Trying to manage joint pain, but it’s not really getting better for you? For game-changer details, look for two recently published books on the subject of managing arthritis pain and joint health that site the right foods, herbs, supplements, exercise and lifestyle habits as the best protocols we can use in our daily lives.
Healing Arthritis: Your 3-Step Guide to Conquering Arthritis Naturally by Susan Blum, 2017. Scribner’s. 342 pages.
Arthritis-Proof Your Life: Secrets to Pain-Free Living Without Drugs by Michelle Schoffro Cook, 2016. Humanix Books. 222 pages, illustrations in black and white.
Most of us suffering from occasional joint pain and even those who are all-too familiar with its daily occurrence can benefit by reading Susan Blum’s Healing Arthritis and Michelle Schoffro Cook’s Arthritis-Proof Your Life. There’s a world of information in each, it just depends on your preference for either functional medicine or a natural medicine.
What do functional medicine and natural medicine have in common? Both are described as forms of alternative medicine; it’s the recommendations and details, rather than the systems they derive from that makes them similar. Note, however, that they are not really comparable as shown below.
While functional medicine is a new application of conventional medicine, natural medicine is an extension of western herbalism, also informed by Ayurveda and Chinese Traditional Medicine. Functional medicine doctors look at the root cause of a disease in environmental or digestive or endocrine sources and appear to rely on tests and scans for direction. Natural medicine doctors also use the body’s inherent capacity to heal; they are likely to rely on empirical evidence and their own clinical experience with substances in herbs or other practices (massage, yoga, meditation, etc.) to help the body heal. Beneath formal definitions, tools of the two systems to manage arthritis are herbal medicine, whole, un-processed foods, and supplementation with nutrition from vitamins and minerals.
From the patient point of view, the two systems are compatible, if not redundant in some ways. However, a patient of functional medicine would have blood, urine, and stool tests, and scans or x-rays, and in-depth personal questionnaires that determine the source of their inflammation. A patient of natural medicine would endure the same or similar scrutiny, however the choice of foods and the effectiveness of herbs, etc. would have a larger patient-compliance obligation than a formal program such as the one in functional medicine. There’s also cost, a factor that might be dependent on the area you live in.
Author Blum is a doctor of functional medicine and has personal experience healing her own arthritis. Also the author of The Immune System Recovery Plan, copyrighted 2013, her clinic, Blum Center for Health runs programs for pain sufferers. Many-time author Cook is a doctor of natural medicine, nutritionist, herbalist and doctor of acupuncture and has previously written 18 books on natural health. You might call her a popular author with articles appearing on her own blogs and on Care2 and in Women’s Health magazines in print.
Both authors share their plans for eradicating pain and thus enjoying a healthier life. Removing pain even if the root cause of it is not dealt with, is an objective because so many people cannot live a good life due to pain alone. In these books, you will discover why year after year, what you eat has a tremendous impact on the quality of your life especially when it comes to dealing with joint pain. Most important to realize, is that low nutrition and repeated insults such as junk food, habits such as smoking, lack of exercise, any trauma, injury, and continued stress actively contribute to arthritis.
Blum’s Healing Arthritis reviews advantages and protocols of many well-known diets, beginning with Mediterranean and ending with Vegan and Paleo and several low-fat diets are also reviewed. There are so many facts and details to consider in your choice of how to eat. For example, Blum’s explanations examine why you shouldn’t (if you’re experiencing arthritis) follow a high-protein, low-fat diet, the roles of resistant starch (which ferments in the large intestine instead of the small), also discussed are dietary fiber, pre-biotics and probiotics. All the factors you read about gut health and arthritis, fractionally at best on random websites, are explained so you understand for example, why protein that ferments in the colon is less helpful to the body generally than carbohydrates which break down there also.
Blum stresses that an elimination diet and its protocol be adopted at the beginning of the healing process. Blum’s program covers several aspects of the journey to health requiring the elimination of wrong foods and toxins. Along with a short-term jump-start plan, a 2-month cure arthritis plan, and a finish-what-you-started plan, you have time to achieve the state of wellness that you had hoped for. Finally she recommends a healthy diet, exercise and wellness, and self-care in the form of yoga and meditation as an ongoing plan and lifestyle.
In Cook’s Arthritis-Proof Your Life, you read about which foods to eat, herbs and supplements to take and lifestyle choices that contribute to sidestepping that arthritic pain. Her suggestions range further, with information on the toxic ingredients in household and cosmetic products—products whose daily use requires your body to ramp up its defenses. Also called environmental stress, this is an area of your life which could feel less personal than other choices that you can most easily change. Author Cook takes a long view of food choices—the harming ones versus the healing types—that includes a look at vegetables and fruits with high enzymes and other nutrients. Did you know that collard and kale leaves, dulse (a seaweed), almonds and hazelnuts all have over 200 mg of calcium per 4 oz serving? Foods that cause inflammation are well-publicized these days, and are included in the book. A look at the spices, with turmeric and celery seeds topping the list of ten, that prevent or assuage inflammation is also offered.
Both authors have a generous attitude towards plant healing, plant foods and herbs. They both cite clinical evidence to support them. In a critical way, though, they differ in their best recipes for arthritis sufferers. While author Blum offers bone broth, chicken broth, and to be fair, mineral broth, cod, salmon, turkey meatloaf as well as many plant-based recipes and desserts, author Cook instead places emphasis on enzyme-rich recipes for juices, smoothies, teas, salad dressings, salads, veggie wrap, lentil dal and desserts, offering only plant-based items. So, if your general orientation is towards a plant-based diet, you might want to look at Cook’s book first.
As well, both authors give advice on herbs and herbal products, but the choice of herbs varies and the number of herbs selected for treatment of arthritis or for leaky gut. Between the two books, Healing Arthritis, in its functional medicine agenda for gut repair, offers herbal formulas in addition to herbs for arthritis pain. Whereas Arthritis-Proof Your Life offers a more nutritionally-based approach to gut repair and then suggests herbs for arthritis pain. Both authors suggest Omega 3s and Omega 6s, Vitamins C, D and E. Cook expounds the merits of Vitamin B3 and folate; Blum advises Vitamin A as well and L-glutamine, and gut cleanse herbs with nutrients as well.
Author Cook goes one step further, proposing two therapies for self-care that actually help reduce pain. You’ll read how acupressure points along the arms and legs, neck, head, feet and hands can be pressed to alleviate pain and discomfort. And you’ll read how to select aromatic oils known for their capacity to relieve pain and promote well-being and how to apply them using a carrier oil as a base. Other natural approaches include walking, Qi Gong, Yoga, Pilates, posture exercises and deep breathing.
Author Blum supports alternative therapies as well, focusing on yoga and meditation, as well as acupuncture and talk therapy sessions. Blum also references websites on meditation and retreats to help calm your nerves and help you regain perspective so that you can carry on your life in a joyful manner.
See Susan BLum, MD at her website
See Michelle Schoffro Cook at her website.
