I'm a little late to the party, and I admit, I didn't read all 4 pages of posts - I don't have that much patience (sorry) but I do have some experience with joint pain which I will share with you.
First of all, I do believe in CoQ10 and have been taking it for decades to help with inherited periodontal problems. But it did nothing for my joints.
At one time my Bursitis was so bad that I had to put a "blue ice" pack behind my right hip to drive the car. The pain from pressing the gas pedal down was too intense to bear. I couldn't walk for more than 2 blocks without sitting and resting for a while to relieve the weight.
I also had arthritis in a previously injured little finger that hurt so badly that I would skip playing notes on the saxophone that involved that finger whenever I could.
I was putting DMSO on it, taking glucosamine, chondroitin, MSM, and SAMe with only moderate results. The SAMe worked the best, but it was expensive and I still needed the ice pack and I still avoided those G# notes whenever I could.
I felt like I was going to be a candidate for a hip replacement, something I wanted to avoid at all costs. They only last about 10 years, and then have to be replaced again, and I figured when I was older, it could be life threatening to get a major operation.
I get my vitamins at
Life Extension Foundation in Fort Lauderdale FL and they have doctors on call who give general advice. I e-mailed, expecting to get another supplement to take (that's what LEF does) but instead I got an arthritis/bursitis diet to follow before taking anything else.
I followed the diet and it reduced the pain from extreme to only an irritation. I no longer felt I was going to need a hip job. I could live with the 90% improvement, didn't need the ice pack, and played G# notes with only some discomfort.
I'll paste the diet at the bottom of this post.
Then I discovered PEMFT (Pulsed ElectroMagnetic Field Therapy).
The way I understand it is they use this in all manned space probes and in the International Space Station -- they use a low frequency, north polarity, square wave pulse to keep the bones and joints of the spacemen and spacewomen healthy.
You replace the calcium in your bones constantly. Most of the calcium is flushed out via your blood and eventually urine. But some of it gets lodged in your joints, which wears away the cartilage.
Calcium is paramagnetic; I responds to a magnetic field but doesn't stay magnetized with the field is removed like iron does.
So again, the way I comprehend it is: The low frequency square wave pulses loosen the calcium in the joints by essentially shaking them (fast frequencies and waveforms more gradual than a square wave aren't effective). Then if you drink a lot of water, you can flush that loosened calcium out of your body.
I bought a home-use PEMFT device and it took the rest of the discomfort out of my joints. I am now 100% pain free, I play those G# notes, and can drive cross country without the ice pack. It's like I was never injured.
The PEMFT device was expensive, but I no longer take all those supplements and it paid for itself in a few months.
Try the diet first, for most people it should take care of the pain. If the joint problem is extreme, PM me and I'll give you the name of the device I bought.
The Arthritis/Bursitis Diet:
For both arthritis and bursitis, treatment is similar:
Try the dietary approach first, and if that doesn't work, take stronger action.
Foods that may contribute to chronic inflammation are foods with a high glycemic index (foods that convert to sugar quickly), such as fruit juices, sugars, simple starches, or rice cakes, foods heavy in polyunsaturated or saturated fats, and foods high in arachidonic acid. Some specific foods to avoid are:
* Fatty cuts of red meat (high in saturated fats)
* Organ meats: liver, kidney, and so forth (very high in arachidonic acid)
* Egg yolks (high in arachidonic acid) [my addition: fowl is even higher in AA than egg yolks]
* Pasta (high glycemic index)
* Juices (high glycemic index)
* Rice, especially rice cakes (high glycemic index)
* White bread (substitute whole grain breads such as rye or whole wheat)
* Nightshade Plants bother many people (tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants, peppers, paprika)
Glycemic index charts can be found on the Internet.
Better choices are foods with a low glycemic index and foods that are heavy in monounsaturated fats. Some specific good foods are:
* Salmon and other fish
* Oatmeal
* Fresh fruits and vegetables
* Olives and olive oil
* Peanuts and other nuts
* Whey proteins
We were doing the diet and the PEMFT gizmo with great results, then my wife started to eat a lot of chicken and her hands started swelling up again. We did some googling and found that Chicken, Duck, and other fowl meat has more AA than egg yolks. She cut out the chicken, the swelling went down, and the pain went away again.
IMHO if you can solve the problem with diet, it's the way to go. The proverbial ounce of prevention.
I'd rather give up egg yolks (I was a big egg eater) than have hip replacement surgery. I still eat the whites, and put a little cheese in them to add some flavor.
Bob