Cartilage Injuries: Nutrition Matters and Extra Virgin Olive Oil May Help!

We all know the importance of diet and exercise, but what do they do exactly to our bodies? Research shows that Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO), coupled with adequate physical activities, could contribute to the defense against cartilage degeneration by stimulating the production of lubricin, a protein that serves as a critical boundary between opposing cartilage surfaces. This abstract from the Italian Journal of Anatomy and Embryology is concerned with the Mediterranean diet, which is rich in chemicals with anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. In an animal model, researchers investigated the effects of EVOO-rich diet and physical exercise in lubricin production within knee joints. From immunohistochemical and histological analyses, the team, lead by Dr. Marta Anna Szhychlinska, concluded that an EVOO indeed provided benefits to animals with baseline cartilage damage. Further research is needed to evaluate the efficacy of such EVOO-based diet in human subjects.

Reference: https://www.fupress.net/index.php/ijae/article/view/21626