Food Can Fix It - dr. Mehmet Oz

So now take the same principle and apply it to something that you may not see
on the surface, like joint pain. Through years of natural wear and tear, the
cartilage cushion between your joints decreases and you can wind up with bone-
on-bone rubbing. When that happens, it triggers an inflammatory response in an
attempt to heal the area. This is a good thing, because the intent of the immune
system is to repair. But the inflammation (think of the red swollen twisted ankle,
but all of that happening inside your body) can irritate the nerves around the
injured spot, and that’s what fires those pain signals to make you feel horrible.
Food won’t do much for a twisted ankle (you’ll need rest, ice, compression,
and elevation for that), but it may help in the case of something more chronic,
like joint pain. Because if you eat to settle down the inflammation, you will quiet
the signals that cause pain. That doesn’t mean you’ll fix the structural damage
that you may have, but you can make it feel better—and when it comes to pain,
that’s one of the main goals, right? The other problem occurs because
inflammation—when your immune system is in overdrive to fight off a problem
—causes your body to churn out chemicals that can actually damage tissues. So
you’re getting walloped from all directions with damaged tissue from the injury
as well as collateral damage from inflammation.
Inflammation is one of the reasons controlling your weight is so important.
Fat cells don’t just sit there in the body; they’re active—meaning that they spit
out compounds that actually increase inflammation, which then triggers a higher
immune response and, in turn, more inflammation. One of the ways to combat
that is by getting the right fats in your diet—because the combo of omega-3s
(from fatty fish and walnuts), for example, and omega-6s (from seeds, nuts, and
the oils derived from them) regulates your immune response to calm down
inflammation. Most people get enough of the omega-6s; it’s the omega-3s we
need to bump up. This helps control your weight, and, in the process, eases
chronic pain.