I have arthritis in my left hip, progressively getting worse over the past 10 years, and my immune system threw a wobbly several years ago, resulting in an enforced stayed at the NHS pleasure, a month confined to bed, and crutches for 6 months.
The arthritis seems to be directly affected by humidity, and I haven't even been able to jog 100 yards for the past several years. However, I can still walk reasonable distances, although the back to back 25 mile 'challenge' walks are history. Yesterday I managed a slowish 14 miles, although after ten my hip was giving me gyp.
Years ago I tried a combo of glucosamine & chondroitin, but didn't notice any effect. Now a friend has recommended turmeric from a company called PureClinica. I'm very tempted, but these supplements, at least a decent dose for 6 months, aren't cheap.
Surely if they worked, they would be prescribed by the NHS?
I eat fairly healthily. Hate cooking, but sardines on wholemeal bread, fruit, beans on toast are quite healthy. No fast food apart from occasional fish n chips, and I never buy ready meals!
Any thoughts on these supplements, either positive or otherwise from actual use , or are they just snake oil?
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No idea if they're of any benefit or not, but what I would suggest is trying to regularly take some non-load bearing excercise. In particular swimming. I have a few old "war wounds" as a result of a lifetime of mainly ridiculous high impact hobbies and I find that regular swimming helps to untangle them.
I wasn't previously a keen swimmer but about 25 years ago I did my back in good and properly. Compression fractures of the bottom three vertebrae. Fairly ( aka very ) sore at the time and still reminds me now and then. A sports physio I went to at the time suggested regular swimming and he was right, it really helps. Grew to enjoy it in the end.
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>> Any thoughts on these supplements, either positive or otherwise from actual use , or are they just snake oil?
WebMD has a good analysis of turmeric uses, side-effects, etc.
If you believe in it, it might work for you. If you don't believe in it, it probably won't.
If it is too expensive in supplement form, get it in the root form (recipes easily found on Google) or powdered form (available from Sainsbury's) and have a curry every day!
www.healwithfood.org/what-uses/fresh-turmeric-root-cooking-ideas.php
Take your friend's advice with or without a pinch of salt.
Last edited by: BrianByPass on Thu 29 Dec 16 at 15:54
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My dad's friend has a really painful knee joint and swears that regular spraying of WD40 on it makes it better.
I kid you not.
But if he believes it is working, then so be it!!
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According to the old boy in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding", the universal panacea is Windex. :-)
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Not more than a pinch though; I gather too much salt is bad for you too?!
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It will just get worse as time passes. Great getting old isn't it? I regularly used ot walk up to ten mile until about five years ago since when the arthritis in my hip has slowly got worse. Two miles is about ls all I can do now and even then I pay for it the next day.
The best palliative is to lose weight - I imagine you are fairly slim anyway, take non load bearing exercise as has been suggested and for pain relief NSAIDs
Personally I think all those supplements are just quackery but worth a try if you are inclined to alternative medecine I suppose.
Long term a new hip joint might be the answer but best of luck if you have to join the NHS queue.
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I have taken 1000mg Cod liver oil daily for 30 years. I am still fit enough to do Power Yoga despite being at least double the average age for our yoga class. My back aches a bit at times, and I carry an old running injury but I am more supple than most of the class.
Last edited by: madf on Thu 29 Dec 16 at 17:58
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You may have found it for yourself, LL, but The Arthritis Research UK website has a page devoted to turmeric:
www.arthritisresearchuk.org/arthritis-information/complementary-and-alternative-medicines/cam-report/complementary-medicines-for-osteoarthritis/turmeric.aspx
It includes a link to a moderately positive medical trial comparing turmeric with Ibuprofen for the treatment of pain. I read elsewhere that the dearth of trials was probably because there is no money in providing turmeric, therefore no one was prepared to fund trials.
The same site has a rider to Runfer's suggestion to take up swimming:
"... However, people with knee replacements are advised to avoid breaststroke swimming and this advice extends to people with arthritis in their knees and hips. This is because swimming breaststroke puts excessive side-to-side and rotational forces on the joints and may be difficult to do if the joint is unstable. Front crawl and backstroke, which use a 'kick' motion, are recommended instead."
Incidentally, accounts of your outings suggest you already eat quite a lot of curries. Why not add more turmeric powder to them?
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I've had arthritis for decades. I take fish oil and glucosamine & chondroitin, although not both on the same day as they're laxatives!
GP recently got me to try Ibuprofen gel on a troublesome knee that no longer responds to exercises. The jury's still out, but it's looking promising. Hopefully it'll keep me limping along until it's time for my wooden overcoat - I'm no fan of surgery.
I tried swimming, but the breast stroke troubled my knees, crawl my neck and shoulders and backstroke gave me headaches from hitting the end of the pool.
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Get your quack to prescribe Tramadol: even if it doesn't fully work, you can ache and be happy at the same time!
Whoopee - laughs maniacally !
Last edited by: Roger. on Fri 30 Dec 16 at 09:48
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About a year ago I had increasing muscle and hip joint pain (daily brisk walk with Boxer dog!) causing some concern esp. uphill. Vitamin D supplement plus fish oil and magnesium seems to have eliminated any joint and muscle pain. Walk, and run, freely again. I suspect Vit D deficiency is quite likely, here in the hills where sunshine is rare:) BTW, make curries including turmeric among all the spices,regularly, and even add it to baked beans, canned or home-made.
Last edited by: NortonES2 on Fri 30 Dec 16 at 09:56
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Many thanks for the feedback
One of my resolutions will be to lose some weight. I'm not many lbs over my fighting weight, but every little helps. Being a member of the LDWA ( long distance walkers assoc) for 30 odd years, my days of back to back 25+ milers are over, but I can still walk the mid teens, although depending on humidity, the hip starts playing up whilst still in single figures. Having said farewell to my dog a few days ago, I'm not really in the mood for walking at the moment, but an effort must be made, or dog borrowed from somewhere!
I might try turmeric as a vitamin... I never make my own curries, and adding it to my plateful in the local curry house seems odd!
Swimming is something I shall do more off. My local community pool is literally a ten minute walk, and I'll make enquiries about swimming lessons. Front crawl seems the preferred stroke for poorly hips, and I'm only any good at breast stroke!
Roll on 2017
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Turmeric isn't a vitamin guvnor :)
This is what the ole woman takes for the arthur in her hands. When asked "does it work dahling" she replied with the logical? answer that she would have to stop using it find that out.
8-}
www.amazon.co.uk/d/Diet-Nutrition/Turmeric-Curcumin-Capsules-Nu-Nutrition/B01D8QCI2U/ref=sr_1_3_a_it/253-4766985-3052834?ie=UTF8&qid=1483173745&sr=8-3&keywords=turmeric+capsules
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>> Having said farewell to my dog a few days ago,
Sorry to hear that. Be careful, when my last dog died I put on a couple of stone!
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Oops... I realise now it's not a vitamin, but woke up with aching hip and not walked anywhere! Higher humidity today, with heavy rain forecast to arrive early this afternoon by Mr Hip!
I've lost half a stone these past few weeks just worrying about my dog, and my appetite has gone so in addition to reducing my beer intake ( I'm very wary of drowning ones sorrows) I'm on course for losing that stone. Think I'll head into the hills this am for a few hours, then gym & sauna this evening.
Last edited by: legacylad on Sat 31 Dec 16 at 09:11
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If you want to lose weight/increase fitness then eat early and excercise late. I try to swim 1000m most nights about 8.30/9.00 after having eaten around 7.00, work commitments permitting. And yes, front crawl is a much more comfortable stroke if you're crocked.
I find I sleep much better on an "empty" stomach and following excercise.
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Thanks Runfer. I never eat late... my days of midnight curries in Bradford after lots of ale were consigned to history decades ago!
Yesterday I had a decent breakfast, then shared a Lebanese meze in Leeds around 4pm then a currant teacake around midnight.
I normally try to eat around 6pm, then either have a few beers with friends early doors, home by 8, or visit the gym once the food has settled.
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Bin the midnight snack. That's the one that turns to fat. And cut back on the beer or at least the regularity of it. Don't over indulge on consecutive days. For every day you know you have, give your body a "healthy" day the next one. No need for "diets" just balance. A month of that and you'll be in good shape.
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I'm cutting back on the beer in February when I have a month self catering in Moraira. Can't drink fizzy foreign lager, and getting out and about walking daily with my two triathlete friends will burn the calories. Two dry days so far this week, and only a couple of pints today after an imminent hilly walk
I'm aiming for 155/160 lbs by end of February, so a target is set.
Happy New Year
ps. The Loakes shop in Leeds yesterday didn't have any sign of a sale, not that I was buying
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To me, humidity and Settle are synonymous. In the seventies we had a week's self-catering holiday there in a house somewhere up Albert Hill. It rained every day, but one, and my bad leg hurt so much that I had to use a stick, which I hate, the whole time. The walk up and down the hill to the shops was excruciating. Settle was obviously a nice place, but, in the circumstances, getting back to London, where we lived at the time, was bliss.
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I've been down the expensive Glucosamine and Chondoitrin route as well as cod liver oil and most other things but found they didn't work for me at all. That could have been because I didn't really believe they would though.
Humidity and the air pressure are a real indicator of how good or bad the arthritis will be and this last couple of weeks with it swinging from very high to very low, along with the damp fog, has been really unpleasant.
I do use Emu Oil but it needs to be an absolutely pure version and does seem to offer some relief.
As an aside LL, I used to deliver to Mumtaz, a fine looking Indian Restaurant on the side of the road going down a hill into Bradford. It had a bus stop outside and I always got shouted at by the bus drivers for blocking the road:)
The smells that came out of there were delightful and the 'back door' lads charming and I always promised myself I would re-visit as a customer at some point to sample those smells.
Is it still there and is it any good or was it just my hunger deceiving me?
Pat
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> Is it still there and is it any good or was it just my hunger
>> deceiving me?
>>
i would think so, iirc it's a chain across w Yorkshire now.
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Mumtaz began selling their curries in my local Booths supermarket. Awful. But then most are.
In Settle we have two curry shops ( and chippies) and I frequent Royal Spice. In Keighley I use Shimla Spice & Nazeems
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>> I've been down the expensive Glucosamine and Chondoitrin route as well as cod liver oil
>> and most other things but found they didn't work for me at all.
Ditto the boss. She thought they did work for a couple of years; then she ran out and just forgot about them for a few weeks (another hazard of anno domini). She later realised that she had had about the same level of symptoms, so decided they were a waste of money.
It's a bit like cough medicine (which generally makes no physical difference at all, according to most medics). You get a cough, you take medicine, it gets better, conclusion: medicine works. Alternatively, you get a cough, you don't take medicine, it gets better, conclusion: medicine doesn't work.
Both camps can therefore 'prove' their belief. A simple example of how confirmation bias works.
The boss's latest "thing" is vitamin D every day. She falls asleep in her chair at around 10 every evening. I conclude that vitamin D is a sedative.
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Tend to agree.
Strangely, losing weight, a strategy which is hugely beneficial in terms of knee and hip joints is often ignored in favour of some exotic supplement.
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>>It's a bit like cough medicine (which generally makes no physical difference at all, according to most medics).
>> You get a cough, you take medicine, it gets better, conclusion: medicine works.
>> Alternatively, you get a cough, you don't take medicine, it gets better, conclusion: medicine doesn't work.
>>
Well, several years ago I listened on the radio to the advice from Professor Alyn Morice
At that time he said the only cough mix worth taking should contain Dextromethorphan.
Many more brands now contain this. It certainly seemed to work.
I have found another simple treatment is a Gaviscon tablet. It seems that minor reflux is not tasted but does irritates the throat. Suck it and see?
www.hulldailymail.co.uk/need-cure-cough-hull-biggest-cough-clinic-world/story-27630579-detail/story.html
A old but good story from Hull.
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Dextromethorphan - DMP is a favourite amongst those into trippy substance abuse. Your pharmacist is probably eyeing you up pretty closely! :-)
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My mother was quite fond of benylin. Now I know why!
Last edited by: NortonES2 on Sun 1 Jan 17 at 14:25
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>> My mother was quite fond of benylin. Now I know why!
>>
Only the dry cough stuff has the DMP in it
Benelyn has been around to my knowledge for over 60 years.
Made by the famous Parke Davis company.
www.herbmuseum.ca/content/history-parke-davis-co
scroll down to see what you are missing.
While still at school I worked in a traditional chemist shop and one task I had was to pour Benylin from Winchester bottles into medicine bottles.
I suspect that its red coloured syrup is why many so many other brands copied it to appear to be just as good.
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Sorry to hear about the Pooch LL. I dread the day...
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>>GP recently got me to try Ibuprofen....>>
Yes, Ibuprofen (very cheap in supermarkets compared to Nurofen!!) as recommended by your GP is an anti-inflammatory, but it should be made clear that those on blood pressure tablets should normally not take these type of tablets, although paracetamol is OK.
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>> >>GP recently got me to try Ibuprofen....>>
Should read: "GP recently got me to try Ibuprofen gel"
Quite a difference, considering the Beta blockers and statins I take. Also, as I've previously indicated an allergic reaction to ibrofen, which thankfully hasn't arisen to this gel.
Last edited by: bathtub tom on Sun 1 Jan 17 at 19:29
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>>Should read: "GP recently got me to try Ibuprofen gel">>
Definitely quite a difference....:-)
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Not so 'quite different' so be wary.
My GP won't allow me to use the Ibuprofen based gel of any type because of my BP tablets.
When I expressed surprise and asked why, she said 'Well where do you think it goes when you rub it into your skin'?
Pat
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I second cod-liver oil.
As a child I found it disgusting, but a few years ago when all the "drink more fishoil" fad started I tried it, and loved it. I have a couple of desert spoons every few days or feel the urge. Curiously I now find it almost nice, almost addictive.
For a specific joint pain I find the cream that comes in a big red tube rather good. Deep Heat, I think. It's got quite an aggressive sort of smell and stings a bit on sensitive skin, but like lots of lotions and potions a mixture of pain/pleasure makes one believe the stuff might really work.
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Cod Liver Oil and Malt! - thick brown syrupy mixture, never had it since a kid, but I remember that I loved it - yum! ;-)
But then I love Marmite as well!!
Last edited by: devonite on Mon 2 Jan 17 at 10:33
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>> Y'all can still geddit:
>>
>> www.hollandandbarrett.com/shop/product/potters-malt-extract-with-cod-liver-oil-butterscotch-60009814
>>
Cheaper at Bootssies. Tiny.url as well!
tinyurl.com/hbnv7c2
(You don't think I am getting obsessive about tinyurls, do you?)
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Good thing about posting the whole link is that peops can see what it refers to wivout having to click it :)
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>> Good thing about posting the whole link is that peops can see what it refers
>> to wivout having to click it :)
>>
Not the only thing that you and I disagree upon.
Have a look at the long link on the "Bought Anything in the Sales" thread and tell us that you still think it's a good idea.
Last edited by: Duncan on Mon 2 Jan 17 at 13:35
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Some of the shortened links carry a sting….
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>>Have a look at the long link on the "Bought Anything in the Sales" thread and tell us that you still think it's a good idea.
Ah well, I would never post a link THAT long.
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>> >>Have a look at the long link on the "Bought Anything in the Sales" thread
>> and tell us that you still think it's a good idea.
>>
>> Ah well, I would never post a link THAT long.
>>
Ah well, it's gone!
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>> Good thing about posting the whole link is that peops can see what it refers
>> to wivout having to click it :)
Which is why I always include where the ur link is being directed to ;)
But Dog's link wasn't long enough to require shortening anyway as it hadn't elongated the page or wrapped around to the next line.
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>>But Dog's link wasn't long enough to require shortening anyway as it hadn't elongated the page or wrapped around to the next line.
I thought something happened to this site yonks ago that made URLs unnecessary as page elongation problems were overcome.
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>> I thought something happened to this site yonks ago that made URLs unnecessary as page elongation problems were overcome.
It's odd, some links will word wrap correctly, whereas others don't.
You probably haven't seen many page elongation problems because one of us mods might have already edited the link.
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>> Cod Liver Oil and Malt! - thick brown syrupy mixture, never had it since a
>> kid, but I remember that I loved it - yum! ;-)
>>
I was force fed cod liver oil - or was it castor oil- at school. YUK.
Matron cross questioned us relentlessly re bowel movements :-)
Last edited by: Roger. on Mon 2 Jan 17 at 14:35
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>> Cod Liver Oil and Malt! - thick brown syrupy mixture, never had it since a
>> kid, but I remember that I loved it - yum! ;-)>>
Have you come across molasses? My late mother use to take it daily - she reckoned it was very good for you.
She may well have been right, as is the case with malt:
www.organicfacts.net/health-benefits/other/health-benefits-of-molasses.html
Last edited by: Stuartli on Mon 2 Jan 17 at 15:51
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Grrreat believer in blackstrap molasses, bought a jar last year but still haven't opened it yet, It tastes like tar btw!
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Used to have Molasses regularly when I was in farm work! - every time we opened a new barrel for the sheep!!
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Vitamin supplements - Runfer D'Hills
