Being a boy at heart, I wanted to see the Superman versus Batman movie. Two superpowers battling head-to-head. I suspect in the real world that Superman and Batman would probably work together for the betterment of human-kind, but that would make a boring movie.
I often feel this way about Integrative Medicine, and my role as a pharmacist and nutrition medicine practitioner. Should I recommend drugs or nutrients? Truth is, I normally recommend whichever I think will be best for the person I’m treating. Sometimes I recommend both Superman and Batman.
Recently, I spoke to a group of physiotherapists about drugs and nutrients that can be useful for painful musculoskeletal disorders. When I was doing my research it became clear that good nutrition can prevent injuries. And we know that prevention is better than cure. But sometimes despite good nutrition, injuries, pain and inflammation can still occur.
My overall message was that with a good diet, and use of key supplements, a lot of injuries just wouldn’t happen. Many injuries happen because a person is in a state of inflammation. In other words there are many immune system cells running around the body just looking to cause trouble. And so when you dust off your rugby boots, or netball shoes and put your body under a little bit of stress (exercise is good stress), then you get injured much more easily.
We all know someone who gets injured a lot. Sometimes this can be fixed by simply improving the diet through reducing inflammatory foods such as sugars and refined grains. Or improving the balance of good fats in the diet. I have read that Novak Djokovic was plagued by injury until he changed his diet, and then was able to train harder and soared to be the world’s best tennis player.
If you are doing exercise this winter, I applaud you. But be kind on yourself and ensure your diet is supporting growth and fitness, and not setting you up for injury.
If you need a natural anti-inflammatory supplement or would like a copy of Martin’s anti-inflammatory diet, then ask the team at Massey Unichem pharmacy.
I can’t actually remember who won in the movie, but in real life maybe they can work together.