Courtesy of Cherryflex.com

Don’t you mean supplemental income?? No – I mean supplemental outcome. Is that really even a valid use of the words… I don’t know… but if not I will submit it to Websters. Supplements… that’s what I am talkin bout!! And the hope that the outcome of using them will benefit me from a health perspective in the long run(pun intended).

I was recently talking to a good friend and we were both laughing about the fact that it seems that we feel like old men with the handful of pills we take each day. Not because we need medication to treat a health issue but because we want to to make sure we are doing everything we can to help our bodies stay healthy.

This is a fairly recent addition for me. After I tore my meniscus last August the sports doctor suggested that I might consider taking some Glucosamine/Chondrointin to help strengthen the joints and that it might help with the pain I was experiencing in my knee. I was skeptical at first but when the pain continued past a few weeks I thought I had nothing to lose and bought a bottle. Over the next few weeks I noticed a decrease in pain in the knee(not total elimination but a reduction). After I finished my marathon in October, the skeptic in me took over and I thought – this is ridiculous and the only thing it is reducing is my bank account. So I stopped taking it. After about a week and a half, my knee pain returned. So, maybe there was something to this after all. Once I started taking it again, within a week my knee was feeling a lot better.

So over the past 3 months I have been researching everything I could find on what I could include in my daily intake that would help keep me performing at my best but yet keep everything a natural supplement. The second thing I ended up adding was a product called CherryFlex. My mom had been trying to get me to take this for months and swore by it’s benefits for natural pain relief and joint support. The product is made from all natural cherry paste and has been featured in Men’s Health and Shape Magazine. After taking this for about 2 weeks I noticed a big difference in pain after long runs or tough workouts. So much so, that I went from taking Ibuprofen before and after every long run to only having to take it once in the past month total(and that was for a headache more than anything).

A secondary benefit of the CherryFlex is that it also helps with cardiovascular health. So after reading up on that I decided that I wanted to focus on this as well since a good cardiovascular system should definitely return great rewards in term of running. What I found when researching this was that the number one recommendation in terms of a supplement was fish oil and/or krill oil. Since we already had some fish oil from when my wife was pregnant – I could easily add this. However after researching, it appears that krill oil may actually even pack more punch than fish oil so I may give it a try after I run out. The next supplement I found was a product called Beta-sistosterol which is made from plant sterols. Plant Sterols have been shown to increase heart function, lower total cholesterol and LDL, as well as help improve recovery in endurance athletes. Again – all good things to help with running as well as overall health.

So what does my daily dosage look like?

• 2 CherryFlex capsules
• 2 Glucosamine/chondroitin capsules
• 2 Beta-Sitosterol capsules
• 2 Fish Oil capsules
• 1 Daily Multivitamin
• 1 Prilosec OTC(to address my long term Acid Reflux)

So after taking all of these on a daily basis it can very much seem like I need to get one of those pill boxes that my grandmother had to keep track of what pills have been taken(but I am not going to do that!). I also respect the fact that you shouldn’t just add these type of things to your daily intake without first checking with a doctor. In fact after researching all of this, I found several supplements that would be good to add at first glance but after checking with the doctor found there were interactions with the others so – make sure you check with your doctor FIRST!

Do all of these work as promised? I can not say with any scientific degree of certainty. However, at this point they do not appear to be hurting anything other than just being a chore to take all of them and the expense of them. So I figure I don’t have anything to lose and may just be helping my overall health and performance in running.

But… each night when I take the handful of pills… it’s hard not to feel like I am 80.