Added way to prevent or reduce joint pain....

Today's Post: Monday, 5-16-2011

One of the feature stories on Yahoo a few days ago was adopted from a Prevention article.

If your joints become damaged and your body fails to repair them, that tends to cause inflammation and pain. You can improve joint pain by reducing the inflammation. But preventing the damage or repairing it too would definitely help!

The Yahoo article from Prevention said that an adequate supply of the two minerals, manganese and copper, helps your body prevent joint pain by reversing or preventing joint damage or deterioration.

They report that a doctor, ” Dale Peterson, MD” says this about supplementing these 2 minerals at the same time, ““in most cases, supplementing these nutrients reverses the joint deterioration and eliminates the pain,” & ““The body can actually repair a significant amount of damage if it’s given the proper support.””

Some foods are high in these two minerals; and you can take supplements that contain them.

Dr. Peterson suggests taking 2 mg of copper and 5 mg of manganese a day. And says that “within 2 to 3 months, your joints should feel less painful.”

WholeHealthMD says that copper does help your body create collagen, "a core protein found in bones, connective tissues, and skin." (That could be why adequate copper tends to prevent aneurysms in your blood vessels.)

But there are two key things to know about supplementing with copper.

First, if you take zinc as a supplement which many do, it slightly increases your need for copper. Since I take zinc, I take a multi with one mg a day and a separate 2 mg a day copper supplement and I eat some nuts almost every day which are moderately high in copper.

Second, there a some people who do not process copper properly, so if you are in that group, you may not be able to take copper. (Wilson's disease is a genetic disorder which causes copper to accumulate in tissues; and this is particularly bad for your liver. From that description, it sounds like you’d know if you have it. If you do, taking copper or eating copper rich foods is not a good idea!)

Manganese has two functions that can help with joint damage prevention and repair. I found a reference online that said that indeed, manganese “aids in the formation of connective tissue & bones.” And, it helps form, SOD, one of the body’s strongest antioxidants, to prevent damage from oxidation.

But here again, some manganese is very important but excessive manganese can cause nerve and brain problems. The 5 mg a day of manganese this doctor recommends plus another 5 mg a day or so from food is likely OK. But 10 mg a day of manganese plus food or more may begin not to be.

I take a 10 mg manganese supplement BUT only on Monday, Weds, and Friday so I only average 4.29 mg a day plus 1 mg a day in my multi means I take an average of 5.29 mg a day once I learned that 11 mg a day might be a bit too much.

Almonds, walnuts, and pecans are good sources of all minerals including copper and manganese; and oatmeal turns out to be a decent source of manganese.

Nuts also are a good sources of the full vitamin E complex -- both tocopherols and tocotrienols. Those also are good antioxidants.

They also have a good supply of monosaturated oils. So your joints get some health OK lubrication from eating nuts.

(If you are allergic to nuts, there are other ways to get minerals and extra virgin olive oil also has monosaturated oil.)

This seems to work for me since I’ve been taking these two minerals for several years and found that on the RealAge website, I have far less joint pain than average for people my age.

It certainly sounds to be worth trying if you have joint pain!