Topic: Knee Pain

[Andy Dick]

I did see a doc because it cost me almost nothing.  He is our high school team's doc and specializes in knees.  He ordered x-rays.  The x-rays showed calcification on the top of my patella, which they say is probably causing some of my soreness on the top of my knee cap.  He said my knee seemed like it was mainly suffering from overuse.  His recommendation was not to stop lifting.  His advice was to cut the weight back to the point where I can lift without my knee getting sore.  He wants me to maintain the highest intensity I can do without soreness in the knee.  After the first of the year if I am still getting soreness, he will order me up an MRI to make sure there is no underlying damage to the troclea, knee cap, or cartilage.  My knee structure looked fine though from the x-ray.

He did have the conversation with me along the lines of "well you are almost 30, you need to think about if you want to keep lifting houses.  Since higher intensity seems to aggrivate it more."  But I do want to keep lifing houses, we can have that talk when I'm 45 or 50, lol.

[Matt Erdman]

He did have the conversation with me along the lines of "well you are almost 30, you need to think about if you want to keep lifting houses.  Since higher intensity seems to aggrivate it more."  But I do want to keep lifing houses, we can have that talk when I'm 45 or 50, lol.

That's the spirit. When I saw a PT about my she started saying the same thing.

Did you get more details on the calcification? Why is it caused? What happens if you keep pushing? What makes it go away?

[Andy Dick]

I didn't ask what caused it, I assumed overuse injury.  Does not seem like it is something that will go away.  However from talking to them it will not get worse.  May get sore but will just have to manage.  The soreness from the calcification would not be something I couldn't live with. 

However, after Mondays workout (during workout my knee felt fine) until now it has been sore around the patellar tendon area.  I am pretty sure I am going to take time off until next year (3 weeks).  I may do the dredded cardio since I do feel I have a few pounds I could shed and focus on upper body.  If it is overuse and I just need some more rest hopefully it will help and based on the advice of Matt and Arturo.

I am going to call the doc Monday to ask some of your questions as the cause is a very good question to keep it from happening.  I have a feeling they will say overuse which is so broad and general it would not help.

[Arturo Gómez]

Calcification: when I had calcification in the knee i drunk a little cup of MgCl every morning by a month. The calcification vanished. Medical are esceptic, but people uses vety much here with good results.

[Matt Erdman]

Calcification: when I had calcification in the knee i drunk a little cup of MgCl every morning by a month. The calcification vanished. Medical are esceptic, but people uses vety much here with good results.

Interesting. I've been taking ZMA (zinc and magnesium supplement) for a long time. I've recently started taking calcium as well. It may be telling if this makes a difference.

Andy - "Overuse" is a bit of a cop-out. You might try to get him to explain even if he thinks it is going over your head.

[Andy Dick]

I talked to him today and I do not know if I fully buy it.  He gave me the standard doc answer, "it was caused by many years of heavy squatting."  Your knees take 6x the force yadde yadda.  Going to cut it way back, till next year as far as stress on the knee.  If nothing improves then we are going to get the MRI.

Arturo do you have a dosing amount?

[Arturo Gómez]

I bought a 10 grs envelope and disolved in 1l of water.I drunk 1 cup of coffee of this every morning ( it feels nasty), and stayed good in a month.

[Andy Dick]

Just to clarify you took 10 grams a day in a liter of water?