Arthritis is the swelling of the joints and weakening of the bones. The most common forms of arthritis are osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis. Osteoarthritis is also known as degenerative joint disease and sets on as people get older. Osteoarthritis affects the cartilage and makes movement painful.
The other common form of arthritis is rheumatoid arthritis. This is essentially an autoimmune disease that occurs when the body's own immune system mistakenly attacks the synovium (cells lining the inside of the joint). This chronic, potentially disabling disease causes pain, stiffness, swelling, and loss of function in the joints.
Several studies have been done to assess the effect of food on arthritis. It has been found that some foods tend to aggravate the pain and swelling while avoiding them helps to lessen the patient's agony. Among the many studies done, some are quoted here, and the food items mentioned are the ones most commonly used;
1. Red Hot Chili Peppers: you can listen to the band, but the peppers in the food are going to wreck havoc on your arthritis. Harvard Medical School researchers have now found that the receptor activated by chemicals in 'hot' chili peppers is also responsible for the ongoing, burning pain associated with inflammation, tissue damage and arthritis. Chili peppers are 慼t' because they contain chemicals called the capsaicinoids. Capsaicinoids are strong irritants and they act directly on the pain receptors inside skin and mucus membranes. The bottom line for this approach is that you lay off the hot peppery stuff.
2. Food Proteins: food proteins have long been thought the leading cause behind aggravating arthritis conditions. In a review article, Darlington and Ramsey have suggested that there are now enough reliable studies to show that diet therapy in some cases may improve symptoms and possibly halt the progression of arthritis. They have reviewed both supplementation and food elimination approaches. They suggested that diet therapy should begin with the elimination of all foods which might be causing symptoms of arthritis, followed by single food re-introductions to discover which foods reproduce the symptoms. They have listed corn, wheat, cow's milk, pork, oranges, oats, rye, eggs, beef, coffee, malt, cheese, grapefruit, lemon, tomato, peanuts, and soya as the foods most likely to cause arthritis.
These are the foods that have been shown to aggravate the condition of arthritis, but it's important to note that these foods don't actually cause arthritis. Rheumatoid arthritis is a condition which develops within a person and the cause behind it is as yet not clear. And as a general health principle, you will find health experts advising and insisting on the necessity to have a calcium rich diet to avoid weakening of the skeleton. The dietary precautions regarding arthritis are post-diagnosis. There really aren't any conclusive findings about what foods will lead up to arthritis. Apart from food, excessive alcohol consumption and smoking have both shown a link to arthritis.
Individuals who either drink or smoke too much are at an increased risk of developing arthritis and their immune systems are weaker than normal levels so their sensitivity to different foods increases.
