioxidants
Your cells and tissues are constantly under attack by rogue molecules called free radicals. These unstable oxygen molecules roam through your bloodstream looking for electrons, which they find and steal from a variety of cell sources including your cartilage and joint tissues.
Antioxidants, including vitamins A, C and E and bioflavonoids, neutralize free radicals. Bioflavonoids can be found in berries, onions, fruits with pits and green tea. Foods high in antioxidant vitamins include green vegetables, sweet potatoes, berries of all sorts, tomatoes, mangos, oranges, red grapes and tomatoes. Other foods rich in antioxidants include whole grain foods, brown rice, soy, safflower oil, olive oil and legumes such as split peas, lentils and dried beans.
Inflammation
Joint and autoimmune conditions cause inflammation, which adds to your pain by disturbing nerves and tissues near your damaged joints. Ibuprofen reduces inflammation but has significant side effects. Enhance your body's internal anti-inflammatory powers naturally and without side effects by eating foods that contain omega-3 fatty acids. Foods with omega-3 fatty acids include cold water fish such as tuna, halibut, cod, sardines, mackerel and salmon, as well as olive oil, flaxseed and flaxseed oil.
Betaine, found in beets, may decrease inflammation by reducing levels of homocysteine, an amino acid that inflames the lining of blood vessels.
Reduce or avoid foods that make inflammation worse. Foods to avoid include processed luncheon meats and foods high in saturated or trans fats, such as junk food, fried food, fatty meats and whole-fat dairy. Eliminate food and beverages high in sugar, such as sodas, fruit juices, cookies, candy, pastries and pre-sweetened cereals.
References
- American Pain Clinic: Natural Foods to Reduce Inflammation in Your Knees without Undergoing Any Surgery or Therapy
- AskDrSears.com: Feeding Your Immune System
- Cleveland Clinic: Antioxidant Food Table
- Today Health: Feeling Stiff? Foods Can Ease the Pain
- "Prescription for Nutritional Healing"; Phyllis Balch; 2006
