Interviewer: What are the top nutrients that you recommend for good joint health?
Dr Stern: The top nutrients I recommend for good joint health are the ones I'm putting in my new joint formula. In fact, I just formulated a formula I'm really excited about.
The number one thing I like to look at anytime I'm formulating a supplement is the foundation of why I'm creating it. I don't want to just attack the symptoms, I want to attack the underlying cause of what the problem can be.
So, when someone comes in here and their joints aren't strong or healthy, I would say we need to work on strength, flexibility and bounds training, but when it comes to nutrition - what we really need to do is get the inflammation down.
Inflammation is horrendous for joints- it breaks the cartilage down, it breaks the tendon and ligaments down, and it creates the pain and the problems that many people are experiencing. So, the number one natural anti-inflammatory product you could do is turmeric and specifically turmeric extract.
The reason why I use turmeric extract is because it needs to be standardized to have a certain amount of curcuminoids. There are lots of turmeric powders out there and turmeric itself is an amazing spice. I actually use it in my food.
In fact, there's something called golden milk where you could put turmeric in there and it's incredible. But what gives turmeric its power are these little things inside called curcuminoids.
Curcuminoids are the anti-inflammatory benefit of what makes turmeric so great.
In my formula, I have a 95% standardized amount of turmeric which is what it really needs to have the potent anti-inflammatory benefits.
Number two, anytime you're doing turmeric, you wanna make sure you have BioPerine.
BioPerine is this constituent of black pepper that makes turmeric do two things. Number one, it helps those curcuminoids absorb easier into the body but also delays the liver's processing of turmeric and not a lot of people know this.
People think that the black pepper extract, BioPerine, just helps with absorption, but what it also does is it allows the turmeric to stay in our system longer before the liver breaks it down to continue the anti-inflammatory benefits for a longer period of time.
So I always recommend using turmeric with black pepper which is why I put it in my formula.
Also, there's a great enzyme called bromelain that also helps reduce inflammation, and I have found when you do things synergistically, like take turmeric with another anti-inflammatory component like bromelain, it actually has more of a cumulative effect on reducing inflammation, since now you're affecting inflammation on two different levels.
The bromelain works as an enzyme in the sense that it goes into the tissue to help reduce inflammation.Then the turmeric, through the curcuminoid benefits, helps drive down the inflammatory molecules that create the pain and problems that we experience.
Those are my two anti-inflammatories and the next thing I like is something called mumiyo. Now, short story about me, I tore my rib cartilage many years ago doing jujitsu and a beautiful Russian woman came to me and recommended shilajit or mumiyo.
Mumiyo is this black, tarry paste that comes out of the rocks in the caves of the Himalayan mountains. It has all these minerals and vitamins in there, but more specifically, it has something called fulvic acid.
This fulvic acid actually helps to strengthen tendons and ligaments and helps your body repair faster. I have used it all the time to this day for any injury I've ever had. I used it with all my patients and it has incredible benefits.
While the turmeric and the bromelain is there for driving inflammation down, the mumiyo, although it also has anti-inflammatory benefits, actually helps strengthen the tendons, ligaments and the cartilage.
Then I also like to put in hyaluronic acid. Hyaluronic acid is a great nutrient that supports collagen health and I used something called silica. Silica's a mineral, but I get it from bamboo extract. This bamboo extract gives you the type of silica that's super bioavailable.
Now why silica?
Collagen is extremely critical to tendon and ligament health. There are lots of supplements on the market now that are promoting collagen. The problem is when you're taking this collagen you're just breaking it down into its constituents. Your body still needs to take those amino acids that they're breaking down and add it to minerals like silica to make this new cartilage for tendon and ligament health.
So the silica is critical to make sure you have good, healthy, strong tendons, ligaments and joints. So that's why I put silica in there, and I'm just super excited about the product and those are the things I recommend.