How Vitamin D can prevent the onset of painful arthritis

If you’re someone living with arthritis, you’ll know how painful the condition can be.

There’s nothing worse than the pain and stiffness that can leave your joints aching and your body swollen.

According to Arthritis and Osteoporosis New South Wales, 3.8 million Australians are currently living with arthritis. To break that down, it means that the condition affects one in five people and 18 per cent of the total population.

Read more: Study reveals 33 foods proven to relieve rheumatoid arthritis

While there’s no complete cure as such, scientists and researchers are always looking for new ways to ease the main caused by the condition.

New research suggests that Vitamin D can actually be an effective way of preventing the onset of arthritis inflammation.

The study led by the University of Birmingham found that maintaining sufficient levels of Vitamin D could be particularly helpful with rheumatoid arthritis

Dr Louisa Jeffery explained that while Vitamin D could help prevent the onset of the disease, it wouldn’t be enough for people who are already living with the condition.

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“Our research indicates that maintaining sufficient vitamin D may help to prevent the onset of inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis,” she said.

“However, for patients who already have rheumatoid arthritis, simply providing vitamin D might not be enough. Instead much higher doses of vitamin D may be needed, or possibly a new treatment that bypasses or corrects the vitamin D insensitivity of immune cells within the joint.”

The study found that Vitamin D has positive impacts on the skeleton and that it can suppress inflammation in autoimmune diseases.

Given that one of the side effects of rheumatoid arthritis is Vitamin D deficiency, simple things like getting sunlight or taking a Vitamin D supplement could make living with the condition more bearable.

Read more: Unique opportunity to get your arthritis worries addressed

For people who are long-sufferers of severe arthritis, the research suggests that even higher dosages of the vitamin could help with the condition.

The great news is you don’t just have to sit in the sun to increase your body’s intake of Vitamin D.

A number of everyday foods and drinks already contain it, meaning that adding them to your regular diet could help you in the long run.

Some vitamin D-rish foods include fatty fishes such as tuna, salmon and mackerel, cheeses, egg yolks, cereals and even orange juice.

Are you a person living with arthritis? What natural remedies help you cope with the condition?