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Diet and Joint Health

Diet and Joint Health Joint injuries are a common part of aging. However, they’re becoming more common in youth as they are pushed harder to perform better than their peers. Joint health is important for everyone. If you don’t want to deal with the unnecessary joint pain that we associate with aging, then we have a few suggestions to keep your mobility up and pain down.

The best thing you can do to support your joint health is to eat right. Your diet affects everything and your joints are no different. Getting the right nutrients can help nourish and protect your joints from injury. While unhealthy foods promote a breeding ground for inflammation and pain.

In this article, we will cover all the things you can do to help support good joint health and the way your diet can be the biggest moderator for their wellbeing.

Understanding the Structure of Joints

Before you go trying to fix something, it helps to understand how it’s set up to work. Joints are more complex than we think and consist of a lot of moving parts. A joint is an area in your body where two (or more) bones meet.

Joints include the following structures:

Bones
Muscles
Tendons
Ligaments
Cartilage
Synovial membranes and fluid
Bursas
Meniscus

If we think about a basic skeleton, all of these additional structures are what allow it to move. So if you’ve been afraid of those movies where skeletons chase people, you can relax. Without the muscles and other structures, they can’t actually move.

When any part of these structures starts breaking down because of injury or overuse, you can experience pain. Constant injury (overuse included) to these areas can lead to arthritis — a condition characterized by joint inflammation, limited mobility, and pain.

Taking care of each part is important for optimal joint function. It might feel like a lot of work, but it actually isn’t all that difficult.

How to take care of your joints

We will heavily cover how diet affects your joints in a little bit, but here are a few ways you can improve your joint health outside of diet alone.

Stretch and strengthen muscles

Muscles pull on your bones to make them move. The stronger they are, the easier and more smooth the movement is. When one muscle in the group is weak it’ll put pressure on the others around it and cause pain. So if you work on strengthening them it makes it easier for the joint as a whole.

On the other hand, if muscles are too tight it can cause pain as well because they’re pulling on the bones when they don’t need to — also causing pain. Stretching will help to increase your range of motion which helps prevent injuries. Make sure to warm your muscles up before stretching them to avoid discomfort and potential strains. Stretching is just as important as strengthening when it comes to joint comfort and health.

Keep at a healthy weight

Being overweight even a few pounds puts pressure on your joints making it more difficult for them to support and move your body around.

Watch your form

Whether stretching, walking, or just sitting at your desk for work, check in with your posture. Good posture helps keep everything in alignment and avoids unnecessary strain and injuries. A great way to do this is to focus on core strength.

Know your limits

Pushing yourself can be a good thing to improve your health. However, knowing your limits is extremely important to not overstrain and injure your joints and their surrounding structures. Listen to your body for warning signals that you might be overdoing it.

Reduce inflammation

Arthritis is a leading cause of joint pain. It literally means “inflammation of the joint.” So reducing inflammation makes a big impact on your joint health. You can do this by using heat and/or ice treatments. Heat brings blood to the area to promote healing and ice helps to send blood to be circulated in the body which reduces the inflammation in that area. It’s often a good idea to start with heat and end with ice.

Some doctors will prescribe NSAIDs, but don’t rely on them for long-term use as chronic use of NSAIDs has been linked to:

GI problems like ulcers and bleeding
Kidney malfunction and failure
Cardiovascular events like heightened blood pressure, heart attack, stroke, and heart failure
Cognitive impairment

Some studies actually show that NSAIDs when used chronically no longer provide the user with reduced pain the way they should because they reduce the functions of the inflammatory receptors. This is a problem not only for pain but also for immune health.

NSAIDs are also shown to slow muscular regeneration after injury and may reduce the body’s ability to repair tendons, ligaments, and cartilage.

This is where diet can really help to decrease inflammation and improve joint health and function.

Diet for Joint Health

Joints If you’ve been searching for ways to improve your joint health, you’ve probably come across suggestions like bone broth and specific herbs. And there’s a really good reason for that, they contain nutrients that your joints need to work properly.

The Mediterranean diet is something we’ve talked about on our blog before and that’s because it’s the prime diet for anyone who wants to be more healthy. It contains tons of polyphenols, healthy fats, and other vitamins/minerals that are needed for a robust and health-conscious diet.

Moreover, it is exactly what your joints need to stay cushioned and supportive for a life with minimal pain.

Some things to add into your meal rotation to help support your joint, gut, and overall body health include:

Cold-water fish

Cold-water fish like salmon and mackerel are full of omega 3 fatty acids. These are healthy fats that help to support joint, brain, and heart health. They’ve also been shown to help RA patients with pain management.

Fruits, Veggies, Nuts, and Herbs

Everything you get from a plant provides your body with:

Antioxidants
Polyphenols
Prebiotics
Postbiotics
Vitamins
Minerals
Fiber

All of these things have been shown to help reduce inflammation and improve your body’s ability to repair itself. Polyphenols have even been shown to help prevent injuries from happening in the first place.

Try incorporating the following for a plant-based anti-inflammatory health kick:

Nuts
Seeds
Berries
Brassica vegetables
Olive oil (and other plant-based oils)
Lentils and beans

Whole Grains

Whole grains have been shown to support gut health and reduce inflammation and body weight. Their refined grain counterparts have been shown to do the opposite. So be picky when it comes to what grains you put in your body to reduce diseases and inflammation.

Bone Broth

Bone broth is great because it offers your body a lot of the nutrients you can’t get anywhere else. Bone broth is a sort of “fountain of youth” for your body.

As we age, we start producing less collagen — an important tissue that holds our bodies together. It’s what helps support joints and keep your skin looking youthful. Bone broth is one of the only places you can get it without taking a supplement.

Bone broth offers your body other nutrients essential for joint health like:

Amino acids
Glutamine
Glucosamine
Chondroitin

Bone broth can help reduce inflammation while nourishing and adding cushion to your joints.

All of these foods can help to improve your joint health. They’ll also be supporting other body cells and systems too. Diet is one of the best ways to support your joints and body. Avoid overly processed, sugary, and sodium-filled foods to keep your inflammation down.

Products like Atrantil can help reduce inflammation and support your gut health to provide your body with all these beneficial nutrients that your food contains. Your gut is the link to unlocking your food’s potential to improve your health. So by using Atrantil you’re keeping your gut healthy and allowing it to extract these nutrients and provide your joints with the special health-boosting chemicals needed for a long and healthy life.

Ask your doctor if Atrantil is right for you, and grab yours here!

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