Is your healthy diet giving you joint pain and fatigue
| < Back to Prolotherapy Article Index |
Recently a patient came to Caring Medical to see us for Prolotherapy to both of her knees. She had been receiving Prolotherapy from another clinic but felt that she was not achieving optimal results. SK read about our approach to sports injuries, healing, and what we like to call comprehensive Prolotherapy and decided that is what she needed.
SK is a 42 year old mother of two kids with a very active lifestyle. She likes (or liked) to run 5K and 10K races in order to stay in shape, and to spend time with some of her girl friends and get in a little friendly competition. She loves(d) running because it gave her a sense of freedom and stress release from her busy life. She went to her local sports doctor who recommended she get PRP (platelet rich plasma) injections for her knees which he called arthritic due to too much running. She decided to go along with the treatment and got two treatments of PRP over the course of two months in each knee. During this time, she was instructed stop running altogether. She was not even allowed to bike. She received one PRP shot into each knee on each visit. Her sports doctor told her that if she didnt improve, he recommended arthroscopy to take a look around. She had already had an MRI that was insignificant. SK started to put on a little extra weight (7 pounds) because she couldnt exercise. She was NOT a happy camper!
This is when SK started looking around online and found Caring Medicals approach to healing sports injuries. She was impressed that Dr. Hauser himself was a runner/athlete, and that he addressed not only the injury, but the persons whole health as well. SK emailed the office and came in to see us for her first visit.
SK turned out to have runners knee or chondromalacia patella when Dr. Hauser examined her. Knee pain from running is one of the most commonly seen overuse injuries that we see at Caring Medical. About half of overuse injuries affect the knee joint in some way. Runners may experience pain behind the knee cap, inside the knee, or around the knee. Prolotherapy is a great alternative treatment for those with runners knee because it can help the joint instability and knee tracking problem that accompanies it, as well as eliminate the pain.
SK received Hackett-Hemwall Prolotherapy to both of her knees using standard dextrose Prolotherapy with human growth hormone added to the solution. She received 40 injections per knee into and around her knee joints, including the outer ligaments that were causing the joint instability. Dr. Hauser provided her with an exercise regime that would get her back to running starting with cycling on a stationary bike and using the elliptical each twice per week. SK was more than happy to comply! She was ecstatic!
What about her diet? The other piece of the puzzle was SKs diet. In an effort to stay slim and to fuel her runners body, SK was following a her version of a healthy diet a low fat, high carb, vegetarian diet. She ate small amounts of cheese, egg whites, whole grains, whole wheat breads, fruits and vegetables, fat free yogurt, and her favorite beverage Diet Coke! Her favorite morning treat was a stop at the local coffee shop after her run for a caramel macchiato or something similar. Most days she drank another coffee beverage around 2PM.
She reported that she never really felt that she had as much energy as she thought she should with her healthy lifestyle. She was not overweight, yet, she was constantly feeling achy, had a variety of sports injuries throughout her running career, and she often felt very tired at 10AM and 2PM during the day. At night, she would fall asleep at 8PM, but then wake up during the night at about midnight and find it hard to go to sleep at night.
Can you see where this is going? Dr. Hauser knew what the results were going to show he has seen this so many times before particularly in runners or other athletes trying to be healthy. He ordered Diet Typing and food sensitivity testing, along with a hemoglobin A1C level and a chemistry panel.
What did SKs results show? You guessed it! She was a fast oxidizer of food with acidic blood pH . A low fat, high carb, vegetarian type diet was definitely the wrong diet for SK! She needed protein and fat both of which were completely missing in her diet. She was a Hauser Lion! She reported that she diligently read runners magazines, blogs, and materials, and was only following what was recommended there. Yup! Thats what most people say!
From vegetarian to meat-eater! SK was told that she needed more protein and fat in her diet thus she started eating beef, chicken, fish, eggs (and the yolks), along with adding butter, olive oil, avocados, nuts, seeds to her diet. She had to get rid of the Diet Coke and sugary coffee drinks, as well as the large amount of carbohydrates, even if though they were healthy whole grains. She turned out to have a sensitivity to wheat, so she needed to eat gluten free, but in small quantities. Just because she was to eat gluten-free, didnt mean she could eat a lot of breads, cereals, and desserts! The over-riding factor is your Diet Type and SK needed protein and fat!
What happened to SK? Well, you can imagine that SK had quite a shock! Here she thought she was eating healthy, and she was not eating the right diet for her body! Because she had been battling this knee injury for months and was SO ready to get back out on the road, she was ready to be completely compliant. After one Prolotherapy treatment plus the diet change, she felt 75% better. She was eating more protein and fat in her diet and drastically reduced the amount of carbs, including whole grains and fruit. She switched to Greek yogurt that contains twice the amount of protein as her fat free regular yogurt. She added nut butters to the yogurt instead of eating the sweetened kind. She ate fish twice per week, used olive oil on her veggies, and consumed eggs a number of times per week. She was giving her body what it needed to heal!
SK felt so much better - she was able to start power walking. She reported that she felt like she was alive again! After one more Hackett-Hemwall Prolotherapy treatment (which included 40 Prolotherapy injections per knee with HGH added to the Prolotherapy solution) she felt like a new woman. She was back to running and she felt great! She definitely did not need knee surgery and was again training with her girlfriends for a 5K race. SK we hope to see you out there on the road!
If this sounds like you, dont sit around waiting for your injury to heal itself or continue to feel achy and tired! Time to make a change! Give us a call at 708-848-7789 or email us at scheduling@caringmedical.com.
< Back to Prolotherapy Article Index
 |
 |
