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I recently spoke with a client I’ve been helping with painful knee osteoarthritis. When we first spoke, he needed strong pain relief just to walk for exercise.
After six months he said the pain had completely gone.
Any successful programme to improve joints affected by osteoarthritis should address the underlying disease processes. This disease is characterised by cartilage loss due to mechanical and biochemical processes.
Central to osteoarthritis is loss of cartilage caused by progressive damage to specialised cells called chondrocytes.
These cells live in the matrix of cartilage and are responsible for maintaining and repairing cartilage by secreting new cartilage where required.
However, these cells are vulnerable to destructive processes brought about by trauma, such as sports injury or a disease process called oxidative damage.
This just means cells and cell structures have been damaged by free radicals.
The main source of discomfort in osteoarthritis is inflammation in the joint capsule resulting in pain, swelling and in some cases heat and redness.
While bone on bone can only be repaired by surgery, discomfort from inflammation and cartilage loss can respond very well to nutritional therapy.
While curcumin, from turmeric, can help with inflammation, the most important joint support compound is high grade chondroitin sulphate.
Research suggests at least 800mg daily. I like to start most on an intensive programme delivering 1600mg of both chondroitin and glucosamine and 400mg of a 100 per cent water soluble curcumin extract.
This combined with therapeutic doses of Omega 3 fish oil can make a real difference. For more information. give me a call or email: john@abundant.co.nz Or read my newsletter at: www.abundant.co.nz
John Arts is a qualified nutritional medicine practitioner and founder of Abundant Health. Contact John on 0800 423 559.