Fact Check: No, wrapping a cabbage leaf won’t cure arthritis

A social media post claims that wrapping cabbage leaves over joints will relieve bone health conditions like arthritis, joint pain swelling, and inflammation.

Mayoclinic explains Arthritis as a swelling and tenderness of one or more joints. The main symptoms of arthritis are joint pain and stiffness, which typically worsen with age. The most common types of arthritis are osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.

Fact check

NewsMeter found the claim to be false.

A study was performed on 81 patients who were given different treatments for joint pain. The study found that most of the patients with knee osteoarthritis felt relief using cabbage leaves rather than patience with usual care. The results are not very effective as compared to patients who used diclofenac gel for pain relief. Therefore, cabbage leaf remedy could be recommended for patients with osteoarthritis of the knee. Still, research is needed on this. issue.

Another study found that the application of cabbage wraps with ice to the knee in men may promote a reduction of swelling (by accelerating the absorption of knee exudates) if applied during the acute stage of the knee injury.

We further contacted Dr. Anurag Sharma, orthopedician to debunk the claim.

He said, “Arthritis is joint inflammation causing pain, swelling & stiffness, which could be age-related (osteoarthritis), pathological etiology (psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, etc), infections, rheumatoid arthritis or sometimes it may be idiopathic also,” he said.

“Arthritis affects joint movement and quality of life. Many inflammatory markers are involved like Interleukin, tumour necrosis factors, interferon, etc. There is no significant evidence in the literature to support the relation through the wrapping of cabbage. Neither has any significant association with other bone-related diseases. But cabbage has good nutritive value which is good for our overall health.”