After the holidays, I was sitting on the floor with the dogs while I watched one of my new DVDs. When I got up (after the hour and a half on the floor), my right knee was killing me. It ended up bothering me for close to a week, so I went with the RICE plan: rest, ice, compression, elevation. Eventually, the pain went away. I figure that I must have either been in a bad position on the floor or twisted something trying to get up.
Your knees take a lot of abuse over a lifetime. I read somewhere once (and the factoid has always stuck with me) that for every pound of weight on your body, that’s three pounds of pressure on your knees. That’s a lot of pressure!
Want to protect your knees? I sure do.
Researchers in Australia recently looked at diet in folks who didn’t have any knee pain. And they found one common nutrient: vitamin C. Nearly three hundred people had their knees examined repeatedly over a ten year period. The folks who got lots of vitamin C in their diets were less likely to have bone degeneration that can lead to osteoarthritis in the knees.
Add knee protection to the list of great things vitamin C does for your body! You can take a daily supplement, or you can eat foods rich in vitamin C like:
- Bell peppers
- Kiwifruit
- Tomatoes
- Oranges
Other antioxidants can help protect your knees, too. Make sure you eat a full rainbow of fruits and vegetables in your diet. Dark green veggies are especially good for protecting the joints against age-related wear and tear. They’re full of antioxidants like lutein and zeaxanthin.
Okay, eating oranges wouldn’t have fixed my tweaked knee after the holidays. But making sure I get enough vitamin C from here on out means my knees will be less susceptible to osteoarthritis and other painful problems. That sounds good to me!