Pbenjay's Blog

A Bunch of Resveratrol

Lately much has been written and talked about  natural remedies especially in the form of the food we eat.  Nature’s own painkillers are in our pantry not our medicine chests.  Last week on one of the major broadcast stations, there was a segment on the importance of eating healthy healing foods and they’re not green.  And this ties into just what foods can  we eat that will actually help alleviate certain ailments, diseases and conditions.

1. RED GRAPES:  Red grapes are rich in resveratrol, a powerful compound that blocks the enzymes that contribute to tissue degeneration.   In addition, resveratrol is known t to protect against the kind of cartilage damage that causes back pain.
2. GINGER:  Ginger has long been associated with aiding indigestion, however, ginger is an effective pain-killer.  People suffering from knee pain greatly improved once they started taking ginger extract.  “Ginger relieves pain by blocking an enzyme that’s a key component of the inflamatory process”, so says investigator Christopher D. Black, Ph.D., assistant professor of kinesiology at Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville, Georgia. Two to three teaspoons a day should do the trick. “That’s not an overwhelming amount,” he says. “You could easily add that to a stir-fry or soup.” Other options include ginger tea and beverages made with fresh ginger.
3. SOY:  If you add soy to your diet, your osteoarthritis knee pain should lessen by at least 30%.  Consuming 40 grams of soy protein daily for three months patients were able to cut their use of painkillers in half.  Soy’s isoflavins, hormones with anti-inflamatory properties.  I’m hoping that a combination of ginger and soy will alleviate my bursitis which is now in both hips.
4. TUMERIC:  Tumeric, a spice commonly found in much Indian food fights the pain of rheumatoid arthritis as much as ibuprofen.  I mentioned this at my weekly Mah Jongg game and found out that one of our players has been taking it for years and she was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritisl
5. CHERRIES: Anthocyacins are the reason cherries are a pain killing food.  Anthocyanins are antioxidents and they reduce inflammation and you know for the past several years inflammation has gotten a lot of attention in the press.  Apparently there is inflammation in many parts of our bodies where it’s presence can be a host area for disease.  In a test study, participants who ate 45 bing cherries every day for 28 days dramatically reduced their inflammation.
6. CAFFEINE:  Do you wake up achey and stiff in the morning? And yet you always feel better after your first cup of coffee?  That’s because caffeine reduces your pain especially aches caused by exercise.  Caffeine has also been purported to increase your threshold of pain, so you might want to grab a cup of coffee on the way to your workout.
7. FISH:  We all know that fish is a dieter’s favorite, that fish and its omega-3 oils are good for your heart.

Taking all this information to heart, I had salmon for dinner,  bought frozen cherries and blueberries for my morning Greek non-fat yogurt and fruit shake.  I hope my bursitis gets the message soon but if relief wants to start high up, then I would welcome some relief from my achey-breaky neck.