Advice On Connective Tissue Pain And Starting With RP

[bikeman]

For the past 1.5 years I've been experiencing connective tissue pain. Most significantly, patellafemoral pain, ac joint (shoulder), and ankle tendon. I have also periodically have had SI joint and metatarsal (foot) pain. These ongoing injuries that will not heal despite physical therapy, rest and recovery have me looking for systemic answers to heal my body from within. My fiancée has been interested in Ray Peat, so I thought i'd look here for a starting point to begin tinkering with my diet in hopes to move towards a healthier body (and metabolism).

Quick history - I am a 27 y/o male who has been an athlete all of my life. Around 4 years ago I found paleo, at first under-eating and overexercising with very few carbs. I then transitioned to adding more starch, but the injuries began and have continued to get worse. First my knee, then ankle, then shoulder, and more recently my foot has started to ache just from walking. My SI joint also flares up periodically. I have reduced my exercise very significantly to no apparent aid. No one in the medical community has been able to offer any sound advice, so I'd love some guidance on what else I can think about to solve these issues. I have also tried lots of various supplements.

For what it's worth, I have had some cyclic periods of fatigue, dizziness, severe night sweats, erectile dysfunction, insomnia.

 

[Regina]

For the past 1.5 years I've been experiencing connective tissue pain. Most significantly, patellafemoral pain, ac joint (shoulder), and ankle tendon. I have also periodically have had SI joint and metatarsal (foot) pain. These ongoing injuries that will not heal despite physical therapy, rest and recovery have me looking for systemic answers to heal my body from within. My fiancée has been interested in Ray Peat, so I thought i'd look here for a starting point to begin tinkering with my diet in hopes to move towards a healthier body (and metabolism).

Quick history - I am a 27 y/o male who has been an athlete all of my life. Around 4 years ago I found paleo, at first under-eating and overexercising with very few carbs. I then transitioned to adding more starch, but the injuries began and have continued to get worse. First my knee, then ankle, then shoulder, and more recently my foot has started to ache just from walking. My SI joint also flares up periodically. I have reduced my exercise very significantly to no apparent aid. No one in the medical community has been able to offer any sound advice, so I'd love some guidance on what else I can think about to solve these issues. I have also tried lots of various supplements.

For what it's worth, I have had some cyclic periods of fatigue, dizziness, severe night sweats, erectile dysfunction, insomnia.

Hopefully others, more experienced than I am, will chime in.

I have cycled through your same injury/pain areas. (I do aikido). I had to stop training for 6 years because I thought, 'oh well, this is a young person's game'. I couldn't take it anymore--constantly walking/limping around with injuries feeling beaten to hell. My SI joint was shot. I went from training 6 days a week as a "shugyosei" (deep inside student) to nothing. I became severely fatigued and insomniac.
During my 6 yrs off, I went from being vegetarian (high grain, soy, nuts, nonsense diet) to paleo, to GAPS to PHD (for 4 yrs) and now Peat. I noted about 1.5yrs ago (while staunchly adhering to PHD diet) that I had gained muscle mass and strength. I was doing no exercise outside of walking my dog but had and was gaining muscle mass and had zero injury anywhere in my body. Where was this muscle coming from??? And I had no sickness at all during the four yrs. However, I was very lean. Too lean. But getting ripped. Tried something I could NEVER ever do. An actual pushup. I did 50. wtf! How come I can do this? I don't train. I sit around on my computer all day, watch TV on the couch too late. Anyway, I thought maybe I could stick my toe back in aikido???
My former school had busted up but a senior student opened her own dojo. I gave it a try. It's been almost a year back on the mat. I do credit the PHD (Paul Jaminet) diet with a great deal of my recovery. He hates PUFA most and considers only potatoes and white rice to be safe starches, stresses importance of glucose, doesn't like legumes and is seriously into circadian rhythm entrainment and light therapy. He does not like endurance training and writes voluminously on plant toxins. However, one of the critical differences in PHD to Peat is he recommends intermittent fasting; i.e., limiting one's feeding window to 8 hrs -- such as from noon to 8pm. He likes red or amber light in the evenings after 8pm. So I was skipping breakfast. I built my aikido back up to 4 nights a week (including supplemental zazen, chanting and breathing exercise). Sure enough, the injuries (uh er, more like targeted assaults) were racking up again but I was stronger (less panicked) on the mat than my previous training years. Literally, my body feels younger now than it did 10 yrs ago. 20 or 30 yrs ago really.
However, the leanness was getting ridiculous. I also don't like that if I train, I'm not eating dinner till late. Goodbye circadian rhythm because all good aikido teachers have day jobs. Good training happens at night.
I was very clearly catabolic. Skin, muscle, bone. Thrilled to be training but clearly the show was running on stress chemicals.

Some time during the last 11 months, I began to feel a much bigger pull toward Dr. Peat. Voraciously reading his articles which I had tried to offer up on the PHD forum to little applause. I had horrendous bursitis, damaged elbow joints and wrists but determined to keep training aikido. I added a 5th night into training at a another dojo (considered cheating on your Sensei in aikido). I began to fold in Peatarian ideas into my nutrition. I would say that mentally and spiritually, I have always been anti-authoritarian; so everything about Ray Peat goes down easily with me. (of course, he is light yrs ahead of me in gray matter!).

I read about Vitamin K2 and soft-tissue calcification. And the calcium paradox. I had already been adding sugar and milk to my (previously) black morning coffee. I first bought Life Ext Advanced K, then Thorne's K2 liquid drops and THEN Haidut's Kuinone K2 (MK-4) product. On Thorne K2, I was dosing 45 mg day whilst folding in more and more Peat ideas. Bringing OJ to the dojo; I have a Yeti thermos of sugary milky strong cold coffee in the bedroom and a salt packet; I drink salted sugary milk with glycine before bed; drinking a juice box in the minute between a hard aikido class and zazen. Also during that brief time between aikido and zazen, I rip off my sweaty gi (uniform) and bundle up to sit in zazen for an hour. In aikido they say, "where there's a gap; there's a slap."
So like, I'm all sweaty "endorphins???"" worked-out, depleted. I want my body to ASAP feel safe, satiated, unstressed. I want the instant tissue repair (from the hard class) to begin with a warm body not depleted of energy/sugar. No gap. No slap. Body wants energy; body gets energy. Body wants safety; body gets safety. Try to close the gaps between where stress can seep in. In my mind, body and spirit. Cliche? Yes, but. Where there's a gap; there's a slap.

The K2 (Kuinone) rapidly eliminated my bursitis. My wrists can have much more wiggle room with wrist-locks techniques in class. I have only 1 elbow (ugly arm bar) joint that is plaguing me. SI, hips, knees, plantar totally without irritation. Long seiza (kneeling position) and our kneeling grappling positions (swari waza) present no discomfort. I don't know how long I can keep playing on the mat with the young kids, but upping my sugar, fructose, gelatin aminos, vit K2, progesterone, and other strategies to reduce estrogen, cortisol, adrenaline have certainly put me back in play.
She's happy. Counting her blessings.

 

[Milena]

Hopefully others, more experienced than I am, will chime in.

I have cycled through your same injury/pain areas. (I do aikido). . I want my body to ASAP feel safe, satiated, unstressed. I want the instant tissue repair (from the hard class) to begin with a warm body not depleted of energy/sugar. No gap. No slap. Body wants energy; body gets energy. Body wants safety; body gets safety. Try to close the gaps between where stress can seep in. In my mind, body and spirit. Cliche? Yes, but. Where there's a gap; there's a slap....

The K2 (Kuinone) rapidly eliminated my bursitis. My wrists can have much more wiggle room with wrist-locks techniques in class. I have only 1 elbow (ugly arm bar) joint that is plaguing me. SI, hips, knees, plantar totally without irritation. Long seiza (kneeling position) and our kneeling grappling positions (swari waza) present no discomfort. I don't know how long I can keep playing on the mat with the young kids, but upping my sugar, fructose, gelatin aminos, vit K2, progesterone, and other strategies to reduce estrogen, cortisol, adrenaline have certainly put me back in play.
She's happy. Counting her blessings.

Thanks. I needed to read this today and feel it needed a bump.