5 Steps to Joint Pain Relief

The following is from a Real Age article on Joint Pain Management. Chronic pain comes in a variety of forms. Joint pain is a common one. If you suffer from stiff, achy joints, you're not alone. Twenty-seven million Americans have osteoarthritis -- leader of the pack when it comes to joint-pain culprits. You can thank other causes, as well, including ligament and tendon damage, muscle tears, excess body weight, age, bad posture, and poor biomechanics. Whatever the reason, there are special steps that can help ease painful hip, shoulder, spine and knee pain. Here are 5 of them:

1. Eat to relieve joint pain. Food can't prevent or cure joint pain, but certain nutrients not only enhance muscle and bone strength, they also take a bite out of joint pain. Fill your plate with foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids, pain-fighting polyphenols, and vitamins C, K, and D. Stock your fridge with these 8 foods for pain.

MyAchingKnees comment: While Omega 3 Fatty Acids and Vitamin C are great nutrients for joint and connective tissue health, it is super hard for most people to obtain the quantity and quality of nutrients in today's nutrient depleted food supply. Hence the need to supplement with high quality nutritional supplements. And while you are at it - add Glucosamine.  

2. Move to improve joint pain. Resist the urge to hit the couch when your joints hurt. Move through the pain instead. Why? Exercise triggers the production of lubricating synovial fluid and feel-good brain chemicals, and improves joint pain, function, and range of motion. It may even boost cartilage growth in the knees. Ask your doctor about exercises that help rather than hurt your joints.

3. Watch your weight. If you're overweight, ask your doctor for a safe weight-loss plan. Every excess pound you shed takes 4 pounds of pressure off your knees, and can reduce hip and back pain, too.

4. Work with your doctor. Ask your primary care physician if a specialist can help you with your joint pain. An orthopedic specialist and/or physical therapist may be better equipped to tailor an effective pain-treatment plan. Use these tips to get better pain relief from your doctor's visits.

MyAchingKnees comment: Just be careful and use your own common sense as physicians sometimes are quick to go to pain medications treating the symptoms as opposed to the cause.   

5. Don't ignore joint pain. Pace yourself and avoid activities that aggravate your joint pain, such as running long distances, lifting heavy objects, or kneeling for hours pulling weeds. Use a daily pain diary to note the activities that worsen or improve your joint symptoms.

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Harold's Knee Pain

I received another e-mail from Harold, a 50 year carpenter-home repair specialist who I have been talking to about his bad knees and his health in general. Harold said ”I wanted to tell you that after two months of adding the Omega 3’s I feel better than ever. No doubt the Glucosamine helped greatly as my pain going downstairs is gone, but somehow I think the Omega 3’s is helping my knees too. I haven't got my cholesterol level yet, but will let you know. Thanks”

When I first started talking to Harold I suggested trying pharmaceutical grade Glucosamine that is optimized with Vitamin C and a highly bioavailable complex from Curcumin, before he gave in and tried a prescription drug or pain killer. He tried it for two months and found significant pain relief. 

Back and forth with Harold uncovered that he was an unabashed red meat eater,...almost every day.  I told Harold that he may want to add a Omega 3 supplement and try to reduce the large amount of Omega 6's he was getting in his diet, which he told me also consisted of alot of eggs and nuts.  He did not try an Omega 3 supplement at first until I mentioned that a quality Omega 3 supplement shows promise in clinical trials in reducing cholesterol levels and Harold had a cholesterol level of 240.     

Red meat, walnuts, cashews, eggs, vegetable oil and almonds are high in Omega 6 Fatty Acids which combined with our low intake of Omega 3 foods (normal in the Western diet) will increase our Omega 6 to 3 ratios well past the recommended 2:1 ratio to sometimes as high as 40:1.

This imbalance of Omega 6 to 3 Fatty Acids is thought to increase oxidative stress and therefore free radical damage and resulting in inflammation which of course can affect the body anywhere and can as joint pain and a host of other symptoms.  

So even though Harold tried the Omega 3 supplement primarily for his cholesterol, he found out that it seems to also be helping with his knee pain which was his primary concern. 

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Do Orthotics and New Shoes Help Reduce Joint Pain?

I had a discussion the other day with an law enforcement professional in his late 30's, we'll call him Pedro, who is also an avid runner. He is experiencing arch, ankle and knee pain and someone directed him him to me to discuss what he may be able to do for it. And as it turns out, he is not interested in taking supplements and to his credit he does not even take pain killers or anti-inflammatory drugs, which in his profession, and even with the general population, is rare.

This guy runs sometimes five times a week, 3 to 8 miles at a time. Not a skinny guy, there is much pounding on the pavement that is absorbed in his feet, ankles and knees.....even his hips and back, but those are not hurting him yet.

He did see a Doctor who advised him on getting some cushioning orthotics and recommended ice and Motrin after each run.

My advice to Pedro was:

Find a foot specialist, better if they work in the smaller niche of sports related foot injury. I have had good experiences with orthotics, not just for running but for daily use;

Contacting Road Runner Sports about their diagnostic work on running shoes that could result in a good recommendation for running shoes based on the client sending their used shoes in for an evaluation. Buy two pair of the same shoes and rotate them for each run to give their soles enough time to decompress,...sometimes that takes up to 48 hours.

Reduce the running, in frequency and even maybe distance. Use speed work or fartleks to make up the different in aerobic workload. Rest and reduction in work load can stave off chronic injuries.

I also believe that fixing the problems with his feet will also help the ankles and knees, but probably not to the point where the pain is diminished to discomfort. Any time you have actual pain, then something is wrong and a trip to the Doctor is in order. Just keep in mind that Doctors tend to treat using medications and that is usually treating the symptoms and not the pain. And lastly I told Pedro that he really needs to consider a high quality Glucosamine to see if this nutrient will help the type of knee pain he has. It would be a cheap and non-invasive way to determine if his knee pain problem was a nutrient deficiency issue rather than a structural problem.

All in all, the solution for most problems is one single thing,...it's usually a combination of small changes.


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James' Achy Feet

Plantar Fascitis is what comes to mind as I received an e-mail from James: Every morning when I wake up and get out of bed my heels of my feet are very sore. My left heel more so than the right. As the day goes on the pain gets more manageable. The pain is worse the day after I run. Will nutritional supplements help me. James.

MyAchingKnees.com response: James, in short, nutritional supplements most likely won't help with the pain if you have plantar fascitis. A very good indicator of this are the symptoms you have described. It is possible that cartilage is involved and therefore can be helped by high quality nutritional supplements including Glucosamine, but more likely the pin point pain in your heel and pain from walking, especially in the early morning, are indicative of plantar fascitis.

I suggest seeing a Physician, maybe a Sports Podiatrist, who specializes in feet. Common treatments include rest, ice, stretching, orthotics (shoe inserts) and above all rest.

High quality (pharmaceutical grade) Nutritional Supplements and Optimizers (primarily Glucosamine and Omega 3 Fatty Acids) will ensure that your provide your body with required and essential nutrients for your general health and ability to combat degenerative disease such as joint pain, but, the plantar fasci covering your heel is not a joint. So I fear nutritional supplements will not take away your heel pain, but can certainly help you provide nutrients for optimal health.

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14 Year Old Baseball Player with Bad Knees

A Sports parent send me this question: ”Dear Myachingknees, my 14 year old son plays baseball and is very good, however the sport is taking a toll on his knees. He has to ice his knees after every game then he is stiff for 24-48 hours. Do you think the Glucosamine you recommend can help him? Dan, Phoenix , AZ. ”

At 14 years old I am not sure if all the bones, tendons and connective tissue is mature enough to handle the strain of sudden sprints, twisting turns, impact and other minor trauma on athletes. I would certainly consult with an orthopedic specialist on the pain or discomfort your son is experiencing. When I was 15 years old and playing summer ball (at 3B), I turned to my left suddenly to go after a ball and torn some cartilage in my knee – too me out for the summer. The spikes or cleats on the shoes can add to this problem.

I think the Glucosamine would help with cartilage health but would be maximized by ensuring your son received all the nutrients, in the proper amounts, for optimum cellular health. I see many people taking or wanting take just optimizers where the first priority in my opinion would be a complete nutritional formula, again in the right amounts (dosages) to provide what they body needs. So I would suggest trying a complete nutritional supplement and glucosamine optimizer for maybe three to six months,……maybe add in a Omega 3 Fatty Acid source as well,....really all you would have to lose is a small amount of money.

I would caution you on taking off the shelf supplements. Buy the best you can, pharmaceutical grade is best. I have no other reason, but pharmaceutical grade supplements, to attribute my greatly diminished knee and back pain and overall great health to.

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Menopause Weight Gain Hurting My Knees

MyAchingKnees.com received this e-mail question: "I am 48 years old and fairly active, walking and biking but lately I have been tired and my knees have been hurting. I have been taking Tylenol some. Although I am going through menopause my weight gain has only been 7 or 8 lbs in the last 9 months or so but I do get somewhat bloated. Would the bloating associated with menopause also affect my knees?"

Any significant weight gain can add stress to your joints. What’s significant? Well considering 5 lbs of additional weight is multiplied when your momentum such as when walking fast or jogging is done. I don’t think the bloating which is retaining water affects your joint much, unless for some reason the fluid is pooling or accumulating in your joints, which may be possible if sedentary for long periods of time. I am more concerned about you taking Tylenol. I have been completely off any pain meds for a long time now, reflecting my beliefs that 1 – pain medications are not good for you as they can affect your digestive tract and liver and cause other side effects, and, 2 – I’d rather work to treat the root problems rather than the symptoms.

Things you may want to consider is taking a high quality nutritional supplement; consider taking a phyto-estrogen (plant based) supplement; and look at a high quality Glucosamine supplement. My wife actually takes a phyto-estrogen product and she only takes 1/3 of the daily dose and it has stabilized her moods and her cycles. She also takes a daily multi-antioxidant and chelated mineral supplement and Glucosamine for her hips and thumbs and has seen significant improvement.

Some people just do not believe in nutritional supplements and optimizers, probably since they have not had a positive experience with quality products,…but I tell them “I know how you feel,…I felt the same way,…until I found the difference between pharmaceutical grade supplements and off the shelf, food grade ones.

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Haybert's Diabetes and Bad Knees

A gentleman named Haybert (not his real name) came to see me the other day, telling me that one of my clients, Ron, was telling Haybert he needed to take the Glucosamine product for his knees as Ron started months ago and now has eliminated his knee pain where he can run again.

Haybert asked me about the product, then told me he also has diabetes type II. I told Haybert that his adult onset diabetes was largely a controllable disease and in fact, many, many people have eliminated their Diabetes type II symptoms through good nutrition and life style changes.

Haybert said he wasn't too worried about his diabetes because he gets the appropriate medical support from his medical insurance carrier and a local diabetes clinic.

So I then told him that the same root causes of his knee pain are part of the same problem that brought about his Adult Onset Diabetes, and that root cause was oxidative stress and free radical damage from a poor diet and lack of nutrients to his body.

Haybert said he wasn't interested in "any of that", just wanted to know if the same "knee pain pills" that Ron is taking would help his bad knees as well.

I said yes, the pharmaceutical grade glucosamine would most likely help his knees and was worth the cost (less than $30 a month) to find out in a 30 to 60 day trial. I also said that he can optimize the best results by losing alittle weight (he is about 50 lbs overweight); eating better foods and reducing bad foods, and taking a high quality nutritional supplement so the glucosamine can be optimized and his body can get the nutrients it needs to combat oxidative stress.

Well, what I learned from the exchange with Haybert is that I must have given him too much information and from this he envisioned too big of a change in his lifestyle for his comfort. He said, "well, I'll think about trying the knee pain pills out and get back to you."

I'm not holding my breath. You can only help people who are willing to help themselves.

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Reader Question on Knee Pain

Shashi has left a new comment on the MyAchingKnees.com post "Lovaza – Prescription Omega 3 Supplement": “My wife is having pain on knees. When she goes for morning walk she told me that a knocking sound is coming from Joint. She told me that OMEGA DEC3 capsule is good medicine for joint pain that she has watched in TV program. At present I am staying in NEW BHUJ of GUJRAT. Kindly guide me the nearby medicine shop where i can get this capsule.”

MyAchingKnees.com response: Greetings Sashi who is in NW India. I think that Omega 3 Fatty Acids are a supplemental component to knee and joint pain and not the principal nutrient for your joints problems. Omega 3 Fatty Acids are a great nutrient to take as it helps combat oxidative stress, but I would also be looking to provide your knees and joints with Glucosamine.



I am not a fan of off the shelf Glucosamine or other nutritional supplements as there is no way to determine if they are pure, potent, bio-available or even dissolve adequately. If they were potent, pure and meet standards then they would be pharmaceutical grade products and therefore you could be assured of getting what is advertised. The products I used are not sold or available in India ; they are available in 14 countries, however I am sorry India is not one of them.

If your question was pertaining to Lovaza, a prescription Omega 3 Fatty Acids, then availability would be through your medical doctor if that prescription drug is available in India .

Good luck. Shashi.


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Reader Question: Will Glucosamine Rid Me of Chronic Knee Pain

MyAchingKnees.com received the reader questions: "Will Glucosamine rid me of my Chronic Knee Pain that I have had for the psst 10 years and has been increasing as I get older?"

Yes, I believe Glucosamine will help your knees providing you take a high quality Glucosamine (I take a pharmaceutical grade Glucosamine listed in the Physicians Desk Reference - PDR), and, if your chronic knee pain is caused, in part, by poor quality knee cartilage health for which Glucosamine provides nutritional benefits to. If your chronic knee pain is caused by bone spurs, cracked knee cap or other structural damage, Glucosamine will still helps your knees, but probably not reduce your pain significantly.

I also believe that enhanced optimal benefits would be achieved with advanced doses of high quality Nutritional Supplements to reduced the oxidative stress and repair the damage caused by free radicals and the associated inflammation. I take the highest rated Nutritional Supplement on the market. I will take these the rest of my life, which thanks in a large part to these pharmaceutical grade supplements, I will be living much longer and dying much shorter. It has worked for me.

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Vitamin D and Calcium Supplementation

Vitamin D is now thought to be much more necessary, in advanced doses, not only for optimum health and as protection against degenerative disease, but for joint health as well. Even though I attribute my pain free knees to pharmaceutical grade Glucosamine and Omega 3 Fatty Acids, I have also added a pharmaceutical grade Calcium and Vitamin D supplement as well. Click here to find out more about these products.

From Doctor Ray Strand, www.raystrand.com

A four year clinical was done that involved nearly 1200 women. This is the kind of study physicians love and always talk about when it comes to pharmaceutical trials. However, very few of them realize that there are these kinds of studies regarding the health benefits of taking supplements. Subjects were assigned to take 1400 mg of calcium alone, or 1400 mg of calcium plus 1100 IU of vitamin D, or a placebo. After only 4 years, the risk of developing any type of cancer was 60% lower in the vitamin D group. If you excluded the cancers diagnosed in the first year because these cancers were most likely already present before the study, there was a 77% reduction in all types of cancer in the vitamin D group.

The researchers pointed out that vitamin D has an effect on at least 200 human genes and is critical in the normal functioning of our immune system and cell division. When there is less than an optimal level of vitamin D, the regulatory process involving cell proliferation and differentiation becomes defective. This can lead to abnormal cell division and thus cancer growth. However, if individuals simply supplement their diet with 1100 IU of vitamin D, they can significantly decrease their risk of all cancers.

Reader Question on Glucosamine

MyAchingKnees.com received this question from a reader:

"Can u tell me why you think your product is better than the Life Extension Glucosamine and Chondroitin I am taking? It has more ingredients and it probably cheaper than your product."

I am aware of the The Life Extension product you are taking. Life Extension's multi-supplement are actually rated in the Comparative Guide and I'm sure they are a fine company and with good products, however they are not pharmaceutical grade. So you have no third party verification of the potency, purity and dissolution of the products.

The Life Extension Glucosamine/Chondriotin Capsules, come 100 capsules in a bottle. The scientists I have talked to or read from cannot prove Chondroitin in a supplement form helps with joints. However there are many studies on Glucosamine. Like I say "proof is in the pudding", I'll never be without the formulation of Glucosamine I take called Procosa II. What you are taking requires five tablets (400 mg of Glucosamine per) a day to obtain the Glucosamine dose I get in four tablets (500 mg per) of Procosa II, without considering the quality difference.

The product you are taking cost $38 retail or $28.50 for the member price. My retail customers pay $28.79, $26.66 wholesale (member price) or $23.99 on autoship (product arrives ever 28 days) so we are actually a more economically product.

And like I had written before, I took off the shelf Glucosamine for almost twenty years without relief. It wasn't until I tried a Pharmaceutical grade Glucosamine that I found knee pain relief.

If your product works for you then I'd stick with it, however I have a feeling it doesn't since you wrote me. Good luck to you.

Do you have Knee Pain going up a Flight of Stairs?

The below video shows a 50 year old man running up, back down then up and back again on a short flight of stairs showing that his knee pain has been greatly reduced if not eliminated to what he attributes is his consumption of Pharmaceutical Grade Nutritional products specifically Glucosamine and Omega 3 Fatty Acids.

Aching Knees – Jerry’s Story

Jerry M. is a roofer and HVAC maintenance worker in the greater Dallas , Texas area. Although relatively young in his mid 30’s, he was experiencing knee joint pain that was aggravated by climbing ladders and standing – working on sloped roofs. Previously he had been using Ibuprofen, sometimes taking 600 mg’s a couple times day. Jerry is also taking a statin drug for high cholesterol. Not knowing the bad combination of aspirin and Ibuprofen, Jerry also took one 325 mg aspirin each morning until he found out about the bad combination of Ibuprofen and Aspirin. Jerry also took an off the shelf 500 mg Niacin (Vitamin B3) supplement.

Jerry had tried an off the shelf joint health product with 1,500 mg of glucosomine and 1200 mg of chondroitin. He had tried this supplement for six months and felt that it had not helped one bit.

One of our representatives talked to Jerry which lead Jerry to quit taking the single Niacin (Vitamin B3) product as it was in a much greater dosage than necessary, the Blended Standard recommend daily dose being 60 mg, but there is no data available that support Niacin or Niacinamide helping joints. Jerry started taking a pharmaceutical grade daily nutritional supplement (actually the highest rated product in the Comparative Guide to Nutritional Supplements) but did not get any joint pain relief. Although Jerry reported feeling great and even dropping a few pounds, he still had joint pain after a day of roofing or installing HVAC systems.

Our associate recommended to Jerry, that since he as experiencing better health taking the daily nutritional supplement, that he may want to try a pharmaceutical grade Glucosamine and Omega 3 Fatty Acid (Fish oil) supplement. At less than $44 a month, Jerry thought it was worth a test. About four weeks into taking this product Jerry called our Associate and commented that he no longer had pain at the end of day like he used to from walking on sloped roofs.

We believe that while Glucosamine helps joint health and reduces pain through it’s interaction with existing cartilage, we also think the Omega 3 Fatty Acids are crucial to working against the sometime cause of chronic joint pain and that is Inflammation.

Tim's Unexpected Benefit from Glucosamine

Tim, from Denver, is an Electrician who worked on several multi-story commercial building.  Part of his job required carrying tools and heavy loads of material (wiring and conduit) up long flights of stairs.  He had thought that he may have to find a different job as his knee joint pain was getting worse and being in his early 50's, he could not retire.  

Tim recently e-mailed me and told me that he started taking the same Pharmaceutical Grade Glucosamine that I am taking. He said he was willing to try anything because his livelihood was on the line.  Tim wrote that  his knee joint pain was so debilitating that he was actually working in the Newspaper Job ads to find other possible employment (figure the odds in this period of economic downturn and high unemployment). He also stated that he had tried Off The Shelf Joint Supplements from Wal-Mart and other retail sources, for the past several years, all without any positive effect on reducing his knee pain.

Anyway, to get to the point, Tim wrote that not only is his knee joint pain greatly reduced, but his back pain which had been giving him problems as well, has been significantly reduced as well.  I replied back to Tim to try adding Pharmaceutical grade Fish Oil that provides EPA, DHA and two important long-chain omega-3 fatty acids and I think he will get even better results as well as giving his body a cardio-vascular nutrient. 

Tim is another success story.  He was fortunate that his knee joint problems, and back pain or back problems were such that could be helped with high potency, pharmaceutical grade Glucosamine.  Although there are some surgical procedures that are minimally invasive, a good idea is to always first start looking for solutions that possess the least risk.    

Nutritional Supplements for Joint Pain

Most of the Joint Supplements on the market today will contain some of all of the following ingredients: Glucosamine, Chondroitin, Methylsulfonylmethane (MSM), Hyaluronic Acid, Vitamin C, Manganese, Silicon and sometimes a “proprietary blend” of the manufacturers design. The following is a short description of each, except the proprietary blend cause it wouldn't be a proprietary blend if the Companies told us what it consisted off.

Glucosamine is an amino acid that the body produces naturally and is an ingredient used in the building and repair of cartilage.

Chondroitin is found in the cartilage, helpful for a healthy cartilage and is thought to help prevent or slow the deterioration of cartilage.

Methylsulfonylmethane (MSM) is sometimes thought to be a pain reliever but it really is an anti-inflammatory agent.

Hyaluronic acid is thought to be related to the production or retention of the natural fluid found in the joints.

Vitamin C, Manganese, and Silicon are thought by some to provide additional nutrients necessary for optimal joint health.

So do Joint Supplements actually work? I believe the answer is yes, but it is all in the quality of the product. I have taken many different versions of Off-The-Shelf Food Grade Joint Supplements over the years. Not just testing each for short periods of time, but taking a particular product for years – all with no positive results that I could feel.

I took Osteo BiFlex in it’s many different formulations. I took Flex-A-Min and I took Puritan’s Pride in a couple different formulations. I tried different brands and in separate bottles of Glucosamine HCI and Sulfate; Chondroitin; MSM, etc. No results I could feel, meaning I still had knee pain.

I started to believe that I had a mechanical injury type problem that could only be resolved with surgery.

Enter Dennis, who I talked about in an earlier post. He pushed me to try the Joint Supplement from the Pharmaceutical Grade Nutritional Products manufacturer that I was taking daily products from already.

Here’s the story again as I think it is worth repeating: Dennis tells me to try the Pharmaceutical Grade Glucosamine based product and I tell him I have been on various versions of that stuff for over a decade without a positive result. Dennis then asks me if I haven’t learned my lesson on the quality different between Food Grade supplements and Pharmaceutical Grade supplements. A light goes on in my dense brain and I promise to try them for a couple months. It wasn’t the cost that had me concerned. The costs was either comparable to Off-The-Shelf Food Grade Joint products or it was cheaper in many cases.

So I try this product which contains: 1,500 mgs of Glucosamine Sulfate, 150 mgs of Vitamin C, 250 mgs of Tumeric Extract, 2.5 mgs of Manganese and 1.5 mgs of Silicon in an Amino Acid complex. All ingredients in this product being Pharmaceutical Grade, and the product being actually listed in the Physician’s Desk Reference for Pharmaceutical Grade products. Not the Nutritional Supplements version which manufacturers can pay to have their products advertised.




After just weeks on the product, I was in a kneeling position (like a Baseball Catcher) fixing a leaking water spigot. I was kneeling so that my knees wouldn’t touch the mud around the spigot on the ground.

After several minutes of this my house phone rings, so I jump up and ran off to answer it. It took me several seconds to realize that as I jumped up and ran off, that I did so without the pain that normally accompanied knee joint stress. I spent the next several days testing this new found freedom from knee joint pain. Amazing!

Yes, I did call Dennis back and thanked him a second time for his referral to these products. I think I probably took him to Popeyes for a Fried Chicken dinner which was his favorite.

So my belief based on my experiences and my specific knee problems, which had produced years and decades of knee pain in the past, is that Nutritional Products for joint pain and specifically knee joint pain can have a significant effect on your joint pain, but the product you take must be a high quality product – otherwise you’ll not only waste your money but you walk away, maybe hobble or limp away, thinking that Nutritional Supplements just don’t work.