Oranges and lemons aren’t only for preventing scurvy or giving the bells of St. Clements something to ring about; they could also help you to guard your wellbeing against arthritis. This is according to researchers at the University Of Manchester Medical School, who found that orange and yellow fruits can help stave off such inflammatory disorders.
For the first time, this British study has managed to prove that people who ate a diet high in dietary carotenoids, ‘the chemicals that give certain fruits and vegetables their orange and yellow colourings’, dramatically reduced their wellness risk of inflammatory arthritis. According to Rex McCallum, MD, rheumatologist at Duke University Medical Centre, ‘It looks like eating these orange and yellow fruits really does make 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.
He surmised, ‘Maybe it’s by their antioxidant effects, which is what the authors put forth, but as far as fully understanding that, I don’t think we do.’ McCallum said that earlier research has shown that a diet rich in carotenoids and other antioxidants can also help ward off osteoarthritis, or degenerative joint disease. ‘Our present understanding is that it’s a problem with the cartilage, which is the shock-absorber between the bones. Whatever inflammation there is, it’s probably a secondary phenomenon. It’s not the primary driver.’
He continued, ‘To have a balanced diet, to have a balanced lifestyle with some exercise, to make sure you don’t gain excessive weight, to maintain your muscle tone, those are the kinds of things that I recommend to my patients, from the standpoint of decreasing the ill effects of arthritis.’ McCallum also urged, ‘If you believe you’ve developed an inflammatory type of arthritis, see your physician as early as possible. We treat rheumatoid arthritis very aggressively nowadays, and we believe we get much better results when we begin treatment early. The gold-standard treatment for rheumatoid arthritis is methatrexate. But we have five new agents in the last six years, which makes it an exciting time to be a rheumatologist.’