Pain. Stiffness. Inflammation. If you have arthritis, you know these symptoms quite well.
Arthritis, or the inflammation of your joints, is a chronic condition that affects about 3 million people in the United States every year. It can range from mild to severe and interrupt your daily activities.
While there isn’t an exact cure for arthritis, you may know that there are certain things you can do to manage your pain. From warm water baths, staying physically active, yoga, ice packs and heating pads, there are steps you can take to ease your pain. Pain management can also come through what you eat.
And the anti-inflammatory properties in your favorite extra virgin olive oil can be part of a healthy approach to managing your arthritis.
Using Extra Virgin Olive Oil for Arthritis
If you’re looking for strategies and methods to reduce your painful inflammation caused by chronic arthritis, finding some relief may be as easy as picking up another bottle of your favorite extra virgin olive oil.
Here, we share why extra virgin olive oil can be so transformational and give some great ideas of how you can continue to incorporate it into your healthy diet in accordance with pain-free living.
How it Works
You may have heard that extra virgin olive oil comes with a wide range of health benefits that can help you live well from your head to your toes. From lowering bad cholesterol to preventing harmful bacteria and type two diabetes, this superfood can help you in a variety of ways.
One particularly important property of extra virgin olive oil is its antioxidants. The antioxidant oleocanthal serves a valuable role in having profound effects in managing your pain and inflammation.
The Omega-3 fatty acid in extra virgin olive oil also works as an anti-inflammatory that can be an important addition to your diet.
Go Mediterranean
When it comes to being intentional about your diet in relieving arthritis pain, the Mediterranean diet has often caught the attention of researchers. The Mediterranean diet, with the emphasis of extra virgin olive oil, can help to reduce pain.
Complement Medications
In your pain management for your arthritis, you may incorporate medications such as ibuprofen or aspirin that block inflammatory pathways. As it turns out, extra virgin olive oil works the same way. Extra virgin olive oil contains the same enzymes that are found in pain relief medications. Using olive oil to complement your intake of pain medicine can help to reduce those unpleasant side effects you may experience with NSAIDs.
Combine With Fish Oil
There are a lot of different kinds of oil out there, each with its own level of health benefits and properties. Healthline notes a study that when participants included both EVOO and fish oil in their diets, they experienced better hand strength and more relief from joint pain and stiffness caused by arthritis.
Lose Weight
For some, weight loss may be another important part of addressing pain management and relief from arthritis. Incorporating extra virgin olive oil into your diet, particularly with a Mediterranean-based diet has shown potential for weight loss properties. The healthy fats that carry a range of beneficial properties, such as monounsaturated fats, can help you feel your best without those other saturated fats that can be harmful to your health.
Improve your Overall Health
With its plethora of health benefits, using extra virgin olive oil to address your arthritis pain is just the start of what it can do. Improve your skin with the antioxidant hydroxytyrosol found in olive oil that can help to heal abrasions and reduce skin cancer risk. Incorporating extra virgin olive oil into your diet can help you boost your health overall.
How to Use Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Using a pure extra virgin olive oil, whether infused or a single varietal, is an ingredient you can incorporate in just about all types of cuisines. Extra virgin olive oil has a low smoke point, meaning it breaks down and begins to lose its health benefits at a lower temperature than canola oil or avocado oil, for example. Even with a lower smoke point, there are so many ways you can bring into your cooking and meal prepping.
Some of our favorite ways to use extra virgin olive oil include marinating a healthy protein such as chicken or fish prior to cooking. Emulsifying a vinaigrette for prime consistency for your salad. Sauté veggies in a skillet - keeping in mind olive oil can withstand heat up to about 325 degrees. Use as a healthy alternative to butter or other oils.
Ease Your Pain With Olive Oil
Living with arthritis can be challenging. With the chronic aches and pains from morning stiffness and joint inflammation, engaging in daily activities may just not be the same. But by incorporating healthy ingredients like extra virgin olive oil into your diet, you can get on your way to improving your overall health and reducing inflammation. Emphasizing a healthy diet can help. And often, it’s as easy as picking up a bottle of your favorite infused or single varietal extra virgin olive oil.