Joint health seems to be the topical issue for me at the moment. Not only did I injure my Achilles tendon last year (and it's still healing), but I’ve recently seen quite a few clients with various joint problems.
Arthritis and other related conditions can really impact the quality of life, and many put up with long term pain and discomfort. The good news is that nutritional therapy can be very helpful and make a real difference to the severity of the symptoms.

As with many chronic conditions, one of the main areas nutrition can help with is inflammation. Inflammation causes pain, swelling and general irritation around any affected areas – in the case of arthritis mostly around the joints.

To help boost the amount of anti-inflammatory messengers in the body you should increase the amount good fats in your diet. These include oily fish and nuts and seeds. On the other hand, anything promoting further inflammation should be reduced or avoided. The main culprits include coffee, alcohol, sugar and saturated fats.

Food intolerances can also be behind increased inflammatory messenger load in the body, so I tend to recommend testing for any of my arthritis clients. There are also plenty of useful supplements that can be helpful, depending on the individual health profile. Glucosamine and chondroitin are probably the best known ones, but concentrated doses of compounds from ginger and turmeric in a supplement form have also been shown to have an impact.

At the end of the day, nutrition can be a much more gentle and natural way of managing arthritis and can help avoid being dependant on pain killers. It never ceases to amaze me how powerful an effect just some simple dietary changes can have on health and wellbeing.