Degeneration in the Knee

A friend of mine has referred a very athletic young man to me for chondritis. In my friend’s words, “One of our starting defensive ends suffers from chondritis/degenerative damage to knee cartilage. He basically has no cartilage remaining in one of his knees (bone on bone). To
your knowledge, are there any supplements/adaptogens that may prove beneficial for his condition? He has already gone through various injections and other forms of therapy and the results have yielded minimal improvements.

Here are things that I would look into:

1. Yes he has a knee issue, but is that the byproduct of something else that is beating the knee to death. The knee joint is what Paul Chek calls a “slave joint.” Issues with the TMJ, cranium, atlas, cervical spine, shoulder, etc can create torsions, SIJ issues, etc, which create knee problems. I would find  a CHEK Level 3 or higher for him to get assessed by. The right program, the right exercises ,the right variables and so forth will be a great asset to the maintenance of the knee and to prevent it from getting worse.
2. There are tons of herbs out there and I am sure he has tried them all. I would focus on eliminating most grains, conventional grains and anything boxed. Not to go into great detail, but I have found these to create joint inflammation. The amino acid sequence in most grains match up the sequence of the synovial fluids. When eaten, there is an immune reaction =  inflammation!
3. Increase his intake of Omega 3 in relation to Omega 6’s, which in excess create inflammation
4. I would try acupuncture and moxa, which works great for orthopedic issues. He could learn the moxa and actually do it at home.
5. I find qi gong standing postures (the slow tempo, time under tension, etc) work well to really recruit and strengthen the slow twitch/tonic/postural musculature. You can buy some of these DVD’s on www.pacifictao.com or from www.pacifichealingarts.com.

 In the end, I hate to say it, but he might need a knee replacement. When the pain gets to a point, he will be doing more harm to his body. His body will compensate, move away from the pain, create inflammation elsewhere, etc in order to move away from that knee. Hope this gives you some direction.