Poor nutrition generally is now thought by some experts to be a cause of arthritis. Too little protein and a diet poor in vitamins and minerals can bring on osteoarthritis much younger than was ever previously seen. One US authority thinks that osteoarthritis can no longer be considered to be a disease of old age now that people in their thirties and forties are suffering from it. A generation ago it was rarely seen before the age of 60.

Decreasing mobility and general inactivity in old age further reduces the local blood flow to joints and their surrounding tissues, and hardening of the arteries, often caused by a poor diet, yet further reduces the blood supply.

Drugs, medications of various kinds and environmental hazards all affect the digestion and absorption of various nutrients, which in turn produces poor nutrition. Part of this poor nutritional picture includes too little calcium. This leads to a thinning of the bones generally (osteoporosis) but often produces no symptoms unless the person falls and breaks a bone. A San Francisco doctor as long ago as 1953 reported his findings that calcium shortage caused osteoarthritis. He suggested that because the bones were so weak as a result of the calcium lack local deposits of calcium occurred around joints to strengthen them. These extra bony deposits then caused pain, tenderness, stiffness and inflammation. Letters to Prevention Magazine in the US tell how people have taken extra calcium (in the form of bone-meal or Dolomite tablets) and been relieved of their arthritic symptoms.

At the Royal Free Hospital in London a doctor was talking about the importance of raw fruits and vegetables for arthritis as long ago as 1936. The twelve patients in one study done by her were put on a diet consisting totally of fresh, raw fruits, vegetables, nuts, cream, salad oil, milk and raw oatmeal. After two weeks a few cooked foods were added. The diet was totally salt-free. Eight of the twelve patients started to feel better in the first few weeks on the raw diet. Two improved for 5-6 weeks and then relapsed. Two showed no improvement at all. All the patients lost weight on the diet which in itself was very helpful to the pains in the joints. Dr Hare who carried out this study and indeed many others since her have asked whether cooking foods might destroy valuable elements as yet unknown to science.

Zinc supplements have been found significantly to relieve the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis in people who have not responded to any other treatment. A rheumatologist at the University of Washington, Seattle, noticed that a zinc deficiency coupled with high levels of copper .was common in rheumatoid arthritis sufferers. He then took twenty-four rheumatoid sufferers who had received no relief from conventional drug therapies. For the first twelve-week period half the group was given zinc sulphate tablets (providing 50 mg zinc a day) and half were given placebos. For the second twelve weeks all received zinc. Over the first twelve-week period those taking the zinc fared better on all clinical measurements. Their joint swelling went down by 26 per cent, compared with no change in those not taking zinc. Joint tenderness also diminished. After twelve weeks morning stiffness decreased significantly in the zinc-takers. Further improvements occurred over the next twelve weeks. When the patients themselves were asked to evaluate the changes those taking zinc (and none were told what they had been taking) felt better overall than those not taking it.

Much of this evidence is scrappy and none of it amounts to a ‘cure’ for rheumatism and arthritis. However, arthritis and rheumatism are already recognized as being a whole family of complaints and I feel that the family is even larger than most doctors are prepared, or able, to admit.

Don’t wait until you have arthritis or rheumatism, although in many cases you will get relief. Rather the lessons learned from such studies should enable us all to model our lives in ways that discourage arthritis and rheumatism in the first place. This involves:

• Taking more exercise.

• Cutting down on the amount of fat we eat.

• Identifying and cutting out foods to which we are allergic.

• Taking more vitamin C-containing foods and, if necessary, additional vitamin Ñ

• Cutting down on sugar or cutting it out altogether.

• Ensuring that old people especially are well nourished.

• Ensuring that we eat plenty of calcium-containing foods.

• Eating more raw foods.

• Eating more zinc-rich food.

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