Stiffness: Why it Happens and How to Get Rid of it
Dr Livingood
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Do you have achy joints? I’m going to cover why you’re stiff, and how to eliminate it.
Calcium
I don’t recommend taking calcium via supplement, because when you put in a lot of calcium in your body, it builds up. These buildups can make you stiff.
When there’s calcium in your body, it’s vitamin D3’s job to transport it into your blood vessels. Some good ways to get vitamin D3 is through the sun, or through supplements.
Vitamin K2
It’s important to take vitamin K2 with vitamin D3 supplements. D3 should be taken with a 20:1 ratio to K2. So if you’re taking 2000 IUs of D3 a day, take at least 100 micrograms of K2.
Vitamin K2 transports calcium from the arteries to the bone. Studies show that when taking proper amounts of K2, the arteries will be less stiff.
K2 transports all of the nutrients our body needs, powers our muscles, and makes our arteries less stiff. This makes Vitamin K2 a must-have when it comes to reducing stiffness and supporting heart health.
Vitamin K2 can be obtained through fermented foods such as:
Apple cider vinegar
Sauerkraut
Kimchi
Kiefer
Raw cheeses
Supplements
Rancid Oils
Rancid oils congest the system, clog up the cells, and are an antinutrient.
This discomfort and congestion leads to stiffness, and causes the cells to swell, so toxins can’t go out and nutrients can’t come in. Some of the primary culprits are:
Cotton Seed Oil
Corn Oil
Soybean Oil
Vegetable Oil
Canola Oil
Rancid oils are a bigger problem than sugar, but only receive a fraction of the attention.
When you put rancid oils into your system, your body doesn’t recognize it and can’t break it down properly.
Have you ever dropped a fast food fry underneath your seat and find it 6 months later and it looks exactly the same? That fry is filled with the same stuff that’s sitting inside of your arteries, blood vessels, and tissues.
I recommend substituting them with real oils such as:
Olive Oil
Avocado Oil
Coconut Oil
Omega Ratio
Our ratio of omega 6s and 3s control the amount of discomfort and stiffness in our body. Processed Foods (think fast food burgers) come from cows that are fed grains instead of grass, causing them to become inflamed.
This leads to higher discomfort in your body because the meats contain a higher count of omega-6s, causing an imbalance of omegas. How do we undo this?
How To Reduce Discomfort
Fish Oil
Fish contains DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) & EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid), which studies show have the biggest reduction discomfort. You can also get ALA (alpha-linolenic acid) from foods like flax and chia seeds.
Reduce Consumption of Omega 6
Another good way to reduce discomfort is by reducing the amount of omega-6s that we’re eating. You can do this by cleaning up your meat:
Beef – Grass Fed
Chicken – Free Range
Fish – Wild Caught
In addition to this, you also want to work on lowering rancid oils. If you can balance the levels of omega 6s and 3s in your body, stiffness and discomfort will be gone.
Stop Overeating
Our body has too much energy, the liver has too much to process, and our digestive system is constantly processing foods as opposed to healing us.
Our body is spending 3x the amount of energy on digesting food because we eat large meals packed with processed oils and carbs.
To remedy this, I would recommend rotational fasting, which will slowly wean your body off of over consuming.
Rotational Fasting
1st Week – Cut the size of your breakfast in half
2nd Week – Skip breakfast
3rd Week – Skip breakfast, and cut your dinner in half
4th Week – Abstain from all food for 24 hours
Your HRV (heart rate variability), which is your sympathetic healing nervous system, speeds up at night. When you’re not overeating and consuming less, especially later in the day, you get way more benefit for stiffness from this process.
That is a simple way to implement rotational fasting, where you don’t plateau, and can be repeated every month. If you need more training on how not to plateau, I have a video that goes over 5 weight loss plateau breakers.
Summary
If you understand the above causes, and follow the solutions I’ve laid out, you should start to notice a difference in how you feel within a few weeks
