Joint problems

[loofah]

Hello foodies,

I think it's about time I start addressing my joint issues and this is the first place I'm looking to. If possible, I would like to hear anyone's input on foods which promote healthy joints. I'm and 18 year old male and bad joints and arthritis is prevalent in both of my parent's families. To be honest, I am getting concerned about my joints because it seems to me like they are getting worse, and to my knowledge, joint problems aren't very easy to reverse. The main issues I have are with creaking and cracking. My knees grind and snap whenever I bend them and squat. It sounds like a light grinding noise. My ankles click, my back cracks a lot, I've had metatarsel-phelangeal joint issues in the past...bottom line is I'M TOO YOUNG FOR THIS! I feel like my joints are really slowing me down, not because anything hurts really, because I'm relatively pain free (except the foot aches), but because I feel that every time I hear my joints creaking and grinding, I'm doing damage to the cartilage that will just keep getting worse and worse.

So my questions are, what foods have been known to promote healthy joint function and also what foods have you found to personally improve your joint health. Also if anyone wants to suggest a natural supplement, I would be open to look into that as well.

Thanks for any advice :D

[blizzardfrisbee]

Hi to you!! I have been there. I am 54 and in March last year I started to develop arthritis in my knees--I had had it in my fingers before that. The knees though--well that was the last straw! They both swelled up and I was having trouble getting up and down(off the couch, off the toilet etc). I started raw in August---all the swelling is gone from my knees! Totally gone. I can get up and down again pain free. I'm doing lots of fruit and veggies--and added green smoothies to my way of eating about a month ago. I feel great and have tons and tons of energy. I've also started power walking with a DVD --it is a combination of power walking and strength training. (my knees are getting a good work out)

[modernmonkey]

Without even suggesting particular foods I can say a simple raw food diet alone has cured an old ankle injury which was manifesting early onset arthiritus. It use to click in 5 places, now only one and I have almost no pain or swelling like I use to.

[Rubyred]

Methyl Sulfonyl Methane or MSM is suppose to help. I put some in my smoothies and it seems to be helping. The powder is very bitter however, but it's available in pill form too.

One possibility is you're allergic to wheat/gluten in it's cooked form? I read in a health book once that in the 1940's most wheat crops were changed over to a hard wheat berry which could withstand elements and pests more. The result was many people have issues digesting this heartier wheat berry. A raw diet would help a lot to determine if your current diet is causing problems.

Two books that have very good advise are:

Going Against the Grain
Melissa Smith
Conquering Arthritis
Barbara D. Allan

Both explain how typical diets can cause such problems in some people. They also give examples of people who cured their problems with more natural diets and gluten (cooked) free diets.

Raw is basically a natural diet on steroids. :D I have joint pain and arthritis pain, which is exacerbated by eating cooked gluten foods.

A raw diet could really help you. I'm working on bringing my diet to 90% raw or so. I am still experimenting with certain foods. Wheat, as used in rejuvelac seems to help rather then hurt. You may need to experiment around.

[sport]

I went raw in 2005 and developed arthritis (medically diagnosed) in my fingers about 2 years later. I discovered that a combination of glucosamine and astaxanthin kept me pain free.
I tried a number of times to give up the supplements but the pain and discomfort would return within a week so I would take them again as I was afraid that damage done could not be reversed.
I have now been supplement free (and pain free) since early November. There are 2 changes in my life in the past year and I do not know which accounts for this change.
1. I began to do The Five Tibetian Rites daily (I have read reports of improvements in arthritis from doing this)
2. I changed my diet from All Raw High Fat to All Raw Low Fat.

[loofah]

@RubyRed
I've read a lot about gluten and have managed to stay away from it and keep it out of my normal diet. I do make my own sprouted breads though but the gluten is transformed into simple sugars in the sprouting process.

I should also mention that I was running about 3-5 miles/day during cross country season which ended mid November. Since then I have not been running at all really but plan to get back at it soon. Despite having clicking ankles and grinding knees, I never experienced any pain, but like I said before, I can't help but think one day the cartilage will grind away and leave me with dilapidated joints.

I do have some MSM caps I may try adding to my smoothies. Oh and I am usually 90-100% raw and have been for about 4 months. I'm thinking that the grinding and clicking could be due to calcification in the joints. If that is the case then prolonging the raw diet and inducing regular joint movement with exercise should help a lot. Anyway, thanks for all the input everyone I really appreciate it. :D

[Tenuviel]

I have clicking and popping in my ankles, and other joints, actually, the ones that are not yet affected by RA. My holistic doctor said the popping is not bad as long as there is no pain... I asked him about MSM and he said that it is helpful to the joints but probably won't stop the popping sounds

[yungnhung]

I went raw in 2005 and developed arthritis (medically diagnosed) in my fingers about 2 years later. I discovered that a combination of glucosamine and astaxanthin kept me pain free.
I tried a number of times to give up the supplements but the pain and discomfort would return within a week so I would take them again as I was afraid that damage done could not be reversed.
I have now been supplement free (and pain free) since early November. There are 2 changes in my life in the past year and I do not know which accounts for this change.
1. I began to do The Five Tibetian Rites daily (I have read reports of improvements in arthritis from doing this)
2. I changed my diet from All Raw High Fat to All Raw Low Fat.

The Five Rites rock!

[sport]

The Five Rites rock!

I think that there is a strong possibility that do exactly what they claim to do and they claim to do a lot.

[loofah]

I've been doing the five rites upon rising for about 3 days and I'm definitely experiencing a difference in my limberness. I always felt really achy during the day but if I start my day off with the rites, I don't feel sores and joints on the verge of popping. Something deeper going on.

[klomasius]

I hear ya on it being unfair to get joint problems so early!

I got arthritis at age 10, had to have an emergency procedure to drain all the puss from both hip joints and one knee joint. After that I was just told that my joints would age ahead of me and there was nothing I could do about it.

Fast forward and a 100% raw food diet has almost completely gotten rid of the symptoms, I have flexibility I haven't has since being a child!

Going veg a noticed a little improvement, going vegan a bit more, going high raw a significant improvement and 100% raw a phenomenal improvement!!

There's no particular foods I have sought to aid in helping the situation, just the raw diet. There are foods for me that I do need to avoid such as dairy and animal products (easy, I'm vegan) and also gluten and even non gluten containign grains (no probs for me on raw).

Any anti inflammatory foods would help you if it's arthritis, foods such as ginger, turmeric, the core of pineapples etc.

Hope you get the healing you need!