foods to ease joint pain

What foods help with joint pain? I have been experiencing an increase of joint pain in my arms. I started with pain in my shoulders, then a started getting pain in one elbow. Then both elbows started hurting, and now I am starting to experience joint pain in my hands and index fingers. This has progressed over the course of about 10 months. I'd appreciate any input.

Try lots of bone broth, a good quality cod liver oil (Green Pasture is one of the best), raw butter or ghee, and coconut oil. And whatever you do stay away from sugar, high carbohydrate diets and possibly grains too (especially gluten containing ones).

Hi Stephanie, hands down the best food for joint pain is homemade bone broth. Bone broth is full of all those building blocks the body needs to maintain healthy joints including glucosamine and chondroitin sulphates.


I have numerous videos on my blog on how to make all the different types of bone broth so take a look if this type of cooking is new to you:

http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/videos/stock-broth-and-soups/

Thank you for your responses. I do make bone broth but probably don't use it enough, because my family doesn't like it. I need to just take care of me and make some things just for me.

Stephanie, bone broth is the best, but there are other remedies too. "Rosalind Wulzen, famous for her research on this anti-stiffness factor, (now called the Wulzen Factor), discovered that it protects mammals from degenerative arthritis, hardening of the arteries, cataracts, and joint and pineal gland calcification. Young calves fed pasteurized or skim milk developed joint stiffness, but Wulzen found that these symptoms are reversed by adding raw butterfat to their diets. Thus it became clear that the Wulzen Factor can be obtained only from raw butter, raw cream, and whole raw milk, and that pasteurization destroys it. Levels found can vary dramatically from extremely high (in milk from cows that eat rapidly growing grass), to low or non-existent in cows fed hay, grains, cottonseed, or soymeal feed." Read more at Suite101: Arthritis Pain - Feel Better With Butter: The Source of a Natural Painkiller You Can't Get Just Anywhere | Suite101.com http://suite101.com/article/arthritis-pain-feel-better-with-butter-a123301#ixzz233xmXXhF

Also, the spice turmeric is helpful for joint pain. You can find it in a capsule form or just buy the spice and using it generously on food (like veggies and eggs) or in water as a "tea" (my favorite). Also, in the summer it is common to eat more of the nightshades: potatoes, tomatoes, sweet and hot peppers, eggplant, tomatillos, tamarios, pepinos, pimentos, paprika, and cayenne peppers. These are known to contribute to joint problems, especially if you have existing joint problems like osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, or gout. "A temporary 2-3 week elimination of nightshade foods from your meal plan may be a worthwhile step to determine if these foods could be contributing to your joint problems. (World's Healthiest Foods)"

I hope you find some relief!

I just allowed myself to experiment with eliminating the beloved nightshade veggies for my family, and have had great results both for an ongoing rash situation and clear thinking for me. I've had joint pain in the past, but haven't lately since being on a months-long candida cleanse and dropping a lot of weight (I always assumed the joint pain was from being overweight). Anyway, here's a great article I found on nightshade intolerances. I hope you find your way to freedom from pain soon!

http://thehealthcoach1.com/?p=33#more-33

One to try, that definitely worked for me, was golden raisins soaked in gin. Don't buy cheap gin, you don't hardly use any of it at all.

This came from the people's pharmacy dot com.
They are trained pharmacists who are willing to consider alternative or home remedies as long as they don't do harm. They go through the scientific evidence and look to see if there is a reason that it should work.

Definitely worked for me and thousands of others.
John S
PDX OR

Thank you for posting this question. Just yesterday a new joint started to hurt. I did some yoga stretches and that seemed to help but I definately need to amp up the bone broth. Sometimes forming new habits is hard. I have a jar of coconut oil on my kitchen counter to remind me to use it but in the summer it's hard to down a mug of hot tea (my preferred method for 'taking' coconut oil.)

This one was a hard sell for me but I tried it and it worked for me. I got rid of wheat and dairy. To be fair, I still nibble on the sustainably produced cheese here and there (and then my feet hurt) but I am amazed at the results.

Diagnosed with arthritis at 27 and currently 52 years old. My daughter is now in the pain mode full swing - she is 30 and it runs in the family. So she is also going to try it for 30 days to see if it will help her.

There was no way I could believe that this would work until I got so tired of the pain meds and pain that I just gave it the old "what the hell" shot.

Now, with the exception of one bone that I broke two years ago, and two finger joints, I am pain free.

Boron deficiency can cause arthritis pain, and boron supplementation can make it go away, even rheumatoid arthritis in some cases. The rustic remedy is to buy borax like for laundry and wet the tip of your finger, dip it in, and then lick it off. If that's too rustic for you, they also sell supplement capsules, if you don't mind magnesium stearate and the other additives they throw in to help their machinery run well.

RE: the bone broth - try this - Chinese vegetable soup. Brown an onion in some butter, add crushed garlic, 1 stalk of celery, chopped, about 4 cups of bone broth, and whatever vegetables you have around (bok choi or cabbage works well). Sprinkle in a little ginger, salt, and pepper and let it cook until the veggies are tender enough to eat, then add 1 beaten egg, slowly, and the noodles from a package of Ramen noodles, broken up. Wait 4 minutes (for the noodles to cook) then add a handful of frozen peas and corn, some soy sauce, and a little toasted sesame oil.

Another one - brown an onion in butter, add 4 cups of bone broth, 1 cup of rice and 1 cup of lentils, a carrot, peeled and chopped, and a potato, peeled and chopped. Also 1/4 tsp of pepper and 1/2 tsp of salt. Let it cook about 45 min, adding water as needed (when done it should have just a little bit of broth). My kids used to beg for that one.

What is bone broth? Is this the same as chicken broth that can be purchased at the store?

It's broth made by slow cooking bones that have a lot of tendons and cartilage in them - the minerals dissolve into the broth, as do glucosamine and chondroitin from the cartilage. You can add a little acid like vinegar to dissolve even more minerals out.

See http://www.westonaprice.org/food-features/broth-is-beautiful for a lot of information on how to make and use it and the benefits.

Renate Haeckler wrote:It's broth made by slow cooking bones that have a lot of tendons and cartilage in them - the minerals dissolve into the broth, as do glucosamine and chondroitin from the cartilage. You can add a little acid like vinegar to dissolve even more minerals out.

See http://www.westonaprice.org/food-features/broth-is-beautiful for a lot of information on how to make and use it and the benefits.

Renate- thanks for the link. I have never made this before and it sounds really delicious!

OUCH this brings back memories! If you have pain running into your index finger (mine is now totally numb from not addressing it properly year ago) it very well may be nerve issues resulting from spinal/disc tension aka pinched nerve or bulging disc. Although the broth is a nice addition, if you want some immediate relief, you may want to find/borrow/buy a traction machine. Truly simple technology with a water filled bag that hangs over a door, strap that goes under your chin. It gently separates/spread your spine aka HEAVEN!!! warm/damp terry cloth towels around your neck & back for about 20 minutes then traction for 20. 3Xs a day to allow the disc to go back into place and takes the pressure off of that nerve.

Stephanie,

I find butterfly pea leaves ground up with a pinch of salt helps minor muscle and joint aches.

Usually the broth you buy in stores haven't been boiled as long and doesn't contain the amount of gelatin as the homemade version - some places do carry the real thing though, but it is expensive. And since bones are cheap and broth can look after itself in a crockpot/solar oven/haybox I don't see a reason for that (but a friend of mine pays me to make it for her - but I charge her half price compared to what you can buy online).

For me though - the thing that really helped with the joint pain was a low carb, grain free diet - esp. gluten was hard on my body and a month after quitting that, I suddenly noticed that I was no longer having to carefully stretch every muscle when I got up from sitting down ... I no longer felt pain under my feet when walking.

For me ginger, turmeric and bone broth are all very good - but the fist thing is to find out what is causing the inflammation and stop putting that in my body. Otherwise anti-inflammatory foods are just symptom treatment.

I am an arthritis sufferer as well. Many of the herbs and spices that grow in your garden have anti-inflamatory effects. Use lots of herb and spices in your cooking! Tumeric, cumin, thyme, and rosemary are some of the more powerful as far as I have found.
Hot peppers are another wonderful pain blocker if you can handle the burn. I use them often myself because they cause your body to release natural endorphins and  provide about two to four hours of greatly decreased pain. There are some topical rubs that use capscacin as well which can be useful to help soothe joints. I have found that any pepper hot enough to get you to sweat a bit will kick off the endorphin release.

Another key thing to keep in mind with joint pain is WATER! HYDRATE!!! Very very important. All joints have a layer of water acting as a lubricant between the cartilage layers and bone. When you are dehydrated this joint fluid is among the first water pulled back for the rest of the body to use to maintain balance. Just keeping yourself hydrated can go a long way towards keeping your pain at a bearable level.

As a few others have mentioned this joint pain could potentially be a side affect of some food allergies/sensitivities. The reason why I think that is that it seems to be spreading to new areas of the body. If it was just overuse it would be isolated to the areas of the body that have been used the most or injured in the past. Sorry that might not be what you want to hear but that is the feeling I am getting from what I have read in your post.

My mother was getting really bad rheumatoid arthritis in her hands to the point that her joints were enlarging and daily tasks were becoming difficult. Eventually she was able to correct it by eliminating wheat and dairy from her diet. Her joints are still enlarged but no more pain.

As for supplements a good turmeric supplement or fish oil would be my recommendations but they won't solve the problem is the underlying cause is other food issues.