Snake Oil and Falling

 

Time has passed in something of a blur of late, mainly because my mother had the inevitable fall and landed (not literally) in hospital. Fortunately no bones were broken but there was a lot of pain and bruising. Falling can become more commonplace as we age, hence a memo to myself to remember the flamingo impressions going forward and to practise standing on one leg when performing mundane tasks like brushing teeth and washing up.

Some things do work and I've fully embraced the culture of striving for fitness in retirement; putting in physical effort to reap a reward certainly seems to make sense. If nothing else, the last ten years have seen me working hard to strengthen those bits and pieces of muscle and sinew holding my knee in place.  I really don't want to be the person who constantly tumbles as I get older. I do struggle, however, to engage with the concept of potions and pills to dispel some of the facets of ageing not to mention painkillers. Wear wrinkles with pride, suffer pain in silence and beware the snake oil salesmen!

I confess, however, that I responded to the swelling of my unstable right knee joint coupled with a longstanding auto immune condition that has manifested itself through psoriasis and now keeps revealing itself in a myriad of linked ways, by deciding to look into the potential for complementary treatment alongside my regular medication. Fish oil and Vitamin D were consistently mentioned for all of the complaints I've been experiencing and have been the subject of numerous studies. Nothing ventured, nothing gained I thought and since the beginning of the year, after checking to ensure no conflict with the prescribed drugs, have been the useful guinea pig in my very own snake oil experiment. 

Three months later, I can honestly say that whilst I have not detected any difference in the creaking knee there is a noticeable improvement in my skin, hair and nails. Moreover, despite sticking rigorously to a pre-diabetic diet for two years and it failing to have any impact on elevated blood sugar levels (another potentially linked condition), they have suddenly and at a point where I'd lost all motivation and started to eat cake again, dramatically dropped in the last 3 months. 

I am totally flabbergasted. Take supplements and eat cake; is there actually a better quack remedy than that?

(Image by Pascal Laurent from Pixabay)