Nix Arthritis Aches NATURALLY

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Celery seed Since I wrote The Green Pharmacy several years ago, I have not had a single attack of gout, one especially painful type of arthritis. I started taking celery seed when I read it helps lower levels of uric acid - the gout culprit. In my database at the USDA ( www.ars-grin.gov/duke ), I found there are nearly two dozen antiinflammatory compounds in celery, including one very important "miracle aspirin" called apigenin. I now enjoy curried celery when I'm not on the road, celery seed extracts when I am. And celery or serendipity has prevented my gout for more than six years now. (Knock my wooden leg.)

Brazil nut (Bertholettia excelsa) and sunflower (Helianthus annus). SAM is shorthand for S-adenosyl-methionine, a chemical shown to have pain-relieving and anti-inflammatory properties similar to those found in the over-the-counter medication ibuprofen.

SAM can be found in high-methionine seeds and Brazil nuts. It would take 250 grams of sunflower seeds (about 9 ounces) of 500 grams of Brazil nuts (18 ounces) to provide a dose of SAM that's more effective than a standard dose of ibuprofen. It's not feasible to eat that many nuts and seeds, but every little bit helps, especially if you use the other natural approaches this article recommends.

Go ahead and sprinkle some sunflower seeds on your salad. And when you're nibbling mixed nuts in company, don't apologize for monopolizing the Brazil nuts.

Broccoli (Brassica oleracea) and other herbs containing glutathione. Studies indicate people who are low in the antioxidant compound glutathione are more likely to have arthritis than those who have higher amounts. Vegetables rich in glutathione include asparagus, cabbage, cauliflower, potatoes, tomatoes and purslane. Fruits with healthy amounts include avocados, grapefruit, oranges, peaches and watermelon.

Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis). Rosemary was known in antiquity as the herb of remembrance, which is fitting, since rosemary has antioxidants that help prevent aging in cells, and the aging process is certainly associated with memory loss. One Greek American herb grower tells how her fishing relatives set out to sea with fish dishes heavily covered with rosemary. Even when it was unrefrigerated, this food lasted for days, thanks in part to the antioxidant activity of the rose mary.

Can an herb that keeps fish from spoiling help preserve your youth? The jury is still out on that one, but rosemary has preservative powers comparable to the commercial preservatives BHA and BHT. And since we know that antioxidants do help treat arthritis, it makes sense that this antioxidant-rich herb would help thwart this disease.

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