Why joint pain after 60 is not just wear and tear

Joint pain after 60 is inflammation, and Dr. Martin's position is that inflammation does not arrive by itself. You have had the joints the whole time. What changed is what is going on inside them, and he says apart from an injury that change starts with sugar.

He is blunt about what unchecked inflammation does over time.

Inflammation left unchecked will destroy blood vessels, number one, but they will also destroy your joints.

Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 704

The example he reaches for is rheumatoid arthritis, inflammation that does not go away. His point with it is not that everyone with a sore knee has rheumatoid arthritis. It is that inflammation is the thing doing the damage, so inflammation is the thing to chase.

Inflammation is not Houdini

This is the sentence he repeats on the show more than almost any other, and he says it half apologising for repeating it. Inflammation is not Houdini. It does not appear out of nowhere. It is caused by something else.

That one line changes the whole question. It stops being why do my joints hurt at 60, and becomes what is feeding the inflammation in them. He is careful to add that inflammation is part of the process, not the cause. You have to go back.

Glycation: the hardening he describes in joints

Dr. Martin on what is happening inside the joint:

One of the biggest things, especially in joints, guys, one of the biggest things in joints is what we call glycation.

Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 704

Then he explains it in the way he explains everything, with something off a kitchen counter. Glycation, he says, runs from your muscles to your skin to your joints, and they lose some of their lubrication. It is a hardening. A caramelization.

His picture for it is an apple. Cut one in half and within a minute it starts turning brown. That is oxidation, and he says when it happens in your joints we call it glycation. A form of free radical damage. Then the one word verdict he puts on it: it is sugar.

That is why he treats stiffness and a loss of glide in a joint as a chemistry problem rather than a mileage problem. Mileage does not caramelize anything.

Insulin: the step further back

Most conversations about joint pain stop at the inflammation. His does not, and he knows the audience can see it coming.

And one of the biggest things that you and I talk about all the time, even in joints, even in joints, pain, is insulin.

Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 704

Insulin, he says, is a food hormone. It moves with what you eat, not with how old you are. And before the next line he puts the exception on the table himself, because it matters. If you got hit by a truck or came out of a car accident, that is an injury and he is not talking about that.

But there's nothing that will destroy your joints and give you pain like sugar, because it elevates your insulin and elevates inflammation.

Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 704

He adds the part people miss. Insulin on its own creates inflammation. The more crappy carbs and sugars you eat, the more insulin you need, and the more you need, the harder the whole system works. The pain is downstream of a hormone that answers to your plate.

The foods that turn the pain up and down

Because insulin is a food hormone, the lever is food. He says it as a plain cause and effect.

Because you lower inflammation when you lower your carbohydrates and your crappy sugars.

Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 704

He is careful not to oversell it. He says do everything you can naturally, as much as you can, and he has real sympathy for chronic pain. His own evidence is the thousands of testimonies he has read from people who lowered their insulin. Pain levels coming down is one of the things they report, and he treats that as a side benefit of the insulin change rather than a cure he is selling.

He also says even a man with a genuine injury will be helped by his diet. The injury is still the injury. The inflammation on top of it is the part food reaches.

What to check before you accept the wear and tear answer

This is not a diagnosis and it is not a reason to stop anything your own doctor has you on. It is what he would look at before agreeing that 60 is the explanation.

• Whether there was ever an actual injury, since he separates that out as its own cause
• What the sugar and the crappy carbohydrates look like across a normal week, not a good week
• Whether the stiffness is worse than the pain, which is the loss of lubrication he calls glycation
• Whether other inflammation signs travel with it, since he says inflammation is rarely doing one thing in one place
• What the over the counter anti-inflammatories are doing, because he says they gum up the liver, drop your glutathione and hit your friendly bacteria

That last one is his, and he is not telling anyone to stop a medication. He is saying the thing you take for the pain is not addressing what made the pain, and it has a cost of its own.

The same argument turns up when he talks about gout, which is worth reading next: does eating red meat cause gout.

Common questions

Read next: What Causes Inflammation In Women Over 60 and What Is The Safest Anti-Inflammatory After 60?.

Where Inflammation Formula fits

Martin Clinic's Inflammation Formula is the one he points at when the aim is to lower the inflammation while the food side of it is being sorted out.

Shop Inflammation Formula

60-day money-back guarantee. He talks about fish oil in the same breath, and that is DHA Upgraded.

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Always consult your healthcare practitioner before starting a new supplement, especially if you are pregnant, nursing, taking medication, or have a medical condition.