Ever wonder why fish oil is so healthy for you? Google fish oil and you would be hard pressed to find some disease/syndrome that fish oil or Omega 3 (o3) didn't make better or show improvements with. One of the reasons for this is that the body requires a certain ratio of Omega 3 to the Omega 6. Omega 3 is things like sardines, wild caught salmon, grass fed anything. Omega 6 are mostly in oils such as corn, canola, cotton, flax seed, peanut, safflower, sunflower and vegetable oil. When you get a very high ration of 6 to 3, you get an increase in the inflammation in your body.
So there are two ways to correct this ratio. Supplement with Omega 3 fish oil to up your ratio, and eliminate your oil usage to lower the bad side of the ratio.
If you want to think in terms of Paleo, or WWCD (what would caveman do?) Eat more grass fed beef and wild salmon. He didn't have access to the oils that are found in our foods or used to cook today's food. Not surprisingly, when you eliminate the oils, you eliminate most of the junk food, fast food and food that didn't quite exist when our Great, Great, Grand Parents were roaming this world.
I recently stepped out of my culinary comfort zone and tried Kimchi, a traditional Korean side dish. I'm not a big cabbage guy. I'm not a big vegetable guy to be honest. I hate shredded lettuce. So I went in a bit doubtful, maybe a little more then just a bit.
I was pleasantly surprised that I actually liked it. There is a good possibility that I wanted to like it because it is so healthy for you. But who cares. I've added a new super food to my pallet, and super food it is.
Pretty much anything fermented is pretty great for your intestinal health. Kimchi is no exception. It is loaded with the good bacteria that helps digest food and keep your "internals" running smoothly.
Dr. Bob Rakowski has a saying, "Devoid of trauma, stuff that is wrong on the outside, always starts with something wrong on the inside." Keep your digestive health at the fore front of your health and performance goals.
Other benefits are more outliers, potential to decrease the duration of colds and UTI's. It is a good source of fiber. Helps to reduce the hyperacidity that may occur from meat and coffee. (A little side project I'm doing is measuring my acid/alkaline levels each day)
If you are in Grand Rapids, Nourish Market on Wealthy, has an organic version that you see in the picture.
I have been looking into some kidney stone prevention ideas for a friend and found a lot of misinformation and some easy to follow guidelines. First, there are four types of stones.
1. Calcium Stones: This is the most common. Around 80%. Made of calcium oxalate. You should avoid oxalate rich foods. Dark green leafy vegetables, chocolate and nuts.
2. Uric Acid Stones: More common with gout, this is a byproduct of protein metabolism. This seems to have the most misinformation about it. Avoiding animal protein seems to be the common guideline. From what I could find, this is only supported if there is kidney damage.
3. Struvite Stones: Found in women, this is the result of Urinary Tract infection.
4. Cystine Stones: Very minor, results from a genetic disorder.
The biggest prevention tip and most important, is staying hydrated. Dehydration seems to be the number one cause of kidney stones. Drink your water.
Whats seems counterintuitive, eat calcium rich foods. Do not supplement with calcium. A Harvard study showed that men who had a diet rich in calcium had a 1/3 less risk of developing stones.
Supplement with Magnesium. This helps out not just with kidneys stones but with high blood pressure (another risk factor for stones).
Things to avoid. Depending on the type of stone, oxalate rich foods. Soy. Soy is bad and that's a seperate blog post. Caffeine. This is a diuretic. Sugar. This disrupts mineral metabolism. Salt, this includes processed foods that are high in salt. This allows more calcium and oxalates in the urine.
One thing I learned that while doing some reading on this, is you should store your nuts in the fridge. This helps protect the omega 3 content and keeps them from going rancid.
I've enclosed a chart, for the standard calories, fiber, carbs and fat. What I am more interested in is the micronutrients. What else is in there? Tim Ferris eats Brazil nuts for the extra selenium. Selenium deficiency hinders testosterone. But upon further reading Brazil nuts grown in selenium rich soil can have 100mcg while those in selenium deficient soil have 10x less. How do you know what nut you got? Don't think you can. Error on the side of organic and assume you will get a higher nutritional value. They will influence testosterone levels though.
Almost all nuts are good sources of copper and magnesium. These are essential for health and tend to be lacking in (SAD) Standard American Diet.
Those eating nuts have better heart health. Most likely from the omega 3's.
Walnuts contain an unusual amount of alpha-linelenic acid. What's this? It's like the plant version of omega 3. We need this in our bodies, just like a omega 3 fish oil supplement. ALA is especially important for brain and nerve tissue development.
Most nuts contain a good amount of the amino acid L-Arginine. Arginine is a blood dilator. Think of all the NO (nitric oxide) supplements out there. The winner here is Black Walnuts with almost 1 gram per serving. Peanuts were 2nd.
Speaking of the peanut, did you know they are a legume and not a tree nut. I would probably drop Peanuts from this discussion as they often contain a fungus( also found in corn a lot). Not what we want in our athletic bodies.
Almonds lead the way for most protein per serving. Cashews have the most carbs, but also the most zinc. My problem with cashews is that you have to roast them to get rid of the resin on the outer portion as it is caustic and will irritate the skin. Seems like that means don't eat it. (I still eat cashews, I know hippocritcal, but just saying).
Pistachios are the highest in Potassium and B6. Those prone to night cramps may find some benefit to this one.
Some strict Paleo followers I believe the practice of soaking the nuts in salty water over night to try to extinguish the effects of phytic acid in nuts. Phytic acid is an anti nutrient. This means it blocks the absorption of vitamins/minerals.
For the past 5 months I did self experimentation with the concept of Intermittent Fasting. Basically Interment Fasting (IF) is a way of eating that hopes to reset a few hormones in your body, most notably Insulin.
The easiest way to accomplish this is to go 16 hours between meals. For example I would stop eating on Monday nights at 10 and not eat again till Tuesday at 2. This was a 16 hour window. Initially I found this pretty hard, but with in a week I found it easy. I found myself actually looking forward to these days as it took the thought out of scheduling meals.
I did this on 2x a week. Every Tuesday and Thursday. What I realized is that sometimes being hungry is not a real indicator in today's world that you are. The hormones Ghrenlin and Leptin need to be reset. Ghrenlin is the guy that tells your system to eat. It's probably unreliable as you've been taught to eat 3-4x a day with light snacks in between.
During my experiment with IF I found it to be enjoyable. I think it does a good job of letting you become more sensitive to Insulin. I didn't lose any strength during the 5 months and did lose a little bodyfat. I raced 2 mountain bike races and didn't feel I was hindered on this. On one of the days I did lift weights and didn't feel a drop in Max Effort strength.
I took a break from IF recently, for the simple fact that I developed bad habits while on it. It was very easy to feel justified in eating anything you wanted after fasting for 16 hours. Hello, Pain de Chocolate croissant. Without the bad habits, I think IF is great to experiment with. I'm reigning in my bad habits and creating more of a planned eating recipe/meals.
There is a lot of research out there with IF, lots of experts. A simple google search will give you plenty of information. My suggestion, just try it for a month. Have a plan of action for meals post fast so that you don't fall into the lazy/deserve this mentality that I did. Teach your body what true hunger actually is.
I'm not sure how I stumbled on her blog this past winter, perhaps it was looking up some training and pregnancy information. Either way, it was a nice find. She mostly writes for women and has a blog that is worth paying attention to. She has a free eBook called, "Fuck Calories." It contains some really good information, cuts through and just delivers what I consider to be solid nutritional advice. Like I said, it's free and worth reading. I think it's around 40 pages. Sometimes you just need to keep hearing the good stuff to keep from being swayed by the constant barrage of propaganda that is out there.
I'm reading through Ori Hefmeklers, "Anti-Estrogenic Diet," right now. To much estrogen is a problem for many people. When you want to lose fat and gain muscle this is often a stumbling block for both men and women.
Not only do you have to deal with actual estrogen, but also chemical factors that can mimic estrogen, called xenoestrogens. I've talked about them previously. Essentially xenoestrogens are chemicals in our environment that mimic estrogen.
There are naturally occurring estrogen's in food/plants called phytoestrogens. They have the ability to hurt and harm. Some phytoestrogens that occur in sources such as soy isoflavones actually promote estrogen activity. Soy IS NOT GOOD for you!
Some herbs that promote estrogen or are anti-progesterone include licorice and red clover. Hops in beer is also pro estrogen. (bummer, I love my stouts) Beer belly may in fact be called estrogen belly.
One of the primary reasons you want to limit and avoid estrogen is that it interferes with a highly beneficial hormone called progesterone. Progesterone is an "anti-estrogenic" hormone. This is a precursor hormone for all kinds of good stuff.
So I am going to list foods and ingredients to add into your meals to help get a better estrogen ratio.
Right off the bat, eat tons of the cruciferous veggies. These are broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts and cabbage. Wild fish (not farm raised) omega 3's are beneficial for limiting estrogen. Other protein sources are grass fed beef and sardines.
These herbs/spices promote anti-estrogen or are pro-progesterone include, green tea, querciten, thyme, oregano and turmeric.
Quercetin is found in onions and garlic.
Omega 3's in fish oil. These help balance out the estrogen promoting omega 6's fatty acids that we eat in grains. This is another of the reasons to try to give up or limit grains.
Raw nuts and seeds help promote anti-estrogenic hormones. They do this by plant sterols that promote progesterone in women and testosterone in men. Other foods that fit this sterol category are avocados, olives and cold pressed oils.
Raw milk from grass fed cows contain conjugated linoleic acid (CLA). This is anti-estrogenic and anti-cancerous. If not whole raw milk, look for aged cheese and grass fed butter.
Citrus fruits also have a detoxifying effect for the liver which promotes a slight anti estrogenic activity. The other helpful fruit is red apples because of it contains quercetin.
For alcohol, the best option is red wine because of the resveratol. This is anti-estrogenic.
This is a pretty solid list to start turning that grocery list into an anti-estrogenic, progesterone promoting menu. Build the muscle, lose the belly.
My friend of mine (an awesome acupuncturistt) recently sent over this article about probiotics, cycling and immunity. Study was done with cycling both male and female and some interesting results were examined. It seems that supplementing with lactobacilli fermentum improved the immunity of the men, but not the women. It's one of the first studies done with hard training individuals. More information is obviously needed to figure out why the difference in men and women. Here is an article that describes all the parameters. Lactobacilli and Cyclists. If you're a man and endurance athlete, pursuing probiotics as a immunity booster looks to be fairly promising.
More and more I have patients coming in telling me they got labeled with osteoporosis and that their Doctor is putting them on a calcium supplement. They think, yea bones are made of calcium, that makes sense. Then they ask is there anything else they can do. This is the rundown.
Osteoporosis, starts out as osteopenia. Osteopenia is the decrease in bone density. You don't really pick up osteopenia on X-ray and when you see osteoporosis on X-ray, you are really far behind in the bone health game.
Essentially your body has started to leach calcium from your bones, making them more brittle. Why is your body doing this? Chances are you gave it the green light. What heavy weight bearing exercise are you doing daily or even weekly? Bone responds to gravity. Astronauts lose bone density, because they don't have to fight gravity. Wolff's law states that every change in the form and function of a bone leads to changes in it's internal architecture and in its external form. Even a few days of bed rest will start the cascading event of bone loss, just as hitting your shin against a pole like a Muay Thai fighter will make the tibia bone thicker and stronger.
If your doctor said your weak and need to build muscle, take this protein supplement, because muscles are made of amino acids/protein, would you think, yea that makes sense? Or, would the first thing that pops in your head be OK, I guess I need to start lifting some weights? Why then when we need to build bone, we think just taking calcium will solve all our woes?
First taking calcium alone may add to the problem. The ration of calcium to magnesium should be 2 to 1. It's estimated that 80% of people are magnesium deficient so further adding in Ca+ may actually make things worse. So up your Magnesium. FDA keeps upping the requirements. Surprise. A few years ago it was at 200mg now it's 400. So it's probably more like 600-750mg.
Vitamin D has shown to be a big time player in it seems everything! This has been shown to help with bone density and preventing further bone loss. Again the FDA keeps upping the RDA. If you are dealing with osteopenia or osteoporosis I would suggest 5000 to 8000IU. I would get a blood test first and try to get levels in the 50-70 range.
Vitamin K2 has been shown in research to actually help restore bone density. This would be worth looking to add into your regiment. Foods that you can get Vit K2 in is natto, miso and soy sauce. Shoot for 8-10mg for prevention and 45mg while being treated. Lots of research coming out of Japan in this area.
Quit the junk! Soda leaches phosphorous out of the bone. Processed foods leach nutrients and interferes with digestion. Some research suggest that digestion (lack of it) is one leading cause of osteopenia.
You must get weight bearing and use gravity. Start with isometrics. It's been shown that 10 min a day of site specific isometrics can improve not only strength but bone density. Here is that STUDY. When this gets very manageable, start adding in some movement. Goblet squat with press overhead or walking lunges. This may be not only the treatment but the best way to prevent bone health problems.
Preventive is always the best option. Don't let your bone health slip, but like most things, do the right things and you will be fine. Eat as much organic whole food as you can, cut out the junk/processed food as much as possible. Move and lift stuff. If you're fighting for your bone health, iso's first, then move. Add in the aforementioned supplements. Switch to more of a whole food diet and cut out the junk. Always remember that bone is a living thing, not just a hard piece of mineral, feed it and treat it well.
The herb is no Herb. Canadian Bobsleigh had a term for someone that didn't quite have the athleticism to make the sport, Herb. Definition: slow, weak, soft. Lets take a look at some real herbs.
I was reading through a few articles and one referenced this article in the Nutrition Journal. The article deals with measuring antioxidants in various food groups. Spices and Herbs come out extremely high. I will list a link to all the foods/values at the end.
The study was done by The Norwegian Crop Research Institute that found that herbs have higher antioxidant values then plants. Clove, rosemary, peppermint and turmeric among others, were found to be significant in value.
The take away from the reading is to learn to incorporate spices and herbs in foods you eat to boost your antioxidant uptake. I know I have fallen into greens and berries thinking when it comes to antioxidants. It was a nice reminder that herbs and spices have long played a role in ancient medicine and cooking and should still be used. Ingesting the herbs, won't help you from being a Herb, (ingest deadlifts/sprints) but they may help lower inflammation, improve digestion and spice up that 3rd chicken breast you're ingesting for the day.
This is the link to the 3100 listed foods with their antioxidants measure. 3100 LIST.
Digestion is a critical part to health. You are not what you eat, you are what you absorb. I'm reading through a new book on GI Health and one of the things discussed is "The Lost Organ."
Inside the Large Intestine lies 5lbs of friendly bacteria. This is what Gerard E. Mullin MD, professor of Medicine and Director of Integrative GI Nutrition Services at Johns Hopkins refers to as the Lost Organ. This flora consists of over 500 species of friendly bacteria. The bacterial DNA outnumbers your human DNA by a factor of 100.
Digested food passes through to the large intestine, where this flora starts to ferment the carbohydrates that the human body is unable to process. Essential vitamins like Biotin and Vitamin K are produced from this process.
This fermentation also produces short chain fatty acids that increase the guts absorption of water, regrow gut cells in the colon and may provide defense against colon cancer and IBD.
What is the recipe for the creation of both good and bad bacteria in the lost organ?
The bad bacteria thrive on sugar and low fiber. Good bacteria will thrive on fiber, high nutritional food and you can support all this with probiotics.
I saw this post on a friends Facebook link, a NY Times article entitled "How Exercise Fuels the Brain." In it, researchers in Japan developed a way to see what nutrients are in the brain right after exercise and where they go. For the longest time, it was thought that the only way the brain was supplied was through blood. The researchers found new information that showed that support cells called Astrocytes store small amounts of glycogen. They are able to produce energy for the brain. After exercise, the researchers were able to see that the brain had depleted glycogen in the frontal cortex (thinking, memory and movement) Sounds to me like fatigue.
They studied one single bought of exercise and several boughts of exercise over 4 weeks. They saw that the four week group, had a lot of glycogen stores go to the brain where it had been depleted and can actually increase. Brain carbo load.
What's that mean? If your brain can store more glycogen, essentially, you will be able to perform movement longer, potentially have some cognitive carryover as well. Personally, I've always noticed that your Cross Country teams always seem to have a very high GPA.
I've recently taken an interest in trying to read everything I can find in terms of nutrition that is brain based and that lead me down the road into looking into potential nutritional therapies for post concussion rehabilitation.
The definition of concussion has changed. Old timers, would say you weren't concussed unless you were knocked out. With that definition, I myself have experienced one concussion. Playing rugby at chiropractic school I got knocked out. I don't remember waking up that morning and getting ready to play or actually playing. My first memory is eating pizza two hours after the match.
The new definition by some standards is taking a hit where you see stars, get temporarily woozy or have a vision disturbance. Playing football from ages 12-22, with this definition, I've had who knows how many. I remember taking a hit in 8th grade where the top half of my vision went black for two-three minutes.
My roommate in chiropractic school was involved in what is called a double concussion. Getting a concussion while under the effects of a first concussion. This is highly deadly and lead to his retirement from the sport of rugby.
Just as a muscle can have different grades of strain, I think we will find a way to grade concussions, from mild to severe.
Coming out of concussion, many athletes describe it as being in a brain fog. Thinking clearly is harder, reading can be difficult. Short term memory and working through complex tasks seem fatiguing. Sounds a little like a symptoms of dementia. That lead me into reading about nutrition for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and ALS.
First, there are no hard guidelines. There still is not a lot evidence for nutritional therapy for concussion There are however a lot of clues on what we know about the brain and what research is doing with brain degenerative type diseases. The following list shows promise and if for some reason I ever experience a concussion again, I will increase my intake of the following supplements.
Coconut Oil. This is a promising supplement to add into daily supplementation. There are some pretty interesting videos on YouTube showing how this is helping people battle Alzheimer's. Outside of breast milk, coconut oil has the highest concentrations of MCT (medium chain triglycerides) these fats are processed by the liver and don't need bile from the gall bladder. Instant energy.
Fish Oil. Fish oil has what is called DHA/EPA in it. This is the good stuff. Our bodies don't produce this, so this is a required supplement. Dr Barry Sears, inventor of the Zone Diet, has recommended up to 15 grams following brain trauma.
Creatine Monohydrate. Creatine is no longer just for putting on a little extra mass. Funny thing happened on the way from the weight room to the research lab, creatine is brain food! It may give the brain instant shot of energy to help the cells heal correctly.
Choline. Add in pasture raised egg yolks. Choline plays an important role in neurotransmitter function. It also seems to be an anti-inflammatory and antioxidant.
Curcumin or Turmeric. This is a super powerful anti-inflammatory. Bring that inflammation down.
Blueberries. A power antioxidant. Superfruit. Eat them by the cupful.
Melatonin. A natural sleep aid. Initially, sleeping may be all you want to do. It may then get hard. Regardless, quality sleep is important. Melatonin is now starting to be recognized as a powerful antioxidant. This is a bit of a reach right now, but I think in the next few years, it may show to be very interesting player.
Zinc/Magnesium. I like this as a combo. This seems to be an agreed upon supplement for concussion. 25mg/400mg respectively.
Water. You should already be drinking half your bodyweight in ounces, but if you are not, start.
Walk. Slowly start to get the aerobic system involved. You don't want to bring on any symptoms from the concussion, but even getting the heart rate elevated slightly will help.
Limit calories. Limit saturated fat. Avoid at all costs, MSG and Aspartame. This is my best effort into putting together a small cookbook for post concussion nutrition. If you have any more information to add or research you know of, please contact me.
This past weekend had the opportunity to travel to Minneapolis, MN to learn some awesome information. It was taught by Dr. Bob Rakowski. Dr. Rakowski is a pretty amazing practitioner. His patients consist of everything from Olympians and Professional Athletes to the opposite spectrum, cancer patients. Some patients come to him as a last resort, including pancreatic cancer, Parkinson's and other cancers.
It would be pretty hard to list everything I learned, but I will try to give some highlights that I found very interesting.
Everything that has unexplained ear, eyes, nose and throat can potentially be coming from a cranial nerve.
The importance of eating organic food. This video below will help drive the point home. Our soil is depleted, no longer has the ability to impart all of life's nutrients to it. 30 some minerals in soil. We put back just 3.
We have had Genetically Modified Food in our country for years. It was banned in 6 months in Europe after it showed it caused severe health problems in rats. The most GMO is corn. The average American eats 52lb of corn in their diet per year. (see the documentary King Corn) Corn is like in everything!
Fastest growing specialty in America is Pediatric Orthopedic Surgery. Simply put, our kids are falling apart. Poor diet passed on to the next generations. (see summary of Deep Nutrition and google Pottenger Cat Study)
The number one quality that elite athletes posses when asked in a survey was....drum roll. FOCUS
Focus means the brain is functioning optimally.
Food in this country is designed to be addictive. When dealing with problematic issues, things that won't resolve, whatever it is, wipe the slate clean. Detox for a week. He has specific protocols for the week.
Support during this week is provided what is classified by medical foods. The FDA gives a food that label if it meets 4 requirements.
1. Whats on the label is on the label and nothing else or more.
2. Guaranteed Purity.
3. Proven effective in Human Trials.
4. Every nutrient in the food is recognized as safe.
Cancer has been shown to eat sugar. Hence, the PET scan. Cancer's perfect storm, is low Oxygen, low nutrients and high acidic environment.
Cool trick that I want to try. Walk 15 feet in shoes. Test ROM. Walk 15 feet in sand. Test ROM. See the difference?
Bodies respond to Frequency, Intensity, Duration, Quality and Timing. (found this to be simple, but profound)
The joints are the most important relayer of information to the brain.
Ikegai=Purpose for waking up in the morning. This is vitally important for long life.
You don't poison the body to good health.
Waist should not exceed 1/2 your height in inches when measured. If it does, you are looking for health problems.
Toxins inhibit Mitochondrial function. See Terry Wahls awesome video to give you an idea about feeding the mitochondria and beating MS.
Sprinters, when you are alkaline you don't slow down from 60-100 meters. Test your sprinters blood pressure on the table and as they get off the table. If it doesn't raise, they will be slow out of the blocks.
Better breast milk for your future kids has the recipe of organic foods and lots of cruciferous vegetables.
Rhubarb is a great antagonist for estrogen. Guys we should be eating this stuff.
Obesity shrinks the brain, trans fats shrink the brain, nutrients preserve the brain.
Need Protein while you detox. This is important and is often overlooked.
All in all, this was a great seminar. This was predominately just the nutrition we discussed and not the muscle testing and function part. Can't wait to try to get back for another.
Here is a link to a great article that appeared in the Wall Street Journal. "A Gut Check for Many Ailments." Each year we are learning more and more about the health importance of the "gut." They are linking more and more issues that deal with mental problems that appear to have a link with gut problems.
This past month the article states they have just discovered a certain bacterium, Sutterella, that appears to be part of the problem in digastric issues found with Autistic children. Studying the gut is leading to new ways research is being pursued for Parkinson's and for Depression. Interesting stuff.
I love TEDx. This is a great talk about the history of the American Diet and how it has evolved from technology to marketing. The information at the end about artificial flavoring is pretty awesome.
Big thanks to Brian owner at CrossFit 616 here in Grand Rapids for sharing this with me on facebook. Take the time to listen to this video. Pretty awesome!
Magnesium is an essential vitamin for over 300 functions in the human body. 300! It has been estimated that up to 70% of people are magnesium deficient.
GERD (gastro-esophageal reflux disease) heart burn, ulcers or anything involving excessive acid in the stomach is also a frequent problem in today's society. The treatment for choice of many doctors is to prescribe something like Prilosec. These heart burn medications cause a magnesium deficiency. If you were already low, this can really cause some issues. Everything from severe leg cramps, to not being able to convert the food you eat into energy, can be a symptom of this deficiency.
Make sure the magnesium supplement you chose is high quality. There is always a second word behind the magnesium, such as Magnesium Glycinate or Citrate. They should always end in -ate. I recommend THIS to my patients.
Some common foods that can be added to the diets are dark leafy green vegetables and nuts. But, I recommend up to 400mg a day. That would be hard to get through diet alone.
One of the things I have always checked, but have been finding more and more recently, is bilateral tender points on the inside knee. Find your Pes Anserine insertion. This is on the inside tibia. This is the common insertion for your Sartorious, Gracillis and Semitendinosis. Follow the muscles up about two inches and press in. If both sides are painful, it may be a clue that you have stressed adrenal glands.
How have you been sleeping? Has your sugar or caffeine intake been higher then normal? Have you had a craving for more high starch type carbohydrates. These questions will all be clues for potential adrenal fatigue or stress.
A few things to eliminate to help with an Adrenal Stressed Diagnosis. Make sure both arches are not collapsing, so both tibia's are not internally rotating. I usually check to make sure both Tibialis Posterior muscles aren't tight and painful as well. This will help eliminate a biomechanical cause.
What I have found as effective treatment is supplementing with Vitamin C, 3000mg for 10-14 days. If they are open to taking it, Rhodeola Rhosea as well. Eliminating the sugar for the same two week time period and trying for naps and earlier bed time if possible. Usually in two weeks time, the knee pain is gone.
I am always harping about hydration. In fact, 2011, if it had a theme, was hydrate. One of my goals for people in pain, is to bring hydration levels up. Dehydrated tissue carries inflammation more and in my experience more prone to adhesion's from repetitive activity.
I recently came across a STUDY, that showed that when you lift weights in a dehydrated state, the catabolic hormones cortisol and noradrenaline go up and ability to do work goes down. Testosterone levels are also lower. Catabolic hormones break down tissue, usually anabolic (build up) hormones are the result of weight lifting.
So you break down tissue and can't do as much work in a dehydrated state. DRINK UP!
Ever wonder why fish oil is so healthy for you? Google fish oil and you would be hard pressed to find some disease/syndrome that fish oil or Omega 3 (o3) didn't make better or show improvements with. One of the reasons for this is that the body requires a certain ratio of Omega 3 to the Omega 6. Omega 3 is things like sardines, wild caught salmon, grass fed anything. Omega 6 are mostly in oils such as corn, canola, cotton, flax seed, peanut, safflower, sunflower and vegetable oil. When you get a very high ration of 6 to 3, you get an increase in the inflammation in your body. 
