Indexación de bonos

Inflammation is another one of your body’s warning lights that you should not ignore.

Several years ago, my wife, Mary, began experiencing pain in her right index finger. It really hurt, like she had sprained it or pulled it. Over time, the pain would lessen, but it would come back with a vengeance every so often.

She had no idea what was causing it, so she learned to live with it. Not much you can do about a painful, inflamed finger anyway . . . inflammation?

I had been studying the many links between food, inflammation, pain, and diseases. Could her one finger on one hand be a warning light, a sign that a certain food was causing pain and inflammation?

The next time it happened, I asked her, “What did you eat in the last twenty-four hours?”

“It’s not the food,” she replied, but she humored me, listing all that she had eaten in the last two days.

“I think it’s the fried food you ate,” I added. “So the next time you eat something fried, see how your finger is the following day.”

Months later, her index finger was throbbing. It hurt worse than normal. The night before, we were together in a restaurant and she had eaten one of her favorite hors d’oeuvres: potato skins. She thought they were baked, but I asked and found that the potato skins were deep fried.

Since then, Mary has cut way back on all fried foods, and if she eats any, she eats just a little. The result? She has not experienced that throbbing, severe pain in her index finger ever

since.

It wasn’t the food itself (i.e., the potato skins) that was causing Mary trouble; it was the oils that her food was cooked in.

CRAVINGS

T hose with osteoarthritis typically crave: dairy, fried foods, red m eat, and nightshades.

I have found polyunsaturated fats, such as corn oil, cotton seed oil, safflower oil, sunflower oil, and soybean oil, to be a major trigger for inflammation of the joints. A little bit is okay, but a lot is bad for you, especially if it is deep fried.

Unfortunately, these same oils are in most sauces, salad dressings, gravies, and cream-based products. Most fast food restaurants use these oils because they are good for cooking and they are cheap. The drawback is that the oils are also extremely inflammatory. If you frequently eat fast food, you are asking for pain in your joints.

With osteoarthritis, there is almost always a food that is causing the flare-up. Your job is to find that “thorn” and remove it. When you do, the pain will usually subside, the inflammation will diminish, and the joints will usually improve.

Trouble comes when doctors give you an anti-inflammatory drug that enables you to keep eating the very foods that triggered the inflammation in the first place.

If you think you are sensitive to a specific food, you can perform your own food elimination test. As it relates to arthritis, eliminate processed meats (bacon, salami, pepperoni, sausage), corn, soy, wheat, pork, sugar, egg yolks, beef, shellfish, milk and dairy products, omega-6 fats or polyunsaturated fats (sunflower, safflower, corn, cottonseed, and soybean oil), nightshade plants (tomatoes, eggplant, potatoes, paprika, and peppers—bell, jalapeno, and cayenne), and fried foods from your diet.

HEALTH

Tart cherries usually relieve osteoarthritis pain.

Completely quit eating those foods for two to four weeks.

Then for a week, eat one of the foods you eliminated. If you do not get any pain, redness, warmth, or swelling, then continue eating it. If you do get those symptoms, then you should stop eating that food for at least six months and after that only eat a small amount every four days or greater. Now many arthritis patients are sensitive to all the above inflammatory foods associated with arthritis.

Deformity may eventually come to our joints if we continue to ignore the warning signs. With all the pain and inflammation, I’ve found that the source of the problem almost always comes back to the food.

With osteoarthritis patients (and type 2 diabetic patients), we typically have a 90 percent improvement rate if the disease is caught in time and it’s mainly their diet that we adjust. I’ve found the most common foods that cause the greatest inflammation to joints, for both men and women, are:

#1: Dairy (cheese, milk, ice cream, yogurt, sour cream)

#2: Fried food

#3: Red meat/pork/processed meats/shellfish

#4: Nightshades (tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, paprika, eggplant)

#5: Polyunsaturated fats (corn oil, cottonseed oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil)

#6: Trans fats (margarine, shortening, etc.)

#7: Corn

#8: Wheat

Could you go without these foods for a season, or forever, if it meant no longer having to worry about arthritis? Of course you could.

Soon after Mary and I were married, I noticed that her knees would pop and creak when she went up and down the stairs.

“It’s normal,” she would say, but popping and creaking knees are not normal, much less for a young person. Usually it’s a sign that your body is dehydrated in some way.

Depending on age and gender, we are made up of about 60–

70 percent water, but our brain cells are about 85 percent water.

Within our bodies, there are certain fluid levels that cannot go

low. Your spinal fluid level is very important, as is your blood. fluids to keep the other fluids at the proper level. It will actually pull water from one place (i.e., your joints and discs) to hydrate another place (i.e., your spinal fluid). The lower priority reservoirs will be lowered in an effort to keep the higher priority reservoirs at maximum capacity.

The result? Back problems can be due to discs that are low in water, and like a tire that has low air, it can eventually blow out or bulge or degenerate. If you aren’t hydrating your discs and your joints, you could bend over or twist one day and that joint or disc could blow out.

The popping and creaking of Mary’s knees is another example of dehydration. She used to drink a lot of diet sodas, but as she cut back on sodas and increased her water intake (especially alkaline water), the creaking and popping ceased.

Not having enough water is a huge component for those who are battling osteoarthritis. The sodas, coffees, and diet drinks that people drink don’t fully count because those drinks are typically caffeinated and have diuretic properties. You need

water, a lot of it, to keep your body well hydrated.

Interestingly, I’ve found that many patients with arthritis, especially rheumatoid arthritis, have pent-up unforgiveness and bitterness locked away inside of them. Letting go of those negative and damaging emotions, including unmet expectations and replacing them with gratitude and hope go a really long way in helping the patients heal.

Fighting pain in your fingers, back, neck, knees, or somewhere else? It is almost always an inflammatory food behind the symptoms, but sometimes it is also related to toxic emotions. Whatever your situation, if you’ve been wronged, are you willing to let it go?

Years ago, a friend of ours stepped on a piece of wood and got a splinter in her foot. She pulled it out, but her skin didn’t properly heal. Finally, after hobbling around for months, she went to a podiatrist. He found an inch-long splinter buried deep in her foot. Once he pulled it out, she quickly healed right up. No more pain.

Remove the “thorn” and your body will heal. That is a message of hope!

THE MODIFIED MEDITERRANEAN DIET