Arthritis Hip Replacement Part 1

Are you considering a total hip replacement?

If you just got back from a doctor’s appointment and the doc said you need one, you need to read this. I’ll give you the basic info you need.
First, relax. Worst case scenario is you need to have the procedure. It is considered the most successful surgery in terms of complications and restoration of quality of life. If this is the worst case scenario, then it’s not that bad.
Assessment:
First, don’t be afraid to ask your doc questions to clarify your condition. This post is going to assume osteoarthritis or degenerative “wear and tear” arthritis. You could have other types of arthritis caused by your immune system or other conditions that are pretty complicated.

Don’t be surprised if you’re confused and your doc confuses you more. Seems after 50 years of doing hip replacements, docs still don’t have direct answers for anything. Don’t expect a lot of answers you’ll have to do a lot of research on your own.

If your doc seems tired of answering questions, is short or obnoxious with you, get another doc. Seriously, don’t take any crap, this is your body and the doc has a responsibility to explain everything to you in detail. It doesn’t matter if you’re the 3000th patient he/she has explained this too. You’re number 1 in your own matter!

You need to know if any cartilage is left. If no cartilage is left, meaning “bone on bone” then you don’t have a lot of options that are viable. If you’re thinking about stem cells or PRP for the hip, I hate to break it to you, but you may be disappointed. You will not find lots of people on the internet posting success stories because there aren’t many. If you have thousands of dollars to try to avoid an operation and spending money is nothing to you, try it, but I doubt it will be successful, despite all the glowing advertisements. The reason is that cartilage needs a scaffold to grow. With bone on bone, there is nothing for the cartilage to grow on. It’s not going to work.

If you do have cartilage left, you can try lasers, stem cells, prp, diet, supplements, exercise etc. However, if you do your research, it doesn’t look good to help your condition.

Again, if you are diagnosed with “bone on bone”, save your money. If you have cartilage left, you can try these alternatives.

When you are evaluating, these “cures” you really need to understand what the situation is behind the claims. If you are really debilitated–meaning you can’t put your socks on, hurts when you walk and are severely impacted, then don’t expect supplements and alternative therapies to work. Even standard medically accepted alternatives like antiinflammatory meds, steroid shots, physical therapy don’t really work.
I often wonder how bad the arthritis was for people who claim miraculous claims from supplements, drugs and alternative therapies.

In my next post, I’ll break down your options including some new and innovative procedures like the Superpath.

Microcirculation

Microcirculation is getting a lot of hot press now. There is a new innovative medical device available that is affordable, painless and easy to self-administer. This device, called D’Oxyva can boost microcirculation in just 5 minutes!

Microcirculation is being studied to help arthritis, fibromyalgia, erectile dysfunction, complications from diabetes, depression, and many many other conditions.

Did you know that even cellulite is directly correlated with lack of adequate microcirculation?

Check out this device now!

Repair Your Arteries and Veins

Glycocalyx.
There’s a new word you’ll be hearing about.

Glycocalyx is the “non-stick” inner lining of every blood vessel. As we get older, or eat a lot of sugars, this inner lining gets damaged by inflammation. As a result, the arteries become inflexible and easily damaged.

Scientists have found a supplement that can restore the Glycocolyx to it’s healthy state.
It’s called Aterosil and it’s made from seaweed. This seaweed has a biochemistry that is very similar to the Glycocalyx and your body uses it to repair it’s own linings. This is how you can repair your arteries and veins.

People are claiming fantastic results from taking the supplement, one pill twice a day. They are claiming clearer thinking, better circulation, more energy..even greater performance in the bedroom.

You can learn more about this from the arterosil website. They are offering a free DVD and other literature at:

Hydrogen Sulfide is better than viagra

Everyone knows by now that increasing the production of nitric oxide in the body results in a healthier cardiovascular system. One of the benefits of a healthy cardiovascular system for men is powerful erections on demand. For women, it’s a youthful sexual response and stronger orgasms.
Conventional wisdom indicates that nitric oxide is the main way to improve blood flow in the body. Nitric oxide can be enhanced by eating more vegetables that provide nitrates (like spinach and beets) or eating foods high in arginine or citrulline.
Scientists have found a new way to improve erections and that is by increasing the production of hydrogen sulfide. In fact Hydrogen Sulfide is better than viagra because you create it naturally in your muscles.
Here is a link to one study here.
Hydrogen sulfide (H2S), which is a well known toxic gas, has recently been recognized as a biological messenger, which plays an important role in physiological and pathophysiological conditions. Relatively high levels of H2S have been discovered in mammalian tissues. It is mainly synthesized by two enzymes including cystathionine β-synthase and cystathionine γ-lysase, which utilize L-cysteine as substrate to produce H2S. H2S has been demonstrated to exhibit potent vasodilator activity both in vitro and in vivo by relaxing vascular smooth muscle. Recently, H2S has been discovered in penile tissue with smooth muscle relaxant effects. Furthermore, other effects of H2S may play a role in the physiology of erection. Understanding of H2S in the physiology of erection might provide alternative erectile dysfunction (ED) strategies for those patients with poor or no response to type 5 phosphodiesterase inhibitors (PDE5i). This review intends to present the H2S pathway in penile tissue and the potential role of H2S in the physiology of erections.
In the article, Hydrogen Sulfide is created mainly by CSE acting on the amino acid Cysteine. What increases CSE? Exercise!

Exercise could be a therapeutic approach for cardiovascular dysfunction induced by estrogen deficiency. Our previous study has shown that estrogen maintains cystathionine-γ-lyase (CSE) expression and inhibits oxidative stress in the myocardium of female rats. In the present study, we investigated whether exercise improves CSE expression and oxidative stress status and ameliorates isoproterenol (ISO)-induced cardiac damage in ovariectomized (OVX) rats. The results showed that treadmill training restored the ovariectomy-induced reduction of CSE and estrogen receptor (ER)α and decrease of total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) and increase of malondialdehyde (MDA). The level of CSE was positively correlated to T-AOC and ERα while inversely correlated to MDA. OVX rats showed increases in the serum levels of creatine kinase (CK) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and the percentage of TUNEL staining in myocardium upon ISO insult compared to sham rats. Exercise training significantly reduced the serum levels of LDH and CK and the percentage of TUNEL staining in myocardium upon ISO insult in OVX rats. In cultured cardiomyocytes, ISO treatment decreased cell viability and increased LDH release, while overexpression of CSE increased cell viability and decreased LDH release in the cells upon ISO insult. The results suggest that exercise training improves the oxidative stress status and ameliorates the cardiac damage induced by oxidative stress in OVX rats. The improvement of oxidative stress status by exercise might be at least partially due to upregulation of CSE/H2S signaling.

You can read about it here.
Can you increase your power in the bedroom by eating more cysteine and exercising more?

Curcumin boosts testosterone

Curcumin boosts testosterone levels!!

I’ve written about the viagra effects of curcumin here.

In this post, it was shown in scientific studies that curcumin can boost nitric oxide levels better than viagra.

In 2014, Scientists learned that curcumin boosts testosterone levels too!

In a study written about at Ergo-log.com, it was noted that curcumin can boost testosterone levels by 257 percent.

In the curcumin group the testosterone concentration in the blood was 257 percent higher than in the control group

Apparently, curcumin, which comes from the common Indian spice Turmeric, boosts the levels of antioxidants in the testes and helps them function better.

The human equivalent in the rat study is about 1 to 1.5 grams of curcumin, according to the writers at ergo-log.com.

That’s really easy to get via supplementation.

You can also start adding the raw spice to your smoothies.

Anti-inflammatories make arthritis worse

Anti-inflammatories are prescribed to address arthritis pain and stiffness. Unfortunately there is not much known about what causes arthritis or how to cure it. There does seem to be a “wear and tear” component and auto-immune component.

Everyone knows that long term anti-inflammatories like aspirin, ibuprofen, advil and prescription drugs have bad side effects. Taking these substances long term inhibit important chemicals called prostaglandins that are involved in maintaining your stomach lining and health of your blood vessels among other things. Sometimes people who take these drugs get stomach ulcers or even heart attacks.

However, it gets even worse. Anti-inflammatories make arthritis worse! Anti-inflammatories inhibit cartilage from regenerating.

If you have wear and tear arthritis and you are taking anti-inflammatories for pain, you will never heal.

Check out this study here on how bad NSAIDs are for your joints.
In human studies, NSAIDs have been shown to accelerate the radiographic progression of OA of the knee and hip. For those using NSAIDs compared to the patients who do not use them, joint replacements occur earlier and more quickly and frequently. The author notes that massive NSAID use in osteoarthritic patients since their introduction over the past forty years is one of the main causes of the rapid rise in the need for hip and knee replacements, both now and in the future.
While it is admirable for the various consensus and rheumatology organizations to educate doctors and the lay public about the necessity to limit NSAID use in OA, the author recommends that the following warning label be on each NSAID bottle:
The use of this nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medication has been shown in scientific studies to accelerate the articular cartilage breakdown in osteoarthritis. Use of this product poses a significant risk in accelerating osteoarthritis joint breakdown. Anyone using this product for the pain of osteoarthritis should be under a doctor’s care and the use of this product should be with the very lowest dosage and for the shortest duration of time.
If NSAID use continues, then most likely the exponential rise in degenerative arthritis and subsequent musculoskeletal surgeries, including knee and hip replacements as well as spine surgeries, will continue to rise as well.
– See more at: http://www.journalofprolotherapy.com/index.php/the-acceleration-of-articular-cartilage-degeneration-in-osteoarthritis-by-nonsteroidal-anti-inflammatory-drugs/#sthash.96kPMmzJ.dpuf

Gut Bacteria and Weight Loss

There’s a lot of great information pouring in regarding gut bacteria and weight loss. It is said we have 100 Trillion bacteria living in and on our bodies. That’s 10x the amount of our body cells!! So, we really are only 10% human.
Here at tonicquest, we’ve learned some interesting things so far about these bugs in our gut. Here’s a list that we will report on as we learn more. Start to research how the bacteria in your gut are creating the youthful tonics you need for everlasting health, youth and beauty:

Gut bacteria are broken into to main types: Fat people have one and skinny people generally have the other.

In lab experiments, if you transplant the fat bacteria into skinny mice, they get fat. If you put the skinny bacteria in fat mice, they get skinny.

The fat bacteria love sugar and carbs.

In order to continue to thrive, the fat bacteria will make you crave carbs and fat. Isn’t that crazy? However, it makes sense. If you have 10x more bacteria on and in your body than human cells, the bacteria are controlling you!!

The bacteria are controlling how you think, how you feel, what you crave and what you do!!

They do this because they want to survive and they want you to do what they want to ensure their health and the health and longevity of their species and offspring.

That’s crazy!!!!!!!!! But true, according to the latest research.

Fat bacteria create more calories out of the fiber and fats in your diet. Read that again, the bacteria in your gut are creating more calories from the food you eat than the skinny bacteria. The reason is that these bacteria are fermenting the fiber in your intestines. The fat bacteria do a more thorough job of these and are releasing more calories in your system!

These fat bacteria also create an inflammation cascade causing all kinds of aches and pains and diseases.

If you are obese or know someone who is obese, it’s not your fault or their fault! The bacteria they have inside them is a huge huge huge reason for the extra fat and fluids in their abdomens and body.

Fortunately, there is a way to influence which bacteria you have inside you.

L Reuteri For Great Hair and Skin

Tonicquest has reported on how mice eating yogurt had increased testosterone levels and great shiny hair. You can read about it here.

The early reports that came out simply mentioned probiotics in yogurt as if any yogurt could have this effect. However, it’s become clear that not all yogurts are created equal. If you read the fine print, you’ll see that most yogurts list the probiotics in them. Unfortunately, the specific strain that was used in the studies, L Reuteri, is really hard to find!! I can’t find one single commercially available yogurt that has this strain. Stonyfield yogurt used to have it, buy they stopped using it for some time now.

I did find L Reuteri in Lifeway Kefir. You can get it here:

Frustratingly, the Lifeway Kefir does not mention what strain is included. The strain you want is ATCC 6475 Lactobacillus reuteri. It’s a challenge to find it anywhere. Until then, you can try to get L Reuteri in supplement form.
You can try this one:

Read this study here.:

Radiant skin and hair are universally recognized as indications of good health. However, this ‘glow of health’ display remains poorly understood. We found that feeding of probiotic bacteria to aged mice induced integumentary changes mimicking peak health and reproductive fitness characteristic of much younger animals. Eating probiotic yogurt triggered epithelial follicular anagen-phase shift with sebocytogenesis resulting in thick lustrous fur due to a bacteria-triggered interleukin-10-dependent mechanism. Aged male animals eating probiotics exhibited increased subcuticular folliculogenesis, when compared with matched controls, yielding luxuriant fur only in probiotic-fed subjects. Female animals displayed probiotic-induced hyperacidity coinciding with shinier hair, a feature that also aligns with fertility in human females. Together these data provide insights into mammalian evolution and novel strategies for integumentary health.

Beat Winter Blues with Curcumin

Feeling down? You can beat winter blues with curcumin. There are many studies like this that show curcumin or turmeric are effective anti-depressants.

Curcumin, the principal curcuminoid derived from the spice turmeric, influences several biological mechanisms associated with major depression, namely those associated with monoaminergic activity, immune-inflammatory and oxidative and nitrosative stress pathways, hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity and neuroprogression. We hypothesised that curcumin would be effective for the treatment of depressive symptoms in individuals with major depressive disorder.

Seems like every bad thing is caused by inflammation. A great anti-inflammatory like curcumin is a good thing to add to your diet and your personal regimen.

You can get a great supplement for this here:

Or if you want a powerful pure powder try this:

Curcumin Better Than Viagra

Believe it or not, curcumin (the most famous chemical and anti-inflammatory derived from turmeric root used in asian cooking) could be more effective than sildenafil. Check out this pub med study Efficacy of a novel water-soluble curcumin derivative versus sildenafil citrate in mediating erectile function.

In conclusion, NCD (Novel Curcumin Derivative) could enhance erectile function with more efficacy and more prolonged duration of action.

Here’s another study that says it can be effective for up to a week vs a few hours for Viagra.
You can read it here.

Results. In group 2, there was a significant progressive maintained elevation of HO activity and cGMP tissue levels
starting from the first hour in subgroups 3 and 4, whereas, the rise in HO activity and cGMP started from second
hour regarding the other rat subgroups. Sildenafil effect decreased after 3 hours. In group 3, there was a significant
maintained elevation of HO activity and cGMP tissue levels extended to 1 week as compared to controls for all rat
subgroups that received both forms of curcumin. In group 4, long-acting curcumin derivative exhibited more
significant potentiation of intracavernosal pressure as compared to control and to the pure curcumin.
Conclusion. Water-soluble long-acting curcumin derivative could mediate erectile function via upregulating cavernous
tissue cGMP.

I’ve been looking for a water soluble curcumin supplement. They are hard to find, but this looks like an early one:

Ibuprofen Extends Life Span?

There’s evidence that ibuprofen could extend lifespan and health for humans up to 15%!
You can read about it here.
According to the article at Sciencedaily,

Regular doses of ibuprofen extended the lifespan of multiple species, according to research published in the journal Public Library of Science, Genetics.
“We first used baker’s yeast, which is an established aging model, and noticed that the yeast treated with ibuprofen lived longer,” said Dr. Michael Polymenis, an AgriLife Research biochemist in College Station. “Then we tried the same process with worms and flies and saw the same extended lifespan. Plus, these organisms not only lived longer, but also appeared healthy.”
He said the treatment, given at doses comparable to the recommended human dose, added about 15 percent more to the species lives. In humans, that would be equivalent to another dozen or so years of healthy living.

No real theories yet on why this could be, but it’s very interesting. Non Steroidal Anti-Inflammatories could cause stomach ulcers and other side effects due to interfering with prostaglandins. There is also evidence it is correlated (not necessarily causing) erectile dysfunction somewhere down the line after extended use.

We’ll have to keep watching new developments on this one!

Beat Inflammation with Four Great Supplements

Yesterday I wrote about alpha lipoic acid (ALA) and Propionyl l-carnitine (PLC) for beating nerve pain, especially sciatic nerve pain associated with a herniated lumbar disc.
Today I want to talk about 4 other great supplements to eliminate pain and inflammation with links to buy the ones I use.
#1
Curcumin with Ginger. Formulated with BCM-95, this highly absorbable curcumin supplement is fast and effective for relieving muscle, joint and nerve pain. I find it to be very effective and there are great reviews on amazon. This is the one I buy:

#2 Highly potent boswelia extract:
I stumbled across a frankincense supplement and found it to be an effective pain reliever. I researched the herb and was fascinated by it’s effect and my positive experiences with it. It’s a very effective TNF Alpha inhibitor. TNF alpha inhibition not only quenches inflammation and pain, it enhances men’s erections! I found a great version of the herb from Life Extension that is extremely effective:

#3 Cats Claw
From the Peruvian rainforest, this 10:1 extract is potent and effective. This is the one I use:

#4 Bioperine
Bioperine is an extract of black pepper. You can read about it on this blog, but the short story is that it helps you absorb nutrients more. I take this bioperine with my supplements to increase absorption. This is the one I use:

Try these and let us know how you’re doing!