Doctor Warns Against Mis-leading Labels on Over The Counter Supplements

This weekend I was watching a Cable News program where the anchors bring a Doctor on to answer question relating to health issues in the forefront. What was interesting was that this Doctor, an older gentleman, was talking about nutrition and vitamins. Now I know that Medical Doctors normally received very little education or training in Nutritional Medicine, so I perked up and was happy to hear this Doctor talk about required nutrients and explain that in over the counter supplements what you read on the label is no exactly what you are getting. The example he used was “you may be getting 25% or even less what the label says as there is minimal government oversight on supplement manufacturing.” The exception is Pharmaceutical grade supplements where the manufacturing process from receipt of raw material to testing, production and more testing results in a United States Pharmacopeia (USP) certification on the label.

MyAchingKnees.com knows that baseline nutritional supplementation with advanced doses of nutrients are vital to the body’s ability to fight oxidative damage and inflammation. Only then can you add optimizers such as Glucosamine (for joint health and to help against chronic joint pain) and specific anti-oxidants and other optimizers such as Omega 3 Fatty Acids. You can be assured that you get what you pay for and obtain the nutrients that will help you achieve optimal cellular health by taking pharmaceutical grade supplements.


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Sleep Aids for Chronic Joint Pain ??

MyAchingKnees.com received a request to look into the use of sleeping aides, such as Rx prescription sleeping pills, as a treatment for chronic knee pain. Apparently there are some blogs and forums that have people talking about the use of sleeping pills to get to sleep when their chronic knee pain is such that it keeps them awake. Again, this is treating the symptoms not the cause and furthermore the use of Rx Sleeping pills can be addictive and dangerous.

However there is one sleeping aid, Melatonin, that is naturally produced hormone specifically made in the pineal gland of the brain. Melatonin helps control your sleep and wake cycles. Very small amounts of it are found in foods such as meats, grains, fruits, and vegetables. You can also buy it as a supplement, although you should ensure that the supplement is a quality product. Pharmaceutical grade is best as there is a guarantee for the potency, purity (lack of toxins), bio-availability and dissolution.

I have tried a pharmaceutical grade Melatonin product (called Pure Rest), not to alleviate chronic joint pain since I don’t have any knee pain anymore, but to test the Melatonin out so I can either recommend it or not to my customers. Produced in 1 mg tablets which you put under your tongue to dissolve about 20 minutes prior to when you want to nod off to sleep, these Melatonin tablets worked pretty good for me to gradually let me fall into a sleep. I woke refreshed and wide awake the next morning. However, when I tried a larger dose of 2 mg (2 tablets), I woke up pretty groggy, probably as I only sleep about 5.5 hours and the Melatonin level was still fairly high in my body.

More information on Melatonin:

Your body, through an internal clock, controls your natural cycle of sleeping and waking hours. In effect, your body clock controls how much melatonin your body makes. The level of melatonin in the body usually begin to increase in the mid- to late evening, remain high for most of the night, and then drop in the early morning hours when you wake.

Time of the year with the changing available light will affects how much melatonin your body produces. During the shorter daylight hours of the winter months, your body production of melatonin will change somewhat. Melatonin levels slowly drop with age. Some older adults make very small amounts of it or none at all.

There are some organizations that are looking at melatonin as a supplement stop or slow the spread of cancer, make the immune system stronger, reduce chronic headaches, and slow down the aging process. But these areas need more research.

Therefore MyAchingKnees.com subscribes to the belief that Melatonin, granted that is a quality product, is useful to help regulate sleep and may be a partial answer to people have trouble sleeping due to knee pain, but the primary answer has got to be to treat the cause of the chronic joint pain, and often that pain is either in whole or partially due to poor nutrition and lack of optimizers that are know to help achieve healthy joints and reduce oxidative stress and inflammation.


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Treating Joint Pain Causes Rather Than Symptoms

MyAchingKnees.com received a comment from Anonymous who said..."I keep seeing commercials for ACTIV On Roll pain reliever (like a deodorant stick). Have you used it? What do you think of it? I am 43 years old female, in good shape, not overweight. I really like too run, actually I am addicted to running, but my knee pain is been hurting more and more."

We have written posts concerning topical and tablet pain relievers, but the focus on our treating joint pain, particularly chronic joint pain, is a view on treating the causes and not the symptoms.

Not all the time, but often, joint pain is a degenerative condition that can be largely treated through advanced doses of high quality (pharmaceutical grade) nutritional supplements to combat the free radicals created by oxidative stress which causes the degeneration in the first place.

The required advanced doses of nutritional supplements (minerals, vitamins and anti-oxidants) give your body's immune system the nutrients it's need to function correctly and provide the protection at the cellular level that is sorely needed.

And we're saying "advanced doses" because the required level of nutrients you need compared to the archaic, 70 year old Required Daily Allowance (RDA) are drastically different.

We say "pharmaceutical grade supplements" because over the counter supplements that you buy in Vitamin Shops, GNC, Wal-Mart, etc., just don't have the guaranteed quality measured by potency, purity, efficacy or dissolution to provide you with what you need.

In today's world, one cannot eat enough quality foods to provide all the nutrients that are necessary for optimal health and protection against degenerative disease.

So while I think that topical pain relievers for joint pain, such as ACTIV ON may have a small role in pain management and maintaining comfort levels, particularly as a before and after exercise tool, the base treatment of chronic joint pain has to be based on a nutritional supplementation plan. I know better than to rely on Rx Pain or even OTC pain pills because of the damage they do to your bodies. I also know advanced doses of pharmaceutical grade nutritional supplements and additional use of pharmaceutical grade optimizers such as Glucosamine and Omega 3 Fatty Acids can achieve remarkable results. They have for me.

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Sleeping Positions can Affect Your Health and Joint Pain

Can Your Sleep Position Affect Your Health? Can it affect your joint pain, especially in the knees?

Did you know that the position you sleep in at night can have an effect on your body's internal organs? In this article, from Yahoo News, you'll find out how your sleep position affects your heart, lungs, liver and stomach...and possibly your joints.

Sleeping on the stomach

Not very many people choose to sleep on their stomach, but there are a few who find this position to be the most comfortable. According to some studies sleeping on your stomach can put added pressure on all of your internal organs, including the liver and lungs. Sleeping on your stomach can also limit air intake. People who suffer from asthma, chronic bronchitis, emphysema or other lung disorders and chronic heart failure are especially warned to avoid sleeping on their stomach. Sleeping on the stomach can also exasperate the symptoms of acid reflux. Sleeping on the stomach is considered the worst sleep position by many health care professionals.

Some people however, find this more comfortable on their knees, if they place a pillow under their ankles so the legs are slightly bent.

Sleeping on the left side

Many people prefer to sleep on one side or another. Health care professionals often advise those who prefer sleeping on their side to sleep on the right side rather than the left. Sleeping on the left side can put added pressure and stress on the liver, stomach and lungs. Sleeping on the left side is also potentially harmful to the heart. People who suffer from chronic heart failure or have had a heart attack are often told to avoid sleeping on the left side. The theory is that sleeping on the left side can decrease the sympathetic nervous activity in the body. This activity is what typically controls blood pressure. Therefore sleeping on the left side can possibly raise blood pressure levels. Sleeping on the right side may actually lower your blood pressure and heart rate according to some studies.

Sleeping with a pillow between knees often helps not only with knee pain but with back pain as well. If you sleep with the upper leg over the lower leg this can place a lot of stress on your lower back.

Best Sleep Position during Pregnancy

Pregnant women are often told by health care professionals to sleep on their left side rather than the right side (opposite of above). This is because the growing uterus often puts added pressure on the liver. The liver is located on the right side of the body. Pregnant women may also see the benefit of increased heart function if they sleep on the left side, due to the heart being better able to pump blood, which enables better blood flow to internal organs.

The Best Sleep Position

Health care professionals typically consider sleeping prone on the back to be the healthiest sleep position. Sleeping on the back puts little to no additional pressure on internal organs. As a devout back sleeper, I was happy to read this information, but many find sleeping on their backs to be uncomfortable on the hips. If that is the case, putting a pillow under the knees can often relieve hip pain and enable you to sleep more comfortably your back. This can be a very comfortable position for those suffering with knee pain as well.

If you are concerned about how your sleep position may affect your vital organs I encourage you to speak with a trusted health care professional.

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Calcium and Vitamin D taken Early in Life Prevents Osteoporosis

Definitive research showing the necessity of Calcium, Vitamin D (and lets not forget Magnesium) supplementation for girls and young women to prevent Osteoporosis and the bone - joint pain that comes with that.

Clinical study at Australian Catholic University indicates the benefits of USANA Active Calcium chewables on bone development in females ages nine to thirteen years of age (9-13).

SALT LAKE CITY—July 19, 2010—“Eat your veggies,” “Don’t run with scissors” and now “Take your calcium and Vitamin D.” A clinical study conducted at the School of Exercise Science at Australian Catholic University, has shown that taking high quality calcium supplements like USANA’s Active Calcium could help pre-adolescent girls set the stage for a lifetime of strong, mineral-rich bones. Study results indicated that a supplement containing high quality calcium plus Vitamin D significantly improved bone density, mass and strength in girls ages nine to 13, exactly what experts want to achieve in that time of life to prevent future skeletal issues.

This study is unique because it’s the first randomized, controlled trial to assess bone responses to calcium in twins. Using twins factors out genetic complications that have plagued studies; in working with the Australian Twin Registry, 20 pairs of female twins between the ages of nine and 13 were selected to participate. Scientists administered one twin in each pair a placebo and one twin USANA’s Active Calcium.

After six months the study showed significant improvements in bone development in the twin who received the supplement. "Experts regard osteoporosis as a pediatric disease because the best time to prevent is during childhood and early adolescence,” says Dr. Tim Wood, Executive Vice President of Research and Development at USANA Health Sciences, Inc. “Women put on 50% of their adult bone mineral mass during their teenage years. As such, this is the best time to grow strong, mineral rich bones and the most effective way to prevent osteoporosis later in life.” Dr. Wood adds, “We are particularly excited about these findings because they confirm results previously shown in another study conducted in the U.S. at the University of Utah.”

Osteoporosis is a disease in which bones become fragile and more likely to break. If not prevented or if left untreated, osteoporosis can progress painlessly until a bone breaks. While women are four times more likely than men to develop the disease, men also suffer from osteoporosis. It’s important for the body’s bone structure and integrity that bones absorb the right levels of calcium and magnesium, and vitamin D helps this process. USANA’s Active Calcium is a balanced and complete formula of these important ingredients. For a calcium supplement to be effective, it must be absorbent, and USANA’s Active Calcium formula is the outstanding choice among competitors.

Learn more about USANA’s products by visiting this website


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Low Vitamin D Linked to Knee Pain

I received a Health Nugget from Doctor Ray Strand, one of this Nation's leading experts in Nutritional Medicine. In this version, Dr Strand relates that low levels of Vitamin D are linked patients who experienced worse knee pain.

Dr Strand would be the first to tell people that if you are one who is experiencing knee pain, it is not as simple as buying a bottle of Vitamin D to supplement with. We all need to be taking advanced doses of quality nutrients (Vitamins, Minerals and Anti-Oxidants) so they can work in a synergistic fashion to combat free radicals and reduce the devastation of oxidative stress with our bodies. I also include alike high quality (pharmaceutical grade) Glucosamine and Omega 3 Fatty Acids which I attribute to my greatly reduced, in fact almost eliminated, knee pain. Besides having the benefits of no sickness for the past 5+ years which I attribute to pharmaceutical grade nutritional supplements.

Dr Strand's Health Nugget:

A recent study showed that patients with osteoarthritis of the knee who also had low levels of vitamin D experienced worse knee pain and decreased mobility when compared with those who had higher levels of vitamin D. This research was based on studies that show that vitamin D influences both musculoskeletal health and neuromuscular function.

The researchers looked at over 100 men and women with osteoarthritis of the knee. Nearly half of the participants had vitamin D deficiencies. This deficiency correlated to the severity of knee pain and mobility.

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Virgina Wants to Ban Energy Drinks

Yahoo News Article on a Virgina movement to Ban Energy drinks.

Burke ( Va. ) Lake Braddock football coach Jim Poythress said he could see it in his players' eyes as they approached him. They would be worn out, looking for help.

"They would say, 'I've got cotton mouth, I've got cotton mouth,'" Poythress said. "I'd look at them and say, 'Did you have one of those drinks.' And they'd say, 'Yeah, I had two.'"

Those drinks are energy drinks - products such as Red Bull, Amp, Full Throttle, Rockstar and Monster - all of which promise more energy, alertness and focus. Attributes that should help an athlete. But Poythress saw the opposite impact.

"They think if they drink it, they're going to be alert and play hard," he said. "It gives you an initial spike and then you're fatigued." For those reasons, Poythress banned his kids from using energy drinks a year ago. In the coming weeks, his state association - the Virginia High School League - will give out the same recommendation to its members for the upcoming school season.

Tom Dolan, an associate director with the VHSL who oversees the association's sports medicine group, said his group found energy drinks were doing more harm than good - giving athletes a false sense that they were getting the fluid they needed.

"With all the issues regarding the energy drinks, the caffeine level, (it's worrisome that) they are being used for fluid replacement and they are not that at all," Dolan said.

Sports drinks - fluids that help replace the electrolytes and carbohydrates a body needs during strenuous exercise - have been around since Gatorade was created by the University of Florida in 1965. Gatorade dominated what was a niche market for the next three decades. But around the turn of the century, it began facing an increase in competition from two sides: A growth in the number of sports drinks on the market and the emergence of energy drinks - products often based on caffeine that are intended to give you extra energy and alertness.

Red Bull, the market leader, began selling in the United States in 1997, according to the American Beverage Association. Last year, Red Bull sold nearly four billion cans of its product worldwide, the company said. The company did not make anyone available for an interview, but it did release statements about its product - one of which acknowledges the drink should not be used for hydration purposes.

"As Red Bull Energy Drink has not been formulated to deliver re-hydration, we encourage people who engage in sports also to drink lots of water during intense exercise." But the statements did say Red Bull - which has a lower caffeine level than many of its competitors - has been proven to be safe and to help athletic performance.

"Numerous scientific studies in the fields of sports medicine, internal medicine and psychology confirm the claims made for Red Bull. All scientific studies are peer-reviewed, published and can be found in public databases. These studies indicate that Red Bull produces a significant increase in both physical performance and cognitive functions."

MyAchingKnees comment: Signifcant increase,..maybe, but then comes the crash.

It went on to note: "Due to its ingredients - carbohydrates, taurine, Glucuronolactone, caffeine and vitamins - the consumption of Red Bull Energy Drink can make a significant contribution to the enhancement of performance in sports."

And, it must be noted, athletes have been seen drinking Red Bull at international events such as soccer and track and field.

Barbara Lewin is a noted sports nutritionist and the founder of sports-nutritionist.com in South Florida and a consultant for Olympic and professional athletes. She agrees with the VHSL recommendation. "I'm glad to hear there are more bans on this stuff," she said. "It is dangerous." Lewin isn't buying the arguments that energy drinks improve athletic performance. She said young athletes may think these drinks will rev them up and help them make the big play, but argues they will have the opposite impact.

"It's going to make you nervous, irrational, raise our heart rate, raise your blood pressure," she said. "You're not going to make good choices if you're taking in that much sugar, that much caffeine. And along with the highs that come are the lows. And the insomnia. And if there are any underlying health risks, these drinks can pose a greater risk from them, too."

It is uncertain if any other states have issued such a recommendation. Dolan said there wasn't one moment or incident that led the VHSL to take this stance, but that the group was concerned enough about the potential for heat-related issues to do so.

His committee will make a formal recommendation to the VHSL executive committee at its next meeting on Sept. 1. The executive committee is all but certain to approve by the end of that month. Dolan feels it's the right thing to do. "Athletes are looking to get a benefit and they are not," he said. "Any time they put a fluid in into their body, they think it's a fluid replacement and it's not. We felt this is one of those situations where we needed to step in and educate people that this is not a good thing to be doing."

There is a healthy energy drink on the market. It's called Rev 3, which is a healthy, cleaner, smarter and stronger energy drink. The below video was from the public opening of the the Rev 3 drink.



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