I’m back in Southampton, having flown in yesterday. So this past morning, we drove to the airport to pick up my father-in-law and his wife. We thought it might be nice to gather at the new house for Thanksgiving and to see in the new Christmas Season. 
 
And to be honest, there’s something bizarre about having Thanksgiving and the Christmas Holidays in 70-80 degree temperatures in Florida, when you’ve grown up associating them with the cooler weather of Fall in the Temperate Zone. You know, the whole “chestnuts roasting on an open fire” thing rings truer when “Jack Frost is nipping at your nose.” When it’s perrenial summer, not so much.

So, to prepare for the Season, my wife got us tickets to Winter Wonderland in New York for later this afternoon. True, the Rockerfeller Center Christmas Tree won’t be lit yet; the official Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony won’t be for a couple of weeks– I think it’s December 4th. But all the other Lights and Christmas Decorations will be up and well worth seeing. 
 
So, I was prepared for cooler weather and looking forward to it. But last night, my wife and I went out shopping, and man, it was COLD! Late last night, it was down into the twenties. I guess I’ve been in Florida too long. I was looking forward to the cooler weather but here I am, freezing in Southampton!
 
Well, hopefully, it will warm up a little later. Brrrrrrrrrrr! This part of New York I didn’t miss.
 
Funny thing about cold weather is that, like damp weather, it can make your joints ache when you have any degenerative joint disease. Among the things that can make you feel better and provide a little relief are supplements and joint wraps.
 
I’ve mentioned before that if you improve the balance of Omega 3 Fatty Acids in your diet, by avoiding red meat, saturated fats and other sources of Omega 6 Fatty Acids and then taking fish oil and other sources of Omega 3′s, you can reduce inflammation and therefore, relieve joint pain.
 
You can also keep your joints warm, too. Ways to do this range from simple elastic or neoprene knee sleeves, to far infrared capturing KENKO wraps and magnetic knee wraps that generate  internal heat within the joint tissues (both are available from your nearest NIKKEN distributor). 

These and a number of other methods for relieving knee pain are described in greater detail in my newest healing program, HOW TO AVOID KNEE SURGERY. See it at http://drbillsclinic.com/avoid_knee_surgery.html 
 
In addition, I list a number of other methods, from across the entire health care spectrum, to relieve knee pain and restore knee function–conventional, alternative and complimentary. And I include a Baker’s dozen of the most effective exercises to prevent and eliminate knee pain, for long term relief. See them at   http://drbillsclinic.com/avoid_knee_surgery.html
 
Gotta go! Til next time, my friend, be well. And stay warm….
 
Yours for a pain-free tomorrow,
 
Dr. Bill
 
P.S. For DR. BILL’S LITTLE GREEN BOOK ON ELIMINATING KNEE PAIN, a concise, but complete handbook on the root causes and the various options for treating knee pain, go to http://drbillsclinic.com/eliminate_knee_pain.html
 
P.P.S. For DR. BILL’S PAIN-FREE PROGRAM: EXERCISES TO PREVENT OR ELIMINATE KNEE PAIN, please go to   http://drbillsclinic.com/exercise_eliminate.html
 
P.P.P.S. For the giant, comprehensive ADVANCED MASTERS’ COURSE: HOW TO ELIMINATE KNEE PAIN–ONCE & FOR ALL!, everything you need to know on causes and solutions for knee pain and the complete exercise program, too, go to http://drbillsclinic.com/advanced_masters.html
 
FREE BONUS CD with any order: THE HEALING POWER OF POSITIVE PAIN PERCEPTION
 
Copyright, 2008 by William Thomas Stillwell, MD
All rights reserved

I think it was 1973 when I read about Durk Pearson for the first time. His book LIFE EXTENSION was a mega best seller, back then. He and his girlfriend, and co-author, Sandy Shaw were scientists, who had made a study of various supplements, vitamins, minerals and
the like that they believed, based on available resaerch, would extend the life span of the average person and enhance the quality of that life, as well. Now, bodybuilders and other athletes had been taking supplements for years, but this was something new. This was real science backing up their recommendations.
 
Durk Pearson himself was quite an enigmatic guy. He was a frequent guest on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show. He was a strange looking, tall, gangly man in black leather pants, hideous silver and tourquoise Native American Jewelry (though they were still “Indians” in those days), straggly, shoulder length brown hair. He also reportedly had the highest IQ of anyone they’d ever had at MIT in Boston, where they were quite impressed with him. Sandy was no slouch either. They lived and worked together and apparently were an item. The two of them together were as odd and Bohemian a pair as you’d ever see and you’d never suspect the depth of intelligence they possessed from their appearance. Hey, you never know….
 
Anyway, I was one of very few people who actually read the entire tome, cover to cover. I know I was pretty impressed with their research. Starting then, I began taking megadose Vitamin C, Vitamin E, selenium, niacin and a host of other supplements. Although much of their data was based on animal studies, extrapolated onto human beings, I was impressed with their reasoning and I always felt that it was a gamble worth taking. After all, if you wait 20 or 30 years to find out if it works, and then discover it does, it’s too late to do you any good. 

A number of my more conservative colleagues have always thought I was crazy, in this regard. They’d never take anything without a number of double blind, controlled studies, which on its surface, seems to make sense. Only problem was and still is that no one is making a buck on these things, in comparison to prescription drugs; therefore, no funds or incentives to conduct such studies. Still, I looked in the
literature for myself and found support here and there in various journals.
 
For example, I found buried in the Plastic Surgery journals evidence of the efficacy of Vitamin C in wound healing. They did a study of the tensile strength of scars in rabbits, and compared those given the human equivalent of 2 grams of Vitamin C a day with another group that had none. They made incisions in each rabbit and allowed them to heal. Then, they cut the scars out of them and hung weights on the scars, held on a hook, length-wise. They added weights until the scars tore apart. Guess what? The scars from the Vitamin C rabbits had three times the tensile strength of the other group. That’s a 300% increase in strength.
 
So, years later, when I began doing my own surgery, I ordered oral and intravenous Vitamin C (as well as my own concoction of liquid vitamin B complex) on all my postop patients. And I was able to get the staples out of their incisions in three days, instead of the 10-14
days that everyone else needed. Coincidence? I don’t think so.
 
So I’ve been taking supplements since that time. Over the years, I’ve added to my own personal regimen, although I was always much more conservative with my patients. After all, a lot of this is a speculative gamble, and I didn’t want to gamble with my patients, without more solid proof. Over the last decade or so,  I’ve learned about and added other nutrients, including the protective compounds in many foods and the pain relieving effects of certain spices, which have additional health benefits, to enhance your life, as well. Some spices are so effective that they can be taken orally; others can be applied to the skin and relieve the pain in the joint beneath. 

I describe these spices, as well as a number of other dietary measures and helpful supplements, that can help to relieve joint pain, in my ADVANCED MASTERS COURSE   http://drbillsclinic.com/advanced_masters.html
The great thing about these naturopathic measures is that they work with conventional treatments and medications, often by different pathways, to bring long term relief and, in many cases, can help you to avoid surgery.
 
This course is the real deal–everything I know about eliminating knee pain, but in layman’s English. If you’re a therapist, trainer, nurse, chiropractor,  or a non-orthopaedic physician, or just someone who wants to know it all, this has all the information you’ll ever need, from across the entire treatment spectrum. And it’s available in a convenient, affordable monthly lesson format, to make it easy to learn and easy to own. So click on the link and sign up for yours today    http://drbillsclinic.com/advanced_masters.html
 
Til next time, my friend, be well.

Yours for a pain-free tomorrow,
 
Dr. Bill
 
P.S. For DR. BILL’S LITTLE GREEN BOOK ON ELIMINATING KNEE PAIN, a concise, but complete handbook on the root causes and the various options for treating knee pain, go to   http://drbillsclinic.com/eliminate_knee_pain.html
 
P.P.S. For DR. BILL’S PAIN-FREE PROGRAM: EXERCISES TO PREVENT OR ELIMINATE KNEE PAIN, please go to
 http://drbillsclinic.com/exercise_eliminate.html
 
P.P.P.S. For the giant, comprehensive ADVANCED MASTERS’ COURSE: HOW TO ELIMINATE KNEE PAIN–ONCE & FOR ALL!, everything you need to know on causes and solutions for knee pain and the complete exercise program, too, go to
 http://drbillsclinic.com/advanced_masters.html
 
FREE BONUS CD with any order: THE HEALING POWER OF POSITIVE PAIN PERCEPTION
 
Copyright, 2008 by William Thomas Stillwell, MD
All rights reserved