Can vinegar really ease arthritis?

Vinegar – great with fish and chips, but can also help ease arthritis.

Well, that’s according to intrepid explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes anyway, who swears by the stuff.

The 64-year-old adventurer got the first twinges of arthritis 20 years ago in his hands and hips, which he says was caused by too many expeditions spent sleeping in cold conditions.

But Fiennes insists he no longer suffers from the ailment, and says it’s all thanks to a vinegar recipe his mother passed down to him.

And the fact in 2003 he ran seven marathons in seven days and earlier this year tackled Everest, who are we to argue.

OK, the wonder cure – named Honeygar, which consists of four parts apple cider vinegar and one part raw honey – would be no good on chips (we think), but, according to Sir Fiennes, it worked wonders for his mother, who in her mid-80s was bedridden with arthritis.

Speaking to the Daily Mail newspaper, he said: “My sisters and I encouraged her to look into an alternative cure after she showed us the doctor’s X-ray, which highlighted the arthritic band in her back.”

So she looked into it, and found it in a library book which highlighted a natural cure for arthritis that included cider vinegar, honey and black molasses. The treatment also involved bathing in Epsom salt regularly.

He added: “My mother tried this method and after 18 months her condition started to improve, which was unusual in someone of her age.”

Indeed, it successfully held her pain at bay for the remaining six years of her life.

So it was only natural that when Sir Fiennes developed the same condition that he took a leaf out of his mother’s book.

In recent years he has relied upon Honeygar, which was developed by former nurse and fellow arthritis sufferer Margeret Hills, who died in 2003.

He said: “I didn’t give up impatiently as I would have done had I not seen the effects on my mother.

“It did take more than a year before the aches gradually grew less and less and eventually disappeared.

“From time to time I’ve lapsed for a while. After two or three months the arthritis begins slowly to return. It goes away - just as slowly - when I retake Honeygar daily again.”

So how does it work? Well, this is not just some old wife’s tale, it actually does have some science to back it up.

Essentially, Hills was convinced arthritis was caused by a build-up of uric acid. And the best way to neutralise that is malic acid, which is found in apple cider. Bingo!

So where can you get some? Well, the good news is Honeygar is available from all good health food shops ¬ and some bad ones too. You won’t even need a doctor’s prescription.

However, before you go rushing to the shops you should know that not everyone is convinced.

Consultant rheumatologist Professor Robert Moots, of the University of Liverpool, said: “There is no connection between dietary acids and what happens in the body.”

Spoilsport.