I used to belong to… the American Running and Fitness Association Physicians group.  The question of whether or not running caused osteoarthritis and knee pain was often presented. Or, is there a genetic propensity that, after a certain number of miles, certain people will get arthritis no matter what they do or don’t do to their body?  Just recently, a newspaper column called “Ask a Doctor” answered this question for me.  You might find this feature on the back page of the comics section.  In the Question-and-Answer section of this column, the question was: “I’m forty-three and have started jogging and cycling a lot.  Am I setting myself up for arthritis in my knees?  How can I protect myself?”  The answer surprised me and mentioned adequate research to back it up.  “It turns out the one thing jogging and cycling does not typically cause is osteoarthritis.  One ten-year study that was published in The Knee, explored the causes of knee injuries that lead to surgery: around twenty percent were ACL-related, eleven percent medial meniscus, four percent lateral meniscus and eight percent from a medial collateral ligament lesion.  The sports of soccer and skiing led to the most injuries…  Another study, in Arthritis and Rheumatology, analyzed data from six studies with five thousand sixty-five participants, and found that whole-body physical activity in sports like walking or cycling was NOT associated with developing knee osteoarthritis – at all.”
          We used to think arthritis was a wear-and-tear joint affliction.  It turns out it is a much more complex disorder related to genetics, inflammation, body weight, muscle tone and individual biology. Because of that, studies such as one in, Clinical Rheumatology have found that among individuals over fifty years of age with knee osteoarthritis, running is associated with IMPROVED knee pain and not with worsening knee pain or structural damage.  Exercise reduces chronic inflammation.  Movement helps decrease inflammation and pain associated with osteoarthritis.   To avoid overuse injuries alternate cycling and jogging, and if possible, jog on a padded track or treadmill.
          The author’s answer did not include listing some other things that do seem to trigger knee problems: namely tendon thickening, meniscus tears, ACL damage and cartilage erosion.  Those issues often come from overuse, over training, poor equipment, falls or accidents.  Let me add a few things that may or may not be fairly obvious.  Poor nutrition, especially mineral deficiencies.  Being overweight places greater demand on the back and on the leg joints, especially for sports that pound.  Also, a sudden increase in one’s normal activities.  This would apply to the person who decides to get in shape and do it quickly.  If you haven’t worked out, walked, biked, hiked or gone running for over two weeks, you must back off to half of what you were doing, and slowly add on at the rate of a ten percent increase each week.  For example, if you were previously jogging on a treadmill for one hundred minutes, back off to fifty minutes and only increase by ten minutes a week.  While it is tempting to think that you can jump back in to exercise at the height of what you were doing before (and maybe you can get away with it when you are young), but it is flirting with injury for most people.
          Here’s a suggestion for nutrition that you rarely hear.  On the advice of a retired veterinarian, I started a simple routine to replenish my cartilage when I was a student at chiropractic college.  Here is his recipe: dissolve 1 tablespoon of unflavored gelatin in a cup of apple juice.  He heated this up and added a couple cinnamon candies – and drank it before bed.  Consuming cartilage has now been documented to aid the body in rebuilding its own cartilage.
 
          On a personal note… I need to communicate about some changes in my office.  Six months ago, I was still having many issues with a very bad case of shingles that had been bothering me for a year, since June of 2020.  I thought if I cut back mu workload and rested more, it might help.  I do think it helped, but the business income did suffer for it.  I think I am about as well as I am going to get, so I will now start working on Fridays again. 
          It turns out that when the vaccine for chicken pox was developed for children, it caused the virus to develop into even meaner varieties, and this includes meaner varieties of shingles to hit the elderly.  Virus’ have a survival capacity to do this.  Before there was a chickenpox vaccine, when children got chicken pox, the adults in their lives were re-exposed to ordinary chickenpox and it fortified and renewed their natural immunity and that prevented shingles.  The virus’s natural drive to survive and thrive caused a genetic shift to a more virulent microorganism of both chicken pox and shingles.  Knowing this, believe it or not, I am more inclined to recommend getting a shingles vaccine.
          That said, it is my opinion that the Delta variant was caused by the Covid-19 vaccine.  The virus figured out how to bypass the vaccine in the form of the Delta variant.  The statistics from other countries show that the number of Covid-19 cases was decreasing until we started mass vaccinations and then it jumped up again.  I even think every time a new vax mandate was enforced there was another jump in cases.  I call it the vaccine- induced endemic.  You can’t get really reliable numbers from the U.S., but you can from other countries.  After reading recent research, I firmly believe if our government tries to “shut down the virus” anymore with vax and mask mandates and stopping people from mingling together, we will cause a ‘genetic shift’ like the shingles I experienced.  We need to allow the bulk of the population of this country (and the world) to experience the Omicron virus.  It is very contagious but about as nasty as a bad cold.  That will prevent the motivation of the virus to make this genetic shift.  At the writing of this newsletter, Britain has just announced it will no longer require vax’s, masks, work from home orders, etc.
          You need to take your vitamins and minerals like I have been advising all this time, to help you have the least amount of susceptibility and the maximum capacity to heal as quickly as possible.  Vitamin C (2000 mg), Vitamin D (no less than 10,000 IUs), which should be taken with K2 in a five-to-two2 ratio, quercetin (500 to 1500mg a day), and zinc (50 mg a day).  The quercetin is what gets the zinc into each cell and the zinc is like lead poisoning to the virus.  Drink eight ounces of water, get eight hours of rest (even if you don’t actually sleep), get outside for twenty to thirty minutes a day, exercise twenty to thirty minutes a day, six days a week.  If you walk outside for twenty to thirty minutes, you can achieve both things at the same time.  Bundle up.
          In other news at our office… my lovely secretary of over two years, Sherry Shenk, found a full-time job with great benefits at the County Planning Department.  I am so sad to see her go but I cannot offer the benefits my taxes provide for a county employee (ironic, isn’t it?).  I’d like to now introduce Ms. Mary Ellen Lacy, who is taking Sherry’s place.  She has a lot of business experience that I’m sure will make her a welcome addition to this office.       
          After reviewing the clinic’s finances, I realized that I have not raised my prices for three years, and that the time to do so has come.  The price of everything I need for supplies has gone up and I have to increase my prices accordingly.  I can assure you that I spend more time at each visit than most chiropractors, and much more than most medical doctors.  I listen carefully and evaluate you thoroughly at each visit.  My care cannot be compared to any of those ‘assembly line’ chiropractic practices that are out there.  You will always get your “money’s worth” from me.