Arthritis
One of our goals here at Peak Testosterone is to keep you exercising. Why?
Exercising does it all: it rebuilds your brain and neurons; it rebuilds
your sex life and erections; and it protects you from a host of ills including
heart disease, erectile dysfunction, inflammation and on and on.
One of the things that can stop guys dead in their tracks - quite literally - is
arthritis, either systemic or in a specific joint. Many guys have old
sports, accident or work injuries that manifest themselves as arthritis later in
life. Any such issue can keep you out of the gym or off the court or field
and that's what we don't want.
Below we track some of the natural solutions that can help you out with this
debilitating problem:
1. Pycnogenol. Pycnogenol helps with many heart disease and erectile
dysfunction risk factors. You can read my Pycnogenol and Erectile
Dysfunction link for more details. Pycnogenol has also been shown to help
arthritis in the knee and it's no wonder since it helps with inflammation. [1]
2. Tai Chi. Twelve weeks of Tai Chi helped about three fourths of
participants with arthritis in their knee. [2] Tai Chi is known for it's
pain management improvement and this study bears out it reputation.
3. Glucosamine Sulfate. This supplement has yielded improvments in
arthritis as it is a critical component of the fluid in your joints. [3] You
want to take specifically glucosamine sulfate and not any of the other forms
such as N-acetyl or hydrchloride as these have not performed as well in the
studies.
4. Inflammation. Reducing your overall inflammatory levels can have a
very positive effect on arthritis. This includes avoiding egg yolks,
chicken, turkey and many farm-raised fish, as these are loaded with inflammatory
messengers according to David Chilton in his excellent book
Inflammation Nation .
He has an entire program that has helped him in his practice with various
autoimmune diseases.
5. Fish Oil. Fish oil did very well in numerous studies in the 80's
with respect to inflammation and arthritis. Early studies found fish oil
to be anti-inflammatory [4] and to reduce the amount of NSAIDs needed by
patients for example. [5] Still other studies showed that fish oil reduced
morning stiffness and other debilitating aspects of arthritis. [6][7] I would
also suggest reading my link on Fish Oil and Testosterone as well.
Questions? Write to webmaster@peaktestosterone.com
REFERENCES:
1)
4) J Phytotherapy Research, April 2008, 22(4)
2) Arthritis Care and Res, Oct 29 2009, 61(11):1545-1553, "Tai Chi is effective
in treating knee osteoarthritis: A randomized controlled trial"
3) Consumer Reports on Health, Aug 2009, p. 10.
4) Arthritis Rheum, 1987 Sep, 30(9):988-97, "Effects of dietary supplementation
with marine fish oil on leukocyte lipid mediator generation and function in
rheumatoid arthritis"
5)
Br J Rheumatol 1993;32:982-9, "Effects of fish oil supplementation on
non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug requirement in patients with mild
rheumatoid arthritis — a double-blind placebo controlled study".
6) Lancet, 1985 Jan 26, 1(8422):184-7, "Effects of manipulation of dietary fatty
acids on clinical manifestations of rheumatoid arthritis"
7) J Rheumatol, 1988, 15:1471-5, "Clinical and biochemical effects of dietary
fish oil supplements in rheumatoid arthritis"
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