Nutrition, Vitamin D And Tendons

Nutrition – A Fundamental of Proximal Hamstring Tendinopathy Recovery

If you’ve tried most treatments for proximal hamstring tendinopathy and there’s nothing else left that sounds sane, it could be your nutrition blocking your recovery.  Nutrition is fundamental to tendon repair.

How To Find Out What You Need

If you think you are low or deficient, consider blood testing.

Red blood cell and plasma blood tests show what’s happening inside your cells and serum whole blood tests show what’s happening outside your cells, in your whole blood, as it says.

Symptoms of deficiencies include muscle tics, tight muscles, numbness, tingling, headaches, insomnia, fatigue, muscle weakness, hair loss, dry scaly skin, palpitations and more.

Supplements – The Don’ts

It’s not ideal to pop into your local high street health food shop and pick something up, as a stab in the dark, to fix a health problem without blood testing first.  There’s a lot of great advice on the internet but using it to work out if you are low on something and trying to fix it yourself, without testing, may cause nutritional imbalances.

For example, magnesium and calcium work together to relax and contract muscles. If you are low in magnesium and top heavy in calcium, your muscles contract causing pulling on your tendons.

Excess vitamin C is eliminated by the body by attaching itself to another mineral which is excreted, resulting in mineral loss.

Whatever supplements you take, they will deplete or impede something else and so it goes on. Plus there are only so many binding sites and if there’s nowhere to bind to, the vitamin or mineral is lost.

If blood testing shows a deficiency, talk to your doctor first before taking supplements and take them temporarily, until blood tests show your levels are optimum, then stop when your doctor advises.

I still see posters on the London Underground advertising multi vitamins with a famous actor (in his 40’s) saying he’s been on them since his twenties.

What to eat (as part of a varied diet) to maintain or help repair tendons.

www.healthyeating.sfgate.com/nutrients-needed-tendons-ligaments-4392.html

Vitamin D

Low or deficient  vitamin D also impacts your musculoskeletal system.  Here’s what the UK Government have to say about it via the NHS.

“The government says it has issued new vitamin D recommendations “to ensure that the majority of the UK population has satisfactory vitamin D blood levels throughout the year, in order to protect musculoskeletal health”.

Read the full advice from the NHS using UK government guidelines here:  www.nhs.uk/news/food-and-diet/the-new-guidelines-on-vitamin-d-what-you-need-to-know

Obviously, this applies to the geographical position of the UK but gives a good indication on how important vitamin D is for everyone’s musculoskeletal health.

 

Collagen Supplements

Collagen Supplements – Do They Work?

When you’ve a long history of tendon injury and nothing seems to fix it, you put a lot of energy into considering ways you can. Ways you can get back to living your life pre PHT.

Collagen supplements are one of the more easily obtained potential treatments for PHT or any musculoskeletal injury. There’s been a lot of interest in these over the last few years and you can see why. Pop into a health food shop on the high street, pick some up for a few pounds and start taking them that day. Far more accessible than waiting for a medical appointment, scans, follow-up and a lot cheaper if you don’t have access to a state run health service. You feel like your doing something positive towards your recovery. You sometimes pin your hopes on them. So are they worthwhile and what does the research say?

The Research

Most collagen studies have been of small sample groups and industry funded so the question to ask is can you trust an industry funded study? Nearly all existing research has focused on supplements and not food so can you get the same collagen production from a healthy balanced diet? Libby Mills – Spokesperson for The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Chicago and Washington says “Maybe if people consumed adequate protein, they would get the same benefit.” The body breaks down both food and collagen supplements into amino acids in the same way to produce collagen. Libby Mills talks about collagen supplements verses food sources in Jamie Santa Cruz’s article for Today’s Dietitian Magazine, March 2019. https://www.todaysdietitian.com/newarchives/0319p26.shtml

What Nutrients Are Needed To Make Collagen

Apart from collagen (a protein found in meat, fish, eggs, dairy and spirulina) vitamin C is the main co-factor in collagen synthesis. Vitamin C is also an antioxidant which helps reduce oxidative stresses that degrade collagen. The outcome of a study for the use of vitamin c, following musculoskeletal injuries, was favourable. The study appeared in The Orthopaedic Journal of Sport, Oct 2018 titled “The Efficiency of Vitamin C Supplementation on Collagen Synthesis and Oxidative Stress After Musculoskeletal Injury.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6204628/

Libby Mills says “Zinc and sulphur are also co-factors in collagen production.” Vitamin A is also involved and an antioxidant. This article, written by Jamie Santa Cruz, in Today’s Dietitian Magazine, states what to eat to get all you need. https://www.todaysdietitian.com/newarchives/0319p26.shtml

What Impacts Collagen Production

One of the world’s favourites – sugar! “Sugar molecules bind to collagen fibres which results in the formation of advanced glycation end products.” Writes Jamie Santa Cruz. Patricia Ferris MD, Clinical Associate Professor of Dermatology at Tulane University School of Medicine says “These bindings cause an irreversible loss of strength and flexibility in collagen fibres.” As well as sugar’s impact on collagen synthesis, alcohol inhibits the absorption of vitamins and minerals impeding collagen production while smoking causes irregular fibril organisation and fibroblast degeneration in tendons. Read about cigarette smoking and the effects on tendons here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3711704/

Conclusion

Although these small studies have had good results supporting collagen supplementation, Libby Mills makes a valid point “Spending money on supplements doesn’t seem to be necessary because there are many food sources and if you are eating a balanced diet, you should have the nutrients you need.” So perhaps an improved diet and lifestyle is all it takes while we wait for larger non industry funded studies.

 

New E-Book and Printed Book By Dr. Alison Grimaldi On Proximal Hamstring Tendinopathy

About Dr. Alison Grimaldi

Exert from Dr. Alison Grimaldi’s Website

With 25 years of clinical experience and particular expertise in the management of hip, groin and lumbo-pelvic pain and dysfunction, Alison is Principal Physiotherapist at Physiotec and an Adjunct Research Fellow at the University of Queensland. Alison also has a special interest in the assessment and optimisation of lumbo-pelvic and lower limb biomechanics for running, change of direction and all weightbearing sports, aiming to maximize an athlete’s performance outcomes and minimize risks of injury or re-injury.

 

Dr. Alison Grimaldi’s ebook series:

Understanding Tendinopathies of the Hip & Pelvis

Tendinopathies of the hip and pelvis represent a large burden on both the sporting and ageing populations. Growing evidence is shaping contemporary conservative management of tendinopathy.

This e-book series aims to provide readers with guidance towards a deeper understanding of tendinopathies of the hip and pelvis and more effective clinical management based on an emerging evidence base derived from scientific studies on structure and mechanobiological mechanisms, risk factors, impairments and the available information on effects of intervention.

Link to her recently published books including book 3 Proximal Hamstring Tendinopathy:

https://dralisongrimaldi.com/ebooks/#av_section_2