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Arthritis, Which Healing Foods Help Alleviate This? - Dr. Mao (VIDEO)

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Arthritis, Which Healing Foods Help Alleviate This? - Dr. Mao (VIDEO)
Arthritis, Which Healing Foods Help Alleviate This? - Dr. Mao (VIDEO)
7 of 20 : Current video

Dr. Mao discusses the healing foods that help alleviate arthritis symptoms.

Dr. Mao:
Now ladies, if you have arthritis, I got some remedies for you. There are several types of arthritis. Mostly we know arthritis is either osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis, but if you look in the medical literature there’s many different types of arthritis, but let’s not get too complicated here. In other words, if your joint hurts and you’ve been diagnosed with arthritis of any kind, what my recommendations are today will apply to you.

So let’s start with couple common things that you can get from your fridge. Scallions – this is otherwise known as green onions. It has a pungent, warming property. It disperses, opens up the joints, opens up circulation, fabulous. This is something that will help as it’s also a diaphoretic which means it will gently help you sweat, and that’s good because you want that opening. When circulation goes and improves, you will find relief of pain.

The next thing is ginger. Well, ginger is a very potent anti-inflammatory. Many studies have shown ginger to be wonderful also for pain. So as a natural analgesic, it works almost as good as your painkiller, and it doesn’t upset your stomach because ginger actually settles your stomach as one of its property. So this is something that I would suggest.

Now you might ask, “What do I use these? How do I use these?” Well, hold your horse, I am going to get to that in a minute, all right. Let’s look at garlic. I just love this garlic, I love garlic and it’s me and the rest of the Italians, but the reason why garlic is so wonderful is that it has a potent volatile compound called allicin and which is in these scallions as well and all the onion families contain allicin.

Allicin is a compound that is a natural anti-inflammatory analgesic. It helps to improve blood circulation and wonderful for arthritis and pain. Now what you can do is make these into your diet so as you cook, you can add cloves of garlic and sauté your vegetables or other things in it, slice the ginger and make it in soups, put the scallions in there, fabulous. Easy to do, or you can just make a tea out of it. I kind of like the tea concept because it’s put a clove of garlic, you mash it up, you put three slices of ginger and maybe a couple stalks of scallions, and you chop it all up.

Put in a cup of water, you boil it for five minutes. Make sure the lid's covered; you don’t want all that volatile oil to escape, and then you just sip that while it’s hot. Wow, it instantly loosens up your joints, and you feel so much better because the blood is flowing.

Now what else do I have here? This is mustard greens. Now you’ve never had mustard greens, you should try. It makes a fabulous sautéed vegetables. It cooks down like spinach, right, and you can throw all those other things that I talked about, the garlic, ginger, and scallions in there.

But mustard greens, in Chinese medicine, is really considered to be an herb and it’s a little bit bitter, but it’s tasty, and it helps reduce swelling which is very important. So it clears the swelling and as well as it helps increase circulation. So mustard greens.

What else do I have here? This is black beans. The black beans is used for arthritis because in Chinese medicine, joint problems often is due to weakness in the bones, and the bones are associated with the kidneys, and black beans are good for kidneys but more than that, black beans are mild diuretic so gets rid of swelling and it has lignans.

Lignans are vital nutrients that are antioxidants that really helps you reduce the damaging effects from inflammation, and it contains especially for women around menopause, your estrogen level is dropping. Well, black beans and other beans contain vital estrogens, not just soy, but black beans, too. So the vital estrogen can also help increase joint lubrication, supports the healing process.

What do we have here? Sesame seeds. These are white sesame seeds, but they also come in black variety. Sesame seeds contain essential fatty acids. Wonderful, you need essential fatty acids, right? And because it helps to reduce inflammation as well as lubricate the joints, sesame seeds also contain a good amount of calcium, which is what you need to rebuild your bones and joints.

So there you have it. You’ve got scallions, ginger, garlic, mustard greens, black beans, and sesame seeds to help you with overcoming any kind of arthritic problem that you have. Of course, you might still have to take medication or continue with your physical exercise or therapy that you’re doing because that’s all very important part of maintaining good joint health. But incorporating these foods into your diet will take your healing further and perhaps help you reduce the amount of medication that you have to take.

About Maoshing Ni Ph.D., D.O.M., L.Ac., A.B.A.A.H.P.:
Dr. Mao, as he prefers to be called, is a 38th generation doctor of Chinese medicine, a Licensed Acupuncturist, a Diplomat of Chinese Herbology, and a Diplomat in Anti-Aging.
For over 20 years, Dr. Mao has been in general practice at Los Angeles, California’s Tao of Wellness, an acclaimed center for nutrition, Chinese medicine, and acupuncture, with special interest in immune, hormonal, and aging-related conditions. He is also the founder and Chancellor of the Yo San University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Los Angeles that is considered the premiere school for Chinese medicine outside of China.

Visit Dr. Mao at Tao Of Wellness

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