Growing pains and Osgood-Schlatters are very common and quite painful. I remember when I was a kid about 7th or 8th grade or so starting to have pain below the knee cap. This is commonly referred to as Osgood-Schlatter’s disease. Since I was a basketball player, I was constantly running and jumping all the time making it worse.
I remember making remedies such as epsom salt and putting it on my leg overnight to try to help the pain. It worked, but it wasn’t the answer to the problem. Just a band-aid.
I like treating this condition because it is usually quite easy to fix as long as the child is compliant with the dietary recommendations that are so critical to fix. It is unnecessary for a child to suffer with this condition for months or even years.
So what is the key you may ask?
Toxicity in the digestive tract along with a disproportionate amount of bad fats (trans fats) in the diet.
So, here is what we have:
1. Consumption of a high sugar, hydrogenated fat diet.
2. Food and/or environmental allergies
3. Toxic “bugs” in the digestive tract.
4. And, nutrient deficiencies, especially minerals
The bugs in the digestive tract love high sugar, which stresses the body creating an abnormal response to various foods or environmental compounds. High sugar depletes minerals which are vital for optimal body function. Also, since most of our food is nutritionally bankrupt, especially in minerals, the situation is even worse.
So, we have a vicious cycle. The child eats the sugar foods, feeds the bugs in the gut, depletes minerals, which further make the bugs crave sugar. Then, the child eats more sugar to stop the cravings. And on and on this goes.
Now, to add into the mix we have the toxic fats that are being consumed. Anything partially hydrogenated, hydrogenated or that has been heated to high temperatures. These toxic oils interfere with too many things to name here, but let’s just say this is an extremely important thing for anybody in pain to eliminate from their diet. It disrupts the normal balance of fatty acids in the body, which in a healthy balanced body inhibit inflammation.
So, the answer to this problem is to:
1. Eliminate hydrogenated oils from the diet (do the best you can, but if the child understands that they will be able to play basketball or some other sport without pain, they might be more apt to comply).
2. Get on a high quality fish oil supplement (not any of the junk in the stores).
3. Kill the pathogenic organisms in the digestive tract with the right herbal/nutrient combination (can be different for each person).
4. Get on a high quality multi-vitamin, multi-mineral supplement (again, not some cheap junk found in stores).
And there you have it. This program usually works like a charm and gets to the root cause of the problem. In some cases the child will have to have an evaluation by an applied kinesiologist for specific muscle testing such as at the site of pain. When the body has been depleted long enough, changes to the muscles, tendons and ligaments occur. If this occurs, specific techniques will be needed to address the issues and return the muscles to normal function.
In the specific case of Osgood-Schlatters, the quadriceps muscles of the body are malfunctioning due to the above problems. This creates a pulling on the insertion point of the muscle just below the knee cap (see the above picture with the big bumps below the knees). Any time there is malfunction to a muscle, there will be stress placed on the attachment points. Over time if left untreated (the digestive system) the muscle actually has the ability to start pulling a chunk of bone away from the lower leg.
Don’t let this happen to your children or anybody you know. If you would like an evaluation, call the office at 651-982-1804 to schedule an initial consultation and exam, and we’ll be happy to get to the bottom of it.
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You’re an idiot. Osgood Schlatters has nothing to do with the health of your diegestive tract. It is most commonly related to growth spurts in children where the bone growth exceeds the flexibility of the quadriceps muscle leading to stress at the insertion point below the knee.
I allowed this comment because it is such a common scenario. We think we know it all already. I invite everybody who reads this post to keep an open mind. While what Nick from JonasBrothers.com says makes a whole lot of sense, and certainly could be the entire problem in some cases, we still need to look deeper. What Nick is saying makes you powerless. There is nothing you can do about it. It’s in your DNA, some kids get it and some don’t. What I did was take a different perspective, and asked a question, “why?” and more importantly “can I find the source?”. The answer was an affirmative yes. So, for all of those people who read this, you have a choice. You can think I’m an idiot as Nick so eloquently put it, and basically give up and let Osgood Schlatters run its course, or you can put your brain to work and think outside of the box and see if you can find an answer for your child’s suffering. The answer may be what I described here about the digestive tract, and it may not. EVERYBODY is different. But one thing is for sure….Don’t ever give up.
Very interested in your comments, can you recommended how I can help my sons digestive tract?Should I be thinking of one of the dietary drinks?
Thanks
Hi Julie,
Very difficult to just give generic advice. Every person is different. Many people are overrun with microbes such as parasites, bacteria, fungus, etc. This comes from many sources, but some of the main ones are antibiotics, too much sugar and starches in the diet, and not enough whole foods. Many people are also sensitive or allergic to certain foods such as dairy, wheat, corn, soy, etc. An Applied Kinesiologist will be able to find these imbalances and help you correct them. In general though, start on a whole foods diet with minimal amounts of processed food, and no soft drinks.
How long do you think it will take to cure it? I’m assuming you have tested this out on other kids already. And do you think Epsom salt baths are necessary?
Every person is different. I have just recently had another case in which the root of the problem was the digestive tract, like I said, but the root of that was actually a broken clavicle (collar bone) about a year prior.
The broken clavicle was creating an interference field (there are more posts on my blog about this) which was sedating, or toning down the small intestine. This then resulted in a fungal overgrowth of the intestines. And when the small intestine is involved, the quadriceps will often malfunction.
The key in this kid was to mud pack the broken clavicle, which resulted in an immediate up-regulation of the small intestine, creating nice, strong quadriceps. So, for this kid, it only took 1 week. In others, it takes much longer, and there are many more dietary changes to make, along with some structural treatments. But, that is the beauty of Applied Kinesiology. You can get down to the root of the root of the problem.