Chronic Inflammation

Do you suffer from aches and pains? Are your joints puffy, bloated or swollen? Do you experience stiffness? If you have any of these symptoms, you could be at risk for chronic inflammation. The good news is, you don’t have to live with the pain. Learn a little about the good and bad sides of inflammation, as well as how to prevent and reduce it through simple nutrition and lifestyle changes.

About Inflammation

A high functioning immune system responds to harmful substances, irritants, infections and injury by becoming inflamed. Inflammation is actually a healthy and normal response that detoxifies and repairs the body. Redness, warmth, swelling, itching and pain are all symptoms that inflammation is doing it’s job by sending antibodies to heal the damaged area and protect the body from further irritation.

Problem

Problems occur when inflammation becomes chronic as a result of being untreated. Most people seek quick relief in pills like Advil, Tylenol or Ibuprofen that mask the pain and prevent healing by disabling the body’s ability to detoxify, repair and protect itself. With additional side effects, these drugs often do more harm than good.
Chronic inflammation not only affects your daily performance, but damages surrounding organs and tissues, contributing to degenerative diseases like arthritis, heart disease, stroke, obesity, cancer, and Alzheimer’s. Chronic inflammation can also result in an increase in LDL (bad) cholesterol. You may be surprised to find out that LDL cholesterol does not increase in response to the number of eggs you eat, but in correlation with the amount of inflammatory foods consumed. Experiment and see for yourself!

Solution

Start healing! Pain is felt for a reason. Don’t ignore it! Get rid of it for good! Get to the root of the problem by making simple nutrition and lifestyle changes! You’ll increase the nutrients in your diet, lower LDL (bad) cholesterol, strengthen immunity, prevent disease and even reduce body fat!

Nutrition

Avoid foods high in refined carbs, and excess omega-6 essential fatty acids, such as refined sugars, grains, grain-fed animal products, legumes, manmade fats, and most alcoholic beverages.
Anti-Inflammatory Foods Green leafy vegetables: kale, collards, spinach, mustard greens, etc. Omega-3 rich wild fish: salmon, mackerel, sardines, tuna, halibut, etc. Herbs and spices: garlic, ginger, curry, chili peppers, rosemary Stinkers: garlic, onions, scallions, leeks, chives, shallots Fermented foods: yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut, etc. Filtered water (helps detoxify the body)
Supplement Support Cod Liver Oil (essential fatty acids) Probiotics (gut health and immunity) Turmeric & Bromelain (joint support)LifestyleAvoid chronic cardio – take long easy walks instead Stress less – chronic stress results in chronic inflammation Sleep more – give your body time to rest, repair and heal itself Get tested – take a C-reactive protein (CRP) test (but don’t get tested if you’ve had a recent injury or illness as the CRP can linger from the acute inflammation)


By Cate Munroe

Isolated Hip Exercise Reduces Anterior Knee Pain

Anterior knee pain is often associated with hip muscle weakness of the abductors, extensors and external rotators. Dr. Vladimir Janda noted these muscles were particularly susceptible to inhibition and weakness. Patellofemoral pain is often associated with muscle imbalance. Hip weakness is particularly prevalent in females with anterior knee pain.

This hip weakness is thought to result in abnormal forces occurring at the knee during stance, allowing the femur to adduct more than normal, possibly leading to excessive force and/or abnormal tracking of the patellofemoral joint.

Traditionally, anterior knee pain was thought to result from quadriceps weakness, particularly from the vastus medialis muscle. Recent biomechanical and epidemiological data suggest however, that hip weakness may play a more important role in the etiology of patellofemoral pain.

Dr. Khalil Khayambashi and colleagues performed a randomized controlled trial of hip exercise on females with patellofemoral pain. The experimental exercise group performed hip strengthening exercises 3 times a day for 8 weeks. Hip extension and external rotation exercises were performed on both legs using Thera-Band® elastic tubing.

The control group did not exercise. Both groups were tested before and after the program for hip strength, pain, and self-report WOMAC scores. There were 14 participants in each group, and no significant differences at baseline between groups.

After the 8 week intervention, the hip exercise group significantly decreased in knee pain and significantly improved their health status, whereas the control group did not improve. In addition, the exercise group improved in hip strength significantly more than the control group, between 32 and 56%. These improvements were maintained at the 6 month follow-up as well.

While these results are impressive given the simplicity of the exercise program, the study had a few limitations. Subjects were not categorized as having hip weakness before the program; it would be interesting to know if their knee pain was actually associated with hip weakness. The researchers didn’t evaluate kinematics in subjects; therefore, it’s not clear if the strengthening program had a biomechanical effect. Finally, the relatively small sample size limits the generalizability of the findings.

In summary, a simple 8 week Thera-Band exercise program with only 2 hip exercises significantly reduces pain in females with anterior knee pain.

REFERENCE: Khayambashi K, et al.The Effects of Isolated Hip Abductor and External Rotator Muscle Strengthening on Pain, Health Status, and Hip Strength in Females With Patellofemoral Pain.J Orthop Sports Phys Ther. 2012. 42(1):22-29.