Health Tip: Diagnosing Joint Pain

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What’s the secret? Eat right! You can control how old you look and feel…

The body of evidence pointing to inflammation as a common thread among chronic illnesses is at a minimum… MASSIVE; ailments such as heart disease, asthma, Alzheimer’s, and arthritis can be directly linked to the body’s over active response to inflammation.

Main stream media articles seem to continually tout the plethora of new anti-inflammatory medications, which tend to address symptoms versus the root causes of inflammation.

The reality is that healthy lifestyle changes, including proper nutrition, supplementation and exercise, play a huge role in preventing and/or mitigating the body’s inflammation response.

Inflammation and Diet

For 2,200 years until 1805, medicine was generally practiced according to the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates (460-377 BC), the founding father of natural medicine. Hippocrates taught that the first and foremost principle of medicine must be to respect nature’s healing forces, which inhabit every living organism. He considered illness a natural phenomenon that forced people to discover the imbalances in their health. He believed that poor nutrition and bad eating habits are directly related poor health and early death.

Food provides the nutritional building blocks for both pro- and anti-inflammatory substances.

You need pro-inflammatory substances to fight infections. You also need a balance of anti-inflammatory substances to turn off the inflammatory process – otherwise, you have inflammation wreaking havoc in your body like a bull in a china shop, causing tissue injury and ultimately leading to chronic diseases/s.

Pro-inflammatory foods will increase inflammation, increase your pain from the inflammation and may also raise your risk for chronic disease. Loading up on junk foods, high-fat meats, sugar and fast foods will increase inflammation in your body. This is partially due to the unhealthy fats used in preparing and processing these foods, especially trans fats and saturated fats. Processed meats such as lunch meats, hot dogs and sausages contain chemicals such as nitrites that are associated with increased inflammation and chronic disease. Anti-inflammatory substances are the antidote, in the form of Omega-3 fatty acids, i.e. salmon, sardines, mackerel, walnuts, flax seed oil, and others.

Anti-inflammatory

Over all, when you are choosing anti-inflammatory foods to help reduce your inflammation and pain, choose fresh foods instead of heavily processed foods. Here are some tips:

• Breakfast might be oatmeal served with fresh berries, with a cup of soy milk.

• Snack on whole fruits, nuts, seeds, and fresh vegetables throughout the day instead of junk food.

• Eat more fish and minimize fatty red meat.

• Stay away from deep fried foods and bake or stir fry your meals with olive oil instead.

• Choose green, orange, and yellow vegetables.

• Drink plenty of water, fresh 100% fruit and vegetable juices, herbal teas and green tea.

• Add Ginger, Rosemary and Curry (Curcumin, turmeric) to your foods. They are anti-inflammatory.

Anti-inflammatory supplements

• Omega-3 essential fatty acids like those found in pharmaceutical grade Pernax (www.pernax.com) EPA and DHA Found in fish oils are essential building blocks for the body's anti inflammatory prostaglandins

• Green tea extract : the antioxidant polyphenols in green tea had antiinflammatory properties by inhibiting Cox-2 and TNFa. Take 500 mg of Green tea extract daily or drink Organic Green tea, caffeine free daily. Proanthocyanidins in Grape seed extract work through similar mechanisms. Take 100- 200mg daily.

• Vitamin C: This antioxidant and anti-inflammatory nutrient also helps rebuild tissue to replace what has been injured. The body needs vitamin C to make collagen, a key protein forming tissue, and cartilage, which makes up the pads cushioning joints from impact. Low levels of vitamin C can result in fatigue and irritability. More severe long-term deficiencies can lead to easy bruising and rheumatic symptoms.

• Vitamin E: The body's principal fat-soluble antioxidant is also an anti-inflammatory nutrient. Inflammation generates hazardous molecules called free radicals, which further stimulate the inflammatory process. So, just as antioxidants neutralize free radicals in heart disease, they temper free radicals in inflammation as well. Studies have found that natural vitamin E supplements can significantly lower blood levels of C-reactive protein, a substance that both promotes inflammation and also reflects the body's overall inflammatory state. Other research has shown that vitamin E supplements ease pain and stiffness in people with rheumatoid arthritis.

Keep in mind that inflammation starts with a proper diet! Skip all of the omega-6 cooking oils and instead use olive oil, rich in omega-9 fatty acids. The omega-9s are anti-inflammatory, and they enhance the anti-inflammatory benefits of omega-3 fish oils.

Eat right for longevity!