Eat Garlic and Onions to Reduce Osteoarthritis Risk: BMC Journal

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Eat Garlic and Onions to Reduce Osteoarthritis Risk. Pic Courtesy: amazonaws.com

Make garlic, onions and leeks part of your diet. As per recent research conducted by researchers at King’s College London and the University of East Anglia, women whose diet is rich in garlic, onions and leeks, have lower levels of hip osteoarthritis. The recent research was published in the BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders journal.

Wondering how onions, garlic and leek could be helping in reducing hip osteoarthritis? Science daily reports that all the vegetables mentioned are rich in allium.

In order to delve deeper, the researchers further studied the compounds found in garlic. It was found that the compound diallyl disulphide reduces cartilage damage.

Now, this finding is very significant since such a study is perhaps first of its kind, wherein an establishment of a link between dietary patterns and development of osteoarthritis has been studied.

Arthritis Research UK, the Wellcome Trust and Dunhill Medical Trust, funded this study. For the purpose of research over 1,000 healthy female twins, some who had no symptoms of arthritis were studied closely.

Dr Frances Williams, lead author from the Department of Twin Research at King’s College London, said,

While we don’t yet know if eating garlic will lead to high levels of this component in the joint, these findings may point the way towards future treatments and prevention of hip osteoarthritis. If our results are confirmed by follow-up studies, this will point the way towards dietary intervention or targeted drug therapy for people with osteoarthritis.

One of the most common disabling joint conditions is osteoarthritis. Not just the elderly, but also many adults who still are in the peak of their work life come under the shadow of osteoarthritis.

Professor Ian Clark of the University of East Anglia said,

Osteoarthritis is a major health issue and this exciting study shows the potential for diet to influence the course of the disease. With further work to confirm and extend these early findings, this may open up the possibility of using diet or dietary supplements in the future treatment osteoarthritis.

Instead of waiting for further results, spice up your food with a touch of garlic and onions; veggies after all could do you no harm!