Diet Can Help Fight Arthritis
Had your orange juice today? A recent medical study found that the chemicals responsible for the orange and yellow coloring in fruits and vegetables can help stave off inflammatory arthritis. A Duke expert says the findings add to earlier research that showed a balanced, healthy diet can reduce the risk of osteoarthritis.
Thursday, September 8, 2005
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Durham, N.C. -- Here’s some “colorful” news about how diet may cut your risk of
arthritis. A recent study by British researchers showed for the
first time that subjects who ate a diet high in carotenoids – the
chemicals that give certain fruits and vegetables their orange and
yellow colorings – dramatically reduced their risk of inflammatory
arthritis. Dr. Rex McCallum, a rheumatologist at Duke University
Medical Center, says the study’s findings are significant. “It
looks like eating these orange and yellow fruits makes a
difference. The incidence for people who ate the least of that kind
of fruits in their diets, versus those who ate the most, doubled.
That’s a fascinating finding.” McCallum says earlier research
has shown that a diet rich in carotenoids and other antioxidants
can also help stave off osteoarthritis, or degenerative joint
disease. “Otherwise, it comes down to common sense. To have a
balanced diet, to have a balanced lifestyle with some exercise, to
make sure you don’t gain excessive weight, those are the kinds of
things that I recommend to my patients, from the standpoint of
decreasing the ill effects of arthritis.” I’m Cabell Smith for
MedMinute.
