It is well known that patients with rheumatoid arthritis often get better when they’re pregnant. Now researchers are trying to find the mechanism at work in order to mimic it — minus the pregnancy (Pregnancy may hold arthritis key).

Chinese medicine recognizes two types of arthritis; the one that interests us here is the type that is most likely to occur in cold and damp regions. This type of arthritis is helped, as one might expect, by heat and dryness. Pregnancies often make the mother feel warmer than usual, which is all it takes for the arthritis to get better.

In some cases, however, the mother feels colder than usual during pregnancy, which makes the symptoms of arthritis worse. This can be helped by eating warming foods.