Do you crack or “pop” your knuckles? Some believe it may cause, or worsen, joint conditions such as arthritis. However, according to the featured research,^1, 2knuckle-cracking does not appear to be a risk factor for osteoporosis in that joint.

About one in five adults, or nearly 50 million Americans, have been diagnosed with arthritis, the most common form of which is osteoarthritis.³

If you have osteoarthritis, the cartilage within your joints is progressively being damaged, and the synovial fluid that keeps your joints lubricated and cushioned is typically reduced as well.

The pain and joint stiffness that you feel is a result of your bones starting to come into contact with each other as cartilage and synovial fluid is reduced, and if you don’t take action, it can become progressively worse until you are unable to carry out your normal daily activities.

In conclusion, the authors stated that:

“Total past duration (in years) and volume (daily frequency ‘- years) of knuckle-cracking (KC) of each joint type also was not significantly correlated with OA at the respective joint. A history of habitual KC – including the total duration and total cumulative exposure ‘does not seem to be a risk factor for hand OA.'”

Twenty years ago, I co-authored a paper titled “Cracking down on ‘neck cracking,’ which was published in the journal American Family Physician.⁴ In it, I argued that self-manipulation can lead to lax ligaments. Personally, I don’t think it’s wise to crack your joints on a regular basis, even if it doesn’t directly lead to arthritis of the joint. That said, what can make arthritis worse, and how can you address arthritic conditions?

What’s the Difference Between Osteoarthritis and Rheumatoid Arthritis?

Osteoarthritis usually occurs in older individuals, but can also be caused by repetitive stress or acute trauma. Rheumatoid arthritis, on the other hand, can affect you at any age, including children. Fortunately, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA) is relatively rare.

Understanding the differences between the two types of arthritis will help you distinguish which one you have.

Osteoarthritis – Degenerative joint disease usually affects the distal joints, or the joints at the end of your fingers and toes, not the middle ones. Additionally, it’s not symmetrical, so typically you may have it on just one joint, or on one hand or foot and not the other.

Rheumatoid arthritis – RA, on the other hand, is an autoimmune disease that causes your body to break itself down. Therefore, it tends to be bilateral and symmetrical, meaning it’s the same on both sides of your body. If you only have a specific joint affected on one side of your body, it is far less likely to be RA. It also affects your middle joints, and is associated with joint deformities, especially your hands and fingers. It can be very crippling, and people do die from rheumatoid arthritis, so it’s not something to be treated lightly.

Little-Known Risk Factors for Rheumatoid Arthritis and Osteoarthritis

Recent research⁵ has identified several lifestyle factors and pre-existing conditions that may increase your risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis, including:

• Smoking
• Obesity
• Diabetes

As for osteoarthritis, a recent analysis⁶ found that the greater a woman’s exposure to perfluorinated compounds (PFCs), the greater her risk for developing osteoarthritis. Interestingly, the same correlation was not found in men. It’s believed the reason for this is the impact of these chemicals on women’s hormones. PFC’s are commonly found in nonstick cookware, takeout containers and carpeting, just to name a few.

Even though osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis are two entirely different diseases, they can be treated in much the same way as foundationally inflammation as at the core of the pain. So even though osteoarthritis is typically caused by wear-and-tear on your joints due to lifestyle, diet and aging, and rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease in which your body starts destroying itself, you may gain relief from the following treatments regardless of which type of arthritis you have.

First: Basic Lifestyle Changes to Address Arthritis

I believe improving your diet using my nutritional guidelines is crucial for your success. It addresses all of the nutritional guidelines presented in this article, and more. In addition, there are some general principles that seem to hold true for virtually everyone and these include:

• Eliminating sugar, especially fructose, and most grains. For most people with rheumatoid arthritis, you’ll want to be very careful to limit fructose to just 15 grams per day or less, and this includes fructose from whole fruit.
• Opting for organic food, preferably locally grown, and eat your food as close to raw as possible
• Incorporating regular exercise into your daily schedule. Weight training has been found to be of particular benefit for those with rheumatoid arthritis and, contrary to popular belief, if you have osteoarthritis exercise is absolutely crucial to your well-being. Naturally, if you’re in pain, you need to take certain precautions, so for more information on how to adjust your exercise if you have either of these conditions, please follow the links provided

The Importance of Sulfur

Sulfur is just now becoming more widely appreciated as a really critical nutrient, without which many other things don’t work properly, and many are not getting enough sulfur from their diet anymore. Sulfur is found in over 150 different compounds within the human body. There are sulfur components in virtually every type of cell, so it’s extremely important. It plays a critical role in inflammatory conditions such as arthritis, as well as detoxification. Two ways to increase your sulfur intake include:

• MSM, either from food or supplement: A metabolite of DMSO, MSM primarily impacts your health by reducing inflammation. MSM is 34 percent sulfur by weight, but it’s more than just a simple sulfur donor. It affects sulfur metabolism in your body, although it’s still not entirely clear how. Perhaps most important, MSM helps protect against oxidative damage, and is widely used as a supplement for arthritic conditions.

While many opt for a supplement, MSM is in most raw foods, such as leafy green vegetables. Raw milk has the highest naturally occurring content of MSM.

One caveat is cooking and pasteurization. While MSM is stable to extremes of pH and temperature, it volatilizes and turns to gas very easily. It’s also very water-soluble. So when cooked at high temperatures, it simply wafts off in the steam. That’s why it’s easily removed during cooking and processing. Pasteurization cuts the MSM content by approximately 50 percent. So, in order to ensure you’re getting the most MSM from any food, it must be either raw or as minimally processed as possible.

Fortunately, toxicity studies have shown that MSM is extremely safe and can be taken at very, very high doses. Even if you have a very rich diet full of raw vegetables and MSM-rich foods, you can still supplement and not hit that toxicity level. Clinical research studies have found that the effective amounts range from about 1.5 grams to 6 grams. For comparison, intake of MSM from natural sources such as fruits and vegetables would be in the milligram per day range of about 2.3 to 5.6 mg/day.

• Bone broth: Simmering leftover bones over very low heat for an entire day will create one of the most nutritious and healing foods known to man. Make sure the bones are from organically raised animals. The connective tissues are sulfur-rich, and when you slow-cook the bones, you dissolve these nutrients out of the bone and into the water.

You can use this broth for soups, stews, or drink it straight. Remember that the “skin” that forms on the top is the best part—this is what contains the most valuable nutrients, including sulfur, along with healthful fats—so make sure to stir it back into the broth.

• Source: mercola.com

at F�te�����2 hours before eating them. This will help to get rid of the phytic acid and enzyme inhibitors, which can interfere with the function of your own digestive and metabolic enzymes, in the nuts.  To make them more palatable you can you a dehydrator (I like the Excalibur) to improve the texture.

Enzyme inhibitors in nuts (and seeds) help protect the nut as it grows, helping to decrease enzyme activity and prevent premature sprouting. When nuts are soaked, the germination process begins, allowing the enzyme inhibitors to be deactivated and increasing the nutrition of the nut significantly, as well as making them much easier to digest. Macadamia nuts (and other white nuts) have only negligible amounts of enzyme inhibitors, so soaking is not as necessary.

Choose Raw Organic Nuts, Ideally

To increase the positive impacts on your health, look for nuts that are organic and raw, not irradiated or pasteurized. Be aware that pasteurized almonds sold in North America can still be labeled “raw” even though they’ve been subjected to one of the following pasteurization methods:

• Oil roasting, dry roasting or blanching
• Steam processing
• Propylene Oxide (PPO) treatment (PPO is a highly toxic flammable chemical compound, once used as a racing fuel before it was prohibited for safety reasons)

There are generally no truly “raw” almonds sold in North America, so don’t be misled. It is possible to purchase raw almonds in the US, but it has to be done very carefully from vendors selling small quantities that have a waiver from the pasteurization requirement. The key is to find a company with the waiver that is not pasteurizing them.

When consumed with these guidelines in mind, raw, organic nuts are a convenient and enjoyable superfood to add to your diet. And this is precisely why they’re recommended as one of the best sources of healthy fats in my nutrition plan.

Source: mercola.com