You know when something hits you from out of the blue and leaves you shocked and confused? Well that was me last October when I began to have a bit of a knee issue. It came out of the blue, no injury or anything, just sharp stabbing pain in my knee which would stop me in my tracks and often almost make me fall. As there was no event to trace the pain back to I thought it was probably some reactive arthritis (which I have had before) or something emotional around my busy upcoming schedule.
Nightshade plants can aggravate arthritis.
I wasn’t too worried at the time as I thought that it would subside in a day or two if I just took a bit of rest, watched what I was eating and most importantly dealt with the emotional stuff. However the days went into weeks and the weeks into months! While the severity of pain had definitely abated, I still was not able to bend or extend my knee fully and neither was I walking freely as I was caught by small sharp pains.
To say I was frustrated is an understatement. I just couldn’t pin down why it hadn’t come 100% right while anything I did try wasn’t having any impact. I got through Christmas and began to focus on going to a week long camp with my daughter. I wasn’t sure how I was going to be with camp food and activities so just kept on tapping (EFT), eating well and hoping that it would be ok. The thing is that within a day of being on camp my knee was working fully and normally again!! No pain. No restricted movement. No issues at all. How could this be?
I knew it wasn’t the rest (I had tried plenty of that and reduced my runs when it first happened) so that only left the food or emotional stuff I rationalized. It wasn’t until I returned home and the knee began to niggle however that I actually I began to really investigate. The camp food I had been eating was nut free, gluten free, vegetarian and pretty much potato and tomato free. Was it really nuts, potatoes or tomatoes that were causing this? Yes it was!
Turns out the answer was there all the time under my nose. Here I was focused on the gluten intolerance aspect that I forgot about the other foods that may be aggravating things. After having cut them (dairy, peanuts, corn,wheat, sugar, alcohol, nightshades and caffeine) out again for a few weeks I could see that food (in my case the deadly nightshades and mostly tomato) is a big factor in my having healthy, pain free knee joints. Having that knowledge and having that choice is wonderful. It isn’t that I will cut them out completely it just means that I understand the link, can limit my intake and can be aware of the consequences of my actions. Most importantly though for me is that I now have the power to choose and to avoid that pain if I desire.
Hope this finds you discovering your own solutions right under your nose.
Arohanui
Y
Becoming Healthy 