We’ve written before about managing osteoarthritis (or ideally: avoiding it, but that’s not always an option on the table, of course), so here’s a primer/refresher before we get into the meat of today’s article:

Avoiding/Managing Osteoarthritis

When the head gets in the way

Research shows that the problem with recovery in cases of osteoarthritis of the hip is in fact often not the hip itself, but rather, the head:

❝In fact, the stronger your muscles are, the more protected your joint is, and the less pain you will experience.

Our research has shown that people with hip osteoarthritis were unable to activate their muscles as efficiently, irrespective of strength.

Basically, people with hip arthritis are unable to activate their muscles properly because the brain is actively putting on the brake to stop them from using the muscle.❞

~ Dr. Myles Murphy

See: People with hip osteoarthritis have reduced quadriceps voluntary activation and altered motor cortex function

This is a case of a short-term protective response being unhelpful in the long-term. If you injure yourself, your brain will try to inhibit you from exacerbating that injury, such as by (for example) disobliging you from putting weight on an injured joint.

This is great if you merely twisted an ankle and just need to sit back and relax while your body works its healing magic, but it’s counterproductive if it’s a chronic issue like osteoarthritis. In such (i.e. chronic) cases, avoidance of use of the joint will simply cause atrophy of the surrounding muscle and other tissues, leading to more of the very wear-and-tear that led to the osteoarthritis in the first place.

So… How to deal with that?

You probably can exercise

It’s easy to get caught between the dichotomy of “exercise and inflame your joints” vs “rest and your joints seize up”, which is not pleasant.

However, the trick lies in how you exercise, per joint type:

When Bad Joints Stop You From Exercising (5 Things To Change)

…which to be clear, isn’t a case of “avoid using the joint that’s bad”, but is rather “use it in this specific way, so that it gets stronger without doing it more damage in the process”.

Which is exactly what is needed!

Further resources

For those who like learning from short videos, here’s a trio of helpers (along with our own text-based overview for each):

• The Most Underrated Hip Mobility Exercise (Not Stretching)
• Overcome Front-Of-Hip Pain
• 10 Tips To Reduce Morning Pain & Stiffness With Arthritis

And for those who prefer just reading, here’s a book we reviewed on the topic:

11 Minutes to Pain-Free Hips – by Melinda Wright

Take care!

The Iron Dilemma: Factors To Consider

Anemia affects around 10% of American seniors, and that number jumps to 34–39% if there’s a comorbidity such as diabetes, hypertension, or hypercholesterolemia, which in turn climbs with increasing age or with other chronic conditions:

The Prevalence of Anemia and Its Associated Factors among Older Persons: Findings from the National Health and Morbidity Survey

So, what can we do about it?

Get iron yes, but how?

We’d be remiss not to say: yes, do of course make sure you get plenty of iron.

Most people know that red meats, which are terrible for the heart and for cancer risk, are good sources of iron.

Well, good insofar as they provide plenty of it! They’re bad for other reasons.

❝Studies consistently show that consumption of red meat has been contributory to a multitude of chronic conditions such as diabetes, CVD, and malignancies.

There are various emerging reasons that strengthen this link-from the basic constituents of red meat like the heme iron component, the metabolic reactions that take place after consumption, and finally to the methods used to cook it.

The causative links show that even occasional use raises the risk of T2DM.❞

~ Dr. Ranjita Misra et al.

Source: Red Meat Consumption (Heme Iron Intake) and Risk for Diabetes and Comorbidities?

To heme or not to heme

Did you catch that in the middle there, about the heme iron component?

Dietary iron is broadly divided into two kinds: heme, and non-heme.

• Heme iron comes from animals
• Non-heme iron comes from plants

Bad news for vegans: non-heme iron is not so easily absorbed as heme iron.

This means that if you’re just eating plants, the RDA may be significantly lowballing the amount actually required. As a rule, about 1.8x more iron may be needed for vegans, to compensate for it being less easily absorbed.

Why this happens: it’s because of the phytic acid / phytate in the plants that contain the iron, blocking its absorption.

Good news for vegans: however, taking iron with vitamin C increases its absorption rate by about 5x better absorption, and several other side-along nutrients do similarly, including allium (from garlic), carotenoids (from many colorful plants), and fermented foods.

Why this happens: it’s because they bind with similar sites as phytic acid, without causing the same effect. To make a metaphor: these foods steal phytic acid’s parking space, so phytic acid can’t do its iron-blocking thing.

By happy coincidence, today’s featured recipe has all of these things in, by the way (vitamin C, allium, carotenoids, and fermented foods), and the star ingredient (fava beans) is a rich source of iron.

What are good sources of iron, then?

In the category of plants:

• Beans (pick your favorites / eat a variety)
• Lentils (pick your favorites / eat a variety)
• Greens (especially dark leafy greens)
• Apricots (you can get these dried, for convenience!)
• Dark chocolate (5mg per 1oz square!)*

*Ok, technically dark chocolate is not a plant; cacao is a plant; dark chocolate is usually plant-based, though, as there is no reason to add milk.

In the category of dairy products:

That’s not a publication error; dairy products are just not great for iron. Cheeses are more nutrient-dense than milk, and have less than 0.5mg per oz, in other words, the top dairy product has around 10x less iron than dark chocolate, which came in 5th place and let’s face it, we were doing broad categories there. If we listed all the beans, lentils, greens, etc it’d be a much longer list.

Eggs, which are sometimes considered under the category of dairy by virtue of not being an animal (yet!) but an animal product, have around 1mg per egg, by the way, so considering eggs are nearer 2oz, that’s not much better than the cheese.

“But what about if…”

The above is good science and general good advice for most people. That said, some people may have conditions that preclude the foods we recommended, or have other considerations, and so things may be different. Anemia can sometimes be caused by things that can’t be fixed by diet (beyond the scope of today’s article; another time, perhaps), but for example, if you have leukemia then definitely discuss things with your doctors first. Other illnesses, and some medications, can also have troublesome effects that can contribute to anemia. Again, we can offer very good general information here, but we don’t know your medical history, and our standard legal/medical disclaimer applies as always.

See also: Do We Need Animal Products To Be Healthy?

Take care!