If you suffer with osteoarthritis in your hands, here’s some good news from FACTS (Finger osteoArthritis Chondroitin Treatment Study).  Researchers report that daily supplementation with chondroitin sulfate is both safe and effective in reducing hand pain and improving function in hand osteoarthritis.

In the six-month placebo-controlled, double-blind study, the 80 patients who took 800 mg daily of chondroitin had significantly greater reduction in hand pain compared with 82 patients who took placebo. There’s more good news: chondroitin also was significantly better at improving morning stiffness. Patients who took chondroitin did not, however, see a significant improvement in grip strength compared with placebo. Read more »»

How do you know if you are getting all the vitamin D your supplement claims on its label? Unless the product has been analyzed by an impartial laboratory for purity and quality and it comes with a certificate of analysis guarantee, you don’t.

Neither the Food and Drug Administration nor any other state or federal agency routinely evaluates vitamin D or any other nutritional or herbal supplements to ensure their quality. “Quality” means:

• the product contains the amount of the nutrient claimed on the label

• the product is not contaminated with substances such as lead, and

• that supplements in the form of tablets or capsules disintegrate properly in the body

No one likes to get cheated, but when it comes to buying nutritional supplements, consumers are being cheated all the time. Here we focus solely on vitamin D, partly in reaction to a preliminary report from Johns Hopkins University (June 14, 2010), in which a research team from University reported what they found when they evaluated ten over-the-counter vitamin D supplements. Read more »»

Scientists at the University of East Anglia (UEA) are launching a groundbreaking new project to investigate the benefits of broccoli in the fight against osteoarthritis.

Initial laboratory research at UEA has found that a compound in broccoli called sulforaphane blocks the enzymes that cause joint destruction in osteoarthritis – the most common form of arthritis.

Broccoli has previously been associated with reduced cancer risk but this is the first major study into its effects on joint health.

With funding from both Arthritis Research UK and the Diet and Health Research Industry Club (DRINC), the £650,000 project will explore how sulforaphane may act to slow or prevent the development of osteoarthritis. It will prepare the way for the first patient trials and could lead to safe new ways of preventing and treating this painful disease. Read more »»

When people think about how to protect their bone health, calcium is typically the first thing that pops into their minds. But vitamin B12? Well, not so much. However, it may be time to think about this important B vitamin when it comes to preserving your bones.

Vitamin B12 and Bone Studies

Two studies in particular point to a substantial relationship between vitamin B12 and bone health. Epidemiologist Katherine Tucker at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging in Boston conducted one of the studies using data from the Framingham Osteoporosis Study. She and her colleagues evaluated vitamin B12 blood levels and bone health indicators gathered from 2,576 men and women who ranged in age from 30 to 87 years.

Tucker discovered a link between a deficiency of vitamin B12 and the development of osteoporosis in both men and women and published the findings in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research. The research team discovered that in both men and women who had levels of vitamin B12 lower than 148 picomoles per liter (pM/L), their risk of osteoporosis was greater than those who had higher levels of the vitamin. Individuals who had B12 levels lower than 148 pM/L also had significantly lower average bone mineral density than those with higher vitamin B12 levels.

Read more »»

If you want strong, healthy bones, then what you put on your plate really matters. The good news is that you can help improve your bone health with every meal and snack if you include a bone-friendly food. Generally, the best foods for healthy bones are fresh fruits and vegetables and other whole foods, organically grown. Foods that promote your body’s acid/alkaline balance are critical, and this is easy to achieve if you include fruits and veggies. That’s because these foods contain good amounts of nutrients that support that balance, including beta-carotene, fiber, magnesium (RDA, 420 mg), potassium (RDA, 3,500 mg), and vitamin D (RDA, 200 IU).

There’s a lot of emphasis on calcium (RDA, 1,000 mg) for strong bones, but other nutrients are important as well. After all, calcium does not work alone! We’ve already mentioned potassium and magnesium, and we also want to add vitamin K (Adequate Intake, 80 mcg), omega-3 fatty acids (no RDA), and even vitamin B12 (RDA, 2.4 mcg). You will find all of these bone-building nutrients among our ten foods for super bones!

Three other quick recommendations to promote bone health:

• Engage in regular weight-bearing exercise
• Watch your salt (sodium) intake. Sodium increases calcium losses, with 5 to 10 mg of calcium lost with every gram of salt that you consume.
• Skip the soft drinks. Remember, soft drinks = soft bones. Carbonated drinks are high in phosphate, which binds calcium in the intestinal tract and reduces its absorption. Phosphate also forms acid in the blood, and the body then releases calcium from bone into the bloodstream to maintain the calcium-phosphate balance and counteract the acid in the blood.

So, let’s start building healthy bones with ten super foods. Many of these foods can be combined to create extra super bone health treats! Read more »»

We are big believers in vitamin D for joint health at JoMo.  In fact the new JoMo formulation now has 2000IU of vitamin D in every dose (see below for some of the dosage recommendations from Harvard and other organizations).  Here is some of the latest research on vitamin D as it applies to joint health as well as heart disease, prostate cancer, diabetes and colon cancer.

Vitamin D Joint and Bone Health

Vitamin D and calcium work in tandem to improve bone density and reduce the risk of hip and other fractures, and numerous studies have shown this relationship. Vitamin D alone is also essential for promoting calcium absorption and maintaining adequate concentrations of calcium and phosphate to allow normal mineralization of bone. It is also necessary for bone growth and bone repair. Without sufficient intake of vitamin D, bones can become thin, brittle, or misshapen. Sufficient levels of vitamin D prevent rickets in children, osteomalacia in adults, and along with calcium, protects individuals from development of osteoporosis. (National Institutes of Health) Read more »»

We are big believers in Vitamin D at JoMo.  That’s why the next batch of JoMo will now include 2000IU’s in every dose, the highest dose of vitamin in any liquid joint supplement.  While we love vitamin D for its bone health, arthritis support and anti-cancer properties as well as its benefits for rheumatoid arthritis, a new study also shows that during pregnancy, women should take ten times the amount of the current RDA of 400 International Units (IU) of vitamin D. Read more »»

A new study from Northumbria University indicates that runners who drank cherry juice experienced a faster recovery than athletes who downed a placebo.

The study centered around runners in the London Marathon, 20 of whom drank either a tart cherry blend juice made from Montmorency cherries or a placebo twice daily for five days before they ran the race. After the race they continued the twice-a-day juice or placebo habit for two additional days. Read more »»

Black, oolong, green, and white tea all come from the Camellia sinensis tea plant, yet they are not the same, and the difference begins the moment the teas are picked.

White tea begins its journey to your tea cup when the plant sports a greater proportion of buds to leaves. These buds are covered with whitish hairs, which is where the tea gets its name. Once the white tea buds and young leaves are picked, they are steamed and dried rapidly, just enough to stop oxidation (oxidation occurs in different levels in green and black teas, giving them their respective color and flavor).

The result is a tea that is barely processed, which allows it to hold onto high concentrations of the potent polyphenols called catechins. All other teas undergo more processing than white tea, which reduces their level of catechins (e.g., epicatechin, epigallocatechin, epigallocatechin-3-gallate [EGCG]), those potent antioxidants for which white and green tea are well known. Read more »»

Listen up, ladies (and guys too, even though the study doesn’t mention you): Boston researchers say that women who live in the northern latitudes are more likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis than their friends living down south.

Dr. Veronica Vieira, MS, DSc, associate professor of environmental health at Boston University School of Public Health says “This might be related to the fact that there’s less sunlight in these areas, which results in a vitamin D deficiency.” Read more »»