Abundant living with John Arts Abundant Health

I’ve just got off the phone from speaking with a client in his 70s. He had damaged his knees from playing rugby and now had fairly advanced osteoarthritis in both. We started him on a programme for his knees early in the year.

This involved reducing inflammation with some diet changes and adding my high chondroitin joint formula, initially at a double dose delivering 1600mg of chondroitin, the same of glucosamine and 400mg of a 95 per cent curcumin (from turmeric) extract. High levels of chondroitin are important as this helps to stimulate cartilage production from specialised cells called chondrocytes.

He’s been genuinely surprised by how much more comfortable he is. The degeneration is still there but reducing joint inflammation and helping to improve remaining cartilage function can translate to real improvements.

When starting a joint programme I encourage people to regularly assess how they’re progressing.  A simple way is to do a regular assessment every couple of weeks by rating the pain and mobility out of 10.

Someone with an 8/10 rating may have a three-month goal to get to 5/10. Another good way to monitor is the amount of any pain relief/anti-inflammatory medication being used. Whatever system of assessment, what we’re looking for is a reduction in pain and corresponding improvement in mobility.

While diet and supplements can make a huge difference the most important factor is time. Today I created a programme for someone with serious degeneration in both wrists with one so severe a specialist has recommended surgery. I stressed to her that the critical time period is not so much the first weeks but the six-12 week timeframe when I’m sure she will notice a difference.

John Arts (B.Soc.Sci, Dip Tch, Adv.Dip.Nut.Med) is a nutritional medicine practitioner and founder of Abundant Health Ltd. For questions or advice, contact John on 0800 423559 or email: john@abundant.co.nz Join his all new newsletter at: www.abundant.co.nz