Cartilage serves a number of different functions in the body. For the joints, it acts as a pad to reduce friction and prevent damage. Over time, cartilage can be damaged and deteriorate. When this occurs, the bones no longer have the protection that they need at the joint, and it can result in pain, inflammation and a lack of mobility.

A lack of cartilage at a joint will result in osteoarthritis. This condition can affect any joint, but it is especially common in the knees, hips, wrists, and elbows. To address conditions surrounding cartilage injury and deterioration, doctors may offer a number of solutions. They might recommend pain management strategies, supplements, physical therapy, and in severe cases, they might recommend surgery.

In addressing cartilage loss or damage, the body needs to be able to rebuild the tissue structures at the joint. To produce the fibers that make up cartilage, you need to ensure that you have a balanced diet that provides all of the necessary nutrients for building the tissue.

For people that suffer from the pain that comes with cartilage loss, there are a number of foods that can be used to help your body rebuild the cartilage at joints.

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Most people can easily identify what a berry is at the grocery store or on a berry bush. They are delicious little bursts of flavor that grow on bushes and small plants close to the ground. They are usually brightly colored and are often round in shape. There are many varieties of berries such as strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, black raspberries, black currants, red currants, gooseberries, and elderberries. There are other, more obscure varieties, but these are the ones most common in our North American culture.

Berries are traditionally eaten raw, cooked down and preserved with sugar as a jam or jelly to be eaten in the winter months, or baked into pies and other desserts. Eating them raw will pack the most nutritional punch, since cooking them destroys their beneficial qualities. Berries are easy to pick off of their plants making it a fun activity to do with children. Blueberry picking is especially easy for older people since the plant bears fruit right at chest level. And you will get some good fresh air!

How Can They Help?

Berries are packed with natural anthocyanins, which are the chemical components that give berries their intense color. This natural chemical is helpful because it cleans out the damaging free-radical molecules that can cause inflammation and pain. Berries are so packed with this beneficial natural chemical that they out-perform all other fruits and vegetables in their ability to clean out free-radicals. Even more powerful than broccoli! This should come as a relief to most people since berries are so delicious!

Berries should be eaten by people suffering from conditions such as fibromyalgia, arthritis, back pain, Runner's Knee, Lupus, Gout, or while recovering from an injury because they can help to relieve the pain and inflammation associated with these conditions.

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In the body, you have different types of cartilage. The type of cartilage found in the joints is hyaline cartilage. Unlike most other tissue structures in the body, cartilage does not have blood vessels or nerves.

The articular cartilage of the joints is made from a matrix of fibers. The principle composition of this matrix is made up of water, collagen and proteoglycans. In the rebuilding of cartilage at the joints, it is important for the body to be able to produce enough collagen.

Did you know Willow Bark is considered "nature's aspirin"?

Willow bark is famous for reducing pain from various conditions that involve injury to the muscles or bones, and works as a natural fever reducer. From simple problems like sore feet or an occasional headache, willow bark is perfect. Even more chronic pain such as everyday back pain, arthritis, or other common issues with inflammation can be helped with the use of willow bark.

Willow bark is known to regulate prostaglandins, reducing inflammation in the body. It inhibits cyclooxygenase (a prostaglandin synthesis), which can help reduce the pain of conditions like osteoarthritis. In 2004 a study published in the Journal of Rheumatology found that osteoarthritis patients who took willow bark extract with 240mg of salicin reduced their pain by 14% versus those that took a placebo.

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