[pct-l] Worried About My Knees

[Scott Williams]

Great Point Bravo and one I had never even thought of.  Even after the PCT
when I was in the best shape of my life, I still tested out as
pre-diabetic, continued high blood pressure and all kinds of things wrong
with me even though I was strong as a horse and at a great weight for me.
I had hiked the trail on a serious junk food diet, lots of mac and cheese
and snickers, ramen and anything I could get and shove down.  The
nutritional emptiness of the diet had me refueling with more junk food
every hour or so as I absorbed the calories and used them so fast.  Nothing
stayed with me for long.

Several months after finishing the hike and still eating lots of junk, I
began gaining weight of course and when I had my blood work done, was told
by my Dr. that I was pre-diabetic.  Having seen miraculous changes in folks
around me by cutting out the processed carbs, I went for it and stopped
eating all flour and sugar.  I atet meat and lots of carbs in their whole
state, meaning  tons of fiber which slows the absorption of the sugars.  I
lost the little weight I'd gained in short order and found I wasn't hungry
all day the way I used to be.  The slowed absorption and quality oil in my
diet kept me sated from one meal to the next.

By the next winter, my Dr. wanted me to have my blood work done and was
recommending statins if things hadn't changed.  I did not want that as I
know of the possible side effects of statins on muscles.  So, I put it off
and put it off till 2 weeks before I was to leave for a thru hike of the
CDT.  I finally went in, got blood drawn and waited for the bad news.  I
was out the next day but came home to a message on my phone from my Dr.
 "Scott, what have you done!?  Your cholesterol's plummeted, your
 Triglicerides and lipid panels are perfect.  Sit down and take your blood
pressure."  I did just that and found a low blood pressure, the first time
in 25 years.  The preceding year, my weight had remained low, I had still
hiked like a fiend, all the same stuff I'd done the year of my PCT hike,
but all the numbers had changed.  I was off all meds and remain off them.
The only difference in my life was the absence of processed foods.  No
junk!  Lots of veggies and good quality protein and carbs, but no junk.

I hiked the CDT in a very different way from the PCT and that was by drying
most of my own foods before trail.  I was lucky to travel with a hiking
partner, Why Not, who was eating the same way.  I created great breakfasts,
lunches and dinners that were all soakable and discovered something else
amazing, I didn't need to fuel every hour on the hour as I had on the PCT.
I had a big breakfast and that got me to lunch, a big lunch and that got me
to dinner.  My energy only began to flag just shortly before the next
meal.  When we were in snow in the Weminuche Wilderness, I upped the total
size of the meals, and as it was too much to eat at a sitting, I split my
day into 5 meals, but was able to go back to 3 once we were out of the
snow.  I also had much better overall strength and endurance than on the
PCT, but that could be just getting stronger on each hike.  The healthier
diet is miraculous, however, of that I'm sure.

But, to get back to Bravo's insight, I never thought of this diet as being
anti-inflammatory, and of course it is.  I was so amazed by the blood work
numbers, that I hadn't thought of the other ramifications.  But I'm sure
it's helping these old knees run down my usual training mountain ahead of
most of the young folks I hike with.   Yee Hawwww!!!!  Gimme a mountain!

Great point Bravo.

Shroomer

On Sun, Apr 12, 2015 at 9:51 PM, Jim Bravo <jimbravo2 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Scott "Shroomer" Williams made some great points on dealing with arthritic
> knees that I have found to be true over years of running ultras and hiking.
> Add one more. After knee surgery last year to remove most of my R meniscus,
> and at 62 years of age, I could not run a quarter mile without pretty
> severe knee pain that forced me to stop. My knee became arthritic
> (inflamed). I've been a runner since 1986 and thought it was over for sure,
> until I changed my diet. The funny thing is, the diet change was for other
> health reasons entirely. Whole, unprocessed foods, no sugar or flour. This
> is a low glycemic load, and therefore your body has a lower insulin
> response. It's a diet that reduces inflammation throughout your body. It
> does a helluva lot more positive things than that, but this thread is about
> knees. Voila! Within a month I could run several miles without any pain.
> I'm slowly building up my mileage again... Other symptoms are improving as
> well. The old adage to "make your food your medicine" is a reality if you
> do it right. The best book I've read on the subject 'is "The Blood Sugar
> Solution" by Mark Hyman, M.D. Anyway, I know that Shroomer is using a
> similar diet and I wanted to make the point that I suspect his diet is
> really helping lower inflammation (arthritis) in his knees, as well as the
> other things he spoke of.
>
> Bravo
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