Why This Spice Works Better Than You’d Think for RA

Introduction to Anti-Inflammatory Spices 0:00

What if the secret of moving easier was already in your kitchen and your pantry? We are breaking down five powerful spices that don't just add flavor in food, but they work to shut down the inflammation causing your joint pain in rheumatoid arthritis. Hello, all of you rheumatoid arthritis warriors. This is Dr. Ananda Subedi, your rheuma arthritis coach at The Room Doc, as well as a practicing rheumeatologist here at Empower Arthritis and Rheumatology Center. Today, I'll go over five important spices that you can find in your kitchen that will help fight against rheuematoide arthritis.

Before I go deeper, please don't forget to like and subscribe to our channel so that you can get these content in the future. Also, share this information to your loved ones who might be confused regarding what to do with rheumatoid arthritis. And also help us support in our mission for this 2026. We want to touch at least 100,000 rheumatoid arthritis warriors who are suffering in pain and confusion. So you can help by liking and subscribing to our content. And don't also forget to accept our gift.

There are two gifts we have created for you. One is your free book, the Holistic Rheumataid Arthritis Guidebook, as well as an anti-inflammatory smoothie that you prepare in the morning to fight against rheuma arthritis and inflammation. As you already know, as many of you are already aware, rheumatoid RFID is a systemic autoimmune and inflammatory condition. And when we talk about inflammation, it's your immune system that is causing those problems. Your confused immune systems goes attacked and attack your joints.

So your confused immune system is activated and then go attack the lining of your joint. And that is a primary problem. Many of you are prescribed medication to control inflammation. But many of the time the medication may not be effective enough. or some of you might have problem tolerating the medication. Hence, we need to understand more about what are the other natural way without adding medication that we can manage your rheumatoid arthritis better.

Why Spices Can Help Rheumatoid Arthritis 2:06

And there comes our spices. So in the today video, I'll give you five spices that are already available in your kitchen that you can use daily to control your inflammation naturally. But be aware, these spices in itself may not fix everything, but they work as a complement to your medical treatment. So always consult with your doctors before making any major changes with their medication or even before adding these spaces. Most of them are reasonably safe, But it's always good to check with the doctor before you add anything new so that they don't interact with other medications.

Now, here's the agenda for today. And I'll be breaking down this video into two parts. In the first part, we'll talk about two spices, the turmeric and ginger. And in the subsequent video in next week, will talk the remaining three. I will also go over some of the general tips on how you use those spices. So as I mentioned earlier, the spices are complementary to your treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. So don't think these spices as a substitute for your medical treatment. Your rheumeotologist still need to prescribe you medication.

You still have to do some other lifestyle changes. But these spice complement your rheumatoid arthritis treatment. So please use them as a complementary tools in your toolbox to manage rheuma to arthritis rather than substituting that with medication. Now, when we talk about inflammation, the spices in general help reduce inflammation and even pain. So they are natural anti-inflammatory. Many of the spices that we'll talk today, they contain anti inflammatory compounds. And these anti inflammation compounds help decrease inflammation and even decrease your pain.

Research has also shown that some of these spices also help you manage your rheumatoid arthritis symptoms, particularly joint stiffness and pain Now there is one caveat. Doing research in these spices is challenging. So that's why we don't have a lot of researches in this spices. There are some limited data suggesting and supporting that these species do have good anti-inflammatory role in managing rheumatoid arthritis. But we need to understand the limitation of these research. Some of these research may not be big like medication research and some of them may show a robust improvement in the symptoms.

But if we use in combination, they have been found to be effective in managing your rheumatoid arthritis. Now, many of you might be looking for some natural alternative, and I understand many patients do ask that question.

Turmeric Benefits, Dosage, and Safety 4:46

Can I manage my rheumatoid arthritis naturally? And I usually tell them we can but we have to be holistic. We don't need to in the extreme. The two extremes. One is don t take any medications and the other extreme is just take your medications. And you will be fine. That's why I want to break that problem. I went to find a holistic way of managing your rheumatoid arthritis. We can bring the good of both ends. Some natural supplements, natural spices like we'll be talking today, as well as some of the allopathic medication, but using them safely and monitoring them closely so that we can minimize the side effect that comes with those medications.

Hence, let's learn a Holistic way Of managing you at the end of Our goal is to make you feel better without causing side effect of the medication and also using natural ways of managing inflammation. And the spices come handy as a natural way of Managing your rheumatoid arthritis. Now, many of you might have heard turmeric. So this is one of commonly used supplement in managing rheuma to arthritis related inflammation Now I'll briefly talk about what are the benefit and how can we safely use turmeric as an anti-inflammatory.

The first question we need to understand is how turmeric helps rheumatoid arthritis and inflammation. Turmeric has a natural compound called curcumin. Curcumene is a naturally anti-inflammatory. Hence, it helps reduce inflammation, reduce your joint pain, and even stiffness. Many of you rheumatoid arthritis warrior when you wake up in the morning, you have this significant stiffness in your hand and you also get a lot of symptoms in early morning. So, turmeric could help you minimize those symptoms such as joint pain and stiffness.

Now, Turmeric comes in different forms. Many of you who are listening to this video from South Asian country, you might be consuming turmeric in your spices, so you may not need to add extra. But some of who may be not using turmeric, in their spices you can find turmeric over the counter as a supplement. And there's a lot of variation on how much you need today, but typically the recommended dose of turmeric is around 500 mg up to 1000 mg. But the important thing is make sure you look at the label on how much it is and also make it a good quality turmeric.

Now, as I mentioned earlier, you can find turmeric in different ways, and one of them being in the food. So in our culture, in Nepalese culture or even some of the other Indo-Nepalese cultures, we add turmeric to almost everything we eat. That's why our food is already containing enough amount of turmeric, so you may not need extra supplements. But if you want to add more supplement, you can find the curcumin capsules. And one other interesting fact is there is a lot of variation on how much turmeric you get absorbed, even though you might be consuming a lock, but you may not be absorbing everything.

So be careful on what you are taking and how it is absorbed into your body. One interesting factor is if take your turmeric or curicumin supplement with paper extract that can help improving your absorption of turmeric. So you can combine them together. Paper with turmeric, even some of the commercially available supplements of Turmeric also contain paper added on it so that it helps absorb into your body better. Now here are some of the tips on how you can effectively take turmeric. And one of them being is the timing.

When should you take your turmeric? Now if you are taking with meal, typically that helps in the absorption of turmeric and sometimes really some you might experience stomach discomfort causing pain in your tummy. So if your taking it with a meal it can help minimize those type of side effects and taking and also consuming healthy fat, particularly polyunsaturated fatty acid, as well as black pepper can help improve the bioavailability. It basically means it can increase the absorption of turmeric.

So use it with meal and use with more fatty food so that it could be absorbed better into your body. Now, one of the other important factor that we need to put into place is understanding the drug interaction. So along with turmeric, you might be taking other medication for other medical conditions. That's why I told you in the beginning, always ask your doctor, your primary care doctor or your rheumatologist who can help you whether you may be having interaction with other medications along the turmeric supplements.

In particular, there are two things we need to monitor. One is your liver and the other one is a bleeding risk. Now, turmeric, as well as some of the rheumatoid arthritis medication like methotrexate, they are typically metabolized by your livers. So if you are taking turmeric along with your metho trexite, it can cause some liver marker elevation. This is not a very common risk, but it's a possible risk That's why if you're taking turmeric with your methotrexate, make sure your rheumatologist or your primary care doctor is closely monitoring your liver markers, particularly in the beginning or when you change your medication dose, change in those of the turmeric or change the dose of metho trex.

Anyway, your rheumatologists always monitor your liver marker. So just keep them aware that you are also taking turmeric supplements so that we can be more vigilant on any liver related issues. But this risk is very minimal. It's not very common. And the next one, the second one being increased risk of bleeding. Turmeric, when taken with other blood thinner, such as warfarin or coumadin, and aspirin can increase your risk of bleeding.

Ginger Benefits, Dosage, and Safety 10:33

So let your doctor know that you are taking turmeric supplement if you're taking chlamydin or aspirine so that we can minimize the bleeding risk. But if we close the monitor, then we adjust the dose of the turmeric so you don't have that side effects. Keep your doctors aware of these interactions. Now, all of you rheumatoid arthritis warriors, hopefully the first spice that we talk about, turmeric, helps you understand more about how can you effectively use turmeric as a natural way of managing your rheuma to arthritis.

If you like the video, please give us a thumbs up, subscribe to our channel and also help in our mission of serving at least more than 100,000 RA warriors throughout the globe so that you are more aware and informed about your health and you have all the options you can use to help you feel better. So please help us by subscribing and liking our videos. And also don't forget to accept our gift, those two gifts that I mentioned earlier, a free copy of the book, the Holistic Rheumatoid Artifice Guidebook, and also an anti-inflammatory smoothie, which you can find in the description below.

Now the next spice that we'll be talking about is ginger. So we will talk about what are the benefits and how can we safely use ginger? Now, the first question let's understand is how ginger helps and what are the recommended dose of ginger. Now ginger like turmeric is also a natural anti-inflammatory. But one interesting fact is it's also natural analgesic too, which means it can also decrease your pain, particularly when you're having a lot of pain or if you are having flair. So ginger could be a good tool to manage your flares.

Ginger help reduce joint pain swelling and ease your morning stiffness effectively. The typical dose of ginger that you can take is up to 1 to 2 grams of Ginger powder or you take 2 to 4 grams freshly prepared ginger roots. So you find those in the market. Now there are different ways you get ginger into your diet and one of the most common being in our food. As I mentioned earlier in Indo-Nepalese culture we typically add a lot of gingers in food so unknowingly we are adding that anti-inflammatory spice into our foods.

Now there are other ways such as you can also add those in your smoothie. You can add few pieces of ginger, the freshly cut ginger and you add in in the smoothie, you could even make ginger tea. And sometimes the ginger can be crystallized and pickled ginger are also a good alternative. Pickled ginger also contain a lot of microbiome, those good bacteria that are typically present in fermented ginger. So you get two things at the same time. good bacterias to help maintain your gut as well as anti-inflammatory ginger.

Now if you are not adding ginger into your food then you can also find some ginger supplements and they are typically available as an extract or pills. So you explore in your local store where you find those ginger supplement. Now here are some of the tips that you can use to help optimally use your ginger. Like turmeric, sometimes ginger can oxidize your stomach. So taking with meal might help you tolerate this supplement better. As I mentioned earlier, there are different ways you consume. Either you do a tea, you add in your food or you find a supplement capsule that can get over the counter most of time.

Now, there are some possible side effects that we need to watch out, particularly the stomach related problem. So you might get some stomach upset when you take ginger. Taking with meal might decrease that side effect risk with ginger Now with any other supplement, let's also understand what are the interactions with your other medication. Like we talked earlier with turmeric, ginger can also interact with some of the blood thinner. It might increase the risk of bleeding. Check with your doctor, making sure that they are not interacting with other medications like the blood thinners.

And if you are taking both together, always watch out for unusual bleeding, such as bleeding in your mouth, bleeding on your skin. If you have those, alert your doctors and stop taking your supplement and then consult with doctors. Now sometimes ginger can also interact with your pain medication such as ibuprofen or naproxen because both are anti-inflammatory. Both can upset your stomach. So one of the better ways of taking them is don't take both of them together. We space them out by a couple of hours so that you can tolerate both those medications.

And if you are taking a blood thinner like Coumadin, it's better to avoid taking ginger or ask your primary care doctor whether it is safe for you to take ginger along with your blood thinner or not. Thank you so much all of you Rupert Althas who are here. So we talk about two spices that you can add in your food and we talked about turmeric and then the ginger. In the next video, we'll talk about three other remaining spices that include cinnamon, saffron, and garlic. So I'll go over those details about those three spices in our next videos.

And please join us. Before I conclude, thank you so much for watching. Thank you for liking our videos and putting a comment.

Wrap-Up and Golden Ginger Soother Recipe 15:46

Let us know what type of content you want to hear from us so that we can help you learn more about the effective way of managing rheumatoid arthritis. And before I depart, let me also give you some gift. And this is the recipe I call a golden ginger soother. Particularly when you're having an RA flare, you can use this technique to help you manage your RA flair effectively without adding more medication like steroid or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory. The recipe will be in the description below.

So don't forget to get that recipe so that you can learn more about how do you make this soother drink for managing your rheumatoid arthritis flare. And I'll see you in next video. Thank you so much for your time. I will see next week. Bye bye.