The best way to care for your joints is to keep them and your muscles, ligaments, and bones strong and stable. Here are some tips for good joint health.
Watch Your Weight for Healthy Joints
Exercise for Healthy Joints
Build Muscles to Support Joints
Help Joints With a Strong Core
Know Your Limits for Your Joints’ Sake
Perfect Your Posture for Good Joints
Protecting Your Body Protects Joints
Add Ice for Healthy Joints
Ice is a great drug-free pain reliever. It helps relieve joint swelling and numbs pain. If you have a sore joint, apply ice wrapped in a towel or a cold pack to the painful area for no more than 20 minutes. Don’t have ice or a cold pack? Try wrapping a bag of frozen vegetables (peas work best!) in a light towel. Never apply ice directly to the skin.
Eating Right Nourishes Joints
Eating a healthy diet is good for your joints, because it helps build strong bones and muscles.
For your bones, make sure you get enough calcium every day. You can do this by eating foods such as milk, yogurt, broccoli, kale, figs, and fortified foods like soy or almond milk. If those foods don’t tempt your taste buds, ask your doctor if calcium supplements are right for you.
For your muscles, you need to get enough protein. Exactly how much you need depends on your age, sex, and how active you are. Most Americans get enough protein. Good sources include lean meats, seafood, beans, legumes, soy products, and nuts. Go for a variety.
You also need vitamin D to keep your bones and joints in good health. Vitamin D helps your body absorb calcium from the foods you eat. Dairy products. many cereals, soy milk, and almond milk are fortified with vitamin D. You can ask your doctor about the proper amount of vitamin D and ways you can get it.
Oranges may also give your joints a healthy boost. Some studies suggest that vitamin C and other antioxidants can help keep your joints healthy.
Chicken collagen is said to work by causing the body to produce substances that fight pain and swelling (inflammation). Chicken collagen also contains the chemicals chondroitin and glucosamine, which might help rebuild cartilage.
Better Than Pills and Potions: Broth
Many studies now confirm what Grandma always knew–that broth made from bones is a great remedy, a tonic for the sick, a strengthener for athletes, a digestive aid, a healing elixir. And unlike bitter medicines, broth can be incorporated into delicious soups, stews and sauces. In fact, broth is the basis of all gourmet cuisines. “Without broth,” said Escoffier, “one can do nothing.”
The basic method is simple. Soak bones (chicken, duck, turkey, beef, lamb, fish, etc.) in water plus a little vinegar for an hour or two. If you are using beef or lamb bones, a better color and flavor will result by first roasting the bones in the oven. Bring the water to a boil slowly and skim any scum that rises to the top. Add a variety of vegetables and herbs and allow to simmer several hours or overnight. Remove the bones (your dog will love them) and strain out the vegetables. You can use the stock as is, or chill to remove the fat that congeals on the top. (There is nothing wrong with the fat, but culinary purists point out the clearest sauces are achieved with stock from which the fat has been removed.) The stock may be kept in the refrigerator for several days or in the freezer for several months.
If you have a large enough pot, you can use whole carcasses of birds or fish, and large knuckle bones (full of cartilage) of beef. Our local supplier of farm products prepares broth in a cauldron large enough for the cow’s head–the result is a fantastic, gelatinous broth.
The substitute for broth is MSG, which food manufacturers use to achieve the taste of meat in canned and dehydrated soups and in imitation sauces. MSG is toxic to the nervous system but broth–rich in calcium–is protective. One of the most important things you can do to improve your health is to use real broth and avoid imitation foods.
A Recipe for Strong Cartilage, Limber Joints and Beautiful Skin
From our friends in Australia promoting the “Optimal Diet,” developed by Polish doctor Jan Kwasniewski, comes this recipe for joint and cartilage health, as well as for beautiful skin. Boil a piece of pig skin for at least 3 hours until it becomes very soft. Eat it as is, with mustard or horseradish, or put it through a mincer and add it to other food. The important thing is regular use–a tablespoon or more every day, along with a diet that contains adequate animal protein and lots of nourishing animal fats.
Connective tissue is regenerated very slowly, so this is a remedy that requires some patience. However amazing results have been reported–healing of joints that had been completely stiff and frozen and the gradual disappearance of arthritis. Best of all is the improvement in skin quality, with wrinkles smoothing out and even disappearing completely.
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