Hi. Hi Chris. Thanks for doing this. Chris:
Thanks for being here. You're welcome. Dan:
Cool. So basically, so in the vein of your, an email that you shared a while back
regarding a protocol for healing broken bones. I was wondering if you had something regarding
damage control when it comes to knee joints, and joints in general to give someone with,
for example, in my case with bad knees, or someone that is still far from optimal weight
that is putting extra strain on his knees. So I'm already making sure I hit my protein target,
getting extra glycine before... Chris:
Can you clarify a little bit what you mean by damage control?
Dan: Sorry. It's just the way I'm describing it.
So I see you talk sometimes about wear and tear on tissues in general. In my case will
be making sure the cartilage in my joints lasts as long as possible, like doing whatever I can
nutritional wise to support it. So something along those lines. So sorry for butchering it.
Chris: Yeah, I see what you mean.
Well, I really, from a nutritional perspective I think it's more a matter of
hitting nutritional adequacy across the board. If certain things pop out... Well, one thing
that you can do that is, that's been tested is 15 grams of collagen or gelatin with a little bit of
vitamin C taken a half-hour before your workouts will improve collagen synthesis in your joints.
So that's one nutritional intervention that has some evidence behind it. If I just
sort of think about some of the things that are needed. You certainly need good production of
the proteoglycans and stuff that make up the joint fluid, and the extracellular matrix in the joints.
And for that I think of things like, well, protein and carbohydrates is one, but also
sulfur is very important as a constituent of those, and manganese is very important as a
cofactor for the enzymatic production of those things. It's probably not a bad idea to consume
things that are in joints, and that's sort of whole foods way to do that would be to either,
well, the crude way to do it is chew the joints of chickens and stuff like that.
Dan: Yeah, I know, yeah. I usually get at dinner.
Chris: Yeah, yeah. And then of course...
Dan: So we have it once or twice a week, yeah.
Chris: Right.
So those things, and supplements based around that are things like glucosamine,
chondroitin sulfate, and just sort of standard things that you would find on the shelf of a
vitamin store for joint health. But I do think that if you peel back
the layer of biological complexity you're going to find a role for every nutrient
that somehow plays a role in joint health. So I think whatever's limiting in your diet
for your own metabolism is probably going to be most relevant to you, even though there
are some things that we could highlight as particularly relevant to joint health.
But I guess, the top thing I would say though, is that once your diet is in place I think
if your diet is real good it's far more likely at that point that your
movement patterns are going to become the limiting factor for your joint health.
And so I think exercise across the board, including resistance training of some sort, and
as well as just a lot of movement in general. So just, I think cardio and light exercise that
moves the joints is extremely important for joint health,
but it's also important to do resistance exercise across a full and healthy range of motion.
So I think getting probably an athletic-oriented physical therapist to train you on
resistance exercise routines done properly to promote joint health would probably be
the top thing that I would do if I felt like I was hitting my bases on the diet part.
Dan: Okay, okay. Well, thanks for the insight.
I think I'll look a bit more into the manganese sources eventually. Well, thanks, thanks a lot.
Chris: Yeah, well, just a side
point. You're a Masterpass member so you have the free Vitamins and Minerals 101 Premium,
so if you go there and go to the manganese section there you'll have food sources and stuff.
Dan: Yeah, yeah, okay cool. I'll check it out.
Chris: All right, cool. Thanks Dan.
Dan: Thanks.