Healthy Joints
Lifestyle recommendations
- Keep moving: Study after study shows that lack of movement is a major contributor to joint pain. In whatever way feels best, make sure you’re moving all the joints of your body each day with activities like yoga, long walks, or bicycling.
- Low-impact, range of motion exercises: Throughout our lives, our joints take a beating from the normal wear and tear of daily living. By doing activities like swimming or ellipticals, we can exercise and flex the muscles without putting pressure on the joints, which lets them heal.
- Strengthen stabilizing muscles: The tendons of many muscles extend over joints and contribute to joint stability, which prevents injury. Whole-body exercises like lunges or squats work better than isolated muscle exercises to strengthen the muscles that support joints.
- Assess your footwear: Proper footwear can go a long way in maintaining and supporting our joints by helping align the body for optimized movement. Work with your healthcare team to figure out the best footwear or orthotic inserts that are right for you.
- Work on weight: While our bodies all have different set points for the amount of fat we accumulate, excess fat is a contributor to joint degradation. Working with a healthcare provider to get to your ideal body weight can go a long way in preserving and healing joints.
Dietary recommendations
- Add fish or omega-3s: Omega-3 fatty acids have been shown to play a supportive role in joint maintenance and health. Consider replacing a few meals of red meat a week with fish or high-protein nuts and seeds to help support your body’s omega-3 balance.
- Increase dietary antioxidants: Antioxidants can be found in colorful foods like red or yellow peppers and dark-colored berries, and promote healthy joints. They’re also heart healthy.
- Incorporate herbs and spices into your diet: Spices like turmeric, ginger, cinnamon, and garlic have all been shown to support joint health and overall comfort. Consider cooking with these spices whenever possible.
- Cut out high sugar drinks: Too much sugar in the diet may increase the tendency towards inflammation. This can damage many things, including joints. They also promote weight gain which can further stress joints.
Optimized supplement plan:
Boswelya Plus
1 capsule daily or as directed by a healthcare professional
CoCurcumin
1 tablespoon mixed in warm water or a beverage of your choice at night or after exercise
Trifal
1 capsule twice a day or as directed by a healthcare professional
Disclaimer
The Fullscript Integrative Medical Advisory team has developed or collected these protocols from practitioners and supplier partners to help health care practitioners make decisions when building treatment plans. By adding this protocol to your Fullscript template library, you understand and accept that the recommendations in the protocol are for initial guidance and may not be appropriate for every patient.
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