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Dr. George: Your Aches and Pains From Exercise May Be the Result of Improper Diet –Try Water
Published in the Ojai Valley News, June 14, 1981, p. B-2.
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Dear Dr. Meinig:
I have developed a severe pain in my right elbow and at times in the right shoulder. It has prevented my playing tennis and golf. Needless to say I am quite unhappy that the treatments I have received have been unsuccessful. A friend told me that you had written an article about tennis elbow but he couldn’t remember what your recommendations were. Would it be possible for you to repeat what you had to say? – N.D.
Dear N.D.:
Since my previous article a couple of new, useful developments have taken place that call for a rewrite of that column.
Tennis elbow, bursitis, tendinitis, sciatica and such painful conditions all are the result of disorders of body chemistry that are due to dietary indiscretions. For the most part the cause is related to the habit of people to consume, instead of water, any number of the many choices of beverages that are now available.
There are literally hundreds of them when we consider all the varieties of fruit juices, soft drinks, coffee, tea, vegetable juices, milk, herb teas, alcohol, etc. that are on the market. The most difficult one for people to accept as a possible cause for their pain is the use of fruit juice.
In my previous article I called tennis players’ attention to the practice of many of them on hot days to gulp down, during the game, a pint to a quart or more of orange juice. When the player is made aware that this involves the juice of eight to 20 oranges, and that means the consumption of a high concentration of fruit sugar, citric acid and potassium, it becomes easier to see how the excess amounts of these ingredients could imbalance the body’s normal content of minerals.
Other fruit juices, such as apple or cherry juice, create similar problems. Eating large amounts of fruit can lead to these difficulties but most people usually limit their intake to one serving of fruit when chewing is required.
A new discovery of a possible contributing dietary cause of the pain of these conditions is the use of aspartame (NutraSweet), the food and beverage sweetener. H. J. Roberts, M.D., recently reported that joint pain was found as a major complaint in 58 (10.5 percent) aspartame users and that their discomfort disappeared when its use was discontinued. Dr. Roberts advised doctors to inquire about aspartame use in all patients who presented with unexplained joint pain or rheumatologic disorders.
Soft drinks can cause problems because of their phosphoric acid content as well as the high amount of sweeteners, caffeine, artificial coloring, flavor emulsifiers, anti-foaming agents, coal tar products and preservatives they contain.
The caffeine in coffee and tea along with the other ingredients of the coffee bean and tea leaves also affect mineral balances. The large variety of substances contained in all these beverages result in some weird chemical combinations that the best of chemists have not been able to fathom.
Another nutritional hot-breaking news item involves the use of vitamin B-12 in the treatment of bursitis. Oral tablets do not work but intramuscular injections of 1,000 mcgms of B-12 have relieved a significant percentage of these cases. If nothing else is working, ask your physician to give you a trial of these injections twice a week for a minimum of two or three weeks.
It is easy to blame such illnesses on one’s intense sport physical activity. However, a number of other people have muscular stress experiences that cause these symptoms, such as the hammering work of carpenters, the strained hand, arm, chin positions of violinists and other musicians, not to mention those who do a lot of knitting and crocheting.
The fact is, our muscles and bones were designed to handle great amounts of stress. When they fail to do so we must ask ourselves what we are doing that prevents our tissues from being able to handle such activity.
The painful rebellion we have experienced is an indication that our cells are undergoing mineral excesses or deficiencies and/or an accumulation of waste products. Just a few days, using water as your only beverage, will usually resolve the difficulty.