“My knee hurts again, I can’t do the shopping anymore”, “my thumb joint hurts”… We have all already made or heard these types of complaints. Around 15 million French people suffer from rheumatism, of which 70% are women. But then how to relieve the pain?
Jérémie Sellam, professor of rheumatology at the Saint-Antoine hospital, and Sébastien Czernichow, professor and head of the nutrition department at HEGP, believe that there are “strong links between rheumatism, obesity and diet.” A detailed thesis in his book “Osteoarthritis, arthritis, I treat myself by eating!” published by Solar.
“Rheumatism is all joint diseases and pathologies that affect the structures surrounding the joints, such as tendons. As soon as damage occurs to the joints, we feel pain because the nerves in the joints cause a painful signal that “We perceive it in the knee, in the hip or somewhere else,” explains the first named in the BFMTV podcast The Health.
Osteoarthritis or arthritis?
To know how to treat this pain, you must first identify whether it is mechanical pain related to osteoarthritis, in people over 50 years of age, or inflammation, which occurs even when you do not work. In this second case, it is an arthritis that can affect patients in their thirties and older.
“In inflammatory rheumatism, we have pharmacological treatments that patients must take for a long period to block the short course of the disease. It is essential to follow the treatment and the diet allows us to improve even more,” says Jérémie Sellam. who remembers that tobacco can aggravate the pathology.
In the case of osteoarthritis, however, “the therapeutic revolution is long overdue.” There are many anti-inflammatories and anticorticoids that can provide temporary relief to the patient, but we are looking for new solutions.
“The treatment of osteoarthritis is multimodal and is not just a prescription medication. There is a medicine for outbreaks, then we will emphasize physical activity, muscle strengthening and weight control…” says the specialist.
For example, an obese subject is five times more likely to develop knee osteoarthritis.
A privileged Mediterranean diet
“The joint is in relation to the rest of the body and therefore to what passes into the blood. [Son état] It depends, therefore, on what we eat,” adds Sébastien Czernichow.
But he refuses to make any caricatures, pointing out that a food is good or bad for reducing the effects of rheumatism.
“If a person says that drinking less milk is good for them, why contradict them? We must take into account these small everyday experiences. But we must be sure that this will have social and medical consequences. When we stop consuming dairy, we reduce our intake of calcium and weaken our bone health,” he illustrates.
That is, if a patient wants to follow an exclusion diet regarding a type of food (dairy, gluten, etc.), it is better that he do so “after a blood test, supervised by a dietician and verifying that his health It is not deteriorated.
“A Mediterranean-type diet has benefits on inflammatory diseases and a general effect on health, especially with the intake of oleaginous fruits (fine fruits, walnuts, hazelnuts) or olive oil,” the nutritionist points out, however.
Surgery for daily discomfort?
While adequate rest is always recommended, moving is still one of the main ways to prevent pain from continuing for too long a period.
The aforementioned routes for cartilage reconstruction, especially with stem cells, struggle to demonstrate their effectiveness; As a last resort, surgery may be beneficial in certain cases.
“This will depend on the impact on the patient’s quality of life. If you have advanced osteoarthritis but continue to carry out your daily activities, there is no reason to operate as the rehabilitation period is not obvious. We could discuss this with a person who is bothered by pain. every day,” explains Jérémie Sellam.
Source: BFM TV
