Upper East Side

Cartilage

To start, the key player with any joint is articular cartilage, the covering of the ends of the bones. In a nutshell, cartilage has little potential to repair itself.  When you mix in aging, disease, and injury, the makeup of normal cartilage inevitably changes for the worse.

Our cartilage changes metabolically as we get older, which can lead to degeneration.  And just like other tissues, such as bone, there exists a fine balance between anabolic (synthesis/growth) and catabolic (breakdown/destruction) phases throughout a lifetime.  And whether we like it or not, our cartilage will at some point lose its ability to restore/repair itself and loses out to the mechanical stresses imparted on it.  If you throw in genetics and injury into the game, then cartilage may actually breakdown at a faster rate.

Pretty bleak picture, huh?  Well, maybe not.  Despite cartilage’s limited capability of repair, it still remains a very resilient tissue.  And as we will discuss, there may be steps one can take to slow down degeneration and protect our cartilage, and ultimately our joints.

Trauma and Injury

The restoration of cartilage is still the holy grail of orthopedic surgery.  We’re making advances and there is incredible ongoing research, especially in Europe, to remake cartilage and gain a better understanding on causes and potential remedies of arthritis. When someone injures his cartilage, conservative measures include anti-inflammatories/cortisone injections, therapy, bracing, and activity modification.  Surgical intervention may be necessary, which may include debridement (cleanup), micro fracture (scar cartilage formation), osteochondral plugs, and chondrocyte implantation.  Other modalities are on the horizon.  But, as I always tell patients, there’s no better cartilage than our own native cartilage.

Protection and Winning the Battle

Weight

I’m not here to discuss ideal body weight, but only to leave you with a simple calculation.  You impart 2-3times body weight on your knee cap joint just by walking down the stairs.  It can exceed 6-8 times with running.  Decrease your weight and you automatically put less stress on your knee joint.  You can now imagine how the combination of weight gain and injury can be a recipe for a rapidly deteriorating joint.

Resistance Training

Resistance training and flexibility exercises will maximize the performance of your joints. Enter responsible CrossFit training.  If there is inherent weakness in and around a joint, there will be more forces on the cartilage surfaces themselves as the weak joint uses the confines of the bony anatomy to keep it stable.  A strong muscle envelope and pliable ligaments/tendons will dissipate those forces, ultimately “saving” the cartilage.

Diet

I’ll defer to other experts to advise on what to eat to maximize performance.  However, what I will say is the need to have a diet that takes into account your joints.  Patients often will listen to their primary care physicians when it comes to taking a medication for heart health or bone health.  Unfortunately, little or no time is spent counseling patients on joint health.  This is where Lurong Living Essential comes into play

Why LuRong Living Essential is Important to CrossFitters and Other Athletes

Lurong Living Essential is velvet deer antler, a whole food without extracts or infused components.  It exists in nature, and we did nothing to invent or create it.  All we are attempting to do is take advantage of the fast growing properties of this specific tissue.  The proof is in the 2000 years of use in Chinese medicine.  Among its positive effects include:  increased energy, decreased joint pain/stiffness/muscle ache allowing for increased strength, increased endurance, and decreased recovery time.  The uniqueness of the product is the naturally occurring glucosamine, chondroitin, and hyaluronic acid.  They also happen to be the building blocks of cartilage.

Along with those building blocks of cartilage, there is also a combination of associated minerals, growth factors and co-factors, which together can promote cartilage and joint health.  Firstly, there are anti-inflammatory properties, which can “cool” an irritated joint and prevent a potentially harmful inflammatory reaction, a process that can degrade joint tissue.  Secondly, there are studies that show that glucosamine and chondroitin can be chondroprotective, maintaining the synthesis (production) of cartilage.   Thirdly, there is evidence that they can aid in chondromodulation by decreasing the rate of cartilage degeneration.

A few words about IGF-1 (insulin growth factor), which is in Lurong Living Essential; it is also in cow’s milk, dairy, and beef.  IGF-1 is a cytokine, which in essence is a signaling molecule.  It is not a hormone.  It has been shown that IGF-1 plays a significant role in the repair of cartilage by signaling the healing pathways, which may ultimately slow down the formation of arthritis.  When used in physiologic doses, IGF-1 is safe, and plays a part in injury recovery as opposed to performance enhancement.

About the Author

Patrick W. Kwok, MD

Dr. Kwok is a board certified orthopedic surgeon specializing in sports medicine and arthroscopy. He currently is a Partner in a private practice called Orthopaedic Specialty Group in Fairfield, Connecticut. He is a proud father of 3 and a dedicated husband. He is an active CrossFitter and committed to the cause of helping people live to their potential. Dr. Kwok is a proud member of the LuRong Living Family and has been recommending LuRong Living Essential to his patients for more than 2 years. He continually sees positive results in his patient population for several health concerns ranging from severe joint health issues to post operation recovery.