John Arts Abundant Living www.johnarts.co.nz

I have the privilege of working closely with people who have health challenges and sharing their joy as their health starts to return. One client is a South Island farmer with serious joint problems.

His knees were bad enough to cause a lot of discomfort, but not bad enough for surgery. The only way he could maintain some quality of life was to live on anti-inflammatory medications, which come with their own set of side effects.

While diet can help reduce joint inflammation his problem was severe and needed a prolonged intensive period of supplementation. I see arthritis supplements like the three legs of a tripod.

The first are the antioxidants that can protect cartilage cells (chondrocytes) from free radical damage by adding multi antioxidants and minerals.

For this purpose I used my broad spectrum multi-antioxidant, multi-vitamin and multi-mineral formula plus an antioxidant booster for a few months.

The second component is to add and glucosamine and chondroitin ideally at a 1:1 ratio. Recent research concludes about 800mg of chondroitin is needed for knee arthritis.

The formula I use has approximately equal amounts of chondroitin and glucosamine plus a potent 95 per cent curcumin (turmeric) extract.

The last leg is a range of anti-inflammatory nutrients including fish oils, curcumin, grape seed OPC, resveratrol and several others.

These are incredibly effective at reducing the inflammation associated with arthritis. Remember any disease with the suffix ‘itis' is an inflammatory disease.

The farmer is now off medication and while he has a few niggles, in his own words he feels he's got his life back.

He can work on the farm and has even been able to go back hunting again.

It just goes to show the body can start to heal if you give it what it really needs. Give me a call if you need more information. Join my full weekly 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 or email john@abundant.co.nz. To read more go to www.sunlive.co.nz