If you visit any doctor, apart from recommending medicines, he will tell you that nutritious diet, regular exercise and practicing yoga or meditation would provide you with a strong immune deterrent against most ailments. The same applies to ensuring joint health.  Following a few simple rules would ensure not just healthy joints and muscles, but an overall healthy mind and body.

Diet

Proper diet is the key to maintaining a robust, healthy body. Ayurveda has long taught that if you have creaky, crackling, swollen, painful joints, the first thing you should do is balance your diet.  A few natural dietary remedies for relief from joint pain or Arthritis are as follows:

·         In Ayurveda, balancing your diet refers not to the foods you eat but to the tastes you include in each meal, including a variety of tastes that increase salivation. Salivation releases a compound known as cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) which detoxifies the cells so that they can absorb nutrients better

·         Include all six tastes - sweet, sour, salty, bitter, astringent or ‘puckery’, and pungent in your diet. Foods that are sweet or sour should predominate

·         Drinking ginger tea at bed time is particularly recommended for Rheumatoid Arthritis

·         Opt for a vegetarian diet – it is beneficial in eliminating joint pain and Arthritis to a great extent

·         Ayurveda recommends a high-carbohydrate diet while cutting down on animal foods, milk and milk products

·         Avoid grains that contain gluten (wheat, oats, and rye) and replace them with corn, rice, barley or quinoa. Cooked vegetables, especially calcium-rich asparagus, kale, and spinach, and cooked dairy products are very useful in the diet.

·         Increase intake of omega-3 fatty acids by consuming cold water fish, walnuts or ground flaxseeds that help in maintaining low protein in the diet

·         Ayurveda recommends that avoiding stimulants such as caffeine, nicotine also promotes joint health

·         When joints are sensitive to cold, Ayurveda recommends a diet of warm, light foods. Hot soup, chicken soup in particular

·         Ayurveda describes the second kind of joint problem in terms of digestive toxins, also known as ama. When poor digestion is a factor in arthritis, the joints have a heavy, stiff feeling. Cold, damp weather can trigger this type of joint pain.

·         Black pepper, fennel, ginger, turmeric, prunes, and figs are also useful additions to the diet. 

·         To keep your digestion strong, avoid naps during the day, and go to bed early so that you rise ideally around 6:00 a.m. Even if you do physical work for a living, exercise for half an hour every day and choose a type of exercise that you enjoy.

·         Drinking Black Cherry juice (diluted with water) at least twice a day has been proven beneficial for relief from Arthritis. Turmeric and ginger being anti-inflammatory herbs are considered as effective in pain relief.