As we consider the many people we know with back pain, this past weekend was particularly disturbing. Jason Dufner, Defending Champion, had to withdraw from the PGA Championship and Tiger Woods should not have continued to play. It has become obvious that the practice of medicine offers no nutritional solution for failed cartilage. This includes all joints that are supported and allowed to flex with cartilage. Very serious is the loss of cartilage in the back between vertebrae. The compression of the vertebral disc causes nerves that serve most areas of the body to become blocked or compromised. Whether it is in the upper back, like Dufner’s, which can affect the arms, torso, and neck or the lower back, like Woods, where the pain and muscle failure is felt in the lower extremities. We take alarm when our own backs and joints ache, but it takes away our love and joy for life when celebrities suffer and our leaders are impaired. I often think of John F. Kennedy and the fact that he was wearing a back brace at the time of his death.

It was particularly alarming to me as I have been a lifelong golfer. I know the pain of not being able to play. I have now overcome this disability, but have not returned to the game. Many of my friends think that I have not returned because of my back, but there are other reasons like writing which are more important. I often ponder if our leaders consider there are more important things than golf – sorry, I digress. Before I discovered the nutritional solution to repair cartilage, my doctor offered to write a letter for seventy percent disability which I turned down. If I decided to pick up the clubs again, I suspect I could return to my current age form. But most likely not the form that I did have when playing three times per week.

I would have thought by now that the nutritional solutions would be common in the practice of medicine. I would like to apologize for not making the solution more public. I have tried to explain the nutritional issues on this blog and it can be found. However, now emphasized is the fact that I need to get on with my second book – The healing of back pain and the nutritional approach for cartilage repair.

I guess finding the solution was not as simple as I thought. It is not just one nutrient, but the interaction of many nutrients. These include, vitamin D, vitamin A, and vitamin B in its many forms, sulfate, magnesium, iodine, and many other micro-minerals. The dose of nutrients is critical for supplementation versus diet. The vitamins cannot be taken in synthetic form and must represent nutrients that are expected by our biological processes. There is also the issue of genetic mutations that can be overcome when taken the vitamins in the correct form. Also toxins should be eliminated from the body, in particular arsenic as it interferes with the methylation cycle.

I have stated before that the solution can be found in the medical literature. However, it will not be found as a double blind control trial. You have to think of the formation of stems cells in the bone marrow, the differentiation into chondrocytes, and the further differentiation into the correct form of cartilage. There does not seem to be anyone that is willing to take on the interaction of nutrients because of the complexity and low economic return to the researchers. There were multiple papers that I read to arrive at the correct nutrients and just got lucky on one nutrient. After supplementing, I grew three inches taller in ten months. That was ten years ago. This freed up the compression on the nerves in my back and eliminated the several diseases that include, degenerative disc disease and sleep apnea and the resulting impairment. I had two back surgeries and prevented more back surgery. I now know that if I had found the correct combination of nutrients earlier in life; I could have avoided all back surgery.

I am sixty three years old and do not take any meds. This is very unusual for my generation as I have discovered through reading and in conversations with my friends. Over sixty years old, 89% of the population takes one or more prescription drugs according to the CDC. This is very sad to me as the US is about 50th in the world in life expectancy. Our country is ravaged with chronic disease. I will continue to take supplements and I don’t eat very healthily. The side effects of the prescription drugs that I did take for pain and resulting depression were alarming. I am sure that if I gave up my fondness for wheat, which I have a severe sensitivity and an addiction, most everyone in my generation would be envious of my health. At one point my doctor said my labs looked like those of a healthy twenty five year old. I have often doubted in my ability to solve complex problems, I should never do that again. After all, the solution to nutritional repair is totally out of my area of formal education, study of engineering, chemistry, fluid flow, heat transfer and combustion – aka “rocket science.” ;>) I have estimated about eight thousand hours of reading and researching over the last twelve years to arrive at the solution. But of course, I was also lead. Keep the faith, with the help of medical professionals I’m publishing soon. – Pandemic Survivor