Online CPR Certification Blog
Rheumatoid Arthritis
Date: October 22nd, 2013
Many people are forever researching on how dietary changes can affect their RA symptoms or how it can help them deal with this condition. The western diet features many products, which promote inflammatory and the most outstanding ones are fats which most people take daily. Many of the omega fats, saturated fats and animal fats are fats obtained from soy and corn oil and polyunsaturated vegetable oils- such fats promote inflammatory, especially when they become hydrogenated, heated and damaged.
A typical diet roughly contains between 40 and 45 percent fat and the fat promotes certain cascades in the body chemicals. These chemicals are highly inflammatory promotion, which results in rheumatoid arthritis. By simply changing the type and amount of fat we take in the diet and increase our consumption of the healthier omega 3 fats, this can significantly reduce inflammation as they block those cascades which promote cascades in the body which are anti- inflammatory and pro- inflammatory ones.
What to look for in the good fat
As you can see, fat is one of the main causes of rheumatoid arthritis and it is essential that you increase your intake of good fat and shun down the bad fat. Most medical experts regard fish oil as the good fat and people should increase their uptake of this fat. Past clinical trials have shown that fish oils play a wonderful role when it comes to dealing with rheumatoid arthritis. Some of these clinical trials go back way to the 80’s and one of them is New England Journal of medicine that contains various benefits accrued from fish oils and its ability to reduce NSAID reliance and fight rheumatoid arthritis symptoms.
Other foods that help with rheumatoid arthritis
Fish oil is not the only kind of food that can help deal with rheumatoid arthritis. A good anti- inflammatory diet is one that is majorly plant based. Such mainly comprises of seeds, all kinds of vegetables, nuts, fruit, legumes and certain whole grains. When considering such an anti- inflammatory diet, the most important thing that you need to concentrate on is the color of the plant family. This is very important because in the family of plants, the color represents the kind of flavonoids present in the plant. This is why red wine is red and grapes are red, blue and black and this is also what makes the blueberries blue in color.
Anti- inflammatory role of flavonoids
Flavonoids are strong anti- inflammatories in the body and play a great role in promoting health development of connective tissues. These are the tissues which make joints within the body. Rheumatoid arthritis is characterized by numerous inflammatory reactions within the connective tissues and sometimes even outside these joints. When consumed on a daily basis, the compounds gradually build up within the system and reach extremely high amounts with time. As they continue to accumulate in the connective tissues, these flavonoids act as local anti- inflammatories and are also the most active kinds of antioxidants.