The pain of arthritic joints can often be unrelenting. It is no wonder, then, that people are always on the lookout for strategies to help them manage it better. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin IB) or naproxen (Aleve) ease the pain temporarily, but long-term use of such medications can wreak havoc with the digestive tract. NSAIDs also increase the risk for cardiac complications, as we wrote here.
In Search of Home Remedies for Joint Pain:
Instead, many people like to try home remedies. If these work (and, like the medicines, they don’t work for everyone), they offer a satisfactory solution to this difficult problem. This reader found one helpful:
Q. I tried the Certo recipe for arthritis for a couple of weeks and felt better. When I ran out of grape juice, the pain was noticeable in two days.
I went back and tried it again and the pain went away the first day. Now I am out of juice and two days after stopping, the pain is back.
Today I found the pectin powder, but I haven’t found the recipe. Could you provide it again, please?
The Certo Recipe:
A. Certo is a liquid plant pectin used by home canners to get jams and jellies to thicken. Decades ago, someone figured out that mixing a tablespoon of Certo into 8 ounces of grape juice made a daily dose of an arthritis remedy that can be surprisingly helpful for some people.
We are sending you our Guide to Alternatives for Arthritis, which has the Certo recipe as well as instructions for gin-soaked raisins and a number of other unique home remedies for joint pain.
Pectin Powder:
Plant pectin can also be purchased as a powder, for example as Pomona’s Universal Pectin. Although it is harder to mix it into grape juice, it does not need to be stored in the refrigerator after opening as Certo does. Some readers use a blender or a smoothie maker to get the powder into solution.
In addition, the powder does not contain sodium benzoate as Certo does. Concern has been raised that mixing a packet of Certo into 64 ounces of grape juice containing small amounts of ascorbic acid might result in the formation of benzene, a toxic compound. (Read more about this concern at this link.) That is why we recommend you use pectin powder or prepare just one daily dose at a time, at least until this worry is confirmed or proven groundless.
Pectin appears to have anti-inflammatory activity. In one study, Polish scientists coated implants with nanoparticle pectin and found that this reduced inflammation in a tissue culture experiment (Meresta et al, International Journal of Nanomedicine, Jan. 12, 2017). We haven’t seen any clinical studies that show whether or how pectin cools inflammation in joints.
Revised 6/12/2017
