smokepole, I hope your day is going well.

I enjoed your story about your visit and bbq "adventure". Sorry to hear it would not be beneficial to your ankle to eat that way every day. SAW's meal sounded delicious!

I do not know if you consider vitamin C tablets "natural" and I'm trying to stay on topic. I have read the earlier posts and some folks mentioning a few "pill" type remedies.

I take 2000mg of Ester C every day after having tried it on an old dog with severe hip dysplasia, this after reading an article (this one?) along these lines:

http://www.yourdoghealth.com/dog_ester-c_study.htm

It helped with his mobility and he had a couple of more years of activity before getting quite aged and I ended up having to lift his big a-- into the car/truck.

I started taking it quite a number of years back and it seems to help.

I've got "moderate to severe arthritis in my hands from age and use, use, use (her exact words)" according to the docs office. I had a case of giardiaisis in 2008 and decided to stop taking my dailies as everything went right thru, quickly. No point in flushing money. I noticed a day or two after stopping that my hands hurt worse than they had in years. Almost immediately after the "bugs" were gone and I went back on the vit. C my hands got better. Now that I also have arthritis in my lower back, knee, and probably other places, I'm afraid to stop for any length of time.

Oh, I'm not selling Ester C, other versions might work too, it's just that I've had reflux issues and my understanding is the Ester stuff is associated with some calcium so it's not so acidic or some such. I also get it when the "rebates" knock $4 a jar off at COSTCO.

Good luck on your search for relief. It doesn't seem to get any easier with age.

Geno

The desert is a true treasure for him who seeks refuge from men and the evil of men.
In it is contentment
In it is death and all you seek
(Quoted from "The Bleeding of the Stone" Ibrahim Al-Koni)

member of the cabal of dysfunctional squirrels?