Arthritis means inflammation of the joints. It can be caused by physical and/or metabolic factors. The cumulative effects of wear and tear due to over-work, over-exercise and over-weight can inflame the joints in those who are over forty. Nature does her best to protect and strengthen over-worked joints by laying down extra fibrous tissue over and around them. Unfortunately, fibrous tissue has a tendency to contract over time leaving the joints concerned stiff and sore. Even an excess of immobility can cause this fibrosis of the joints. The best treatment for this type of arthritis is light exercise, such as yoga, Tai Chi, walking or swimming, and regular visits to the osteopath or chiropractor to have the joints gently mobilised and manipulated. This treatment stretches and breaks the fibrous tissue giving relief of pain and greater mobility to the joint. Because fibrous tissue joins up again at the point of severance, regular light exercise and periodic manipulations for the rest of your life are necessary to keep the condition at bay.
Painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs are not very effective at reducing the pain and stiffness of this type of arthritis, which frequently affects housewives in the fingers, athletes in the knees and ankles, bricklayers in the lower back and sedentary people who carry a bit of weight.
Metabolic arthritis results from imbalances in the body’s metabolism caused by poor nutrition, an under-active thyroid gland, allergies, Candida albicans infections, auto-immune aberrations, serious bacterial or viral infections or a combination of two or more of the above. Most metabolic arthritis has allergy or Candida yeast infection as its principal cause.
I have found that 70 per cent of the people I treat for joint pain and stiffness and/or muscle pain have a sensitivity to the nightshade group of plants. This sensitivity can exist despite the fact that no definitive allergy to any of the nightshades shows up on the cytotoxic food test.
Solanine is a potent poison preservative which accounts for the long shelf life of the nightshade foods. Fungi and bacteria don’t readily decompose them. They tend to stay away as too much contact with them causes their own poisoning.
Those who have a sluggish liver find that the chemical-neutralising effect of such a liver is somewhat limited and those chemicals that should normally be broken clown by the liver have the opportunity to spill out into the general circulation and cause toxic inflammation. Solanine is one chemical that is often not neutralised when the liver is under-functioning.
The chemical-neutralising capacity of the liver is significantly reduced when there is an excess of fat and alcohol in the diet and a deficiency of vitamins, minerals and oxygen. I have found time and again that the chemical-neutralising capacity of the liver is significantly increased when the Metabolism-Balancing Program and regular exercise in the fresh air are taken up and the deep breathing exercises are practised daily.
The nightshades include: potatoes, tomatoes, tobacco (smoking must be given up), paprika, cayenne, chili, red and green peppers, eggplants and belladonna. An important part of the treatment of arthritis is the removal of this food group from the diet.
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