Tendons & Nutrition

[chok-dee]

Hi,

 

I seem to be plagued by tendon injuries and tendonitis in a number of activities from playing instruments to martial arts and running.

 

I was wondering if there was anything I could do nutritionally to prevent or help recovery from such problems, e.g increase certain proteins or vitamins.

 

thanks,

chok-dee

[mtguy1976]

Cissus might help, it comes from a plant. I've used the powder, doesn't taste good. I usually mix it with oj, helps cut the taste. They have it in pills, but its has gelatin at that point.

Its sold at trueprotein.com http://www.trueprotein.com/Product_Details.aspx?cid=25&pid=6799

[chok-dee]

Interesting, thanks I'll give that a try.

 

Cheers,

 

chok-dee

[mtguy1976]

Sorry I was in between meetings and couldn't ask some questions. Where is the tendonitis? I just (fingers crossed) got over golfers elbow (medial epicondylitis) - similar to tennis elbow, but this is on the inside of the elbow- and it took 4 months. Other tendonitis stuff I have had only lasted a couple weeks. My problem was overuse (too many pull-ups too often) and not leting it rest or heal (I still did upper body pushing stuff and I thought that was ok, it wasn't). What fixed it was - not doing any upperbody workouts, stretched and iced every night, and the cissus seemed to help to an extent. The biggest thing is resting it so it doesn't keep comming back. Maybe you could give a background of the injuires, because the cissus alone won't fix it.

Jon

[damdaman]

When I tore a tendon, my doc told me vitamin C is good for tendons. Might try a packet of emergen-c in your water every day.

[chok-dee]

Well in the past I've had Tennis Elbow and Carpal tunnel syndrome probably related to working in IT and possibly playing guitar etc.

 

It took years to get rid of them, the big break through was some stretches I found on the internet, and of course lots of icing.

 

I've also had bursitis on the hip and elbow in the past.

 

My current problem is in my shoulder, probably caused by holding the pads at Muay Thai classes, which I recently restarted (probably with a little too much enthusiasm after a break of a few years )

 

I'm currently treating with ice and Ibuprofen.

 

I'm also changing my sleeping position which has actually had a dramatic effect. I used to sleep on my side with my arm above my head which was putting a lot of pressure on the shoulder.

 

The reason I'm looking into the nutrition side is because I seem particularly prone to these injuries even though I'm only in my mid thirties.

 

Thanks for all the advice btw this a great forum, and Vegan too which is just great!