David Rose
Well-known member
This time a year ago, I thought my caving days might be over. A trip to the Picos in September 2016 was badly marred by nagging pain in my right knee, which I'd had intermittently before, but never anything like as bad. Through the autumn, it persisted. Eventually I managed to navigate the various hurdles set up by the NHS and managed to get myself an MRI scan. In January 2017 a consultant orthopaedic specialist gave me the result: I had arthritis. It was too far advanced to make an arthroscopy worthwhile. Eventually I would need a replacement knee, but given my age (then 57), he advised me too keep it going as long as I could by taking paracetamol and ibuprofen when necessary.
That did not sound like an attractive prospect. Long-term ibuprofen use damages the gut, and paracetamol the liver. And then... I discovered turmeric.
There is solid clinical evidence that the curcuminoid compounds in turmeric are a natural anti-inflammatory, that can alleviate or prevent both joint pain and other problems, including some cancers. However, turmeric on its own is not very 'bio-available', meaning you would need to consume large doses every day to notice an effect. The solution is capsules containing relatively high amounts of the curcuminoids (600 mg in the ones I am taking) combined with peperine or bio-perine, extracted from pepper. This increases the body's take-up of the curcuminoids.
The results have been striking. Since I started using the capsules twice a day - I get them online from America, at a cost of about ?60 for five months' supply - I have caved in Mexico, Mulu and twice in Riesending, a very challenging Alpine system in Germany. I have spent up to six days underground at a time and twice prussiked up Riesending's monster entrance series, a climb of 950 metres. Yesterday I enjoyed a seven-hour trip in and out of Ogof Cnwc, which involves a fair amount of crawling, and as we negotiated the gravelly grovels near the entrance on the way out the thought struck me again, as it has many times before: the knee was not bothering me at all.
I don't think this is a placebo effect. In the summer I went on a three-week family holiday and tried a different UK-made turmeric product, Turmeric Plus - and with a few days the pain was back. Then I read the small print: the curcuminoid dose was much lower, and for me at least, the lecithin (whey protein) extract it uses to increase the bio-availability was evidently less effective. On returning home I was back on the US capsules and within a bout 10 days I was back to normal.
Last week the media reported doctors' account of a woman with multiple myeloma who had survived ten years, apparently thanks to turmeric. I can't guarantee it will work for every old fart caver. But it certainly does for me. I don't want to use the forum for advertising, but if anyone wants to know the name of the product I use, they can send me a PM.
That did not sound like an attractive prospect. Long-term ibuprofen use damages the gut, and paracetamol the liver. And then... I discovered turmeric.
There is solid clinical evidence that the curcuminoid compounds in turmeric are a natural anti-inflammatory, that can alleviate or prevent both joint pain and other problems, including some cancers. However, turmeric on its own is not very 'bio-available', meaning you would need to consume large doses every day to notice an effect. The solution is capsules containing relatively high amounts of the curcuminoids (600 mg in the ones I am taking) combined with peperine or bio-perine, extracted from pepper. This increases the body's take-up of the curcuminoids.
The results have been striking. Since I started using the capsules twice a day - I get them online from America, at a cost of about ?60 for five months' supply - I have caved in Mexico, Mulu and twice in Riesending, a very challenging Alpine system in Germany. I have spent up to six days underground at a time and twice prussiked up Riesending's monster entrance series, a climb of 950 metres. Yesterday I enjoyed a seven-hour trip in and out of Ogof Cnwc, which involves a fair amount of crawling, and as we negotiated the gravelly grovels near the entrance on the way out the thought struck me again, as it has many times before: the knee was not bothering me at all.
I don't think this is a placebo effect. In the summer I went on a three-week family holiday and tried a different UK-made turmeric product, Turmeric Plus - and with a few days the pain was back. Then I read the small print: the curcuminoid dose was much lower, and for me at least, the lecithin (whey protein) extract it uses to increase the bio-availability was evidently less effective. On returning home I was back on the US capsules and within a bout 10 days I was back to normal.
Last week the media reported doctors' account of a woman with multiple myeloma who had survived ten years, apparently thanks to turmeric. I can't guarantee it will work for every old fart caver. But it certainly does for me. I don't want to use the forum for advertising, but if anyone wants to know the name of the product I use, they can send me a PM.
